Kitchen Extension Dinner Party | Elizabeth Caton Catering | Elizabeth Food and Wine | Recipes

Kitchen Extension Dinner Party 21 Dec 18

Joe and Helen were hoping that their new kitchen extension would be ready in time for Christmas, so they were delighted when it was finished by the end of November. They asked us to help them create a dinner party for them and ten of their best friends to celebrate their beautiful new room, and of course we were thrilled to have the pleasure of cooking in their perfectly appointed kitchen.

Joe and Helen are both pescetarian, and it was fun working with them to come up with a menu that celebrated fish, vegetables and fruit. They wanted something that was fairly light and refreshing in view of the inevitable Christmas over indulgence to come, but that was also substantial enough to satisfy their meat-eating friends.

With this in mind, after lots of recipe testing and tweaking in our professional kitchen, we all settled on 4 small courses. This was lovely for us too, because it gave us the opportunity to have fun working with even more of our favourite ingredients.

After much discussion and sharing of ideas, we decided to start with a wild salmon and horseradish mousse, topped with a beetroot carpaccio. It's a dish that looks beautiful and elegant and has subtle spicy and lemony flavours to spark the appetite.

This was followed by Jerusalem artichoke tortellini with a watercress, parsley and walnut pesto scattered with crushed hazelnuts. The artichokes came from our kitchen garden so they couldn't be any fresher, and are at their best at this time of year. Seasonality was as important to Joe and Helen as it to us, which is one of the reasons we loved working with them so much.

The main course was charred mackerel with pickled cucumber, radishes and dill oil. Mackerel, being an oily fish, works perfectly with the crunch of lightly pickled vegetables, and dill with fish is a classic.

The meal finished with a ginger madeleine, blackberry cream, fresh blackberries and a ginger crumb with cubes of blackcurrant jelly. We fill the freezer with blackcurrants from our garden every June, and turning them into jelly brought back a taste of summer, while the flavour of ginger along with the winter berries was a nod to Christmas.

The new extension was much admired, and it was a pleasure to see Joe and Helen with their friends enjoy a special dinner created in their dream kitchen.

"We were so excited to "open" our new kitchen extension with a fabulous dinner cooked by Lizzie and Charlie. Our guests were stunned and delighted by the delicious meal that they created for us. The pre-event discussions and tastings were almost as enjoyable as the meal itself. We will certainly be using them again, and would recommend them to anyone." - Joe

If this sounds like the sort of event you would like help hosting then please read about our Dinner party catering service or our other Private event catering options on our website, or contact us for a friendly chat about what we can do for you.

What People Say About Us

Shaun and I wanted to thank you for all your help, delicious food, fabulous service and overall fabulousness. You made both feel extremely special on our best ever day.
Thank you again to everyone on your team.

Shaun and Remy, October 2018

We just wanted to send you a quick note (inbetween wedding 1 and 2 !) just to say that the food was absolutely excellent yesterday. Everyone commented on how nice it was. Bringing round seconds of beef was a winner and the desserts were truly delicious.

You have both been so lovely and helpful and I know that Phill at the Angel House was also really impressed with your professionalism.

The service was also really good and the staff you employed were all really nice.

Amanda and Kevin, Angel House

We wanted to say a massive thank you for all that you have done for us. You have truly been amazing and we can’t thank you enough for providing such a beautiful wedding buffet and making it all gluten and dairy free. It really meant a lot to us and our guests that so much effort was made and we have had the most glowing feedback from the guests about the quality of the food you made. We would also like to thank you staff, who were fantastic. We truly had an amazing wedding day and couldn’t have wished it to be any different.

Alexandria and Iain

THANK YOU SO MUCH for making our weddings so incredible. Your help, support and reassurance was invaluable in the run up to the day, and the food you created for the wedding itself was truly scrumptious. Everyone has commented on it, including my best friend who also happens to be the editor of Guardian Cook so knows her stuff. Thank you all, once again and I wish you huge success with the future of your business, you really deserve it.

Nicole and Lewis

Firstly, a massive thanks to you, Charlie and your amazing team for your exceptional catering, service and organisation for our silver wedding party. Everything went brilliantly and many people said it was the best party they had ever been to which is quite a compliment. We loved every second though I'm not sure my feet will ever recover! I'm so glad the staff had a good experience too, we are very proud of our friends who are all super people.

A million thanks for everything and very best wishes.

Sarah Carroll

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Recipes / Blog

Kitchen Extension Dinner Party 21 Dec 18

ELIZABETH CATON
Food and Wine

ELIZABETH CATON
Food and Wine

Recipes / Blog

Kitchen Extension Dinner Party 21 Dec 18

ELIZABETH CATON Food and Wine

ELIZABETH CATON Food and Wine

ELIZABETH CATON
Food and Wine

ELIZABETH CATON
Food and Wine