Catering in Shoalhaven 2008

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What's Your Passion? Baba Ganoush Fundraising

A Note from the Chef:
I’m passionate about….. fingerfood

So you’re having a party…………
we’re passionate about Fingerfood

Everyone loves to celebrate, but generally when it comes to the food the host is left feeling a little like a worker. Here’s a few tips to make your special occasion a little less stressful.

Choose a food-style and menu suited to your occasion and venue. The location and facilities play a big part in how you’ll heat, present and serve the food and eventually, clean-up. For example, you may like to start with a few items of finger food served whilst your guests mingle and enjoy a drink, followed by a sit-down meal or perhaps a buffet if your style is a little less formal. Another great way to entertain is to serve only finger-food….. the focus for this months article.

Finger-food works very well in a home because it allows you to use a number of more intimate spaces rather than having everyone seated in one area and saves the problem of endless washing-up. Finger-food is also able to be prepared before-hand with cold items that are ready-to-eat, others that just need reheating and items like skewers which can be cooked quickly on the barbeque. Think fresh, local produce.

You may like to start with some delicious dips served with fresh vegetables cut into sticks and some warm continental bread.

Serve items alternately; small tarts can be heating while guests are enjoying fresh oysters. You can also serve these as a 2^nd item- hot in the style of Oysters Kilpatrick- easy in the oven. Local mussels are also great this way with a variety of toppings.

Prawns can be served hot or cold. They are delicious on skewers and cooked fresh on the barbeque. (We like to serve these with a thai-chilli jam). Chicken, lamb, beef or kangaroo skewers can also be cooked ‘a-la-minute’. Serve these on a bed of hot rice or cous-cous. They not only look great but it keeps them warm.

The food can be walked around by friends and then placed on a central table or at the bar.

Here is one of our finger-food items that is a little different but always well received.

Kangaroo snitzel
on toasted ciabatta with lemon-myrtle aioli

Ingredients

Kangaroo loin fillet, cut into 15mm thin strips

Breadcrumbs

Baby spinach leaves

Extra virgin olive oil

Italian bread- ciabatta or panne de casa, cut into toast slices

Aioli- runny garlic mayonnaise*

Method

Place cut fillets between 2 pieces of baking paper. Pound lightly until flat and thin. Crumb these by tossing them first in flour, brushing with an egg and milk mix and toss in the breadcrumbs.
Brush ciabatta bread with olive oil, toast in oven. Pan-fry snitzel.
To assemble, place toast on cutting-board, top with baby spinach then snitzels and drizzle with aioli. Cut into bite-size pieces.
*Aioli- Use a bowl and whisk, or an upright blender.
Place 2 egg yolks, ½ teas mustard, ½ teas white wine vinegar, 1 clove roasted garlic, 1 teas lemon rind or lemon myrtle into a bowl and whisk lightly. Add canola oil in a steady stream until mixture thickens. Add lemon juice then more oil (approx 1 cup oil in total) until thick. Thin with water adding 1 teas at a time. If mixture separates start with one egg yolk then add split mix slowly to yolk, whisking slowly.

Written by Glenn Hair, Passion Catering and Café, Princes Hwy South Nowra

What's Your Passion?

A strong desire or affection for something; an intense, extreme or overpowering emotion of feeling; heat, excitement, fervour, effervescence, explosion….

What's your passion? Identify it.

For some, passion is lifelong; an intense love of something that has developed or you have grown up doing. For many passion has been stumbled upon; something that has given you a new dimension and meaning to life… something that makes you feel great because you love it.

What's your passion? Pursue it.

…because passion is life. What is life without it? Whether it be golf, painting, music, reading, politics, food. Whatever it is, if you are passionate, you are a person who is living life and following your dreams.

World Champion marathon swimmer, Shelley Taylor-Smith wrote, “When you feel in your innermost being that you will achieve what you set out to do, you open the way for miracles.”

How many of us have seen people with lesser ability achieve success and the admiration of others? What makes them different? Self-belief.

I recently attended a conference called “Live and Work with Passion”, at which some inspiring speakers motivated, energised and entertained 240 of us in the audience.

One of the speakers, Tracey Verdugo said, “The only thing that separates those of you who say you are creative and those of you who say you aren’t – is self-belief.

“The world is changing so fast that the man who says it can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.” Harry Emerson Fosdick.

What's your passion? Achieve it.

Sometimes this requires us to step outside our comfort zone. To continually move forward we must continually step through our fears. Look upon this type of fear as a good thing. Without it there is no growth. So many people never step outside their comfort zone. You should feel elated and proud when you do.

Add some passion to your life!