A Dinner Party Mary Berry Cooks

I'm Mary Berry, and in this series

I'm sharing with you my very favourite recipes.

The sort of food I cook at home for my family and friends.

I've got lots of tips and secrets to share to make life easier

and to save you time.

I'll be giving you ideas for afternoon teas,

summer parties, evening buffets, Sunday lunches and kitchen suppers.

But now it's the dinner party.

GUESTS CHAT

For a dinner party you want to treat your guests to something special.

I'm going to show you some recipes which look and taste as though

you've gone to a lot more trouble then you really have.

To start with, salmon and asparagus terrine.

Perfectly cooked steaks which you fry ahead of time.

Or perhaps guinea fowl with bacon and porcini mushrooms.

And a luxurious warm fondant chocolate tart.

But first, two canapes to get the taste buds going.

Fig and blue cheese tartlets and dough balls with goat's cheese,

pesto and tomato.

Now this is a bit of an alternative to bruschetta and a lot easier.

You buy these little fellows in supermarkets alongside fresh

pastas and fresh pasta sauces.

To stop the dough ball from rolling over slice a little bit off the top.

Then cut in half and place on a baking sheet.

A smidgen of butter on the bottom will help it brown.

For the topping, mix 150g of soft goat's cheese

with one tablespoon of red pesto.

Then chop some fresh thyme and add to the cheese mixture.

So I'm going to spread that on each of these little buns,

and make sure you do it right to the edges otherwise you'll have

a dried ring around the outside.

My grandchildren and I love pizzas, and if I'm not cooking

and I take them out to have pizzas I always love the dough balls,

so I was very delighted

when I found that you could buy dough balls in supermarkets.

Now slice 12 cherry tomatoes in half.

Just like the dough balls, take off the outside end

so you have a flat surface with less skin.

These go down well on all occasions.

They're original, they're fun, they're easy to make.

They have a lot of plus points.

Finally grate 25g of Parmesan

and place a good pinch on each dough ball.

Then pop them in the oven at 180 fan for 10 minutes.

In the meantime, let's get on with the blue cheese tartlets.

Start with two 25 centimetre square sheets of filo pasty

Look how thin it is, it's just like silk.

Whenever I see it I think of when I made it at college.

It was such a task.

We had such fun because you have to pull it and pull it,

getting it wafer thin.

I've never made it since.

It comes in nice packets and you can buy it at the supermarket

Now brush melted butter all over the pastry.

I often use a paintbrush with a broad head,

which allows you to cover the surface quickly.

Then cut each sheet into 25 equal squares.

Place two squares on top of each other to form a star shape

and place in a mini muffin tin.

I love having people for dinner because it's time to catch up

when we're all busy, and I always do a seating plan.

OK, you might think that's a bit old-fashioned

but we do boy, girl, boy, girl all the way round.

And then if there's lots of people for dinner

I move them after pudding,

and I usually say, the men stay exactly where they are,

they always make a muddle when you try to move them.

I always say to the girls, do two places to your left

and then you've got somebody new to talk to.

After 10 minutes the dough balls should be ready.

Remove from the oven and set aside.

Then put the filo parcels in for five minutes

until they turn a very light brown.

In the meantime, dice three figs,

and then mash 100g of Dolcelatte cheese

with three chopped sage leaves and a squeeze of lemon juice.

By now the filo will be ready.

I'm putting them on another tray because they are very delicate.

You imagine if these were filled and you were trying to pick them up,

they're a bit heavier then and you can't get them out

without breaking the edges.

Fill each case with a small cluster of the figs,

a dollop of the cheese mixture

and a top it all off with a sprinkling of paprika.

I'm using it here because this is going to have a very short time

in the oven, because I don't want the pastry cases to get any browner.

So this will give the effect of being brown on the top.

Then it's back in the oven at 180 fan for four to five minutes

until the cheese has just melted.

So these, I think, look very attractive.

They're not difficult to make.

So that'll be one delicious mouthful

and everybody is going to rave about them.

To make life easier on the night,

I like to prepare meals ahead of my dinner party.

