I love dinner parties! I love hosting them and I love attending them.
The care and effort that goes into planning the menu, setting the table and lovingly presenting the food… total satisfaction and pure enjoyment!
{This post is part of the monthly link-up at Our Growing Edge. The event aims to connect food bloggers and inspire us to try new things.
This month’s host Pia from Joie de Vivre and Cupcakes and the theme is Party with Friends}
So – what’s on the menu?
Well, it’s important to make sure that your guests will eat everything on your menu, so do check whether there are any specific dietary restrictions, etc.
That said – it’s your party and you can make it low carb! Who needs bread when you have all these beautiful foods:
The Menu: {Click on the courses below for the recipes}
Anti Pasti platter {Starters}
{Chorizo, salami, blue cheese, Grana Padano cheese, sliced pears, Grana Padano crisps, homemade cottage cheese with toasted pumpkin seeds & pine nuts, roasted peppers, chicken liver pate, cranberry & Rooibos relish, toasted Pecan nuts}
Thai Curried Butternut
Grilled Zucchini Salad
Almond & Coconut Tart with Poached Pears & Coconut Cream
It’s quite an indulgent, rich menu, so small portions are in order.
I kept all the meats on the starter platter so that people could pick and choose what they wanted.
The main is vegetarian and quite small, because it’s very rich.
The dessert is also quite rich.
- 4 tbs Butter
- 1 onion
- 250 g Chicken Livers
- 1/2 cup Adelpracht wine {or other semi sweet dessert wine}
- 1 dash cream
- 2 Bay leaves
- Chop the onion and saute in 1 tbs butter.
- Add the chicken livers, season with salt & pepper and continue to saute over medium heat.
- Once the livers start to brown and caramelise, add the wine and let it simmer until cooked.
- Puree in a blender and add a dash of cream.
- Scoop the pate into a serving dish and top with 3 tbs of melted butter. Place the bay leaves on top and keep in the fridge to set.
Make sure you have enough textures and tastes on your starter platter – this should feel like a fun tasting, savouring each new taste and different combinations.
For the Grana Padano crisps, simply finely grate some Grana Padano cheese, arrange into circles onto a baking sheet and bake at 180C for 10 minutes until the cheese is bubbling.
Let it cool and remove from the sheet.
Homemade cottage cheese – click for the recipe.
For the cranberry relish, place 1 cup of dries cranberries in a small saucepan with 1 cup of Rooibos tea.
Add the zest and juice of 1 orange and let it simmer until most of the tea has reduced.
For the roasted peppers just pop a few peppers under the grill and roast until they’re totally charred.
Place in a bowl and cover with clingwrap.
Let it cool down, then remove the tough outer skin, stem and seeds.
Cut into strips and drizzle with olive oil.
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