Party food - traditional sausage rolls

I have another catering gig - my friend Oggy's wedding. I gave the bride and groom a list of potential dishes, from which they could choose a menu. They asked what the chances were of having every one of them, as they liked the sound of all of them so much! But the groom also had his own special request: sausage rolls.

I have posted up a sausage roll recipe previously: my chicken, basil and prosciutto sausage rolls. Various friends having made them have declared them to be a great success. That said, these are not going to fulfill the desire of the groom: I think he wants a good red meat sausage roll. So a bit of experimentation has produced this recipe, which I think will fit the bill perfectly. It makes 100 cocktail sized sausage rolls. I know that this sounds like a lot, but believe me, they disappear quickly during a party!

You do need a food processor for this recipe, and it is super quick and easy. Be warned though, there is no way to avoid getting your hands messy!

1.3kg beef mince
2 medium eggs
2 large onions
2 1/2 cups fresh white breadcrumbs - use the food processor to process stale 'square' bread.
4tsp dried herbs - I used sage, oregano, basil and marjoram
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1.5 kg pre-rolled puff pastry (5 rolls)
1 egg lightly beaten, for brushing on top of the rolls

Peel and roughly chop the onion. Pop it into the food processor and process until it is quite fine in texture (but not liquid!). Put into a large bowl with the breadcrumbs. Stir in the herbs, salt and pepper.

There is no need to rinse the bowl of the food processor. Just put in the mince (you might need to process in two lots) and process it down to make it a sort of paste. It doesn't need to be perfectly smooth, but it does need to be much finer than the original mince. This will help the filling to hold together. Put into the bowl, and break into the bowl, two of the eggs. With your hands, mix the whole lot together.

Cut the sheet of puff pastry in half lengthwise. Take a good handful of the filling and form into a fat sausage (I guess about 2.5 cm/1 inch in diameter) and lay along the long edge of one piece of the pastry. Brush the opposite edge with water and then fold the pastry over to make a roll. Place seam side down. Repeat with the other pieces of pastry.

Cut the rolls in 3cm lengths. Brush the tops with egg yolk, and chill for at least 15 minutes. Bake for about 15 minutes until golden brown in quite a hot oven - 240 degrees. Serve warm with tomato sauce, home made or otherwise. (These can happily be made the day before, or even made and frozen uncooked)

Medieval cookery - duck pies

This recipe for duck pie has few ingredients and may seem a little odd, using the juice but not flesh of onions as a seasoning. These were so good that back in the kitchens we spent quite a while trying to figure out an excuse not to send them out to be eaten at all... we wanted to keep them all for ourselves!

The hardest thing about the recipe is tracking down Verjuice. Verjuice is unfermented wine grape juice and is a common ingredient used in medieval and renaissance cooking. It has come back into modern cookery quite recently and adds a very special taste to dishes. In Australia, Maggie Beer produces verjuice commercially - sadly I have yet to find a supplier here in Europe.

At a total pinch you could use a very mild vinegar - I had a bottle of verjuice that a friend sent me and with experimentation, I made up a mixture of grape juice and wine vinegar and was able to get something that resembled verjuice for the feast, as my little bottle certainly didn't contain enough to feed 138 people!

Somewhat unusually for an ancient 'receipt', this recipe does have some guidance as to quantities of ingredients. My version used this as a guide but I made it with duck meat rather than a whole bird.

To bake a Mallard (The Good Housewife's Jewell 1596)

Take three or foure Onyons, and stampe them in a morter, then straine them with a saucer full of vergice, then take your mallard and put him into the iuyce of the sayde onyons, and season him with pepper, and salte, cloves and mace, then put your Mallard into the coffin with the saide juyce of the onyons, and a good quantity of Winter-savorye, a little tyme, and perselye chopped small, and sweete Butter, so close it up and bake it.

Take three onions and food process them. Pour 1/3 of a cup of verjuice into the food processor, then strain through muslin to extract the juices (I recommend setting aside the onions to make into onion soup). Take 1/2 a kilo of duck meat, chopped into pieces and marinate in the onion juice, with pepper, salt, 1/4 tsp ground mace and a pinch of ground cloves. I couldn't find fresh winter savory, so used dried - about 1/2 a tablespoon, then a teaspoon of thyme and a tablespoon of parsley.

