Chocoholic Heaven

Today was a good day. I was put on canapés today, because dessert was easy – no pavlovas today, but a chocolate brownie, which had already been baked. Also it was a smaller wedding – 135 guests. Canapés were fairly simple today – spiced chicken kebabs, vegetable spring rolls, tomato and basil crustinis and phyllo tartlets with smoked chicken – 135 of each. They didn’t take me too long to prepare them, and plating and serving them was fairly easy too – two hot and two cold.

Staff lunch was excellent because there was a big bowl of leftover chocolate mousse from a wedding dessert put out for staff, and not many staff wanted it, so I ended up having quite a bit of it. I am a chocoholic and chocolate mousse is one of my absolute favorites – a weakness of mine. Also because I was the one setting up for canapés, I cleared out the lunch dishes and got the end of the mousse. The breakfast chef knows I am a chocoholic. Wedding service went well again – and the dessert was warm chocolate brownies with caramel ice cream and rich chocolate sauce, and there were several leftover so of course I got one of those too. 

More chocolate when I got home – my boyfriend surprised me with a jar of Nutella, not the easiest to find around here (but that’s another story for another blog post).

Here is tonight’s menu:

Canapés: Spiced Chicken Kebabs, Filo Tartlets with Smoked Chicken, black olives, and pesto, Vegetable Spring Rolls with sweet chili sauce, Tomato and Basil Crustini, Spiced Chicken Kebabs

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:  Vine Tomato Minestrone with fresh basil pesto

Sorbet: Champagne

Main Course Option #1 – Beef: Seared Fillet of Beef cooked medium, fondant potato, braised shallot, celeriac purée, and Madagascar peppercorn sauce

Main Course Option #2 – Fish: Pan-fried Fillet of Sea Bass, Mediterranean Vegetables, red pepper coulis, basil pesto

Side Dishes: Roast Baby Potatoes, and Roast carrots, onions, parsnip, and turnip.

Dessert: Warm Chocolate Brownie, caramel ice cream, rich chocolate sauce

Petit Fours: madeleines, cranberry white fudge, fruit jellies, flaked white chocolate truffles, Belgian dark chocolate truffles. 

Evening Buffet: Bacon Butties, Cocktail Sausages, Vegetable Spring Rolls, cheesecake with crackers, fruit, and chutney, wedding cake

What seems to be the new rage at weddings - a multiple tiered, wedding "cheesecake". Tiers of different kinds of fancy cheeses, soft, hard, and semi-soft. Typically served with accompaniments such as crackers, fruit, and chutneys along side the sweet wedding cake with the evening buffet.