Category Archives: Canapes

Wellington on A Plate: Ruth Pretty’s Food, Frocks & Frivolity

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Wellington On A Plate has just finished for 2011.  I think it’s been a really good festival! I didn’t get to as many events as I would have liked, but I did end up eating at a whole heap of new places. The deals restaurants run during the festival are well worth checking out.

One event I did make it to was Ruth Pretty’s “Food, Frocks & Frivolity”, held at her home in Te Horo. Such a great afternoon!  It was a weddings-y themed afternoon where the women were free to roam around the house sipping cocktails and bubbles, enjoying the continuous supply of canapés, watching cooking demonstrations from Ruth and her staff, and stopping to look at displays from local businesses – jewellery, shoes, dresses, flowers, photography, even hair & make up artists who were ready to give anyone a touch-up! Ruth had a tea stop with beautiful china cups, and a coffee machine and barista set up outside if you felt like a break from bubbles (I didn’t). It’s probably for the best that my own wedding has been and gone. I would have been an uncontrollable bride at an afternoon like that!

We started off with a browse in Ruth Pretty’s kitchen shop (loving the latest addition to my wooden spoon collection, and can’t wait to try the Blooker cocoa I bought) and coffees in the garden room before the afternoon started.

Then we were taken over to the house and introduced to all the staff, and made a start on the cocktails (‘Rosebud’, made with Absolut Vanilla Vodka with passionfruit, cranberry and pineapple) And then the canapés started. I only managed to get pictures of three. They were all beautiful – but the chorizo stuffed dates were A. Mazing.

‘Beehive’ Honey Cones filled with Whipped Goats’ Cheese and Dukkah

Chorizo-Stuffed Medjool Dates with Piquillo Pepper and Tomato Sauce

Tuna Tartare with Miso Braised Eggplant

(Also on the canapé menu: Zany Zeus Feta, Sundried Tomato & Mint Tarts in Parmesan Pastry Cases; OceanNZ Abalone with Ginger Sesame Dressing; Scampi Tails in Chopsticks with Lime Wasabi Dressing and Karengo Fronds; Farm Raised Venison Meatballs with Orange Ginger Glaze).

I headed straight for the kitchen, which we were free to wander in and out of. Around the room there were little macaron-filling stations where we could fill and pretty up a little box of macarons to take home. There’s something women love about macarons, pretty boxes and ribbons. It was mayhem. But see how cute they look!

 
 

The highlight of the afternoon was Ruth and her assistant Veronika making beautiful celebration cakes. There were three.

Firstly – a three tiered round chocolate cake, filled and iced with ganache. So impressively iced! Veronika had the cake on a type of lazy susan, and spun the cake around, spreading the icing, while Ruth just tipped the saucepan of ganache over the top. Result:

The second cake was a cube cake – as tall as it was wide! This was made up of three square cakes, each having 6 layers of sponge, meringue and chocolate ganache. Whoa. This was the cake to end all cakes.

This was iced with a white chocolate buttercream icing. I think one of the nicer touches of the afternoon was that the bowls of icing and ganache were left on the table beside a large pile of spoons… so we could all sample!

 

Thirdly, the croquembouche. The tower of choux pastries. Here they are, waiting to be filled with crème pâtissière and stuck together with toffee:

Here you can see Veronika dipping them in caramel toffee – working quickly to get in there before it sets – and building the croquembouche. This was great to watch!

Then adding spun sugar all around the croquembouche…

Finishing touches…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And there you have it, one croquembouche:

Then it was time to dismantle the minutes-old croquembouche. This seemed a little sad. But we had to focus on the positives. Like eating the three finished cakes.

Delicious! My favourite was the croquembouche.

Lovely way to spend an afternoon. Recommended if Ruth does a similar event next year!

Baked Brie Portabello Mushrooms

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I love mushrooms. And pesto. And cheese. So how could I go wrong?

Baked Brie Portabello Mushrooms (serves 4 as a starter)

4 portabello mushrooms
2 Tbsp pesto
4 large slices brie

So, this isn’t really a recipe. Smear 1/2 Tbsp of pesto on each mushroom and plonk a slice of brie on top. Preheat the oven to about 200 (C), force fan if you can, and bake for 5-10 minutes. Drizzle with olive or avocado oil to serve.

Pumpkin & Pastrami Tartlets

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These little filo tart cases are really good for cocktail parties, or you can use them as a dinner party first course. They are waaay healthier than shortcrust or flaky pastry, too. I used a warming pumpkin and pastrami filling, but you can fill them with whatever you want!

