Home made Elderflower champagne in swing top bottles
Marigold bread, with sunflower seeds, marigold petals and sesame seeds
Elderflowers from my garden (pic by @SiennaMarla)
Bottling ginger beer (pic by @siennamarla)
Beautifully fresh courgette flowers, fried tempura style with goat’s cheese
morel custards
Served in boxes
Stuffed tulips, an adaptation from a recipe from Cuisinier Gascon one of my favourite cookbooks
Stuffed with broad beans, peas, tapioca, feta and rose vinegar
Stuffed tulips with pea coulis and wild mushrooms
Peas
Sticks: salsify
Salsify nests
So hard to get good pictures when you are trying to get out meals for 31 guests: vine leaf wrapped salmon with salsify nest.
Proofing poppy seed dough
I found rolling out the dough with a chapatti rolling pin made it thinner
I love the marbled paper look of this dough
The delicate bowls
Saffron salad bowls with pissenlit, rocket, winter purslane, summer purslane, broad bean flowers, pea flowers
Rhubarb syrup
Flowers for the ice bowl
Violets from my garden
Making violet icecream in my Kitchenaid icecream mixer
Flavours: Fraises des bois and creme fraiche, violet icecream, mint icecream
in a rose ice bowl with crystallised rose and violet petals
Fraises des bois soaking in kirsch
The Menu
Hibiscus flower cocktail
Marigold bread dusted with sesame seeds
Courgette flowers stuffed with goat’s cheese, in tempura batter, drizzled with Kilburn honey
Elderflower fritters
Morel custards with enoki mushroom, micro herbs and vanilla salt
Stuffed tulip with pea coulis
Saffron and poppy seed salad bowls with a selection of wild leaves and edible flowers (broad bean, pea) with lemon mustard vinaigrette
Vine leaf wrapped salmon
Vine leaf wrapped halloumi (v)
Salsify nests with red currants
Cheese board: leaf wrapped cheeses: Cornish nettle wrapped Yarg, Childerwickbury goat’s cheese wrapped in wild garlic leaves, Manchego in romero, Oak leaf wrapped goat’s cheese, with fig confit (simmered for three days on the Aga in red wine) and oat cakes, St. John’s sourdough bread
Dandelion wine
Trio of glaces: fresh garden mint, wild strawberry and creme fraiche, violet icecream served in a rose ice bowl with crystallised rose petals and home made crystallised violets.
Borage tea, Rosebud tea or Douwe Egberts vintage blend coffee
Home made ginger beer and elderflower champagne
I would recommend making your own elderflower champagne and ginger beer. It’s very easy and remarkably fizzy within a day or so. Mint icecream was also a revelation, those clean flavours come alive, it couldn’t be further away from yer classic mint choc chip, especially when served in an ice rose bowl which I last did in May 2009. It’s a spectacular way to serve icecream.
Patrick Carpenter
June 23, 2010 at 7:20 pmwhat hard work… but looks worth it. Wish I could come to your quatorze juillet bash but will be away
Andrew Parkinson
June 23, 2010 at 7:24 pmLooks amazing and so pretty
James
June 23, 2010 at 7:30 pm"….lets just do it all". Wow.
Food Urchin
June 23, 2010 at 8:37 pmWow, impressive stuff, it looked great, I especially like the salad bowls, nice touch. And where did you get the courgette flowers from?
theundergroundrestaurant
June 23, 2010 at 8:40 pmThanks everyone.
Food Urchin: I got the courgette flowers from a couple of places, chefs connection and chegworth farm. It's difficult to get enough!
Kavey
June 23, 2010 at 10:37 pmLove those saffron bowls!
Plum Kitchen
June 23, 2010 at 10:49 pmWhat a glorious feast, you must have worked your socks (or heels)off…… All that is lovely in food, flowers and an English summer, very uplifting for a gal with frozen toes…..although my latte seems suddenly rather dreary, what I wouldnt give for a glass of Elderflower fizz right now..
