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Party time
I’ve just been involved in a cooking marathon thanks to The Spouse celebrating his birthday with a bit of a do. He’s usually happy to let these milestones pass quietly but his twin siblings in New Zealand decided it was time to visit the Oz branch of the family and this seemed a good excuse to do it. Rather than spend sleepless nights wondering what food to provide, I quickly worked out a menu of nibbles, mains and desserts, determined which items could be prepared ahead, drew up cooking and shopping schedules and things fell pretty seamlessly into place. I wanted to enjoy the party, too, so I decided not to get overly ambitious and have too many dishes demanding last minute attention. I have a lot of cookbooks featuring finger food, but so many of these require assembling or cooking just prior to serving and it’s not always easy when guests seem to be magnetically drawn to the kitchen. There's nothing worse that heating, frying and piping when everyone else is partying. The major decision I had to make was what meat to serve. My hairdresser Vanessa mentioned one of the butchers at our South Melbourne market had vacuum packs of butterflied legs of lamb in Greek style marinade so I bought one of those and did a trial run roasting it on our recently purchased lidded barbecue. The BBQ was heated by all four burners till the temperature on the dial read high, then the inner two burners were turned off, the temperature turned down on the remaining two, and the meat roasted for 16 minutes each side on a rack in a roasting pan. The lamb was then rested for 10 minutes before carving and it was delicious. So, that recipe was a goer.
I’ve got a favourite Jamie Oliver recipe for sage flavoured pork fillets roasted on a bed of rhubarb that I’ve made several times. It’s easy to prepare, needs little attention, produces excellent results and takes much the same cooking time as the lamb, so that was my other choice. Two legs of lamb and half a dozen fat pork fillets went on the shopping list. For the nibbles I made a large batch of cheese straws, some smoked salmon dip, a retro chicken liver pate (so beloved of hostesses in the 70s), and a mushroom, spinach and cheese frittata which was baked in the oven in a square cake pan. I was planning to make some sushi but I discovered the sushi man at the market would make me some the afternoon of the party so I engaged his services at remarkably reasonable cost. A cheeseboard completed the selection.
For the main event I had an array of salads to go with the JO pork and Greek lamb – roasted red pepper salad (above) with herb dressing; pickled mushrooms; carrot and cranberry; broad bean and mint; Greek salad; salad greens with parmesan. I made a veal and pork terrine and a platter of tuna tataki. Dessert was a quince and apple tart, a lemon and polenta cake, and walnut brownies with strawberries. On the day, the local Cellarbrations guys arrived with a huge insulated box on wheels and vast amounts of ice and stacked the drinks in it to keep cool. It was brilliant and certainly took the pressure of me to find room in the fridge for liquid refreshments. Here's the menu with links to most of the recipes:
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