Sunday 17 August 2008

Dressage Judges' Lunch at the Stourhead Show

Women are scary.
Dressage people are scary.
Judges are scary.

Combine the three and you've got a serious knee wobbler.

Cowie's Mum runs a dressage competition every year at the fantastic Stourhead Show in Somerset. This year her caterer pulled out at the last minute so I was volunteered by Cowie as the fall guy!

We got up at 6am in order to create lunch for 20 of the most discerning palettes in the West Country. I was left in charge of the salmon which I cooked very gentrly in the Aga with plenty of butter and a good squeeze of lemon. By cooking the fillets on their skins I was able to carefully deskin them and break the flesh into chunks.

I mixed up some creme fraiche with some very smoky salmon, horeradish, capers, lemon zest, water cress and seasoning and spooned it over the now cooled salmon. I can assure you it tasted a lot better than it looked and I will definitely be doing it again. I've modestly named it "Salmon a la Brown".

Salmon a la Brown

The peppers went down a storm, as they always do. I just love how sweet and fresh they taste. And that little kick of garlic.

Roasted pepper

The quiche was a Tamsyn Cowie classic. Medium rare and full of cream. Delicious. But not something you want to eat too much of unless you particularly like having your chest sawn open and tubes played with by a guy wearing latex gloves.

Cougette quiche

And needless to say Cowie junior's feta, beetroot and nectarine salad was a complete triumph.

Beetroot and feta salad

The verdict was unanimous. All the judges loved it!

No comments:

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin