Presentation is everything

Presenting food is sometimes just as hard as preparing it. 

We all cook, not only for ourselves and the pleasure of it, but also for friends, family and, for some, for clients.

In many ways, its just as important to take time to present your food as prepare it.  And of course, if its for clients, we want them to come back to us!

I'll admit, I am one of those annoying people who go to charity shops and flea markets buying pretty single or dual pieces of china, just because I may need it "sometime".  But of course there are always the "bargains" for 3 plates or for 5 cups without saucers, and I do refrain, most of the time.

I've only a few pieces readily available at any one time because you need space to put the regular china as well but displaying my recent recipes I have found a new lease of life for the collecting bug and then it occurred to me what do other cooks or chefs use?

Many chefs in 4 and 5* restaurants and hotels (and those who aspire to be them) will use white, but looking through my not insubstantial number of cookery books, I seem to have found at least a few themes.

If its a country style recipe (read French, Spanish or Italian country cooking etc) these seem to be brightly coloured small bowls of gorgeousness or large white platters and serving dishes of stews and baked fare.  Although the more we venture to the east of the mediterranean or to North Africa, the bowls seem to come in three varieties, silver servers, brightly coloured terracotta and beautiful white china with elaborate edging.

The more sophisticated the dishes, it would seem, would invite a layered approach with a base plate of a colour or with pretty edging and then a simple white serving plate on top.  Plain or coloured clothes are used to dress the table and, in some cases, the amount of silver out numbers the china and the food.

But it doesn't stop there, serving bowls can be anything at all, pieces of moulded metal, pressed glass or carved wood.  I have been inspired, but what to do, without space to store it all?

And then there is the question of the shape of the bowl/plate/server, oval, circular, square or something different still?

My own thought is to present food as well as it can be.  If at a dinner party, especially an informal one where the party is all about the food, at least one main part of each course should be presented on a platter or large bowl.  Or if not at a table, then in an array of baskets, servers, bowls and plates.

For a more formal setting, white tablecloths are a must, but that doesn't mean smooth and starched, and you know that antique lace one that your great aunt, grandmother, or next door neighbour gave you all those years ago, well it was made to be used.   I've seen crape paper and crushed velvet used on tables before, and I must admit, having a white base tablecloth along a plane oak table with a roll of gold wall paper down the middle as runner, may sound cheap, but add your candles, your flowers and your place settings and funnily, it can look fantastic.

My early Summer: Bruschetta, tapas and more tomatoes

Travelling around the mediterranean, most countries have their versions of topped toasted bread, whether tapas from Spain or bruschetta in Italy.  Going to Nice or Marseille, there are always a few cafes serving small morsels in a very similar way too.

Summer is for snacking, or at least that's what many of my friends say who really don't want to eat a full meal in the heat of high Summer in Spain, Italy, Malta or Greece.  Snacking, along with the these heady days, equals sustenance in small portions that will keep you fuelled for a hard day at the beach or the pool.  It just so happens that many of these small meals are quick and rather cheap to make too.

An easy topping for Bruschetta is chopped tomatoes, chopped capers and a little olive oil and a pinch of salt.  The Bruschetta can be as large or as small as you like (the smaller they are, canapé sized, are called Crostini in Italian) and are perfect for a night in with friends and bottle of wine.  Just make your rounds of toast, sprinkle with good olive oil, and brush with a clove of garlic and top with the tomato mixture.  I normally grind a little black pepper just before serving.

If you want a little bite, add some chilli flakes or add some hot or smoked paprika.

If you have the time, other toppings are a sure way to get your friends attention by arranging them on a platter in an alternate pattern.  One of my other popular toppings are baked aubergine.  Halve the aubergine, sprinkle with olive oil and a scattering of sea salt, and bake in a medium oven for 30/35 minutes.  Spoon out the centres, the resultant pulp will need a little rough chopping, add some dried oregano and lemon juice.  Add these to your grilled or toasted bread and some crumbled feta is a nice finishing touch.

Roll on my Early Summer

I'm writing this in blazing sunshine in mid April, sitting in a park in Beckenham, on the fringes of the South London.  So forgive me for me wanting Summer to begin right now.

Summer days, albeit a very warm April, will be with us soon and my mind and taste buds are looking forward to the abundant fresh produce and the bright colours that Summer always brings to our meals, life and gathering of friends.  After all, what better way to enjoy the good weather than to entertain friends or to organise an impromptu banquet at a local park or beach?

