Beurre Composee

Polly was recently asked to comment on a recommendation in a new Debrett's guide, which said that it was OK to serve takeaway at a dinner party, provided you warmed up the china first. Our view on these things is that if you have time to warm china you probably have time to nip down the road and pick up the ingredients to whip up a lovely salad. Unless, of course, you're such a kitchen disaster that your friends will be glad to encounter a chicken jalfrezi instead of one of your own creations. 

Part of the reason we're not wildly tolerant of being invited round for a takeaway is that it's so easy to cheat your way into giving an excellent dinner party. And no, we don't mean quietly stashing M&S ready meal containers out of sight, we mean the simple things that add instant interest. One of our favourite tricks is serving flavoured butters, or beurre composee if you're feeling particularly posh.

Most people associate flavoured butters with garlic bread, fish dishes and steaks, but they actually mix remarkably well with almost anything. And, in common with the infused spirits we talked about the other week, butter can be flavoured with pretty much any combination of ingredients.

Making flavoured butters is super simple.  Leave your butter out on a worktop until it gets to a nice, pliable ambient temperature (we all know the private hell that is trying to cream rock hard butter). Cube it into a bowl, soften up a little with a fork, add your ingredients and mix well. This can also easily be done in a mixer. Once your butter is well mixed, shape it into a block / sausage / whatever you like, roll in cling film and refrigerate until firm but not solid. Then either serve as is, in curls or slices OR - as shown below - use biscuit cutters to form pretty shapes. You can also make up slices/curls/shapes in advance and pop back into the fridge for later. 

The longer this butter sits, the better it tastes, so try to make it at the start of the week for use over the weekend. Serve with any course to add an extra punch of flavour.

Some of our favourite beurre composee flavours include: marmalade, brown sugar and cinnamon, chilli garlic and pepper, rosemary, rocket and parmesan... the list goes on. 

Ottolenghi reccommends always having anchovy butter in the fridge in this recipe for Sprouting Broccoli with Anchovy and Smoky Crumbs, while Jamie Oliver recommends flavoured butters on steamed vegetables and Diana Henry has some zingy butter combinations for barbecued sweetcorn.

Happy buttering!

Crafternoon: Jam Jar Lantern

Another Monday, another make-and-do post.... an excellent way to ease yourself into the week ahead. This week we're going to show you how to make hanging tea light lanterns using jam jars and ribbon (or string if you're feeling rustic). This project actually appears in our book "Party! How to organise a brilliant bash: the essential guide" and is an old favourite that we've demonstrated at workshops all over the place. 

So. For this project you will need clean jam jars (any size you like), some ribbon or string and some scissors. (Here's a top tip: if you're London based get your ribbon from Frankle on Bethnal Green Rd, they're the best ribbon and trim wholesalers in London and ribbons cost pennies per metre. You don't need to register or be buying for business purposes).

* STEP 1

Cut two long lengths of ribbon. The length you need depends on the size of your jam jar, so you'll have to do a certain amount of trial and error with this. Our jam jar is 7cm tall so the lengths of ribbon will be about 60cm.

* STEP 2

Lay your two pieces of ribbon on top of each other, fold in half and tie in a knot at the fold.

* STEP 3

Place your jam jar on the table bottom upwards and lay your ribbon on top. The knot should sit at the middle of the jar's base. Fan out the four ribbons so that they form a cross shape. It can be useful to use a bit of masking tape to hold them in place.

* STEP 4

Cut another piece of ribbon, and tie it around the neck of the jar, over the four ribbons you've just arranged. Tie tightly and trim. (NB: If you're using a larger jar you may want to knot each of the four long ribbon pieces in place).

* STEP 5

Turn your jar the right way up and knot the ribbon ends together to form two hanging loops

And there you have your finished hanging tea light lantern! We like to hang them in clusters in trees at garden parties, or as path markers.

A few notes:

- The loop on the bottom of the lantern is perfect for adding extra decorations

- We recommend the use of battery powered tea lights for these - and all - lanterns, whether indoors or out. They are super cheap, last for ages, are (mostly) weather proof and most importantly of all reduce the fire risk considerably. 

