Wedding food – make it all yourself
Amanda van Dalen van Louis Trichardt writes: A friend of mine is getting married and she's planning a reception for 180 guests. She has decided to prepare all the food for the wedding herself, with the help of some friends. Mindful of the current electricity crisis, we want to prepare a menu that includes meat dishes, salads, starters, mains and desserts. Please could you give us some advice?
Johané van Schalkwyk, food assistant for Home magazine, advises: I think it's a good idea to have a cold starter and main course. For starters, consider a breadtable instead of a plated starter. Provide a wide variety of breads and salty biscuits and serve with various cheeses and spreads such as tuna, liver pâté, fig jam and butter. You could also add some colour with pesto, marinated olives and nuts. Visit your local bakery for some great bread – or you can bake it yourself. We have a couple of recipes here on the Home website. Visit the archive and then click on 'Food archive' for the recipe.
Cold meat platters are ideal for a buffet-style main course and very easy to prepare. You could include tongue with a mustard sauce, lamb with mint pesto or, like one of my friends did, have a spitbraai with salads. Have a look at the first 'festive menu' we put together in the December 2005 issue of Home magazine. We included a couple of great recipes such as the tongue, tomato and vinkelslaai with hazelnut salad dressing, a green salad with anchovy dressing, beetroot salad, potato salad with quail eggs (you could also use chicken eggs) and sour cream sauce. Mix and match your menu to find something that will fit your budget. Click here for the extract from the December 2005 article.
I would avoid trying to be too luxurious or different. Ingredients that might not be to everyone's taste include polenta or aubergine.
As for dessert, I would combine it with the wedding cake. If the bride wants a traditional three-layered fruitcake, serve it with home-made custard. If she wants to try a more modern alternative, consider this: a high tower of cupcakes in the wedding colours or even a tower of chocolate brownies decorated with fresh flowers and served with vanilla ice cream.
All the best!