I've turned to my diaries and notebooks for inspiration, what were my partner and I doing for the last few Summers, what get-togethers did we arrange, what food did I cook, what made Summer?

Some of the spices and herbs, the smells and tastes, evoke memory and I can't help smiling, sunshine, good food and great company, can do this. 

Bright tomatoes and oregano came immediately to mind and then lemon zest merges with orange and then this morphs to more exotic combinations and flavours.  Yellow courgettes with caraway, especially those only a few inches long, if that, stuffed with cheeses or a fish medley and baked in an oven ready to be served with a luscious green salad and griddled ripe tomatoes, halved and sprinkled with ground pepper, perhaps some seared orange segments served with toasted almonds.

Already the smells are coming through with colour and I turn back to green salad and think of coriander, both seeds and herb and think of thick Greek yogurt gorged with them, with fillets of monkfish or chicken marinating overnight in the fridge only to be cooked over a charcoal embers the following evening, surrounded by friends with glassed of wine and beer.  To the side I see feta salad, perhaps Greek, perhaps just with melon or cucumber and fresh bread served with tapenade.

I have other dreams of Summer, some from 1976 and 1977.  The Summers of the great drought that made the summer holidays just that bit more fun and the Silver Jubilee year just a little like being on a film set.  The Brotherhood of Man won for the UK in 1976 with "Save all your kisses for me" and in 1977, Marie Myriam who represented France, won with her song "L'oiseau et L'Enfant".

I remember people smiling a whole lot more, especially when I think of the Winters we had all in a row, I remember one of them being so bad Dad had to dig our way out of the house (it was mid-Wales and I think it was the 77-78 one.  I can remember one of them without electricity, thank our parents for being a coal and wood household, we certainly weren't cold.  Friends in town had to stay with relatives because they lived in houses with only electricity.  The plus side to this, for us kids anyway, was not being able to get to school. snow fights and teasing your little sister about snow monsters and frost giants. 

But my dreams of Summer prevail and they always borrow facets from other places, namely other places where I've seen happy faces and experienced warm sun really.  Our holidays in Thassos, my visits to Malta and most recently our visit to see Susan and her family in Australia.

Although my body (heat and sun-stroke) isn't too keen, I am happier on a Summer day.  I have to go and sit in the shade on a regular basis, and I have learnt that even if I am in the shade but temperature is over 35 degrees, I need to go indoors, no mater well I feel, and drink plenty of liquid.  But it doesn't stop me watching others enjoy the heat and it gives me respite to go into the kitchen and prepare something light and tasty for others to enjoy.

With all this said, I want Summer to happen sooner, so if the weather doesn't hold out, at least we have the food and the smiles to look forward to.

Over the next few weeks, I will be endeavouring to bring forward Summer and the enjoyment it brings.

Bear with me, I may miss a few times, but hopefully the spirit of Summer will be felt along the way.

Welcome to my Early Summer

Kitchen diary: Party secrets

Ever invited a dozen people around for drinks and had those sinking feelings just before people are due to arrive?

 

Well, a little under 25 years ago, a certain elderly, ex-Actor was entertaining upwards of ten people at a time in a room no more than twenty feet square in Soho, in the West End of London.

 

Afternoon tea at Eliot's flat was a grand affair, or rather it seemed to be, it wasn't until much later that I was taken aside in confidence (especially as my liking of French and Italian cooking was by then well known to my friends) after a particularly splendid Sunday afternoon. 

There were only nine or ten of us, including the host, but the little flat accommodated everyone with ease, the Edwardian daybed was a perch for two and an intricately carved Persian long, but quite low, stool was topped with cushions for another two.  Chairs in many different styles, although two rather grand Gothic charges stood out like thrones, completed the eclectic seating arrangements.  Small tables and terracotta drums held small bowls and platters with an varied assortment of nibbles, some of the regular nut and crisp variety but there were also some little plates of less expected offerings.

To put this in repast in context, it was the late eighties, probably 1988 or 1989, flat, as I've said before was just a room with a small separate kitchen and bathroom.   The fact that it was just off Charing Cross Road in London's theatre land just made it (for me anyway) that much more boho.