- If you do choose to use normal tea lights, think carefully about where and how you anchor the lanterns: there has to be a good distance left clear above the candle.

- Never leave candles unattended, particularly if there are children at your event.

We'll sign off with a couple of other easy, effective party candle solutions from our Pinterest boards:

Hollowed out apple candles via Style me Pretty

and tarting up tea lights with decorative tape via trendenser.se

Friday Fun Stuff

It's FUN time again.... here's this Friday's selection of the things we've enjoyed this week:

1. Swings

No, not swingers.... swings! We've been completely obsessed with them for some time, and it looks like we're not the only ones. 

There are musical, light-up swings,

21 Balançoires (21 Swings) from Daily Tous Les Jours on Vimeo.

Epic art pieces featuring LOTS of swings

Swinging in the rain (couldn't resist, sorry)

Video by Dash7Design

Image by Andrew Katz // Source: New American Paintings

and Billboard swings

Image (and installation) by Didier Faustino // Source: We-find-wildness.com

The fact is that pretty much everyone is attracted to a swing, as much for the potential fun it represents as the experience of trying it out. Free the swing! It's not just for kids!

2. Even more inflatables

This is a recurring theme for us... artist Alex Schweder makes 'performance architecture', inviting interaction between the space and the person occupying it. Schweder's work is intended to quietly throw you off balance so you have to re-examine your surroundings with a new eye. We LOVE it, especially the inflatable bits.

Images via Collabcubed.com

3. Eyescream

Barcelona-based shaved Taiwanese style ice cream featuring edible googly eyes. Hilarious.

Images via Notcot.com

4. Nike reactive, kinetic windows in Selfridges by Staat

5. DVD Dead Drop at MOMI (NY) by Aram Bartholl

Put a blank DVD into a slot on the side of the building and get it back with a nice curated selection of stuff on it. A lovely, simple absurdist thought.

Video via Aram Bartholl

Travel to-do list

There's nothing quite like a little daydreaming, which is why today we're sharing three places we've been pondering the pleasure of visiting for some time...

1. Thermal Baths, Budapest
The grandeur and scale of these thermal baths put even the RAC club to shame. And weirdly, it reminds us a little of the Tropicana in Weston-Super-Mare a little too (sans giant pineapple/slide combo).

2. Jardin Majorelle / Maison Yves Saint Laurent, Marrakech

If we have to tell you why this place is amazing, there's something wrong with you. Look at it..... WOW. We manage to reference this place in an astonishing number of pitches.

3. The Garden of Cosmic Speculation, Scotland 

If you had to identify a race that would be into cosmic speculation, you probably wouldn't go for the Scots. But we think the incongruity makes it even more interesting, and we really can't think of anything nicer than an afternoon spent contemplating the meaning of the cosmos in this place.

The Robin Collective: Bonkers

Every now and then we'll be talking to someone we work with about how they got to where they are, where they hope to go next and what advice they'd give to anyone wanting to get into the industry. This week we're talking to the very lovely Brandy from the Robin Collective.

Teatime: So, Brandy.... how would you describe your job?

Brandy: I've always regarded myself as a designer as I am a formally trained product and graphic designer but with The Robin Collective I consider myself more of a food futurologist. We push food to new realms by creating sensory and often silly events. Most are like a children's birthday party on steroids. I head up most of the creative concepts, food design and just getting stuck in with cooking. 

Teatime: How did you end up where you are now?

Brandy: Through hard work and kindness. Our roots are with Bompas & Parr and I still regard them as our jelly family. They not only taught us that anything is possible but by being sociable and kind, you create business contacts that become loyal friends. 

Taxidermy in action at Taxidermy and Tea

We are eternally grateful for the opportunities we have been given and the collaborations we've had. In 2011 we joined forces with Animal Vegetable Mineral to create Taxidermy & Tea. We had had the idea but with other projects in the way, it was impossible to implement by ourselves. These girls were amazing and put their own twist on the event, bringing a fresh feeling to our events catalogue and proving that collaborations can work rather well.

