#3 celebrating

It is no surprise that any birthday in my family is an excuse to eat delicious food, drink the best wine going around and enjoy each others’ company. So of course my granddad’s (or Jay as we like to call him) 90th birthday was no exception. 

With good food being a priority for each of us, and a love of cooking that runs through our blood, we enjoy the collaborative effect of dividing and conquering the lunch menu. By sharing out the nibbles, main and dessert, it allows us to enjoy a wide variety of home-cooked foods that nourishes our bellies and our souls.

Our menu for this particular occasion included:

Nibbles

Tomato bruschetta

Antipasto platter

Main

Slow roasted garlic and rosemary leg of lamb - a crowd favourite (Jennifer Bain adaptation of Jamie Oliver recipe)

Crispy roast potatoes

Za’tar roasted carrots with kale and freakeh (from Community by Hetty McKinnon)

Roast pumpkin, rocket and goats cheese salad

Green beans with roast tomatoes and olives (Skye Gyngell)

Dessert

Apple pie

Spiced pumpkin pie with oatmeal crust (Teresa Cutter)

Cooking for 14 people can be time consuming, yes, but it doesn’t have to be hard. The food we enjoyed for Jay’s birthday was nothing particularly extravagant but it was delicious and it was prepared in a range of different ways.

I was in charge of the nibbles. See below for my bruschetta recipe.

Ingredients:

1 crusty baguette

Olive oil

2-3 large garlic cloves, peeled

5 large, ripe truss tomatoes (mixed medley tomatoes also works a treat)

a handful of fresh basil leaves

½ red onion

1-2 tbspns white wine vinegar

Salt and pepper to season

Method:

Thinly slice the baguette into 1cm pieces. Heat the olive oil in a griddle pan over medium heat and place the baguette slices onto it to toast until golden and crisp. Once the baguette slices have toasted, allow to cool slightly before rubbing the garlic clove directly onto one side of the toast. Place to the side. 

Using a sharp knife, dice the tomatoes into small chunks, making sure to remove the seeds and the core (you don’t want the mixture to be too wet or the toasts will become soggy) and add to a medium bowl. Finely dice the onion and add this to the tomato. Shred the basil leaves and toss with the onion and tomato. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with the vinegar (be careful when adding the vinegar so the mixture doesn’t become too wet).

 Pile a tablespoon of tomato mixture onto each toast to serve.

 And most importantly… enjoy!

When putting together an antipasto platter, I relish the opportunity to mix it up each time, making good use of seasonal produce where I can. Aside from a variety of cheeses (soft and hard), crackers, left over baguette slices, meats (salamis and proscuitto), marinated olives, salted nuts, bread sticks, plum and shiraz paste (Maggie Beer), I also included some small bunches of red grapes and peach slices. Yummo!