Deciding on what suits you, we can help guide you.

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We only say this as we had been asked how much food one needed and what they should order for a birthday reception. This may sound easy as we are caterers, but this was a question from a friend who was arranging an evening at a restaurant in the city. They were given a list of canapes and costings and asked to decide on which they would like.

We advised them on our thoughts, but then that got us thinking. Are we beginning to be helpful enough? How many canapes should we have, bowl foods or finger foods? It may be an odd question, but when you are arranging food and drinks for an office meeting, a celebration, lunch, canapes or even a dinner, it can be quite daunting.

Here at Maven Foods, we hope to find a menu on our website, and if not, we can make a bespoke one for you. If ever you are unsure on whether you would like canapes or finger foods, a cold buffet or individual lunch boxes, then please give us a call or drop us an email; we are always here to help you and guide you through all our food options.

Take bowl foods; how many are needed per guest, and what does that relate too. We would say, three bowls food for each colleague, which amounts to a light meal.

When it comes to drinks, you might have an idea on which you would like: bottled beers, prosecco, red, white wines or some cocktails. We would give guidance on quantity, but always bring a little extra if needed – we would inform the organiser before they are used. Ask questions, look at our Instagram pictures, and go to our website.

www mavenfoods.co.uk.

 

Cold Buffet

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A cold buffet laid out on a summer evening, placed on a table at the office, for guests to help themselves at a party or even a wedding. The buffet or even sharing platters ticks a lot of boxes; once set up, it can be grazed on over a period of time or ready for the lunchtime break for an all-day conference.

Whether it’s sit down at laid tables – we can help there too – or fork food as space is limited but would like to offer a more substantial meal. With a selection of desserts or even mini desserts to follow, the choice is ther

When planning a cold buffet, try to have a mix of colours and textures, even if you are having a cheese buffet. Select hard and soft cheese, blue and colourful cheeses. A variety of flavoured biscuits – beetroot, charcoal, herb flavoured, bread, rye, seeded, ciabatta, homemade crisp crostinis sprinkled with smoked paprika, sea salt and cracked black pepper.

Mini pots of pickles and relish, grapes, apples, strawberries, apricots and dates and, where possible, a sprinkling of nuts. And that’s just cheese, or maybe not just cheese!

With meats, fish, vegetarian dishes, and salads of all tastes and flavours. Dessert tables, too, all there to be enjoyed.

If you are in need of staff, chinaware or glassware, get in touch.

 

BURGERS?

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Burgers, where do we start? The choice is no longer between a cheeseburger or non-cheese burger or, come to that, seeded or seedless bun. There is a myriad of fillings; patty, beef, pork, lamb, vegetarian, vegan, fish, and not forgetting chicken. Then you have tomato, salad, mushroom, pickles, slaw, sauces and a variety of cheeses. Buns?

Brioche and charcoal are up there. This could go on and on, but I think you get the idea. To start, a good cut of minced meat, one of our favourites is a beef patty with chorizo. This gives it that little bit of extra taste, with cheese, sliced beef tomato, roasted peppers and salad. Finished with our own special sauce. Korean fried chicken with slaw, crispy onions and spiced flavoured kewpie mayonnaise.

Baja style fish burger, marinated and in a beer batter. Very tasty. Now it’s coming up to summer, and outdoor dining can begin, whether it’s a bbq or mini-sized burgers served from a food station. Having a selection of fillings, flavoured burgers and buns coupled with salads or just tray-served burgers is popular and not going away.

As a part of a selection of other mini foods, such as baby fish and chips, tempura prawn dogs are finished with mashed avocado and Asian slaw. With some vegan burgers and buns available – gluten-free too – there is something for everyone.

EAT STREET NORTHSHORE BRISBANE – STREET FOOD 

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So while in Brisbane and liking all things food, we had to pay a visit to Eat Street. This is a large area of the old docklands covered in pop-up food bars built up with containers. Some of the bars are under a large cover,

 and there you can also find bands and dj’s entertaining the crowds, and we mean crowds. It does get very busy even though it costs $5.00 per person to enter. Once inside, there are food stalls from every corner of the globe, with over 70 to choose from; there is something for every taste bud, from oysters and fish and chips to Hungarian and Malaysian. Just take your time and try something different.

We tried a selection of foods, a Filipino grilled pork dish and some fried chicken from a grill bar next door. Though there were only four of us, we still tried a selection of Japanese dumplings; some pulled pork and chicken tacos. We moved on to France to try boeuf bourguignon and raclette, all topped off with a carb intense cob loaf filled with pasta in cheese and tomato sauce.

With a choice of sweet foods and bars serving craft beers and cocktails, a delightful evening was had by all.

EASTER 

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Easter is the time for new beginnings when spring starts to show what has been hidden away beneath the earth. It’s also a time for families to get together, to sit and eat and enjoy the year ahead.

A Sunday roast was always the highlight of our week as a family, though we never understood whether Sunday is the first day of the week and so the beginning or the last, the seventh day of the week. Either way round we would all sit round the dining room table and enjoy whichever roast, with roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, vegetables and lots of gravy made from the meat juices. The meat fat was always kept to make dripping which would be spread on toast the next morning as well as any leftovers cooked up the next day for pies and soup. It seems that using every part of a joint of meat was important then and just as important today, not to waste but to make more of what we have got.

Halloween

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It’s not too far off when witches would be flying around the cold dark skies. An abundance of ghouls and ghosts and all things creepy are out there to scare someone, you hope.

