250 Prawns, Pavlovas, and Asparagus Salads

Today I went in to work early – anticipating a busy day. We were expecting 250 guests at the wedding tonight, and the usual canapé cook was off tonight, so I was expecting to be either placed on canapés or on pavlovas, since it was another big batch and the dessert cook is tired of them. Instead, I was put on both. A tall order, but I was actually very energetic this morning and ready to move. As soon as I got there, the other cook had to leave, so she left me a list of things to be done and I got to it.

First thing was prepping the canapés for today – spiced chicken kebabs, vegetable spring rolls, and tempura of prawn – 170 each. The issue was I had never battered the prawns before. The breakfast chef tried to show me how to do it – telling me I had to work fast and dump them all in at once. I know from my experience frying things in the bar that this doesn’t work and just causes the prawns to stick together in a battered mess and not cook evenly. Also he was rushing me and I got tempura batter all over the kitchen, which he then got upset about. 

Next I moved on to putting a fruit order away, traying up petit fours, and cutting the remainder of the fruit for the pavlovas, along with whipping more cream to pipe on them. Then I began decorating all the pavloavs with the fruit – pausing only a few times to set up a few things for the canapés for the arrival reception in between. Then it was cooking, plating, and serving the canapés, along with the miniature scones. I am getting pretty fast and efficient at decorating the pavlovas by now. Then over to the marquee for the wedding service, which went quite smoothly again.

The couple wanted their impressive wedding cake and cupcakes to be cut by the kitchen staff and served with the petit fours, so of course I got to sample a bunch of the end pieces of the two cutting tiers – one chocolate and one white with a rich frosting. The head chef said to me, “You know that’s bad for you, right?” And I replied with, “I don’t care, I have a sweet tooth.” Then he said I could take all the end pieces home with me!

Cutting up the wedding cake - a chocolate tier and a vanilla tier

Canapés: Spiced Chicken Kebabs, Vegetable Spring Rolls with sweet chili sauce, Tempura of Prawn, Scones with Jam and Cream
Starter: Salad of Asparagus and Smoked Chicken, pickled girolles, hazelnut dressing, garden herbs
Bread: Wheat bread, raisin rolls, sesame seeded rolls, white rolls, caraway rolls, red pepper rolls
Soup:  Vegetable Broth
Sorbet: Apricot Lime
Main Course Option #1 – Beef: Rib-Eye Steak cooked medium-rare, carrot and coriander purée, crushed potatoes with garlic and spinach, braised shallot, rich red wine jus
Main Course Option #2 – Chicken: Roasted Breast of Chicken, Champ, Wild Herb Stuffing, Chasseur Sauce
Main Course Option #3 – Vegetarian: Cashel and Blue Cheese Tart with Mediterranean vegetables
Side Dishes: Roast Baby Potatoes, and Roast carrots, onions, parsnip, and turnip.
Dessert: Pavloavs with Fresh Fruit, Chantilly Cream, Strawberry Purée
Petit Fours: madeleines, cranberry white fudge, fruit jellies, flaked white chocolate truffles, Belgian dark chocolate truffles, wedding cake and cupcakes
Evening Buffet: Bacon Butties, Cocktail Sausages, Chicken Goujons, Vegetable Spring Rolls, wedding cake and cupcakes