Cocktail Menu for Poppyseed Catering

This is the current menu. I will probably have this menu for most of the year and just add a few more seasonal items as I go along.

chicken,leek & fetta tarts

satay chicken skewers

thai chicken balls w/sweet cucumber dippin sauce

grilled chicken,prosciutto,mushroom skewers

sticky bbq chicken drummettes w/ ranch dressing sauce

caramelized onion & goats curd tarts

wild mushroom,garlic & thyme tarts

zucchini & fetta fritters w/ basil pesto

roasted pumpkin & coriander fritters w/ sweet chili sauce

prawn & chorizo skewers w/ saffron aoli

bacon wrapped grilled oysters w/ kirkpatrick sauce

red beef curry petite pies

slow cooked beef,mushroom & red wine petite pies

mixed grill skewers ( beef fillet,bacon,chorizo,capsicum)

baby crumbed veal bites w/ lemon aoli dippin sauce  (like a baby snitzy)

middle eastern lamb skewers w/tahini & honey sauce

moroccan lamb tarts w/ raita

parmesan & olive shortbread biscuits w/basil pesto and danish fetta

white bean & sage dip on baby croutons

baked poppyseed green olive puffs

vegetarian sushi

roasted vegetable frittata w/ olive tapenade

wild mushroom pate on croutons

creamy local brie cheese,pear and quince paste on pumpernickel toasts

smoked salmon & dill caper creme cheese on croutons

prawn cocktail skewers w/ spicy seafood sauce

freshly prepared sashimi tuna, cured and served on asian spoons.

rare roast beef fillet on croutons w/ fresh horseradish creme

vietnamese poached chicken cold rolls w/hoisin sauce

5 spiced roasted duck breast cold rolls.

vanilla bean panacotta shots

lemon brulee shots

mini trifle cups

baby tiramisu in short black cups

mini lemon tarts

dark chocolate tarts

orange blossom honey & pinenut tart

fresh fruit kebabs w/ chocolate fondue sauce

petite organic vanilla bean ice cream in cones,choc dipped and rolled in crushed nuts

chocolate mud truffles rolled in dutch cocoa,pistachios or almonds

Do you think I have enough choices???

Variety is the spice of life.

A picture tells a thousand words

Im truly lucky to have a most lovely friend in my life, who happens to be a rockin' photographer.

Claude and I set out to produce some enticing stylised food shots. He needed to update his portfolio and I was more then happy to help. So the photos you see on this blog are original and the handy work of Claude Raschella and myself.

The best part was eating the props!!

I used to be involved in the advertising industry as a photographers assistant and did many a food shoot. One of my favourite hobbies is collecting cookbooks. I love the photos. My personal belief is you should be able to taste the food before its in your mouth. Vision makes up most of our eating experience. Present your food in various ways, entice your taste buds...its gastronomical foreplay!! 

I was lucky to be asked from an advertising company a while back to cook and style a bacon product. The company wanted to change its packaging. Now when I go shopping and see in the deli department, a local brand of bacon with my photo on it!! Weird.

So next time you flick through a food magazine or a cookbook try some of the presentation ideas on your dinner guests.

P.S  the kiddies love it when you jazz up a dinner plate. Veggies in a little dipping bowl, sandwiches cut into shapes, baked spud in an egg cup....let your imagination run wild.

I will post more yummy pictures soon.

Nana's Lemonade Scones

My husband the lumberjack has been very busy this weekend chopping wood getting ready for the chilly nights, I thought I had better join in and bake...

A very easy scone recipe I found in my travels. It seriously takes all of 5 mins to prepare. 

Set your oven to about 200.C

3 cups SR Flour

1 cup caster sugar

1 cup whole cream

1 cup lemonade

Sift the flour and sugar into a larger mixing bowl

Mix the lemonade and cream together in a jug.

Add the wet mixture to the dry.

Now this is the secret......use a butter knife and in a slicing motion gently mix it all together till just combined.

Use a baking tray and line with non-stick baking paper, flour the surface a little and tip out the mixture, flour your hands and then gently push from the sides of the mixture and lightly from the top till you achieve a squarish shape.

