Sangria, adapted from America's Test Kitchen

This makes enough for 12 servings, and is an easy and delicious way to feed a crowd.

This recipe doubles easily. You could add other fruit to make it more festive. If the orange and lemon slices are left in too long their rinds add bitterness which can be unpleasant. Some people like to add soda water to give a bit of fizz. Adjust the recipe to suit - more of less syrup, fruit, juice. Some people also add brandy for added complexity. America's Test Kitchen only uses 60g sugar, but I prefer it sweeter. Leftovers can be frozen as ice blocks on sticks for an adult treat.

Ingredients
100g sugar - 8 tablespoons
100 mls water
1.5 litres Merlot, or other fruity red wine
120 mls triple sec or Cointreau
3 oranges
2 lemons

Method
Heat sugar and water together until sugar is dissolved. This is called Simple Syrup.
Slice 2 oranges thinly, and juice the other.
Slice both lemons thinly.
Combine all ingredients in a pitcher and chill at least 2 hours for the flavours to meld.
Serve in chilled wine glasses half filled with ice. 

Oven Frittata

Oven baked frittata

2 potatoes

2 sweet potatoes or equivalent pumpkin

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 bunch chives

9 eggs

½ cup liquid – cream, milk or water

Salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat oven to 220.

Peel and dice potatoes and/or pumpkin into 1cm dice.

Toss in olive oil and salt.

Spread on baking paper on an oven tray.

Roast, turning occasionally, until brown, about 45 minutes.

Allow to cool a little and reduce oven heat to 160.

Beat eggs, liquid, salt and pepper together.

Add vegetables and chives and toss together well.

Heat another tablespoon of olive oil in a non stick oven proof fry pan.

Add egg mixture and allow to heat for 2-3 minutes.

Place in the oven. Cook until it is just wobbly in the centre – about 10 minutes. If it’s not cooked after 10, keep checking every few minutes. How long it takes depends on the temperature of the egg mixture when you put it into the oven, the actual temperature of the oven and the size of the fry pan. Not cooked enough and it will be liquidy, over cooked and it will be separated into egg and eggy water. It’s better to undercook it though because you can always put it back in the oven.

Remove and cool in the pan before turning out. It will continue to cook a little after you take it out of the oven. This is called ‘carry over cooking’.

Serve warm or chilled. 

Foccacia

These instructions will give a loaf to serve around lunchtime. If you'd like to serve it for dinner, make the poolish in the evening, mix the main dough in the morning and pour into the baking tin. Place it in the fridge for at least 10 hours, and then cook.

Poolish

2 cups bread flour

500mls water

Pinch of yeast

Main dough

2 cups bread flour

150mls warm water

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon yeast

The night before mix the poolish ingredients together in a large plastic container with a lid. You may need to use your hand (washed, of course) to mix the poolish well. When finished scrape the dough off your hand back into the container.

Place the lid on, leaving a small opening at one corner. Leave out of the fridge overnight.

The next morning add the main dough ingredients to the poolish. Again, you’ll probably need to use your hand to do this. It can take up to 5 mins to get it mixed in properly. The dough will be lumpy at this point, and very slack, but all the flour should be well moistened. It will be too wet to knead.

Let the dough rest for 10 mins. Then wet one hand (this stops the dough sticking to your hand) and slide it half way under the dough. Lift the dough up until you feel resistance, then fold this part of the dough back over itself. Turn the container 90 degrees, wet your hand again and repeat. Do this a total of 4 times, almost forming a square. (Though the dough will not look square. It will be round.)

Let the dough rest another 10 minutes and repeat. And then rest another 10 mins and repeat. So you do the stretch and fold proceedure a total of 3 times. This aligns the gluten strands and you will see the dough become smoother the more times you do it. This all sounds way more complicated to describe than to do. It’s actually quite simple. You just make a square with the dough 3 times.

Line a shallow baking tray with silicone paper.

