It’s time again……. for The Paul Cluver Amphitheatre summer concerts.
Let me keep this one short, skewer firm blueberries, raspberries, yummy chocolate brownies and end with cubes of nougat…. serve with bubbly, sit back and let the concert under the stars begins…
Prime Circle… here again in +/- 4 weeks time…
Summer evenings cannot get better than this…. don’t miss Prime Circle & Dan Patlansky ….. 8 December 2012
Shannon decided to serve small size sweet and cheese boards, one of each per 10 guests, snacky style…..
We’ve decided to add the shot glasses filled with lemon mousse for “visual effects…”, it needs to look good and one of our “mood boards” had a picture of these little shot glasses filled with chocolate mousse, with small spoons tied onto each glass with a ribbon. We changed the chocolate mousse to lemon mousse and let me tell you that the tying of the spoons to the little glasses neeeeeeeearly let me loose my cool, so if you like this idea, just put the spoon in the glas…..
What is easy about this dessert is that everything can be done before the time and you can ask one of your “creative” friends to pack the boards while you mingle with the guests, choose your friend well as this is all about “how it looks”…..
Our Boards consisted out of the following:
Sweet Boards
Lemon mousse shotglasses
Small chocolate brownie blocks
Strawberries
Turkish delight
Nougat
Shannon made the Lemon Mousse the evening before our lunch, as you need enough time to let it “set” properly…
For the Lemon Mousse you will need:
finely grated rind of 4 lemons and the juice of 3 lemons
8 large freerange eggs
250g castor sugar
1.5 (20gms) sachets powdered gelatine
450ml cream
1 small tin granadilla pulp
1 pkt Nuttikrust caramelised Oat biscuits – for the base
Whisk the egg yolks and gradually add the sugar, whisk till pale in colour and thick. Heat the lemon rind and lemon juice in a saucepan and add the gelatine. Over a slow heat stir and melt the gelatine into the lemon juice, bring the lemon juice to just before boiling point to make sure the gelatine dissolve completely.
While whisking, slowly pour the lemon juice into the sugar and egg mixture, whisk well. Let the mixture cool completely at room temperature. Fold the whipped cream into the eggy mixture. Whisk the egg whites until very stiff and fold into the eggy and cream mixture.
Liquidise the nuttikrust biscuits finely, and add about 1 teaspoon to the bottom of each shot glass. Spoon the mousse into the small shot glasses,…. be patient…. . Refrigerate over night. Just before serving add one teaspoon of granadilla pulp on top of the mousse.
We’ve used square wooden boards, +/- 30 x 25 cm’s wide. Pack with rows of lemon mousse shot glasses, and small heaps of strawberries, brownies, turkish delight and nougat. Dust with icing sugar …
So how excited can I get, seeing that our idea “worked” , VERY EXCITED when you look at it and just know that these sweet and cheese boards is going to blow Shannon away when I serve these to her and her guests at the lunch table (as per my previous posts, I told Shannon to go and sit down with her guests, heee haaaaa and took over her kitchen)……
Click on the link below for a printable PDF short recipe:
Lemon mousse RECIPE CARD
For the cheese boards we’ve used:
Purple figs cut in 4
Grapes
Brie
Camembert
Creamy Gorgonzola
2 x types biscuits (we love digestive biscuits)
Cheddar blocks
and almonds
This is where all the planning stopped, right here…..
BUT I had a little surprise up my sleave for Shannon……
I’ve planned a small coffee table, we did not plan to serve coffee but looking at the weather report I realised that it is going to be a very cool 15 degrees and realised that some of the guests might like to end their lunch with a late afternoon cup of coffee and something sweet… ooooo yesssss…… Ouma Babsie’s Caramel biscuits…. the ultimate coffee biscuit….. when you have one, you have 5….. and make it the next day at home…. see recipe under “sweet yummyness“ the very first recipe I posted on my blog.
I filled those plungers more than 8 times…..
Our lunch ended at 22:00 that night, or let me rather say that was when I called it the day……
Thanks Mike, and Happy Birthday!
Let me start by saying “I can have a whole plate full of this right now….” filled with luke warm crushed pesto potatoes, topped with crunchy macadamia nuts and shavings of parmesan, sorry but have to say it, with a sprinkle of coarse maldon salt… ok, lets get back to this recipe.
