Catering for a Private View

My embroidery group have their first group exhibition on at the moment, so I insisted on catering for the Private View.  I made carrot muffins, vanilla cupcakes, macarons and mini quiche. As I used a mini muffin tin for everything except the macarons, each item was one or two bites. The quiche are on two separate trays.  They were flavoured with roasted peppers, Parmesan and brie, and basil pesto with pine kernels.

I realised doing this that, though I make the carrot muffins regularly I haven't put the recipe on the blog as I devised the recipe before I started keeping records this way.  I'll put the recipe and method on later.

Of course I over-catered.  We had invited sixty people but only about thirty turned up.  This is usual, but it would be shame to have the food run out.  I had gone prepared with little food-grade paper bags so I could send people home with cakes.

I had originally intended to make samosas too, but decided against that as I would have had to set up the fryer.  It would have been better to have more choice of savoury food.  Also, the macarons were very sweet, and my initial test of a coffee flavoured one would have been good.  The lime and orange macarons were appreciated, but a bigger contrast of flavour would have been useful.

Quantities: Double carrot muffin recipe, single vanilla cake  recipe, pastry made with 250g butter and 500g flour, and two quantities of macorons recipe.

This would certainly be sufficient for sixty people.

Mini quiche - canapes for a Private View

I am catering for a Private View next week - I insisted on providing the food so that I could enjoy myself safely.  Pondering what to make...perhaps some macarons, which seem to turn up everywhere at the moment but I have never made or eater...mini carrot cakes..but there needs to be something savory too.  I had about 150g pastry left over in the fridge from making the Venison pie last week, so I left it to come to room temperature and made some quick mini quiches.

Makes ten little savory tarts

Ingredients
150g pastry - made with 1/3 butter, 2/3 my gf flour mix.
One egg
1 tbs grated Parmesan
Roasted red peppers from a jar
Camembert or other cheese - ten little pieces for top of tarts

Bake for 12 minutes at 180C.  Made in a mini muffin tin, using a pastry stomper to shape pastry.

Divide pastry up into ten pieces.  Roll into balls.  Place a ball of pastry in each depression in the muffin tin and stomp the pastry into shape (the stomper is a wooden dumb-bell shaped to make this an easy one-move action).  Otherwise press out with fingers.  Don't worry about being  too neat.

Place a piece of red pepper in each pastry case.  Mix the egg with the grated Parmesan.  Add herbs, pepper or other flavouring if you want.  Cover the pepper with the egg.  Don't fill right to the top as the mixture will expand on cooking.  Top with a piece of cheese.

Bake until golden brown - about twelve minutes.  Cool on rack.  These can be frozen until needed.  As they are tiny they would be fine taken straight to a venue frozen and they will thaw in about half an hour.

This was just a test run.  I will make sufficient for sixty people this weekend and take to the gallery next Thursday.

Pastry - frozen uncooked and used as needed

I froze some of my pastry in little circles, placed between sheets of greaseproof paper.  I rustled up some mini-quiches the other day using these.  I let the pastry discs defrost for a few minutes, so that they would be flexible enough to press into the tartlet tins.  If I had been placing apple slices or brie on top I could have used them frozen.

Into the little tart cases I put some chopped ham, cheese and beaten egg.  Served with salad these made a pleasant lunch.  TT says the pastry tasted and felt the same as if it had been made fresh.