Bake in a closed pie shell, or as little individual pies. Eat while piping hot.

Spicy Roasted Carrot and Sweet Potato soup

This tasty winter soup was invented on a whim, as I cooked it up for a work lunch. It is fun having a workplace that uses both my normal work skills and occasionally some of my other talents! I served it up, and after a colleague tasted the leftovers, was promptly asked to do another batch for another lunch a few days later. I made the new batch and found it as tasty as the first, which tells me, this is definitely one to share with you all. Now, as usual, I was slack about weighing and measuring, but luckily the receipts from the supermarket have weights on them. 

It's funny because I thought this recipe is super simple, with only a handful of ingredients, but now that I list them out, I included 12 different things!

• 1.2kg carrots
• 1kg sweet potatoes
• 3 large potatoes
• 2 medium onions
• 2 tsp fresh ginger
• 1 cloves of garlic
• olive oil
• 1 litre vegetable stock
• 2 lime leaves
• 3 tablespoons of coconut milk powder
• 1 good sized pinch of chili flakes
• ~ 1 tsp lemon myrtle, coconut and chili seasoning

Peel and chop the carrots and sweet potatoes into even sized chunks. Lightly drizzle with just a little olive oil and sprinkle with salt. With your hands turn the pieces around to get them covered in oil, and then bake in a 200 degree (c) oven until the sweet potato has gone soft and browned. The carrots take longer to cook than the sweet potato, so while they may have browned a little, are not likely to be very soft. But don't worry about that as they will cook up in the pot - this is more to get that delicious sweet caramelisation taste into the soup.

While these are cooking, chop the onions - no need to be too fussy about how finely they are chopped as it will all be blended in the end. Brown the onion in a 5 litre pot with a bit of olive oil. Once they are transparent and going brown, add the finely chopped fresh ginger and the garlic - they will only take seconds to cook.

Once browned, add a splash of vegetable stock; enough to lift the caramelised onion and tasty bits from the pan.

Add the roasted orange vegetables, pour in the rest of the stock and add the lime leaves and chili. Peel and chop the potatoes and add them to the pot. Bring to the boil and then drop to a simmer. Simmer until the carrot and potatoes have softened - the potatoes will likely start to fall to pieces, while the carrots will crush easily with the back of a spoon.

Blend the soup with a stick blender. Stir in the coconut milk powder along with an equal amount of water. You may need to add extra water to thin the soup out as it gets very thick. If you are transporting it, I advise leaving it very thick to make it less likely to leak out of its container during transport, and then then when reheating. Reheat on quite a low heat, to prevent it sticking to the bottom. Pour into a pretty tureen to serve, sprinkle some of the lemon myrtle sprinkle and swirl it through. There you go... all finished!

Dark chocolate tartlets

Photo by Ed.

I served these tiny tarts at the wedding I catered for my friends Patrizia and Ed. (Full menu here). They were a real hit - rich and creamy and just the right size for a not-quite-guilt-free mouthful. 

Ingredients

320g dark chocolate, (at least 60% cocoa but I actually don't recommend more than 80%) 

500ml cream 

4 egg yolks 

2 whole eggs 

1/4 cup sugar 

gold leaf to decorate 

Method

 Combine chopped bittersweet chocolate and cream in a heavy saucepan. Whisk over low heat until chocolate is melted and smooth. Remove saucepan from heat and allow to cool a little.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks, egg & sugar. Very gradually whisk chocolate mixture into the egg mixture until smooth and blended.

Pour chocolate filling into crust, sprinkle with gold leaf, and bake at 180 degrees until set (about 15-20 minutes for a single large shell, or 5-10 for small shells).

Miniature chocolate chip cupcakes

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups sifted self-raising flour 

3/4 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted 

3/4 cup dark or milk choc bits 

1 tablespoon cocoa powder, extra, to serve 3/4 cup milk

125g butter, melted, cooled

2 lightly beaten eggs

Instructions 

Preheat oven to 200°C.

Prepare an oven tray with tiny paper lined foil cups.

Combine flour and caster sugar in a bowl. Stir in cocoa powder and choc bits. Make a well in the centre. Add milk, butter and eggs to flour mixture. Using a metal spoon, stir gently to combine.