We needed a “starchy” veg to bulk up our lunch, and Evelyn suggested and made these ultra yummy luke warm crushed pesto potatoes for the party.
For the Crushed pesto potatoes you will need:
(can be made up to 2 hours before the time, but still needs to be luke warm)
1 kg small baby potatoes
60 g basil pesto, or more… (we used the small tub mediteranean pesto from spar)
1/2 cup roasted crushed macadamia nuts (or roasted pine kernels)
shavings of parmesan cheese
Olive oil (+/- 1/4 cup)
Maldon salt and black pepper
Basil leaves for decoration, not really needed
Boil the baby potatoes until soft, they need to be really soft….. drain the water and add the pesto, olive oil, salt and pepper to the warm potatoes. Cover with a lid and let it rest at room temperature until needed.
Just before serving, re-heat the potatoes, and slowly stir in all the ingredients that’s been resting on top of the potatoes…. they don’t need to be heated for long, you just want them semi warm, and some of the potatoes will “crush” and break up but that is what they need to do.
Serve on a flat platter, and top with shavings of parmesan and roasted (roast in a dry pan until light brown) macadamia nuts.
Double click on the RECIPE CARD LINK below to open a pdf format printable version of this recipe
Crushed pesto potatoes RECIPE CARD
We’ve “outsourced” this salad for the party, it takes quite a while to roast enough beetroot for 50 people. An easy delicious salad that can be made in advance. This salad / veg is quite a regular in our circle of friends….
For the Roasted beetroot, red onion and balsamic salad you will need:
10 x red beetroot, washed and each beetroot sliced in 8
6 x red onions, peeled and quartered
125 ml balsamic vinegar
135 ml brown sugar
125ml olive oil
salt and pepper
2 x whole heads of garlic with the tops cut off
The table…
Put all the ingredients in a zip lock bag and give it a good shake to evenly distribute the sugary liquid around the beetroot and onions.
Bake in a flat oven tray on 170 degrees for 1 hour 15 minutes, the beetroot needs to shrink in size and well cooked with a glossy syrupy shine to them, don’t let it brown, cover with foil if need be…
Serve at room temperature
Glossy shiney roasted beetroot and red onion balsamic salad
Click on the RECIPE CARD below for a printable version of the recipe
Roasted beetroot, red onion and balsamic salad RECIPE CARD
Umtendwe Beach Cottages, situated 1 hour from East London between Haga Haga and Double Mouth…. at Black Rock….
I cannot recall how we found this spot but it is a real gem. Black Rock consists of 5 houses on the beach, in a Private Nature Reserve one hour from East London, a bit of a bad gravel road, especially after the rain and with roads knee deep full of mud, but that was soon forgotten, it ensures that you go in and only come out once you are ready to go home, so pack and plan well as the shops are FAR away…..
One of the privately owned, holiday rental houses at Black Rock is called Umtendwe Beach Cottages, it consists out of two fully furnished and well equiped units that opens up in one unit if needed. With six on-suite bedrooms and two fully equipped kitchens it was the ideal place for four families to have a little bit of a winter holiday break.
We took turns cooking for all 15 of us during our five day stay, and I made Peanut Noodles for one of my Lunch turns.
For the Peanut Noodles you will need:(recipe for 4 portions)
4 free range chicken breast fillets – I use Elgin Freerange
6 cups of chicken stock – I use Ina Paarman chicken stock powder
200g (1 packet) of egg noodles – the red packet at Spar in the Chinese section
2 carrots, finely sliced
1/2 cucumber finely sliced
1/2 lettuce finely sliced
2 handfull’s of salted peanuts
2 x sprinkles of chilli flakes
For the dressing:
3/4 cup of peanut butter
1/4 cup of sesame oil (a must)
1 tablespoon soya
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
One cup of the chicken stock used for poaching the chicken
The method of the Peanut Noodles is a bit strange, but it works and ensures really soft and tasty chicken fillets.
Bring 6 cups of chicken stock to the boil in a big saucepan.
Slice each chicken fillet in 5 flat smaller pieces.
