Fine Dining Starters & Canapés – Recipes

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Fine Dining Starters & Canapés – Recipes

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We hope you enjoyed your class and are ready to recreate the meals at home. The recipes work really well as delicious dinners and make a great combination for dinner party ideas. 

You Cooked:

  • Parma ham and mozzarella involtini, pesto mayo
  • Mini steak tacos, romesco sauce
  • Poached eggs, charred asparagus, hollandaise, parmesan
  • Pan-fried scallops, saffron cauliflower puree

Parma ham and mozzarella involtini

Ingredients: Serves 6 as canapé
  • 6 slices of parma ham
  • A handful of rocket
  • 12x basil leaf
  • 1x bulb of mozzarella ripped into pieces
  • 6x sun-blushed tomato, sliced
  • Roll of cling film

Method

  1. Place a layer of cling film on your prep table.
  2. Place single layers of parma ham on top of the cling film.
  3. Place all ingredients in the middle and roll.
  4. Slice into 2-3 pieces, optionally use a skewer for each piece of involtini.

Pesto Mayo

Equal amount of pesto and mayonnaise.

If you are in a rush you can use a shop-bought pesto instead of our homemade one.

Pesto

Ingredients –  Serves 4:

  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 1/2 big bunch of fresh basil
  • Handful of chives
  • Handful of coriander
  • 1 handful of pine nuts
  • 1 good handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 lemon

Method:

  1. Peel the garlic, then pound in a pestle and mortar with a pinch of sea salt.    
  2.  Pick, roughly chop and add the basil, followed by coriander and chives, then blend in a food processor. 
  3. Add the pine nuts (very lightly toast first, if you like) to the mixture and blend again, same with the parmesan.
  4. Drizzle in some oil – you need just enough to bind the sauce and get it to an oozy consistency.
  5.  Add most of the remaining cheese, then season to perfection with salt and black pepper. Have a taste and keep adding a bit more cheese or oil until you are happy with the taste and consistency.
  6.  Add a squeeze of lemon juice at the end

mini tacos/rotis

  1. Makes about 30 small flatbreads – we will make about 8 during the class, you can save the remaining dough in a bowl covered in cling film or roll the ball of dough in cling.

Ingredients:

  • 185g plain or 00 flour – plus extra for dusting
  • 20ml of olive oil
  • 80ml water
  • 0.5tsp of baking powder

Method:

  1. Add the flour, baking powder, olive oil & 80ml water to the mixing bowl, stir all together using a fork.
  2. Once it is all combined, take the dough with your hand until it becomes springy.   If your dough is too sticky, add a little more flour..if too crumbly, add a little more water.
  3. Set Aside – it doesn’t need to rest for long, but you can wait until you want to cook them. 
  4. Split the dough into 30 balls, and heat the frying pan to high heat, while the temperature builds, sprinkle flour on the clean work surface or board, and some on your rolling pin.
  5. Take a ball of dough, flatten it into a rough circle with your hand then roll until thin, keep turning and flipping over.
  6. Add 2 -3 tacos to your pan at a time and cook until you see the taco blister and char.
  7. Once both sides are cooked, keep them wrapped in a tea towel – this softens the taco.
  8. Cook all your tacos and then you are ready to serve.

How to cook a steak?

Simple Rules 

1/ Buying your beef aged or hung.  Your local butcher will always appreciate a customer who asks for the best. They will also guide you on cooking many of the cuts.

2/ Always take the cuts of beef out of the fridge and loosely cover them – not with cling film.  Your beef should be at room temperature before you start cooking.  This relaxes the meat and when cooked there is less blood oozing from the meat. When cooking a rare steak also it means we do not have a cold bloody centre.

3/ Dry the meat on kitchen paper – never wash in water – Washing spreads bacteria and also makes the meat mushy. A terrible practice!

4/ Don’t be afraid of the cheaper cuts such as Ox Cheek, Skirt and Tongue – they are full of flavour and just need longer cooking. That results in fantastic extra portions of yummy stock.

5/ Rather than oiling the pan, brush the steak with oil to prevent it from sticking.

6/ After cooking, always rest the steak, and loosely cover for 2-3 minutes – for thicker cuts leave longer but you want to make sure it’s not getting cold!

Timings Heat a frying pan over medium-high heat before adding the steak (this seals the surface, trapping in juices).

Cook a 2cm-thick piece of steak for 2-3 minutes on each side for rare, 4 minutes on each side for medium, and 5-6 minutes on each side for well done.

Turn the steak only once, otherwise, it will dry out. Always use tongs to handle steak as they won’t pierce the meat, allowing the juices to escape.

To test if your steak is done, press the centre with the back of the tongs. The steak will feel soft if it’s rare, slightly firmer and springy when it’s medium and very firm when it’s well done.

Romesco sauce

Ingredients: Yields 3 cups
  • One 450g jar of roasted red peppers, drained
  • ½ cup raw or roasted almonds (unsalted)
  • ¼ cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, rinsed and drained
  • 2 medium-to-large cloves garlic, peeled and quartered
  • 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • ½ teaspoon fine sea salt, to taste
  • ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Method

  1. In a blender (preferably) or food processor, combine everything but the olive oil. Securely fasten the lid and blend, starting on low and increasing the speed as you are able to gain traction.
  2. Once the ingredients are mostly blended, start drizzling in the olive oil while running the blender. Blend until you reach your desired consistency (I like my romesco sauce pretty creamy, but you might prefer it with a chunkier texture).
  3. Taste, and add additional salt (up to ¼ teaspoon) if it doesn’t quite knock your socks off yet. Serve immediately with toasted sourdough bread rubbed with raw garlic (as a funkier version of Pan con tomate), you could add chorizo or other toppings
  4. You could also use it as a sauce for arancini and many other dishes
  5. Or store in a jar in the refrigerator for 4-5 days.

