Party food ideas

This recipe is so adaptable; it can be served hot or cold, made for 2 or 200. It also works well with cooked rice instead of pasta. You can add extra amounts of the things you like or leave out the things you don’t like.

To make a Mediterranean pasta salad

• spring onions
• Basil leaves
• pasta
• a red pepper
• a green pepper
• cherry tomatoes
• A clove of garlic
• Some salt and pepper
• black olives
• a lemon
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil

First cook the pasta, once cooked, rinse in cold water and set aside to allow it to cool off. Next take the peppers and remove their seeds before slicing them into thin sections. Once you have done this take the tomatoes and halve them.

The next stage is to take the spring onions and finely chop them along with the basil. After this has been completed take your black olives and remove their stones. Now mix everything with the pasta.

In a separate bowl take the lemon and, after ensuring all the pips have been removed, squeeze all the juice out of it and mix with the salt, pepper and olive oil. Then take the garlic and crush it. Blend the garlic into the lemon mixture until the mixture has a smooth appearance. Once this has happened you can gently drizzle the mixture overthe salad, ensuring everything receives a sufficient coating.

• 1 mango - peeled, seeded and diced
• 1 avocado - peeled, pitted, and diced
• 492 g tomatoes, diced
• 6 g salt
• 30 ml fresh lime juice
• 40 g chopped red onion
• 45 ml olive oil

DIRECTIONS

1.       In a bowl, mix together the mango, avocado and tomatoes. Stir in the salt, lime juice, red onion, and olive oil.  Refrigerate for about 30 minutes before serving.

You will need

1 block of frozen puff pastry

8oz cheddar cheese

1 beaten egg

Instructions

1 roll out pastry into a rectangle

2 spread out grated cheese over pastry

3 brush the edges of the pastry with water

4 Roll pastry from one of the shorter edges

5 cut the pastry roll into about 8-10 pieces and brush with beaten egg.

6 put on a greased baking tin and cook for about 15 mins or until golden brown.

Alternatives

Add chopped onion with the cheese, or fried chopped mushrooms.

Ingredients

1 1 bar of cooking chocolate  (approx. 10ozs)
2 tablespoons cold strong black coffee
2 tablespoons dark rum
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
chocolate vermicelli/ cocoa powder
icing sugar

Method

-         Put about 8 oz of the chocolate into a basin with the coffee.
- Place over a pan of hot water.
- Do not let the water boil or allow the bottom of the basin to touch the water.
- Let the chocolate melt.
- Stir.
- Remove from the heat and keep stirring until the chocolate begins to cool.
- Gradually stir in the butter in small pieces and then the rum.
- Chill the mixture for about 1 hour.
- Dust a board and your hands with icing sugar and roll the mixture into about 25 truffles.
- Melt the remaining chocolate in a basin over a pan.
- Put the chocolate vermicelli / cocoa powder onto a plate.
- Put a truffle onto a fork and dip into the melted chocolate.
- Roll in the vermicelli or cocoa powder
- Repeat for each truffle.
- Put on a sheet of greaseproof paper to dry

Alternatives- for a sweeter taste use rum essence.  Or substitute the rum for orange liqueur, 2-3 oz of raisins could be added when the chocolate has melted 

Take a mushroom and remove the stalk. Then using a teaspoon, scoop out the inside and discard. Repeat the same process with all the mushrooms.

Heat the large frying pan over a medium to high temperature. When hot, add half of the butter, followed by the mushrooms.

Turn the mushrooms over in the pan to coat them thoroughly in butter. Season with salt and pepper,

Once cooked the mushrooms can be filled with various things. Some of my favorites are flavored cous cous, fried chopped bacon or spinach with grated cheese then grilled: Cream cheese and chopped basil or if you’re feeling rich cooked crab meat.

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without the smell of red wine and cinnamon wafting through the house on Christmas Eve.  Here is a well tried recipe that has proved popular over the years.

Ingredients

2 bottles of red wine (I like to use Bull’s Blood Wine)

Orange juice

A cinnamon stick

A bag of mulling spices

2 tables spoons of sugar

Oranges.

METHOD

Pour the wine and the orange juice into a large pan.  Add the cinnamon stick, sugar and spice bag.

Heat gently for around 30 mins

Next slice up the oranges and add them.

Simmer until ready to drink

     ·      125g (5oz) margarine or butter

• 100g (3½ oz) dark soft brown sugar
• 4tbsp condensed milk
• 325g (11oz) plain flour
• 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2tsp ground ginger
• Some colored sweets
• Icing sugar
• Colorful ribbon

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
2. Heat the butter and sugar in a saucepan, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Add the condensed milk and stir together.
3. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger into a bowl and pour over the condensed milk mixture
4. Next work the ingredients together until you have soft dough.
5. Roll the dough out on a floured surface. Cut rounds; either use a pastry cutter or cut around a lid of a jam jar as this is about the right size.
6. Place onto a baking sheet. Use a very small cutter or knife to cut out circles in the centre of the biscuits, so you can thread ribbon through to hang on the tree: about 15 mm.
7. Bake the biscuits for about 10 mins until just golden.
8. Remove the biscuits from the oven and check the small holes for hanging the biscuits are still open. Leave to cool completely before decorating with icing and colored sweets. Allow the biscuits to dry before threading ribbon through the middle and hanging on the tree.