Pumpkin & Pastrami Tartlets (makes 24)

3 sheets filo pastry
cooking oil spray
300g pumpkin, diced
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp chilli powder
salt and pepper, to taste
6 slices pastrami, cut into quarters
approx 1/2 cup light sour cream

Preheat the oven to 180 (c). Spray 2x 12-hole mini-muffin tins lightly.

Place the first filo sheet on a clean, dry surface and spray lightly with oil. Place the second sheet on top, and spray again. Place the third sheet on top. Mark a grid pattern and cut the stack into 24 squares, each 6cmx6cm (so eight squares across the long side and three across the short side).

Carefully place each little square into the muffin holes and lightly spray the cases again. Bake for about 5 minutes, until golden. Remove from the oven and let them cool in the tin until you’re ready to fill them. You can do this in advance.

Meanwhile, microwave the pumpkin for about 3 minutes, or until tender. Mash with a fork and mix in the nutmeg and chilli powder, and season to taste. Spoon a little of this mixture into each tartlet case, with a little piece of pastrami. Top with a small teaspoonful of sour cream. Garnish with fresh herb sprigs if you have some handy.

Rice Paper Rolls

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I love rice paper rolls. They’re simple enough to make on a weeknight, can be as super healthy as you want, and seem somehow more impressive than the effort they require. My only complaint is that they’re not that photogenic.

OK, so maybe the problem is I’m not the greatest food stylist or photographer. Whatever. I’m still complaining.

You can put all kinds of delicious into rice paper rolls. This week, I used poached chicken as my main filling. I added soy sauce, sherry, brown sugar, five spice and fresh garlic and ginger to the poaching water following an Alison Holst recipe — often adding a bit of water to a marinade mix makes good poaching liquid! Then once the (whole) chicken breast has been cooked, remove it from the pan, let it cool and slice it thinly or shred it.

While the chicken cooks, you can get your salad-y type fillings ready. I had shredded cabbage, mung beans, grated carrot, chopped cashews, spring onions, mint and coriander.

Prawn or shrimp meat, lettuce leaves, cucumber, peanuts, and softened vermicelli noodles also make good rice paper roll fillings.

I don’t want to tell anybody how to suck eggs, but I needed pictures to help me make these the first time! So … for the rice paper novice: rice paper wrappers come in flat circles. You get a dish big enough to hold one whole, and fill the dish with warm water. Then you gently dip the rice paper in and let it soften. This only takes 10-15 seconds – less than that it’s still too hard to roll, more than that and you’re trying to pick up mushy rice glug from the bottom of the dish. Lay the softened wrapper on a board, or a clean black tea towel so it shows up in photos.

Lay a bit of filling in a strip about 2/3 of the way down the wrapper. I learnt the hard way not to try and fit too much filling in. This is about right:

Then fold up the bit at the bottom:

Then fold in the sides:

Then roll it up and all done.

Now for a tasty dipping sauce. I made chilli and lime. Mix together, and leave to stand for a few minutes:

1 lime, juice and finely grated rind
3-4 Tbsp water
3-4 Tbsp fish sauce
1 Tbsp caster sugar
2 cloves finely chopped garlic
the white part of 1 spring onion
as much finely chopped chilli as you can handle

Annabel Langbein also has a Vietnamese Dipping Sauce recipe that she hopefully won’t mind me sharing… 3 Tbsp fish sauce, 1 Tbsp sugar, 2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar and 2 Tbsp Thai sweet chilli sauce.

Yum!

Puff Pastry Twists

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OK, so puff pastry twists aren’t really anything new, but they are great party food if you don’t have a lot of time! You just need two sheets of bought, pre-rolled lovingly handmade puff pastry, and something to fill them up with.

Place your first sheet of pastry on the bench, and spread some filling over it - don’t be too generous or you’ll never get it rolled up neatly.

Last week, I used parmesan with chopped semi-dried tomatoes and peppadew peppers (I spotted the combination in a magazine recently). But you could use other classics like blue cheese and walnut, feta, pesto. Or you could make sweet ones with a bit of apple and cinnamon sugar, or spread with jam and cream cheese. And I’m not above vegemite and cheese!

Once you’ve spread your filling out, place the second sheet of pastry on top. Press all the edges together so the filling’s enclosed. If you run your rolling pin over the sheets a few times, the whole thing will stick together better. Then slice the square into strips – I get 10-12 out of the square.

You can either just twist the strips flat on the board, or I prefer to wind them around kebab sticks – easier to keep your hands clean when you eat it :) Just press one end of the twist firmly into the kebab stick, and wind it around til you reach the top.

Place the twists on a lined baking tray and bake for about 20 minutes or so, in quite a hot (preheated) oven – about 215. They’re good straight out of the oven, or cold.