My colleagues, Elspeth and Robin are fabulous creatives as well but with much more practical PR experience which has been invaluable. It can be daunting but we owe a lot to social media!

Teatime: Do you wish you had done anything differently?

Brandy: A couple of things...

Quit my day job sooner rather than later. Life is so much better being my own boss.

Get over the fear of proposal rejection. I used to hold back on my more bizarre ideas and thus held back our potential. It's taken me a long time to realise that most clients find those far-out ideas charming and innovative.

Teatime: What are you working on at the moment?

Brandy: A series of bitters called Historical Bitters. We go into the spaces of famous Britons and extract moisture from the walls, then brew it into our delicious bitters. Each one is unique to the historical figure and can be used to sip or jazz up cocktails and spirits. So far we've brewed Winston Churchill, Alfred Conan Doyle and The Elephant Man.



We are also rolling out our Medicinal Marshmallows into a travelling event called Marshmallow Apothecary. We diagnose and fill prescriptions with marshmallows. My favourite flavour is The Broken Heart Mender, a red wine and black pepper mallow.

Teatime: What have been your favourite projects so far and why?

Brandy: Cafe du Piqué Nique as it was our very first and was such a feel good project. We filled the Future Gallery with turf, pumped it full of cut grass scents and sunshine and invited guests to picnic with us. The food was delicious, it was early days so our friends lent a hand and we even had a chap propose to his lady. 

Cafe du Pique Nique at Future Gallery

In those days we used to present fun ideas at White Blackbird, an ongoing event that would host country house parties. I always think about this incredible room that they had which was filled with trampolines. Things like that I wish we had thought of!

The White Blackbird Childhood party. Image via NY Times

We also loved working with Pinkberry when they launched in Westfield Stratford City. The Robin Collective created a series of seasonal toppings including Santa's Beard and Christmas Tree flavour. They looked almost too nice to eat!

Teatime: What are your hopes/plans for the future? Do you have an end goal?

Brandy: We are in the process of moving into a larger workshop in order to implement more props into our events and have a larger experimental test kitchen. My colleague, Elspeth, is also an actress and I'd love to bring more of that element into our events. We really take pride in offering work experience to creatives new on the scene too. Implementing and developing that programme is very important to us as we know the industry can be like. Too often good talent is overlooked just because that individual does not yet have an impressive list of client names.

Teatime: How and when does inspiration strike? Do you have a process for coming up with ideas?

Brandy: We just like having a laugh about anything and everything so inspiration is always there. The idea for Taxidermy & Tea came about while joking about how bored we can get with cupcakes, Wonderland themes, vintage furs and curiosities. The concept for Historical Bitters hit when I suffered a rather terrible lung infection last year and had to go on inhalers.

Elspeth loves bees and my parents keep hives so it was natural that we'd create a giant beehive in central London. As you do.

Robin is a bit more structured with ideas, he loves to trial things and test. One of our events was based on a novel that he wrote while driving the wedding jelly van across Europe for Bompas & Parr. We try to create the next trend, such as marshmallows taking over the spotlight from red velvet cake.

Teatime: What are you interested in right now?

Brandy: For me, nakedness and microwaves. I think there is a lot of potential in those areas.

Robin is into radios at the moment, he's been working on a fabulous concept where we hang radios from the trees like apples and then transmit the soundtrack to a forest dance party. Of course this would take place on a secret island near my house.

Teatime: Who do you admire and why?

Brandy: There is an animator in the United States named Pendleton Ward. His ideas come from the most obscure places and he always finds time to draw with friends. He draws because that's what he loves, not just because it is his job. I really admire that he's successful because he loves what he does. 

Pendleton Ward in contemplation

I'm also quite taken with Alexa Perrin at the moment, creator of The Experimental Food Society and recently House of Wolf. We've known her for years but I'm still in awe of her ability to curate a great mix of artists without exploiting. She always looks killer beautiful too! 

Teatime: What is your advice for people who would like a job like yours?

Brandy: Roll up your sleeves and get experience but be insistent that you want something to show for it by the time you're finished. Be firm, but fair and really helpful. I'm a director and still stay up to 5am writing proposals or even cleaning pots after an event.