Allow the dough to rest a few more minutes, then plop it onto the baking tray. Wet your hands for a final time and push and smooth the dough to reach the ends of the baking tray. If the dough seems reluctant to stretch, let it rest a little longer. Press your fingers deep into the dough, touching right to the bottom of the pan. Do this about 10 times to make 40 dimples. This is what gives foccacia it’s charachteristic lumpy appearance.

Set aside to rise for anything from an hour to five hours. If you want to leave it longer than that you could refrigerate it for part of the time. No need to cover it.

An hour before you want to bake it, preheat the oven to 250 degrees.  

Drizzle 3-6 tablespoons of olive oil over the top of the dough, being careful not to actually touch and therefore deflate the dough. I like to sprinkle it with rosemary too, but this isn’t necessary

Bake for 25-35 mins, until golden brown on the top. Check it after 20 mins - you may need to rotate the pan if it’s cooking unevenly.

Coffee Toffee adapted from Smitten Kitten (in metric)

I think it might be nice to try 1 cup slivered almonds stirred into the toffee just after it's reached it's maximum temperature.
250g butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons molasses (can swap corn syrup or honey)
1/4 teaspoon salt (or a heaping 1/4 teaspoon flaky sea salt)
1 1/2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
170g or 1 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts (toasted, skinned and cooled) or another nut of your choice

Line a small baking sheet (mine are 9×13, to fit in my puny oven) with parchment paper or a silicon mat and set aside.
Melt butter, brown sugar, white sugar, molasses, salt and espresso together. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally with a whisk (one that reaches into the corners is especially helpful here) until the temperature approaches 120C at which point you should stir constantly until it reaches 148C.
Pour immediately into the prepared baking sheet — you can spread it more evenly with a offset or silicon spatula but don’t worry if you have neither.
Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the toffee and let them sit for a minute until soft, then spread the chocolate evenly over the candy base.
Sprinkle the chocolate with chopped hazelnuts and then, if you’re as impatient as we are, you can slide the sheet onto a cooling rack in the freezer until the toffee is set.
Break into pieces and store in an airtight container. If you’re kitchen is warm, you might prefer to keep it in the fridge so the chocolate doesn’t get soft.

Sauce base from America's Test Kitchen

1 small onion, roughly, chopped
1 small carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
250g mushrooms, halved
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
250g minced beef
1 tablespoon tomato paste
500mls red wine
1 litre beef broth
4 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons black peppercorns
2 packages unflavored powdered gelatin (5 teaspoons)
Method
Process onion, carrot, mushrooms, and garlic in food processor into 1/8-inch pieces, 10 to 12 one-second pulses, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.
Heat oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat until simmering; add beef and tomato paste and cook, stirring frequently, until beef is well browned, 8 to 10 minutes.
Add vegetable mixture and cook, stirring occasionally, until any released moisture has evaporated, about 8 minutes.
Add wine and bring to simmer, scraping bottom of pan with wooden spoon to loosen browned bits.
Add beef broth, thyme, bay leaves, and peppercorns; bring to boil.
Reduce heat and gently boil, occasionally scraping bottom and sides of pot, skimming fat from surface, until reduced to 2 cups, 20 to 25 minutes.
Strain mixture through fine-mesh strainer set over small saucepan, pressing on solids with rubber spatula to extra as much liquid as possible (you should have about 1 cup stock).
Sprinkle gelatin over stock and stir to dissolve.
Place saucepan over medium-high heat and bring stock to boil. Gently boil, stirring occasionally, until reduced to 1/2 cup, 5 to 7 minutes.
Remove from heat and cover to keep warm. (Leftovers can be frozen for up to a month.)

Cream of Lettuce and Pea Soup

It sounds odd with cooked iceberg lettuce, but is actually one of my favourite soups of all time.  Serve either hot or cold. Adapted from Gretta Anna Teplitzky

250g frozen baby peas

1 large potato, peeled and sliced

1 onion, sliced

1 iceberg lettuce, cut into 8 pieces

750mls chicken stock

Juice ½ lemon

300mls cream

2 tablespoons chives

Mint from 4 sprigs

Place stock, onion, potato and lemon juice into a saucepan and simmer for 15 mins, or until potato is tender.

