A birthday party

We recently had an 18th birthday at our house & I had great fun preparing the food. We started off with those old favourites, cheesy feet & hands. These are the ones using the cheese straw recipe & cutting into various shapes. Stars are nice if you don't fancy the feet. Or any shape you happen to have in your cupboard.

We had a selection of vegetables & crisps with the classic reduced cream dips and crostini with an avocado & pea spread. To make this, mix a ripe avocado, a cup or so of frozen peas - at least partially thawed - 1 clove garlic, a pinch of salt and 2 tbsp lime juice in your blender until smooth. Spread on crostini. It sounds odd but is delicious & is beautifully green. It won't discolour over the evening as traditional guacamole will.

For supper, I served a glazed ham with bread rolls. This was a great success & I recommend it for a party. You can glaze the ham the night before & if this was for more discerning guests you could include trimmings to go in the rolls. I also did mini meatballs on skewers with cherry tomatoes. I usually use lamb mince but on this occasion I used beef. Mix the mince with oregano, cumin, finely chopped fresh chilli & rosemary and bind with an egg yolk. Roll into small meatballs & fan grill 0n 180 about 15 minutes. Test one to see that they are cooked. I prepare these the night before & refrigerate on a large plate with cling film underneath & between the layers.

For sweets, we had vegan Margarita cupcakes & chocolate gluten-free cupcakes courtesy of Harriet. I made the best lamingtons I've ever made. I think the trick was the consistency of the chocolate dip. It was thin enough to hold to the sponge without being gluggy. I use shredded rather than dessicated coconut. The birthday girl prepared a very symmetrical platter of fruit.

The piece de resistance was the cake. The idea behind this was a bit convoluted & related to the TV series Chuck. You may get this if you have teenagers. Otherwise you only need to know that the cake was in the shape of a foot long chicken teriyaki subway sandwich. I made a triple recipe Madeira cake. It needed a very large cake tin! I cut the cake into three foot-long slabs resembling rolls. I then cut each roll in half - like a bread roll. I divided a block of royal icing into four. One section was coloured green then rolled out & cut into lettuce shapes & laid along the base of the rolls. Next was the tomatoes, coloured a reddy orange & cut into rounds. I then scored them to resemble the skin & membranes & pressed a fer poppy seeds into the centre. Next came slabs of yellow icing for the cheese. The chicken I shaped as shredded chicken & coloured very lightly. Onto this I dollopped maple syrup that had been thickened with a little muscovado sugar & a drop of red colouring for the teriyaki sauce. Then on went the tops of the rolls which I brushed with a sugar syrup & ground some chocolate sugar sprinkles I had in the cupboard to resemble mixed grain. When we brought it out there were some in the room who thought the birthday girl was being presented with sandwiches. What do you think?

Party Time

I've got a bit behind and I've got quite a bit to tell you so this might take a few days. I wanted to talk about party food. If you have teenage girls in your house you'll know it's the ball season & we hosted a pre-ball gathering at our house - girls, partners & parents. My advice when having a drinks function is keep it simple. Minimise your effort & maximise effect. Plan a simple menu that includes nibbly things attractively laid on dishes, dips, hot & cold snacks. We found a small piece of steak in the freezer that Peter cooked rare and sliced thinly. He grilled slices of French bread on both sides, spread on a smear of horseradish, then a slice of beef & topped with a sliver of roasted red pepper.
One of my favourites is mini meatballs. Use minced lamb - mix with spring onions finely chopped (I didn't include garlic or onions on this occasion but perhaps I should have!), cinnamon, cumin, allspice, breadcrumbs (or try semolina), an egg to bind, salt & pepper. Make teeny meatballs. About 500g lamb should make 75 meatballs. You can make these up the night before & cover in the fridge - I think they settle & are less inclined to break. When ready to serve, fan grill at 180 for about 15-20 mins - turn halfway through, or gently pan fry browning on all sides. The latter is a bit fiddly for me.
Then skewer the meatballs on those little party bamboo skewers with the curl at the end and put a cherry tomato on the end of each one. These look & taste fabulous. You don't need a dipping sauce.
Peter usually makes little pastry cases which we fill with various things - on this occasion that left over spinach & ricotta I put in the freezer on July 19th. We put a little blob of feta on top for extra salty cheesiness & baked for 12-15 minutes at 220.
Then serve mixed dips with yummy things you find at the supermarket or deli. We had a fantastic Kingsmeade blue cheese called Sunset Blue, classic reduced cream onion dip, guacamole, hummus, Caanan Galilee. One of my favourite snacks is pesto spread on mini toasts. I used to make crostini but you kind of lose the will to live slicing & oiling & turning the breads. I buy Pride of France mini toasts & Genoese pesto. In summer I make my own basil or beetroot pesto.
And lastly don't forget the cheesy feet. Make your mother's cheese straws recipe but use a red cheese - I use Kingsmeade Rimutaka Red - and some Parmesan. Add a pinch of cayenne. I used to make cheese stars but I recently acquired hand & feet shaped cutters. The hands weren't so good, the fingers kept falling off, but the tiny feet were delightful.
Last Saturday we went to a friend's 50th birthday & I made a delicious broccoli salad to go with a glazed ham. I recommend you try this before the broccoli season ends. In a large bowl mix baby cos & spinach leaves, little sprigs of broccoli blanched for 2-3 minutes, 100g crumbly blue cheese (not Kaimai crumbly because although delicious, crumbly it was not), a handful of olives, about 5 rashers of bacon (free range) fried until crispy & crumbled into bits, cherry tomatoes halved - use a variety & cut across the middle not down through the core (Jasper taught me this - it looks prettier). Dress with a lemony vinaigrette and sprinkle on a handful of toasted slivered almonds & a handful of microgreens -the truth is I never know when to stop & always want to add one more thing.