Oh what a party! White cobnut gazpacho and canapés

Posted by petra08 on September 13, 2014 · 22 Comments 

The last thing in the kitchen to be installed was the extractor fan. It was damaged in transport but whilst the rest of the kitchen moved along it got stuck along the way due to various events and summer holidays. Now the kitchen is looking pretty fab and it was time to take it for a proper test drive! I have always wanted to have a canapé and drinks party, it somehow seems so sophisticated and grown up.

When I mentioned this to some of my  neighbors I was greeted with great enthusiasm. A date was set and we delivered the invites in the evening. We were so happy about finally having a kitchen and a date for the party a celebratory drink at the pub was in order. The following morning I have to admit I was still excited about this and I woke up very early and spent time when most are still sleeping propped up in bed surrounded by foodie magazines and cook books trying to decide what canapes to make.

I wanted to keep it fairly simple and the lovely Mrs E brought no less than four kinds of canapes as well! We are so lucky to have such lovely neighbors!

After some extensive research I came across a white gazpacho, a delicious sounding recipe from Chef Marcus Waering. I did a trial following the recipe with great exactness as Chef Waering always comes across as a great perfectionist. It was good but hmm, I made just a couple of tweaks. Here is the original recipe, and here is how I made it. It is cobnut season and I could not resist using cobnuts instead of almonds, I came across some fantastic cobnuts at a market stall.

 

 

I peeled them 

 

As I wanted a white gazpacho I did actually scrape them, that might have been overkill but the end result was great. It gave me plenty of time to think life through and make some important decisions whilst scraping away.

 

 

 

Cobnut white gazpacho

preparation time 35 minutes if scraping the cobnuts, otherwise 5 minutes

cooking time overnight + 2 minutes 

serves 4 as a starter 

Ingredients

The gazpacho

• 100 gram or 3.5 oz sourdough bread
• 1.5 dl or 3/4 cup cobnuts, peeled
• 120 gram or 4.2 oz white grapes
• 100 gram or 3.5 oz cucumber, peeled and seeds removed
• 9 roasted garlic cloves
• 1.5 dl or 3/4 cup low fat yogurt
• 1 dl or 1.2 cup water

To garnish 

• peel on, seeds removed cucumber
• watermelon
• dried chilli
• lemon flavored rapeseed oil

Cut any crust of the bread and cube it. Toast the cobnuts. Half the grapes and cut the cucumber in to small pieces. Mix the bread, cobnuts, white grapes, cucumber, peeled garlic cloves, yogurt and water and let stand overnight. Before serving place the mixture in the blender and mix until smooth, the cobnuts will give it some texture.

For the garnish cube the cucumber and watermelon fine. I placed the watermelon in the bottom, poured over the gazpacho and garnished with cucumber, lemon oil and dried chillies. I served it with some more dried chilli on the side, just in case anyone wanted it hotter and it all went.

 

 

I did some turkey meatballs and served it with home made chilli pickle cucumber and sun dried tomatoes, grown in the greenhouse.

 

Chilli pickle cucumber

 

Turkey meatball canapé

 

 

The foxes seems to do what they can to play on the veg patch and the vegetables always comes out worse but the beetroots have been spared and I picked a few.

 

 

I sliced the beetroot and added flash fried skirt steak and grated over horseradish.

 

 

Roasted squash with chorizo.

 

Prawns were mixed with avocado, rapeseed oil mayonnaise, spring onion, dill and a hint of garlic and served on toast.

 

Smoked salmon tartar with apple salsa and creme fraiche

 

Smoked mackerel pate 

 

My friend L was over for a visit and was instantly invited to make some canapes and after some deliberation she decided to make some chestnut and chocolate brownies, delicious!

 

 

Mrs E brought a great selection of canapes, all true crowd pleasing and I have to admit I managed a few myself.

 

Minted pea and ham tarts 

 

Crab tartlets and chicken tikka filled cups 

 

Coconut and cardamon chicken 

 

Almost all invited came, it was a brilliant evening and we all tucked in to the canapes, chatted and drank the night away. The canapes seems to have been a hit, I did end up making more than intended but there was something for everyone.

 

 

 

We started a log fire and spent the evening outside, it was a gorgeous evening and we felt very lucky to have moved  to such a gorgeous spot and to already have made so many friends.

 

This week I decided to bring the canapes to the most fun foodie party around, Fiesta Friday. If you haven’t seen it head over to have a look, it is jam packed with great recipes, in some cases completely new dishes and meet fellow foodies! it is hosted by Angie who this week made the prettiest and innovative rainbow pizza, here is a link to her blog. The co-hosts this week are Andrea, Cooking with a Wallflower and Sylvia, Superfoodista. Andrea’s blog is full of light and delicious recipes and I love Sylvia’s superfood recipes!

 

Filed under Allotment/Veg, Amuse bouche, Avocado, Beef, Beetroot, Bread, Chicken, Chilli, Crab, Cucumber, Fish & Seafood, Garlic, Mackerel, Peas, Pickles, Prawns, Recipe, Salmon, Spring onion, Starter, Turkey, Vegetarian · Tagged with canapés, chef marcus waering, cobnut gazpacho, cobnuts, gazpacho, minted pea and ham tarts, pickle cucumber, turkey meatballs, white gazpacho