When friends of ours asked if they could hold their Ruby Wedding celebrations at our house we were honoured that they considered one of our secret restaurant evenings to be the perfect way to celebrate.
We are used to hosting these evenings knowing the majority of our guests on the night, with a few new faces thrown in. This was going to be completely different – we would only know four out of the 24 guests invited. The pressure was on! Not only that, but the happy couple all but entrusted the composition of the menu to us, only suggesting a few items to be included and one of these should be a profiterole tower!
The evening began with a parma ham, fig and parmesan salad, an unusual combination of ingredients that work excellently together. This was followed by ham hock terrine with asparagus spears running through it served with an apple & mustard chutney. Next up were tiger prawns in pernod & sweet chilli sauce with sticky rice, the final starter served was mini pepper grillsticks with hot & spicy roasted new potatoes.
When asking the guests which starter they enjoyed the most, the overwhelming response was that it was difficult to choose as they were all so different and equally delicious.
Main course was a choice of tempura beer battered haddock goujons with twice cooked chunky chips and mushy peas or a home cured french trimmed bacon chop served on a bed of creamy peppered mushrooms with a poached duck egg on top and a helping of parmentier potatoes. (see picture).
Desserts began with Keith’s own creation – de-constructed strawberry cheesecake served on curly spoons – apparently ‘to die for’. Guests then had a choice of four desserts all handmade by Keith, starting with a rich duck egg custard pie, white chocolate & raspberry trifles with Kirsch, sticky toffee pudding with toffee sauce & ice cream and of course the highly anticipated profiterole tower.
The previous record held by a guest for eating three desserts was broken wih one guest managing to eat all four – I think that speaks for itself!
All in all, a wonderful night was had by all, with four of the invited guests wanting to book fo New Year’s Eve & many more wanting to come back to future restaurant evening. With comments such as ‘better than any of the top restaurants in Manchester’, we were over the moon with response.
Diane & Ralph, congratulations on 40 years of marriage, may you have 40 more. (Ican’t believe I have know you for about 25 of those!!!!
3 comments
The food did credit to the occasion it was celebrating, a very special night indeed. Very lucky to be having such excellent food at the same time as watching it being created.
Keith, Hilary, you should be very proud of what you have created with these evenings.
Having attended the 40th wedding aniversary of very dear friends of ours we were completely surprised by the quality of the food that you surplied it was 2nd to none
and a credit to you both and you should be VERY VERY Proud Thank you so much.
Thank you Diane, you are too kind. It was our pleasure to have you all in our home and see everyone have such a great night. X