Add peas and lettuce and simmer just until the lettuce is soft.

Puree in a blender, then pass through a seive.

Add cream and serve hot or chilled.

20 litres non alcoholic sangria

This should feed 100 people on a normal day. Hot days you need more to drink.
2 litres fresh squeezed orange juice, or a really fresh tasting brand

7 litres cranberry juice

7 litres dry ginger ale

7 litres agrum blood orange

1.5 litres tea mix -  cinnamon and bitters, frozen in 3 blocks

Diced citrus – orange, lemon and lime

To make tea mix: soak 10 teabags and 4 teaspoons cinnamon in boiling water until cool.

Add 30 shakes of bitters.

I like to freeze this mix so it can cool the whole sangria as you make it. Freeze it in flat blocks.

For 35 people

500mls tea

1/3 fruit mix

750 mls OJ

1 ½ bottles cranberry juice

2 -3 bottles ginger ale

2 -3 bottles argum

Paella for a crowd - 100, 75 or 60 people

A paella recipe for 100 people including chicken, pork and seafood. It is made in a 115cm pan which is actually large enough to feed 120. I've also included quantities for 75 or 60 at the end. The method is the same.

This is a performance dish, and people want to stand around to watch and talk. This increases the level of difficulty but it’s important to provide a welcoming presence. That is what it’s all about, after all.

You could provide extra implements for people to get involved in stirring the pan.

As soon as you complete one step, prepare to do the next.

It takes around 2 hours from the time you light the flame till you are serving the paella.
Note that when serving you mentally divide pan into eights with each eighth feeding 12.
At the bottom of this page is a table showing pan and serving sizes.

Ingredients

10kg chicken thighs, diced. Have a chicken shop dice them for you.

5kg chorizo, cut into ½ cm slices

5kg medium green prawns – some in rice, others on top for decoration

3kg mussels in the shell

2kg calamari, cleaned and sliced (I use frozen)

3 heads garlic, chopped

10 tbs chopped parsley

2.5kg red peppers from a jar.

2kg frozen green peas

12 lemons, each cut into 8 pieces

8kg of paella rice either bomba or calasperra rice

100g smoked paprika

Saffron, as much as  you can afford. Puree in a spice grinder with sugar, pour over a little boiling water and allow to stand at least 30 minutes.

400g tomato paste

1-2 cups brown sugar

1.5 litres olive oil

24 litres chicken/seafood broth

Salt to taste

To do before

Chop garlic finely

Dice chorizo

De beard mussels

Puree some red peppers, slice the remainder for decoration

Chop parsley

Make up saffron mixture

Equipment

Paella pan at 115cm in diameter, usually available for hire
Gas ring to heat the pan, available when you hire the pan
Wind shield for the burner
2 tables - one for the paella and another for ingredients etc
Spirit level to check the level of the table
Wedges of newspaper to balance the paella table
Alfoil to cover the pan. About 7 metres

Strong implements for stirring

Separate bowls for each ingredient

2 strong metal serving spoons

4 oven mitts to hold the pan to shake it

Scales to measure smoked paprika

Camera

Recipe printed out

Pen

Scissors for opening packets

Light for the table

Garbage bin

Apron

Method

Be prepared for people to watch you!
Make sure pan is level

Heat pan with the flame as high as it can go

Add chorizo, fry and remove
Heat some oil
Add prawns, fry briefly and remove

Heat some more oil

Add chicken and fry for about 10 mins or until cooked. Remove from pan.

Add more oil and then garlic, pureed paprika, sugar and tomato paste.

Reduce this (it's called the sofrito) until thick and dark. Don’t skip this step. It affects the flavour.

Pour in broth and saffron liquid. Add salt to taste. (With large quantities of paella you add the liquid before rice)

Bring to boil, leaving the flame high.