Every 20 or 30 minutes for about 2 hours Eliot came out with two small silver trays with small offerings, some sweet and savoury and others simply savoury.  We were then all, very politely of course, ushered out of the flat for the next event, which normally ended up in a small bar or café owned or managed by one of his friends.

And the secret methodology to all this boho chic? 

"The only "homemade" bits "dear" are the toasted bread, the bean paste, the olive mix and a rather clever trick with potted dates.  I suppose you also need to know your audience and how to set up the smoke and mirrors, that's the easy part.  But ignore anyone who says you have to have even numbers of guests, odd is always more interesting.  We're lucky, you hardly ever meet an untalkative gay man or actor, but do try to have some quieter ones, otherwise you can't hear yourself above all that trilling and showing off."

Small party organisers note:

·        Know your venue and facilities well, in Eliot's case, he knew he couldn't cater for more than ten people and that feeding ten people would be difficult if everything wasn’t done totally in advance.  He had only a small half fridge, so two buckets with ice was used to chill the wine and another two buckets were used with ice to use for cooling trays.

·        Set your scene.  In Eliot's flat, the "smoke and mirrors" simply referred to what's the best use of the room, arranging the furniture so that everyone was facing one another, in a semicircle and with the main source of light at the open end of this arrangement - so no-one is squinting at the person opposite if they are sitting in front of an undressed window.  If you need to layer your seating arrangements place high/hard seated chairs behind much lower ones - the Gothic chargers were placed behind the Persian stool (as so the two people lucky enough to get this seat could easily swivel and chat to those behind them).  

·        Remember to allow for enough surfaces to put glasses and bowls on, hence the array of small tables and terracotta drums in this little Soho flat, there was always somewhere "to put a napkin".  In  the centre of the semi-circle, don't be tempted to fill it by putting a table there for example, after just a few minutes, it will be moved to one side anyway.

·        Food, make it simple and make it ahead of time.  See the mini-recipes below, but also go to non-mainstream food shops, in Soho, in London at the time, Eliot had a number of choices, including Chinese, Japanese and Jewish food shops but also a number of other middle eastern café's just a short bus ride away on the Edgware Road.  Having heavily spiced almonds, hazelnuts or olive mixes are very easily shopped for now but 25 years ago, shopping around for something special took a little more time.  Still if you are still wanting more snack ideas, I've a few ideas of my own.

·        Eliot bought olives and herbs and small jars of peppers and chillies separately and simple made a fresh mix every few days, having an afternoon tea simply meant that he made a large batch.

·        He made his "toast" by griddling thin slices of French bread but he "discovered" an Italian bakery in Farringdon he would go there specially to get ciabatta instead.

·        Know your audience.  Balance your invitations.  Yes, you will always have your extrovert guests, but make sure they don't drown out the ones who also have an opinion.  Remember, it's not just the extrovert who are loud, it’s the nervous ones who've breathed in that first glass of wine too, so know your audience, calm them, reassure them and if they are too quiet, give them something to do so it forces them to interact, perhaps ask them to take around the opened bottle of fizz to top up glasses or distribute a tray of treats and napkins.  They will have the excuse to joke about the service or explain about what's in the food or do some healthy flirting.

Stuffed dates

A simple and tasty, but fiddly, finger full of fun are these stuffed dates.  Remember those boxes of dates you always had at Christmas, well here's a tip on how to use them.  De-stone them (that's the fiddly bit and fill the spaces with some small wedges of a tart cheese - goats cheese, feta or even a little blue cheese too.  Put on a plate with sprinkling of finely chopped parsley, so easy.

Bean paste

My own involves cooking, Eliot's was a lot more straight forward.  A tin of pre-cooked pinto beans, drained with two dessert spoons of olive oil, a teaspoon of cumin and a teaspoon of hot smoked paprika, and mashed well.  The paste was then put on "toasts" and small additions were placed on top, a little ham, or couple of slices of tinned artichoke, or a little griddled chorizo.

Mixed olives

As above, but the possibilities are endless, not everyone likes olives, try making up a mix with small cherry tomatoes and/or with small balls of hard cheese.  I particularly like toasted chorizo chopped in large dice and mixed up with pieces of onion and sweet pepper.

 

Fish pate - another kitchen diary

 

Kitchen Diary: a simple fish pate

Eliot was a neighbour of a friend.  He was a "theatrical bachelor" in his mid-sixties and had lived in his studio flat just off the Charing Cross Road for over twenty years when I met him in the late eighties.

