Figs with Goat Cheese and Prosciutto Woman’s Club of Greenwich talk – Jan 2015

Good morning and thank you so much for asking to talk today at the woman’s club of Greenwich, it is so good to get out.

For those of you who do not know me I have lived in Darien for 13 years but grew up in the Northeast of Scotland in Banff, the original Banff not that other Johnny come lately attention seeking Banff in Canada.

I baked my first cake at the age of eight, it was awful, but my kind parents ate it anyway. Undeterred I carried on and have always loved cooking and entertaining. I drove my husband mad, can we friends over for dinner, small crowd..no more than twenty. Or can we have a party, please. After a while friends started asking me to help out with their party and then just cater their parties. I love the challenge of logistics, menu planning, quantities that sort of thing. So I always wanted to be in catering, maybe even have my own little tearoom one day.

A few years ago I was standing at an event at the DCA talking with a friend and a board member. We were bemoaning the lack of a decent tearoom in Darien, unlike Greenwich, I was looking around and we agreed that the DCA would be fabulous. The old part of the house opens up onto a formal garden where you could even sit outside in warm weather. And then I Said, and you know that’s the sort of thing I could do quite easily.

The DCA and I started talking and Diane Schlinkert at one stage asked me how many people I though I could accommodate …and I answered I have no idea. I wasn’t really sure how many people were going to turn up.

We had 78 at thr first tea, over two sittings. `I had asked a few friends to help serve, and a few just turned up just in case I needed help with with making tea. Ten teas later we are a great team, and more importantly we are still friends. The last tea at Christmas sold out weeks before. We had 90 people and used every last space in the old part of the DCA.

Now when Mary Ann asked me to talk today we went back and forth about the subject. Desserts or appetizers and finally settles on Appetizers. SO when Joy said last week she was coming to my talk on Desserts I said no …dont think so. It seems in the intervening months my talk had turned into a talk on desserts. We agreed I would do a hybrid and cover both.

So what I am going to give you today is my top hits for winter, which are

Sausage Rolls

Figs with goat’s cheese and prosciutto

Ingredients

• Mission figs
• Goat’s cheese
• Prosciutto
• Method

Trim each fig then cut in half, Place a little goats cheese on the cut side then roll up in a thin slice of prosciutt0.

Crème Brulee

Panettone bread pudding

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Mini Pavlovas with whipped cream and raspberries