Add half the parsley.

Add rice and stir to combine.

Reheat. Stir rice. (Many recipes will tell you not to stir the rice. I think this is risky with this quantity. The rice sinks to the bottom of the pan and you could end up with undercooked rice on the bottom, and gluggy rice on the top. I stir. And I get a crispy crust and cooked rice.)

Return chicken, chorizo and most of the peas to pan.

Reheat and again stir rice up from the bottom of the pan.

Smooth out by shaking the pan. You may need 2 people for this trick!

Continue to cook until rice appears at the top of the liquid and it no longer has a layer of water covering it.

Decorate with calamari, prawns, mussels and reserved red pepper in a decorative pattern.

Reduce temperature to low heat and cover with alfoil.

Cook 10 minutes.

When rice is aldente (it is mostly cooked, but has a little bit of bite in the centre), turn off flame and let it rest for 10 mins.

Test a few grains to ensure it’s properly cooked, then uncover. (If it’s not properly cooked either leave longer, relight flame, or the worst, add extra water to the top.)

Decorate with lemon quarters.

Sprinkle with extra parsley.

When serving, mentally divide pan into eights, and each eighth feeds 12. Leave 4 serves in the pan if you need to make it exactly 100.

A note on scaling recipes

• Allow 75g-100g (1/3 to 1/2 cup) uncooked bomba rice per person.
• For every 200g of bomba rice, (1 cup) use 3 cups broth. I have tried this with water and was disappointed in the results - it tasted thin and flavourless. 
• I allow 100g to 200g (3.5-7 oz) of protein per person. However since the pan gets wider without getting much deeper, you'll end up suffocating the rice if you try to scale them up together. So consider removing some of the chicken and serving it on a separate platter. 
• A pinch of saffron threads efficiently infuses a hot liquid, even in large amounts. So you don't need to scale up this ingredient as much as you might think. Use less rather than more, at least until you taste the broth.

Quantities for 75

Ingredients

7.5kg chicken thighs, diced. Have a chicken shop dice them for you.

3.75kg chorizo, cut into ½ cm slices

3.75kg medium green prawns – some in rice, others on top for decoration

2kg mussels in the shell

1.5kg calamari

2 heads garlic, chopped

8 tbs chopped parsley

1.8kg pureed red peppers from a jar.

1.5kg frozen green peas

8 lemons, each cut into 8 pieces

6kg of paella rice either bomba or calasperra rice

375g smoked paprika

Saffron, as much as  you can afford. Puree in a spice grinder with sugar, pour over a little boiling water and allow to stand at least 30 minutes.

300g tomato paste

1cups brown sugar

1 litre olive oil

18 litres chicken/prawn broth

Salt to taste

Quantities for 60

6kg chicken thighs, diced. Have a chicken shop dice them for you.

3kg chorizo, cut into ½ cm slices

3kg medium green prawns – some in rice, others on top for decoration

1.5kg mussels in the shell

1.5kg calamari

2 heads garlic, chopped

6 tbs chopped parsley

1.5kg pureed red peppers from a jar.

1kg frozen green peas

8 lemons, each cut into 8 pieces

4.8kg of paella rice either bomba or calasperra rice

300g smoked paprika

Saffron, as much as  you can afford. Puree in a spice grinder with sugar, pour over a little boiling water and allow to stand at least 30 minutes.

240g tomato paste

1 cups brown sugar

1 litres olive oil

14.5 litres chicken/prawn broth

Salt to taste

Pan and serving sizes

Pan Size		Servings
24cm		1
26cm		1-2
28cm		2
30cm		3
32cm		3-4
34cm		4
36cm		4-5
38cm		6
42cm		7
46cm		8
50cm		9-10
55cm		11-12
60cm		15-16
65cm		17-19
70cm		18-21
80cm		30-35
90cm		40-45
100cm		70-75
115cm		100-110
130cm		170-180