How to poach an egg

Ingredients:
  • Eggs
  • White wine or distilled vinegar
  • A saucepan of boiling water
  • Bowl of water with iced water

Method

  1. Make sure your eggs are really fresh. Fresh eggs have a thicker white near the yolk that will better hold a round shape as it cooks. You can tell how fresh an egg is by putting it in a glass of water; if it lies horizontally at the bottom, it is very fresh; if it starts to float or stand on end it is less fresh. If your egg isn’t so fresh, crack it into a small bowl and drain off the runnier white.
  2. Crack your egg into a bowl or onto a saucer, this makes it easier to slide into the pan. If any very runny white surrounds the thicker white, then tip this away.
  3. Add a lot of vinegar to the boiling water (roughly 50ml of vinegar per litre of water)
  4. Slowly tip the egg into the centre. Make sure the heat is low enough not to throw the egg around – there should only be small bubbles rising.
  5. Cook for 3-4 minutes or until the white is set.
  6. Lift the egg out with a slotted spoon and cool down in the bowl of iced water.
  7. Change the water in the pan, don’t use any vinegar this time. Bring to a gentle simmer and use this water to reheat the eggs.

Charred asparagus

Ingredients: Serves 2
  •  Asparagus
  • Pan of boiling water
  • Salt
  • Bowl of iced water

Equipment

  • Blowtorch

 Method

  1. Snap the thicker ends of the asparagus and discard them.
  2. Cook the spears in heavily salted water for about 30 seconds and cool them down in iced water immediately.
  3. Do not leave the asparagus in iced water too long as it would become too spongy…
  4. Transfer on a metal tray, pat dry with a kitchen towel and char with a blowtorch.

hollandaise

Ingredients: Serves 2
  • 300g unsalted butter
  • 2 large egg yolks
  • 1 Tbsp cold water
  • 1Tbsp of white wine vinegar
  • 1 Tbsp strained freshly squeezed lemon juice, plus more to taste
  • 1 tsp salt
  • Freshly ground white pepper 
  • Salt

 Method

  1. Place the butter in a small saucepan and simmer on lower heat until the creamy part and oil part separate
  2. Fill a medium saucepan with a few centimetres of water, and bring to a simmer over medium heat.
  3. In a medium heatproof bowl, combine the egg yolks, vinegar and cold water. Place the bowl over the simmering water and whisk constantly and vigorously until the yolks are thickened and light, about 3 to 4 minutes. (If the eggs begin to scramble or the mixture is cooking very quickly or gets too hot, remove the bowl from the heat and whisk to cool). Remove the eggs from the heat and whisk for 30 seconds to cool slightly.
  4. Remove the saucepan from the heat and slowly drizzle the butter into the eggs while whisking constantly.
  5. Whisk in the lemon juice, salt, and pepper to taste. (If the sauce is very thick add a few drops of warm water to adjust the consistency so it is creamy and light.) Serve immediately or keep the hollandaise sauce in a small bowl set over warm, but not hot water, for about 30 minutes.

HOW TO COOK pan-fried scallops

  1. Preheat a pan over high heat and add a tbsp of oil. Pat dry scallops with kitchen paper and season well.

  2. Add the scallops to the pan flat side down and cook until golden brown, this will take 2-3 minutes. Don’t move the scallops around in the pan as this will prevent them from cooking.

  3. Turn the scallop over and cook for a further 1-2 minutes

  4. Add a knob of butter to the pan and baste the scallops.

  5. Remove from the pan and serve immediately. The scallop should be springy to the touch and be just warm in the centre when tested with a metal skewer.

Chorizo Crisps 

This an additional recipe to those you cooked on the night.

Ingredients

  • 1x chorizo sausage, very thinly sliced

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C
  2. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and lay the chorizo slices across it
  3. The chorizo will curl up as it cooks, so if you’d prefer the pieces to stay flat place another sheet of greaseproof paper on top and use another baking tray to keep them weighted down
  4. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until crisp
  5. Use right away or store in an airtight container for up to 1 week

Curried cauliflower puree with saffron

Ingredients: Serves 2
  • 1 small butternut cauliflower, chopped
  • 1 white onion, diced
  • 2 cloves of garlic, peeled, crushed
  • Pinch of saffron
  • 1/2tsp of madras
  • 100ml of dry white wine
  • 400ml double cream
  • 1tbsp of olive oil
  • Seasoning

 Method

  1. Heat up a medium size saucepan with oil. Sweat of the onion and garlic for a couple of minutes, followed by madras. Cook for 2 more minutes.
  2. Add the cauliflower and seasoning, and sauté for 5 minutes.
  3. Pour in the wine and saffron and reduce by half to cook of the alcohol and prevent bitterness.
  4. Add the double cream and cook on low heat until the squash is soft and blend the sauce until smooth.

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