Pumpkins carved are lit up and placed outside the front door, a homing beacon for trick-or-treaters to know you would have sweets for them as a treat. With all things orange, black and any other dark colours, with splashes of blood (something red, anyway). Spider webs and cauldrons boiling away to serve tempting delights is that possible… So how does food fit into this? Well, I suppose it’s being creative with what is available to you. Here are some ideas you might like.

Firstly, there are cheese broomsticks which look very realistic. Then you might have Scotch eggs given a twisted makeover, all still tasting good but looking as if it’s been through a blood bath. Mummified green peppers wrapped in pastry with dark, beady protruding eyes. All done in the spirit (pun intended) of fun, but with the added bonus, you can eat it before it gets you! Enjoy your treats, and avoid the tricks.

Hot days is when we deserve ice cream and ice lollies

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Hot days are when we deserve ice cream and ice lollies. Well, that’s what we think. Hot all day, no cool breeze, no beach to hand and no paddling pool, London gets hot!. But with a freezer to hand, we decided to make ice lollies and ice cream and play around with the flavours to see how they tasted.

As well as trying not to add any sugar and keep them balanced with some better foods, well, that’s what we told ourselves. Up first was a coconut ice lolly made with coconut milk, pistachio nuts and fresh pineapple for the sweet element, all vegan too. A sort of pina colada, no alcohol. It was smooth and cool; close your eyes facing the sun, just for a few minutes, with your feet in a bucket of water.

Caribbean beach, well in our heads, but not much room for three pairs of feet in a bucket! Next, we made blueberry yoghurt ice cream.

That turned out better than expected, with some shredded KitKat on the top. And now we are trying chocolate ice lollies made with apple juice as the sweetener and added banana and hazelnut chocolate spread for added fibre and protein. 70% chocolate, so again, we can make it vegan.

We did share with our neighbours, but I think that was only so we could create the next flavour. Enjoy your summer, but be careful in the sun. Cool lollies, that’s the way forward.

LET’S DO BRUNCH ON A WEEKDAY?

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Why save brunch just for the weekends when a spot of let breakfast during the week might be just what your colleagues would enjoy.

With coffees, teas of different flavours and some juices, brunch might make a change from croissants, fruits and bacon rolls.

If you’re planning to start your business meeting a little later, or if you had started very early and a mid-morning break was due but needed more substantial food, lunch is going to be late.

Then try some gluten-free sweetcorn pancakes made with chickpea flour, topped with bacon and fried plantain, and drizzled with maple syrup.

A tuna and spring onion omelette, avocado mash with smoked salmon with some sriracha sauce and nigella seeds. Just like the Mexican dish where tomato, chorizo and peppers are fried in a pan and then topped with a baked egg, huevos rancheros.

Well, try this with a Korean twist with fried kimchi, prawns and peppers with the addition of Gochujang with a baked, fried egg. Not quite bibimbap. But with a spicy kick.

 

MAC AND CHEESE, COMFORT FOOD

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Is macaroni cheese one of the great comfort foods, We say yes and that’s first because it contains cheese. Cheese is all you want it to be, rich, satisfying food that affects your brain so you crave it more. So we suppose that is what makes a comfort food, happy, contentment. Mac and cheese can be enjoyed as a bowl food, even as a late-night snack as a party winds down, to fuel the body for the journey home, especially on colder nights. With different flavour cheeses, such as stilton mac and cheese, red Leicester mac and cheese, even there the list could go on for as many cheeses there are.

To the grandness of lobster mac and cheese with its cheese sauce infused with a bisque flavour and fresh lobster sitting proudly on top. Wild mushroom mac and cheese. The wild mushroom gives it an earthiness and with the smooth richness of cheese such as goats, stilton or cheddar, any one of them would complement each other Bacon or pancetta, fried in lardons sitting proudly on mac and cheese with a few crispy onions to finish.

Now it is possible to use vegan cheese and replacement milk and still finish with a vegan chorizo sausage or bbq vegan pulled pork. The sweet tanginess of hoisin duck on mac and cheese. You see the possibilities are endless After reading this, there must be an inkling stirring somewhere, mac and cheese. But hey if it hits the spot every now and again, enjoy!

SUMMER VIBES WITH TACOS AND MARGARITAS

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Now summer is just around the corner and you can feel the heat in the sunshine. Maybe it’s time to step outside and let all three wondrous things collide. The first being tacos, we have to say we weren’t much into them until we were asked to put a menu together that had tacos on it. That’s when food becomes interesting when you start to look into what makes tacos, how you can vary, and put a twist on it. Let’s start with Baja cod tacos, a piece of cod fried in a beer and herb batter, marinated red cabbage, pico de gallo and a spicy sauce, all held together in a corn taco.

Everything is there, some salad, flavoursome fish and a sauce to bring it all together. Slow-cooked confit duck, layered with a fine fennel salad with orange and a blackberry compote. Garlic grilled asparagus would sit in the base of the taco shell. Mashed black bean and roasted red pepper salsa, drizzled with sriracha vegan mayonnaise. Korean shredded beef with a gochujang

flavour, red cabbage slaw and avocado cream. This is one we do like, the Korean spice gives it the underlying warmth you get from Mexican foods. Now chicken tinga is something we had never heard of, but after slow cooking chicken ina deep tomato spiced sauce with pickled red onions and sour cream, it all comes together. Vegan feta crumbled with black beans, and tomatoes, a squeeze of lime and olive oil topped with fried plantain. Of course, there is a touch of ancho chilis. With a glass of margaritas or a beer such as pacifico clara or acorona, enjoy the summer vibes, and feel the sun. Summer is on its way!