You can find out more about the Robin Collective and their amazing projects via their website, Facebook and Twitter. 

Giant Sausage Roll

Springtime is a great moment for entertaining: everyone is so happy about the return of sun, the smell of freshly mown grass and the daffodil heads bobbing in the park. When entertaining at home, we take most of our catering cues from childhood Easter parties, whatever time of the year it is: it's the perfect combination of great tasting, impressive looking but low effort party food. It's all about a feeling of 'plenty'.

This also chimes pretty well with the trend towards an informal, homespun style of service that we've been seeing lately in bars, restaurants and members clubs, with country style kitchen tables used for bartending and rustic snacks on sale. Our particular reference here is the top floor at the newly refurbished Electric in Portobello (see image of top floor, below), which has the aforementioned 'kitchen table bar' and also serves one of our favourite party foods: slices of giant sausage roll.

This is so easy to make you'll barely break a sweat....

Ingredients:

1 pack ready rolled puff pastry
1 pack cumberland sausages (buy good ones, please!)
1 pack 12 quail eggs, boiled and peeled
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 pears, peeled, cored and finely chopped
Handful curly parsley leaves, minced
Handful sage leaves, minced
4 slices of ham, roughly chopped
2 slices of wholemeal bread, broken into breadcrumbs
Tabasco
1 egg, beaten

STEP 1
Pre-heat your oven to 200C. Snip the ends of your sausages and squeeze the meat out of the casings and into a bowl. Add the onion, pears, parsley, sage, ham, breadcrumbs and a couple of dashes of Tabasco to the sausage meat and mix well with clean hands. Give your hands a wash afterwards too...

STEP 2
Unroll your pre-rolled puff pastry onto a baking sheet and baste with some of the beaten egg. Arrange the pastry so it's in 'portrait' (rather than 'landscape') as you look at it. Arrange approx 2/3 of the sausage mix up the length of the right hand side of the pastry rectangle, leaving about 1 inch border from the edges. Try to make it as evenly distributed as possible.

STEP 3
Make a small furrow up the middle of your sausage meat. Lay out the boiled, peeled quail eggs end to end in the furrow. Cover the eggs with the remaining 1/3/ sausage mix and form the finished 'giant sausage' into a nice, even, semi-circular shape with your hands.

STEP 4
Fold the left hand side of the pastry over the sausage mix on the right hand side and pinch the pastry case shut with a fork. Trim any spare pastry and baste well with the remaining beaten egg.

STEP 5
Transfer to the oven and bake for approx 40 mins, or until risen and golden. Once baked move onto a wire rack on a baking tray, as the sausage fat can sometimes make the base of the roll soggy, and it needs a chance to dry out.

STEP 6
Once cooled, serve in fat slices on a wooden board, accompanied by a couple of types of mustard. Await universal praise.

Crafternoon: Paper Chains

Hooray, it's Monday! Which can only mean it's time for 'Monday make-and-do'. Some of us have amazing houses, but let's face it: most of us don't live in a World of Interiors shoot. Teatime towers is awash with enough brightly coloured party paraphernalia to sink a small ship, but we still decorate when we throw a party, simply because it makes walking into a familiar space much more exciting and adds a sense of occasion. Which is why we're going to give you a good talking to about paper chains. 

We all know how to make paper chains, right? Cut a strip, thread through last link, tape one end to the other to make a circle, repeat. So simple children could do it.... but that doesn't mean that your house will end up looking like it's been decorated by a five year old. They're actually a super cheap, easy and effective way to make your home into a great party venue.

Our favourite ways of updating the humble paper chain are playing with proportion (e.g. super-sizing the links)... 

....and using a carefully chosen colour scheme (current favourite: brights + metallic)

It's also particularly effective to use double sided paper (i.e. something with a different colour/design on each side (see Hazel Stark above). Paper chains are also a great way to create a temporary ceiling:

You don't even have to spend a lot of money on fancy paper, white can be very effective too:

 

And there are lots of special little twists you can add if you're feeling creative:

But really the thing to remember is the maxim that we find works in pretty much every situation.... 

MORE IS MORE.