Bake for about 12-15 mins. You are looking for a light brown top and fluffy centre. Dont overcook.

This will cook in a rustic looking slab, then you can cut a scone from it when its cooked. Great to put on the table with a pot of freshly brewed loose leaf tea, jam and bowl of thickened whipped cream. Very nanna!

You can use soda water too. Doesn't need to chilled. This will cut back on the sugar content.

Can freeze cooked scones.Great for unexpected guests, just pop into the microwave. 

Lamb Shanks Recipe

 This recipe will serve 4 adults. You can also use this for the wee munchkins (delete the wine) Its great the next day. Shred the meat off the bone and put into a pasta sauce,risotto,or couscous.

4 Frenched Lamb Shanks  (ask your butcher to do this for you)

Plain flour

Salt'n Pepper

Smoked Paprika

Olive oil

3 peeled and finely diced carrots

3 stalks celery finely diced

1 brown onion diced

4 garlic cloves diced

1 small red capsicum diced

1 large leek finely diced

1/2 litre red wine

2 litres chicken stock

2 800gms tinned crushed tomatoes

Fresh oregano,thyme.

3 bay leaves

Heat a heavy based saucepan with olive oil.

Dust your shanks in the flour, put shanks into the pan and add salt,pepper,paprika.

Seal the meat, try to get a nice caramel color on the shank.

Remove from shanks from pan, turn down heat. Might need a slash more olive oil.

Add all the diced vegetables and sweat this off till the onion is creamy and a wee bit colored.

Then deglaze the pan with red wine and cook off the alcohol for about 5 mins. Stir it through and let the vegetables soak the in the red wine.

Add the chicken stock and tomatoes. Then throw in your herbs and bay leaves.

Stir through.

If you are going to be using a slow cooker follow this step...put shanks into cooker and tip the vegetable sauce over them,put lid on and set to high and go shopping for the day!

If you are using the oven or the stovetop....put shanks into your saucepan of vegetable sauce, lid on and put into oven for 2-3 hours. Keep checking that the sauce has not evaporated too much during the cooking process.

Oven temp about 160. Stove top on simmer.

Shanks are ready when the meat is tender and almost falling off the bone.

Serve with  creamy mashed potato,buttery green beans and crunchy french bread. Dont forget to drink a rocking good glass of red wine with this meal.

This is a great dish to make the day before. Then all you need to do is reheat the shanks with some of the sauce.

Its Autumn.....Comfort Food

Well its finally here....the excuse to drag out the Sunbeam Slow Cooker. Actually you should never need an excuse to slow cook. Its a truly intoxicating way to create and eat for that matter.

So today I decided to cook my famous Lamb Shanks, when I owned my cafe this was the best seller by far. I will share with you my secrets.... watch the next blog for a recipe.

First I would like to tell you all about my crush I have on my slow cooker. This love affair started about 2 yrs ago when I was a few weeks off having my baby. It was in the middle of winter and my ankles looked liked I had been hiking in sub tropical jungles, I had to get off my feet and rest. My husband is great around the house but not the best in the gourmet chef department. His speciality is crumbed chicken....great but not so great after 4 nights in a row!!!  Bless him.

My girlfriend who has had 3 children and completely understanding of my chicken dilemma, gave me the best advice I had been given as an expectant mother " Honey, you gotta get yourself a slow cooker".

I am forever in her debt.

I was able to quickly prepare soups, curries, casseroles, puddings....all in the morning while my ankles looked liked supermodel material. Turn on the cooker and forget about it. 

My husband was relived of his cooking duties and we all ate the better for it.

During those first few months of motherhood when I was a frazzled,sore,sleep deprived human being I was still able to whip up a gourmet meal to treat ourselves at the end of a very, very long day. All it took was 20mins in the morning.

Now with a busy energetic toddler at my feet, I find my cooker even more my savior. I can cook a casserole for Jackman ( my son) and freeze this in portions. TIMESAVER!!!    and whip us big kids up a butter chicken curry or my famous lamb shanks.

So ladies...... make a life time investment and buy a slowcooker.