He was a handsome gentleman and very well attired.  John, my friend at the time was an assistant booking agent and Eliot had been one of the actors who from time to time he had encountered along the way.  After a while they had become friends.

The studio itself was on the third floor of a Victorian mansion block, from the communal stairwell you entered directly into a large room with a recess at the back which was curtained and behind which was the sleeping arrangements.  Just to the side of this was a little inner hall with two doors, one to bathroom and the other to a little kitchen.

His kitchen was literally a large cupboard with a window, not much more than six feet square with a small service sink and drainer, a 1950's bright green pantry cupboard and a small one ring hob on a waist high shelf, lined up against a wall.  Just inside the door was a small table and chair which looked out of a window towards the stage door of a famous theatre.  John and I visited him a few times for tea, he thought me a bit of a bubble head to begin with (I was 19 when I first met him), but when he realised my love of food, he also showed an uncanny ability for imaginative preparations.  With very scarce kitchen amenities John told me later, this very small flat was routinely the centre for small scale receptions.  So handy was its location, Eliot's fellow actors would come by for impromptu theatre salons and literary discussions well into the small hours.

This quick fish pate (and a number variations on this theme) was particularly good.

• One small fillet of skinned salmon, poached and mashed
• One hard boiled egg, mashed well
• Two dessert spoons of chopped parsley
• The juice of a small lemon
• 25 grams of softened salted butter
• A dessert spoon of chopped caper berries
• A good helping (of say half a teaspoon) of ground black pepper
• A pinch of cayenne pepper

Mixed thoroughly together, with a little added vegetable or other tasteless oil if the mixture is too solid.

Eliot served this with thin slices of French bread, which he had griddled on a flat iron over the single ring of his hob.

Related food links:

Retro Entertaining, 1980s Style
Entertaining, Simple Asparagus Rolls
Entertaining, Three Best Dips
Entertaining, Mid-Week cheeky one - Bloody Mary Tomatoes
Retro Entertaining, Leeks Vinaigrette
Entertaining, Mid-Week cheeky one - Chilli Baby Aubergines
 

Tis the season to be sociable

I'm a big fan of socialising at home, somehow making just a little effort to entertain and bring friends together seems one of life's pleasures that keeps many of us from going mad.


Whether its a cheeky Wednesday, mid-week drink, a Saturday afternoon in front of the telly with latest DVD release or bringing friends together for a special occasion (Eurovision and Christmas seem to have equal footing in my life), what better way to show you care about your family and friends than to present them food that not only looks and tastes good, but that shows you have thought about them and says "I hope you have a great time".

This message needn't take very long and you can always build a little individual support over a number of days/evenings before, whilst cooking dinner.    For example, whilst re-heating that lasagna from the previous evening's dinner, why not put a tray of halved tomatoes below it, these, along with the olives you bought on the way home and a little crumbled feta makes a great filling for tortillas that, cut the diagonal will make great munch platter along with the regular accompaniments of nuts and crisps and dips.

If you have a little more time to put something together you could look no further than turkey papettes or tarragon parcels, the filling of latter can be prepared much earlier.

Simpler starters and snacks I've listed further below, but remember that the simple method of slow roasting tomatoes can be applied to so many other things that will later be added to any number of dishes.

Try slow roasting small baby onions with just a little olive oil and scattering them with fennel seeds, roasting for 30-35 minutes.   These are perfect tossed with blue cheese cubes and some roughly chopped parsley and added to pastries as an alternative to the chicken in the tarragon parcels.

Roasting your own peppers also brings more options to your table, rather than those bought in jars, you can add your own flavours (garlic, ginger or a little madras or tamarind spice) so that when they come out of the oven, they need no other dressing and can be chopped and added to wraps or used with pasta for a quick supper the following day.

Financiers - my Spanish take on a French classic
Simple asparagus rolls - a little fiddly, but so rewarding!
My three best (and most popular) dips - use them for fillings for pastries as well
A cheeky, spicy addition to pre-dinner drinks - baby chilli aubergines
Summer parties have never been so good - bloody mary tomatoes
Midweek cheeky one - a few ideas for quick tapas style snacks

Simple Olive and Garlic pastry twists

These are so simple and quick and are so good with a G&T or martini any day!

Using both Olive and Smoked Garlic butters, this is a sure fire way of starting a get together at home to a great start.