Sally
June 24, 2010 at 7:04 amI can't think of the right superlative. Super talented, imaginative and wow all come to mind. Shakespeare would have been proud. Oh to be in England…
MsMarmitelover
June 24, 2010 at 7:26 amThank you all…
Elderflower fizz fantastic.It ony took 2 days to fizz whereas recipes say 3 weeks.
Plum: I guess it's winter over there right now.
Sally: how is your red wine vinegar getting on ?
Hatcham Supper Club
June 24, 2010 at 8:05 amThose bread bowls are absolutely stunning. Really lovely.
EyeOnDubai
June 24, 2010 at 8:23 amInspirational! The kind of fresh, seasonal food I'd love to eat and cook, beautifully prepared and photographed – I have a new benchmark!
Avidly following
Sig
June 24, 2010 at 10:42 amWow. A stunning set of photos and menu for your midsummer evening, hope your guests loved every minute of what must have been a memorable evening, wish I could have been there. Next midsummer I will definitely clear the diary if you do this again!
aforkfulofspaghetti
June 24, 2010 at 10:47 amInspired stuff – beautiful…
salty
June 24, 2010 at 11:02 amWow, what a beautiful and imaginative menu. The stuffed tulips look particularly gorgeous.
K x
the lacquer spoon
June 24, 2010 at 1:04 pmWooow, everything is just stunning. I have nothing to say but a perfect summer treat :))
chumbles
June 24, 2010 at 1:09 pmBeautiful, just beautiful. I love the flashing hands in one shot, as though you thought "I've just got time to do another nest whilst this shot's exposing!". A fantastic amount of work!
Daffodil Soup
June 24, 2010 at 2:37 pmAbsolutely lovely. I know how hard it is to photograph food while trying to *get it out*. I usually forget until it's too late. Well done!
Anonymous
June 24, 2010 at 9:21 pmstunning looking menu. I never realised you could eat tulips.
Anonymous
June 24, 2010 at 9:26 pmwow. seriously impressive
Lizzie
June 25, 2010 at 8:39 amAbsolutely properly stunning. So colourful and pretty!
Sarah, Maison Cupcake
June 26, 2010 at 10:59 amThese dishes all look so delightful, I'm always blown away by how much care and research goes into your menus. And I've not been here for a while so I don't know when you did it but the aqua background is very becoming too!
green drawers
June 26, 2010 at 12:45 pmthat looked spectacular. It was about a year ago that I first found your blog and it was pictures of a mid-summer feast that made me get in touch with you in the first place. You just seem to 'get' summer food. All that 'feast for the eye' stuff I suppose. The stuffed tulips looked particularly inviting. How'd they taste??
Just one thing – isn't pissenlit better known here as dandelion??
Hope all is well, C x
gastrogeek
June 27, 2010 at 12:01 pmthis is just beautiful and so imaginative! Wish I'd been there….
CellarDoor
June 28, 2010 at 2:42 pmYou can credit my pictures if you like.
Helen
July 3, 2010 at 4:59 pmThis meal looks absolutely stunning. Did you learn how to make those ice bowls from Browners' mum?
foodrambler
July 4, 2010 at 5:25 pmThat whole meal looks so gorgeous. Wish I'd been there! x
foodrambler
July 4, 2010 at 5:25 pmThat whole meal looks so gorgeous. Wish I'd been there! x
MsMarmitelover
July 6, 2010 at 8:09 amGreen Drawers: yes it is! But Dandelion is a diuretic so it makes you pissenlit…wet the bed!
Helen: yes I got that from Browner's mum's book 'edible flowers'.
Lilly Higgins
July 7, 2010 at 2:44 pmThis whole spread is just unbelievable! A multi sensory feast! The tapioca stuffed tulips alone are a work of art! I've only just found your blog and I absolutely love all I've seen so far, incredible stuff. Oh and I love the custards in the egg shells, oh to have been there!
Anonymous
August 4, 2010 at 1:58 pmJust amaaaazing!!!
Marie
February 9, 2015 at 11:42 pmOooooh I just LOVE the look of this event . Where is it ? I'm in a country town in Victoria Australia where we are sweltering and fearing summer bush fires . But your ideas and photos make me want to party !!!! Thanks heaps . It looks gorgeous .