Slide the cut chicken fillets into the boiling stock, make sure they are completely covered by the stock, bring back to the boil and immediately remove the saucepan from the heat, cover with a tight fitting lid and leave to cool for about 1 hour, keeping the lid on.
Fillets busy “poaching” in the stock, off the heat.
Make the peanut sauce by mixing together the peanut butter, sesame oil, soya sauce, honey and rice wine vinegar.
Peanut sauce
The Sesame oil and Rice wine vinegar is a must, it lasts for very long in your cupboard so please don’t attempt the recipe without these very important ingredients, believe me, once you’ve tasted these noodles you will make it quite often….
After poaching the chicken in the hot stock for about an hour, gently lift the chicken from the stock, but KEEP THE STOCK.
I usually slice the chicken pieces even smaller at this stage. Add ONE cup of the chicken stock to the peanut sauce to get a more liquid consistency. Bring the chicken stock to the boil once again and add the egg noodles, cook for about 5 minutes till “al dente” and drain.
Add the chicken pieces to the cooked noodles and mix with the peanut sauce.
Sprinkle with chilli flakes, even just a little bit if you don’t like chilli, it really works with the sweet peanut sauce.
Serve on a flat platter and add the thinly sliced carrots, cucumber and chopped salted peanuts….
Peanut Noodles served at Black Rock….
These noodles works very well as leftovers for lunch the next day, also ideal for a packed picnic.
LAZY DAYS AT BLACK ROCK…
Take a walk to Haga Haga hotel for a drink….it will take you about 2 hours to reach Haga Haga
Mandy organised the horses with one of the locals, lots of laughs with the bicycle helmuts…and a couple of tense moments down the hill…
The open plan kitchen ensured hours of “relaxation” with friends, reading, others cooking and the kids playing outside…
It is a small world, meeting friends from our “hometown” about 900km’s away, who was also on holiday in one of the other five houses at Black Rock, A VERY SMALL WORLD….
The kids playing on the beach till very late in the evening… hours of fun even though it was quite cold..
Our walk to Double Mouth, passing “black rock”
Passing “black rock” , believe me this looks worse than what it was…
Double Mouth, the second river on the right
Entering the “double mouth” river mouth…. with no one around for kilometers …
Our picnic spot at Double Mouth
A little bit of a long walk back, but really worth the effort…
The last day, always a bit of a low point on any holiday….. we’ve decided to walk up the small riverbed next the Umtendwe Beach Cottages, looking for a picnic spot to braai the steak for our steak rolls, a very rocky riverbed with overgrown forest on both sides, carrying the braai, coolerboxes and chairs, well the riverbed just had to do for our braai….
Picnic spot on our last day…steak rolls…
Umtendwe Beach Cottages, Black Rock…
I can really recommend Umtendwe Beach Cottages for a family and friends getaway, it is a bit of a “pack and plan” but really worth the relaxed atmosphere and close to nature holiday break…. we will return of Black Rock, with good friends for days filled with cooking and laughing….
(Double click on the above RECIPE CARD to open the short printable recipe, only available on MS Word)
We’ve decided on this very “visual” caprese salad for our table “centre piece”…. or let me rather say the Cakestands filled with beautiful red tomatoes made themselves the centre pieces of the tables without us really planning it to be… it just worked… for us ….
Time to play with food….
For the Caprese tomato salad you will need:
1 x standard size ripe but firm tomato per person (2 x halves)
2 x fresh basil leaves per tomato
1 x slice of mozzarella cheese per tomato
1 x tub of basil pesto
Maldon salt
Black pepper
Olive oil
1 x camera to capture this visual feast….
Cut the tomatoes in half, sprinkle with Maldon salt and black pepper. Layer the halved tomatoes with one basil leave, one slice of mozzarella and half a teaspoon of basil pesto…..
Mix the remaining pesto with a little bit of olive oil to get a more liquid consistency and drizzle over the packed tomatoes…
The cakestands worked well on our full tables, it looks big and beautiful and does not take up a lot of space.
A real visual feast and very appealing on all the senses….
For the Green bean, red onion and rosa tomato salad you need a “fairy” to finely chop the red onions for you, as per part 1 of 9, I demanded that a “fairy” chop the onions for me (2 bags full), as we made this salad four fold….