Spoon mixture into the paper cups, till 3/4 full. 

Bake for 5 to 10 minutes until risen and set. Cool.

The menu of the wedding

I am sure that I have forgotten something and was too busy cooking to photograph everything but I hope to get photos from friends which I will post up. Watch this space for the recipes! 

Apero

 Peking Duck Tartlets 

Vegetarian Samosas 

Smoked Chicken baby quiches 

Vegetarian Sushi 

Entree 

Wild Mushroom and Prosecco Feuillettes 

Buffet 

Pasta with Sugo 

Roast Lamb 

Roast Chicken 

Filipino Rice 

Spanish Ham 

Salami 

Mediterranean Couscous Salad 

Potato Salad 

Green Salad 

Tomato, Mozzarella & Basil Caponata 

Olives, Sundried Tomatoes, mushrooms 

Dessert

Wedding Cake (I didn't make this) 

Berry Fool 

Toblerone Chocolate Mousse (white and dark) 

Rich Chocolate Tarts with gold leaf 

Flourless Orange Cake 

Mango Coconut Cake 

Mini Lemon Meringue Tartlets 

Micro Choc-chip Chocolate Cupcakes 

Zabaglione Tartlets  

Coffee Shortbread Biscuits

A compound Salad

A few months ago I helped cater a renaissance feast for 138 people. I have realised that I have neglected to share with you my recipes! How terrible am I?

People often ask me, when I tell them that I cook medieval and renaissance food "what did people eat apart from big joints of roasted meat?". Well, here is a wickedly lavish salad that proves that there was SO much more to the renaissance palate than lumps of flesh!

Compound Sallet [The English Hous-wife, 1615]:

To compound an excellet Sallet, and which indeed is usuall at great Feasts, and upon Princes Tables, take a good quantity of blancht Almonds, and with your shredding knife cut them grossly. Then take as many Raisins of the Sun clean washt, and the stones pickt out, as many Figs shred like the Almonds, as many Capers, twice so many Olives,and as many Currants as of all the rest, clean washt, a good handfull of the small tender leaves of red Sage and Spinage: mixe all these well together with good store of Sugar, and lay them in the bottom of a great dish. Then put unto them Vineger and Oyl, and scrape more Suger over all: then take Oranges and Lemmons, and paring away the outward pilles cut them into thinne slices.Then with those slices cover the Sallet all over. Then over those Red leaves lay other course of old Olives, and the slices of well pickled Cucumbers, together with the very inward heart of Cabbage lettice cut into slices. Then adorn the sides of the dish, and the top of the Sallet with more slices of Lemons and Oranges, and so serve it up.

An actual recipe with quantities isn't really necessary with this dish; as you can see, it is basically a great mixture of different ingredients.

• Almonds
• Sultanas (raisins)
  
• Figs
  
• Capers
  
• Olives
  
• Red Sage
• Currants
  
• Baby Spinach leaves
  
• Pickled cucumbers
  
• Sugar
• Vinegar
  
• Oil
  
• Cabbage
  
• Lemon and Orange slices (for my salad I actually used pickled lemon slices)

I wonder if this salad counts as a recovered recipe? Recovered Recipes is hosting a fun foodcomp, challenging people to scan in an old recipe card and make the dish. This certainly is an old recipe eh?

Morroccan lamb tartlets

This delicious canape is again quite simple (but then again, ultimately most cooking is!) and all of the parts can be prepared in the days before your event, allowing you to simply assemble on the night.

There are three parts to this recipe

1. Cases
2. Lamb
   
3. Hommous
   

1. Let's start with the cases. Buy a loaf of sliced white bread. Lay slices out on a board, and roll them with a rolling pin to flatten them. Using a cookie cutter (in this case I used a star), cut out shapes from the bread. A cookie cutter that will allow you to get four pieces out of one slice of bread will make bite sized canapes. Brush the shapes with melted butter, and push into the holes of mini muffin tins. Bake at 180 degrees until crisp and golden.

Cool and keep in an airtight container - these will easily keep for up to 4 days (and actually as I write I am munching on a few left over cases that are now a week old and still crisp and yummy).

