Not Enough Cooks...

Well, I did the catering job last night, and it went well. 6 adults and 9 kids!

They wanted some nibbles to go with aperitifs, and when I took them in the clients introduced me to the first guests, who, it turned out, I knew already! My mum used to be the caretaker for their chateau which had belonged to a friend of ours before they bought it. So, we had a bit of a mini catch up, then I excused myself – it’s not exactly the done thing for the hired help to take over the conversation!!

The first course was Foie Gras – something I have never cooked before in my life, mainly because I can’t stand the stuff! I found some at a really good price in Leclerc, and pan fried it with apples. I burnt myself on the butter that I was frying the apples in, and really hurt myself! Luckily, I managed not to swear as there were kids in the room! Surprisingly (to me!) it turned out really well, and they all really enjoyed it.
Their main course was roast lamb, with garlic, rosemary and thyme, with roast potatoes and Mediterranean vegetables. Oh, and gravy of course! Delicious!

Then the cheese board, then the dessert. They had requested something with fruit and dark chocolate. I don’t do puddings – by which I mean that I don’t cook them. I do, of course, eat them!! It’s not my forte! Anyway, I had this recipe that I’ve always wanted to try, but I made a couple of mistakes with it. I had to tell them not to eat the ends of the box as there was foil stuck in the chocolate! I put too much cream into the filling as well. It was very difficult to cut and serve – the whole thing was a bit of a learning curve. Next time I do it, I will do individual ones – you can buy foil ramekins in the supermarkets, so it would be easy to do the boxes in them, and then just cut the ramekin from the sides and bottom. Voilà – individual, gorgeous puddings!The kids were delightful. The son had his birthday today, and we got talking about Doctor Who and Wallace and Gromit, and what he wanted for his birthday! The daughter was sweet too, and kept asking if there was anything she could do to help! Altogether there were nine kids for dinner (children of guests included!), and they had a different dinner to the adults – something I will not be doing again as it added an enormous amount of extra work. It was Parmentier de Canard – basically a shepherds pie that you make with confit de canard. It was tasty enough – well, the meat was…I really don’t like mashed potatoes! Then, they had chocolate mousse for dessert. Pretty easy really, but two different meals for the same evening is a huge amount of work.
The evening went well on the whole, but I didn’t get home until after midnight. Now, I have to put together a package that they can offer to their summer rental clients – that will take some thinking!


If you would like larger copies of the recipes, just ask and I will email them to you.