A very special thanks to my fairy, Evelyn Rust…
For the Green bean, red onion and rosa tomato salad you will need:
1 x bag fine green beans
1 x small punnet red rosa tomatoes
1 x red onion finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon Maldon salt
Black pepper
Olive oil +/- 4 tablespoons
This salad can be made up to 4 hours in advance….
Cook the beans by adding them to rapid boiling water, +/- 4 cm’s deep.
There is really no ideal cooking time as the beans we used at the party cooked within 1 minute, but sometimes it takes up to 4 minutes depending on the beans you use. I test them every minute as you really don’t want to “over cook” them. They need to be just semi cooked and still firm. If you “over cook” the beans they will be grey in colour and too soft and not visually appealing.
Once cooked immediately drain and rinse under cold running water until completely cooled down. This will ensure the cooking process to stop and the beans will keep their bright green colour once cooled quickly.
Add the cooled beans to a big “zip lock” bag, add the tomatoes, chopped red onion, maldon salt, pepper and olive oil.
Seal the bag and give it a good shake, leave at room temperature to infuse…
This was one of four salads that featured at Mike’s 50th, more visual appealing recipes to follow…..
Visual yummynesssssss
This salad was a real hit with the girls…
The Mediterranean skewers was on one of the “moodboards” I made for Shannon, it said at the bottom …….. “I don’t want you to feel you HAVE to use any of the ideas on the moodboards, I just want to get your brain going on something that might spark an idea you might like….” the skewers made it all the way to our lunch table…
Storyboard 1
(click on “storyboard-1” for a Microsoft Office Word version of one of the pre party storyboard/moodboards..)
We decided to serve “hand starters”, easier to get everyone to mingle….
For starters we served…
Smoked Salmon mousse served in espresso cups with cheese straws
Mediterranean skewers drizzled with a Red Wine vinegar reduction
The “birthday boy” busy busy busy, 2 hours before the guests arrive…
For the Mediterranean skewers you will need:
Medium length “sosatie” sticks
Green olives
Salami
Mozzarella blocks
Small Rosa tomatoes
Artichokes cut into small pieces
Red olives
Skewer one of each on the “sosatie” sticks and drizzle with reduced Red Wine vinegar reduction.
Skewer them all in the same pattern….
For the Red Wine vinegar reduction….
Boil together 125ml Red Wine vinegar and 60ml brown sugar, until slightly thick and reduced, remember it will thicken as it cools down.
We also served
Smoked salmon mousse in espresso cups… served with cheese straws.
The mousse was prepared the night before and the skewers about 3 hours before the lunch…. this gave us enough time to focus on the main meal…
The guests….
Time to start decorating the lunch table with visual appealing platters of yummy lunch…..
Mike started off by saying “I want everyone at my 50th who will attend my funeral”….. then it swinged around to supper for 4 couples and it ended off with “Let’s cook for 50 for Mike’s 50th” in his backyard. From the start I knew that this would be one of those “lets go all out” planning and fun filled events, with me assisting my blog partner in cooking for her husbands 50th…..
The menu was decided upon by Shannon, the “file” was prepped by myself with moodboards, shopping lists, table plans ect….
We started cooking after work on Friday afternoon, the menu was planned around a semi-cold lunch… just so much easier if you can prepare everything in advance, especially if you cook for 50, at home…
Friday late afternoon, lets start cooking…
Shannon and Evelyn started cooking at 4 in the afternoon, I phoned and asked them to ask “the fairies” to please start chopping the red onions for me ….
I arrived at Shannon’s house with Evie “my fairy” busy with the first item on my “to do” list…
We opened a bottle of bubbles……
The Menu
Salmon mousse cups with cheese straws
Mediteranian skewers drizzled with a red wine vinegar reduction
Fillet with salsa verde
Coronation chicken salad
Roasted balsamic beetroot and red onions
Cakestands packed with beautiful caprese basil and pesto tomatoes
Green beans with rosa tomatoes
Luke warm baby potatoes with pesto and parmesan
Wooden dessert boards overflowing with chocolate brownies, strawberries, turkish delight, nougat and shotglasses with lemon mousse…
Wooden cheese boards filled with Brie, Gorgonzola and cheddar blocks, biscuits, grapes, firm ripe red figs and almonds…
AND a small coffee table with plunger coffee and “Ouma Babsie’s Caramel biscuits”…..