2. Time for the Lamb.

I rubbed lamb fillets with Ras el Hanout (A north African spice mixture containing all sorts of things, but typically cardamon, cloves, cinnamon, chili, cumin, coriander, pepper and turmeric) and put them in a container in the fridge overnight in the fridge to marinate. The next day I pan fried the lamb fillet - you want the lamb to be nicely browned on the outside but still slightly pink and juicy on the inside. As you cook it, you can feel when you press on it, the meat getting firmer as it cooks.

Once cool, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate. Leave as whole fillets until you are just about to assemble the canape.

3. Hommous

Do have a try at making your own hommous - Rosa at Rosa's Yummy Yums has a great recipe or you can buy some but make sure it is a good quality fresh hommous.

So now you have all three parts, its time to serve these up! Slice the lamb fillet very thinly on the diagonal. Pipe or spoon some hommous into the bread cup and arrange a slice of lamb on top, and perhaps garnish with a little fresh coriander. Simple, and totally delicious!

Quick and pretty canape

I was hired to cater a small reception for 40 people. A nice simple function of 5 different dishes.

Dish number one: Cherry tomato, basil and baby mozzarella skewers.

It doesn't get much simpler than this for a canape! I marinated the mozzarella in pesto and then skewered them. The hardest part was figuring out how to present them!

Smoked Trout Pate

While I wanted to cook lots of things for my foodie colleagues' departures, I was a bit limited in time... so I added this simple pate to the menu to provide a savoury alternative to the cakes on offer.

Smoked trout pate is wonderfully easy to make, and is a guaranteed winner at any party (or in this case work function). Best made the night before, so that the lovely smokey flavour of the trout can permeate the pate.

200g cream cheese
250g smoked trout fillets
2 tablespoons lemon juice
50g melted butter

Put all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse till well combined - but don't over blend, as you want to keep some texture.

Put into your serving dishes and cover with plastic wrap and keep in the fridge overnight. Serve with a small serving knife with toasts or baguette.

Sweetcorn & Chilli fritters with guacamole

Sweetcorn & chilli fritters (original recipe by Kiriel)

4 tins of sweetcorn (340g)
3 eggs
1 cup self raising flour
3 small chillis
100ml milk
salt and pepper

Mix flour, eggs, milk and salt and pepper to make a batter.
Add three tins of sweetcorn, and finely chopped chillis. Blend the last tin of sweetcorn and add. Heat a fry pan (I tend to use a non-stick pan & no oil myself). Drop heaped teaspoons of mix into the hot pan, flipping once the bubbles have risen to the surface and burst.
Allow to cool. These can be frozen in ziplock bags and thawed on the day of use. Crisp up in the oven for 3 minutes before use. Top the fritters with the topping within an hour of serving.

Guacamole

3 avocadoes
1 red onion finely chopped
tabasco to taste
lime juice to taste
Salt and Pepper
Coriander leaves to garnish

Combine ingredients. Can be made up to 2 hours in advance - refrigerate, covering surface completely with plastic wrap to prevent discolouration.

Top the sweetcorn fritters with the guacamole, garnish with coriander leaves and serve.

Parmesan and herb shortbreads

Parmesan and oregano shortbreads
(makes 40)
120g plain flour
salt
2 tsp oregano
90g cold butter diced
120g parmesan cheese, grated

Place ingredients in a food processor and pulse to form a smooth dough. Roll out to .5cm thickness, and stamp out 3cm rounds. Bake in a moderate oven for 10 minutes until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Keep in a an airtight container for up to two weeks, or can be frozen for up to a month (defrost and crisp up in the oven).

Catering fun

The chef at work has gone on holidays for a month, just as my work decided to hold a reception for 60 people. Knowing that I love to cook, my colleague in charge of the function asked if I would be interested in catering it. I leapt at the chance.

So what to cook? Well, here is the final menu:

• Sweetcorn & chilli fritters topped with guacamole
• Peking duck tartlets
• Parmesan shortbreads topped with chevre & olives
• Smoked chicken and asparagus quichettes
• Gruyere gougers
• Ratatouille panniers
  
• Brie & Fennel chutney spoons
• Miniature pavlovas
• Zabaglione tartlets

Details to come....