Well the banquet that we catered on Saturday night went extremely well but the 55 people turned out to be 63! A bit of a stretch and a bit of extra stress for Janet.
We worked out butts off with the preparation, Janet took a day's leave on Friday and got started early and after I had got back from my hard day at the office (riding down to Capetown and back!) I got stuck in and helped her, she had started frying up the 168 chicken portions which all had to be browned then packed in an oven dish with the tomato sauce and baked for an hour, this took four oven trays which had to be done in two batches.
Whilst this was cooking we started preparing the ingredients for the soup and for the brinjal and butterbean salad which we were going to make on Saturday morning.
We worked out butts off with the preparation, Janet took a day's leave on Friday and got started early and after I had got back from my hard day at the office (riding down to Capetown and back!) I got stuck in and helped her, she had started frying up the 168 chicken portions which all had to be browned then packed in an oven dish with the tomato sauce and baked for an hour, this took four oven trays which had to be done in two batches.
Whilst this was cooking we started preparing the ingredients for the soup and for the brinjal and butterbean salad which we were going to make on Saturday morning.
These are the first two of the "Chicken Cacciatori" dishes, and let me tell you it was as delicious as it looks! That evening I shucked 75 oysters and preserved the liquid from the shells as well for the soup;
Saturday morning saw us up bright and early preparing the vegetables, this was my job while Janet made the soup. We always save our chicken stock whenever we cook one so there was plenty of that to use in the soup, Janet started by frying up a kilo of bacon after which she added fried onions and green peppers, the oysters were then all fried and after that everything was liquified together, a white onion soup powder mixed with milk was added and then the soup in two saucepans was left to simmer.
Aren't these lovely colours? We made two of the salads and by mid morning we had the soup ready, everything was to be transported out to the lodge where it would all be warmed through and dished up whilst Janet made the chips in the deep fryer, a lot of work and a lot of planning to make sure that everyone got a hot plate of food!
This the completed brinjal and butterbean salad and it is served at room temperature, a nice dish to serve because once it is made you don't have to do anything else with it until serving time. Soon it was time to serve the meal, first the soup which was absolutely delicious!
Whilst the guys were all enjoying the soup it was time to plate up the main course; chicken cacciatori with brinjal and butterbean salad and chips.
Here is the meal and here are some of the guys tucking in;
It was a really successful evening but it was a hell of a lot of work and it will be a long time before we do another, we had help in the kitchen during the serving and for the cleaning up after and Sandy made the dessert but we were both exhausted after the evening was over. Looking forward to a bike ride to Capetown for lunch on Sunday.
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