So, lets start cooking….
Stefan (4Every Event) and Shannon setting up the tent in front of the Garage….
4 Every Event, the ALL YOU NEED for any event company…. located in Grabouw…. and supplying all over the Western Cape, we are soooo lucky having Stefan and Nadia close to us, with their stores filled with anything from bedouin tents to cutlery and stunnnning decor items, and Nadia, always there to give you that very inspiring idea to make any party a big stylish success….
The tables specially designed by “the birthday boy” …
The seating plan was carefully planned by the birthday boy, with a little help by myself in the form of a table plan and names, there’s just no other way to do this and get a good “visual” of who needs to sit where, so VERY important for the flow of the day…
The Birthday Boy…. and the seating plan…
We’ve decided for a set the table without tablecloths, to use lovely paper placemats, potted succulents and white roses…. with some odds and ends from 4 Every Event and our kitchen cupboards….
Evelyn, busy with another “job for the fairies” I just don’t have the patience….tie knots for the boys and bows for the girls
The tables, seating 25 each….
After a very long Friday evening it was time to go home, an early start tomorrow morning, and I told Shannon that I’ve arranged the weather, little did I know that I will meet a REAL Meteorologist at the party, all the way from Denmark, (some of you might know that I am a bit of a WEATER person…) who could have given me an insiders report on THE VALLEY FARM’S weather ……
At Linga Longa guests sometimes decide to “Linga Longa” and we had to stretch our Sunday night’s quick creamy mushroom risotto.
For the Mushroom risotto you will need:
2 onions finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic sliced
1 T butter
4 T olive oil
2 cups chopped wild or brown mushrooms
2 cups risotto
1 T finely chopped thyme
200 ml white wine
6 cups hot chicken stock (+/- made with 1/2 teaspoon of Ina Paarmans chicken stock powder per cup)
50 g cubed butter
1/2 cup finely grated parmasan
juice of one fresh lemon
(T = tablespoon)
Prep, prep…..
Saute the onions, mushrooms, tyme and garlic with the olive oil and 1 T of butter until soft. In a seperate saucepan bring the chicken stock to a slow rolling boil, keep this bubbling while making the risotto. (I use Ina Paarman’s chicken stock powder, 1 teaspoon per cup of water)
Add the risotto to the mushroom and onion mixture and stir to evenly coat all the grains with a thin layer of olive oil and butter from the mushroom mixture. At this stage, take the pan off the heat and let it rest for about 3 minutes.
Put the pan back on the heat and add the white wine, bubble until all the wine is absorbed while stirring the risotto with a flat sided spatula…..
Add the chicken stock, one cup at a time, stir until all the liquid is absorbed before you add the next cup, do this over a medium heat.
Continue adding the stock until the risotto is cooked. You will have to taste it, there is no specific time, but it should take about 30 minutes. You might even need more stock, depending on the type of risotto used.
At the end, once the risotto is cooked, add 50g’s of cubed butter and grated parmesan and stir vigorously, this will form a creamy consistency……
Serve immediately with a squeeze of fresh lemon….
Stir vigorously while adding the butter and grated parmesan to form a creamy consistancy….
The squeeze of fresh lemon at the end, is a real must, it breaks the richness and just works….
We served the Creamy Mushroom Risotto with “braaied” chicken pieces…. risotto is a meal on it’s own, but remember we had guests that “linga longa”…..
And on Monday morning, when all the “working guests” had to leave at 5 in the morning to be at work by 8, we “linga longa” and I made our host a quick cheats eggs benedict…and used the leftover grated parmesan over a soft boiled egg… with fresh tomato…
And while we packed up, they came to show me their baby…
At last, a close-up of the little baby…
A very big thanks to our hosts for inviting us to this SPECIAL place deep inside the Cape Point Nature Reserve, we feel very privileged ……..
And I still need to be there during a BIG storm…
Hanlie Green 