Using pre-made puff pastry, simply roll to a half centimetre thickness, cut in half, spread some olive butter on one piece, cut into one centimetre strips and twist them a couple of times.  Lay on an oven tray with grease proof paper.

Do the same with smoked garlic butter and then place in a pre-heated oven at 190c for about 10-15 minutes, keep checking them in case they burn due to the high butter content of both the spread and the pastry.

Post Eurovision recipe - number three

Bloody Mary Tomatoes

Makes 24-30

Easy and very alcoholic

Take 24-30 small vine tomatoes (I know, technically all tomatoes are…)

For the filling

• two dessert spoons of tomato puree
• a 200 gram can of drained chopped tomatoes (or another 10-15 skinned small vine tomatoes chopped and drained)
• a dessert spoon of tabasco
• two dessert spoons of premium vodka
• two dessert spoons of dry sherry
• a level teaspoon of celery salt

Combine and leave aside for at least 2 hours

Cut the top off each of the tomatoes, extract the seeds and excess pulp.  Fill each one carefully with the above mixture.

Dress with chopped parsley.

Great with vodka Martini's … HIC!

Post Eurovision recipe - number two

Tarragon Parcels

I love this recipe because so many different combinations can be used.  I originally used the filling recipe to go with pasta and then altered it to use for pastries when a vegetarian friend came round for supper unexpectedly one day.  I had already made a chicken pie so there was left over pastry in the fridge. 

Sometime afterwards we were having a Summer party and I wanted something other than the regular snacks, dips, chicken pieces and tarts, so I had the idea to make these in large batches. 

Once you've done it once, it's very easy to scale up for large amounts of people.

Try this with pork and sage and use the white part of leeks for the vegetable.  The stock should be made of half vegetable stock and dry cider.

Alternatively, try with salt cod and using smoked paprika  and thyme and using sweet red and orange peppers as the vegetable.  To the stock add three crushed cardamom pods.

For the pure veggies amongst you, use chestnut mushrooms or, if in season, puff balls and use the same ingredients (bar the meat of course) as the recipe below.

***

• 50 grams of fresh tarragon
• 200 grams of chicken breasts
• 150 grams of asparagus or artichoke hearts
• 100 grams of single cream
• Plain flour
• Olive oil
• 1oz of salted butter
• Pepper
• 1 medium sized onion
• Two pints of vegetable stock
• Pre-bought short crust pastry (500 grams)
• A large egg, beaten and a pastry brush.

***
First poach the chicken in the vegetable stock and allow to cool in the stock.

To make the cream sauce, first melt the butter in the olive oil, add finely chopped onion and ground black pepper on a medium heat until the onion has softened.  Then add two heaped teaspoons of plain sifted flour and combine thoroughly until the mixture becomes "sticky".

Add approximately a third of the remaining vegetable stock and keep stirring until the mixture has started to thicken.  Turn the heat down to low and add the single cream a little at time whilst continually stirring and maintaining the thickness of the sauce.   Then remove from the heat.

Cut the asparagus into 3 cm lengths, including an additional top 3 cm of stalk if early in the season and/or artichoke hearts into slices of approximately the same dimensions.  Blanch in salted water that has been brought to a rolling boil for about 3 minutes.  Drain, and allow to cool

Chop the chicken, the cooled vegetables and tarragon and mix into the sauce mixture well.  Set aside to steep and marinade.

Creating the parcels:

Roll out the pastry on a floured surface to a 2-3 mm thickness.  Using a tea plate as a template, cut out a number of circles of pastry.  Bring together the remaining pastry and re-roll out for further rounds.

With a buttered baking tray ready, take your first round of pastry and add a desert spoon of the chicken mixture to its centre.  Depending on the size of the round you may get a little more filing onto it whilst still leaving one and a half cm around the edge.  Using the a little of the beaten egg mixture on the edges for "glue" and taking bringing the folding furthest edge over towards you and pressing into a half moon.  Crimp the edges between thumb and forefinger and place on baking tray.  This should make up to eight good sized parcels. 

Use either the remaining egg or rub olive oil over the top of each pocket before placing in 200c pre-heated oven for 30-35 minutes, or until golden brown.

Once cooked leave on the side to cool.  Freezes well.  Defrost completely and then reheat gradually on a baking sheet with paper underneath in a medium oven (160/170c).