This smoked salmon and asparagus terrine can be made in advance

and I think it makes a very impressive starter.

I've got some fresh asparagus here.

Rather than cutting it, you just break it

and it will break exactly where it's still tender.

And you see, those are just about the length to go

all along here in a row in the middle of my terrine.

Start off by boiling the asparagus for three to four minutes.

In the meantime, line a lightly buttered one pound loaf tin

with a double layer of clingfilm.

I can remember when clingfilm came in.

I was cookery editor of a little magazine

called Home & Freezer Digest.

The excitement when our editor brought a roll of clingfilm

from America and said, "Look what's coming to England."

And we looked at it and thought, "Do we use it twice, do we wash it?"

So I was there at the very beginning and I've been using it ever since.

Once the asparagus is cooked,

drain, rinse under cold water and set aside.

Now take 350g of smoked salmon

and line the tin to form the outside of the terrine.

So we have it completely lined.

And I'm going to keep this piece for the top,

so that if there are any gaps I can fill it in.

Place any leftover smoked salmon with 150g of cooked

fresh salmon into a processer.

Add 200g of full fat cream cheese, 75 of softened butter,

two tablespoons of lemon juice and some chives.

Then blitz.

Now spoon half into the loaf tin before layering over the asparagus.

So, put them in, really close up to the side

and then the next one the other way round,

so you get a really tight fit.

If you leave gaps, it doesn't look nearly as nice.

Now, they're a tight squeeze along there but that is just what I want.

So, in goes the rest.

Spread it evenly over the top.

Then pull the pieces over the top,

so that piece we saved, we put on top like that.

Now that wasn't difficult and the only thing you have to cook

is the salmon, but it really is going to look absolutely stunning.

Cover the terrine with the clingfilm, giving it a good press

down to ensure the filling gets between the gaps in the asparagus.

Then pop it in the fridge for at least six hours,

better still, over night.

Once chilled, it'll hold its shape perfectly and be easy to slice.

This serves about six or eight.

I like to serve it in slices that I do in the kitchen before hand

and decorate the plates with perhaps a little bit of green salad.

Then everybody can see the layers

and I like the fact that I can cut it in the quiet of the kitchen

without anybody watching me, so I can do it slowly and carefully.

So I promised you a smart first course and I think that looks...

You've got the clear layers of the salmon, the asparagus

and it's a lovely feeling that you've got your first course

all finished, done and you could do this up to three days ahead.

Everyone seems to love smoked salmon.

30,000 tonnes of it is produced every year in the UK.

Today, much of it comes from industrial smoke houses,

but I've come to a small Somerset smokery where they've been

doing it by hand for the last 31 years.

Today, owner, Jesse Pattison, is going to show me how it's done.

-So, what we're going to do...

-Thank you.

..is basically just take a cure, and by that, we're just taking about salt

and what we do, is we put some brown sugar into that salt

and we're going to rub it into those sides of salmon.

So, if you grab a side of salmon.

So, we're going to take good, liberal handfuls of the cure

and I want you just to rub them rigorously into the side

so that you feel like you might make a hole in it.

Don't worry, just rub it in.

Another good handful like that, concentrating on the big end,

because that's where we've really got to get the cure to penetrate.

We need all that salt

because it'll suck the smoke all the way through the fish.

It effectively sets up osmosis.

And, of course, I should do it more up this end, shouldn't I?

That's really where we need to make sure we get the cure into it,

so when we carve it as a whole side,

it tastes the same at the top as it does at the bottom.

-How am I doing?

-I think that one is done.

I like to, at this point, put in some spirit and it'll leave just

a smidgen of flavour on the fish, right through to the smoking phase.

Is that calvados or is that...

No. This is Somerset cider brandy, produced about a mile and a half

from here and the cider brandy made from the...

Just a minute. Let me have a smell.

It really knocks you back.

I have to recommend if you ever do use it on Christmas pudding

when you set them on fire, fantastic.

We're just going to tip it on so it just gives you

the fragrance of a flavour rather than smothering it.

Once the salmon has been left to cure for five hours,

it's washed down and left in the fridge over night

for the flavours to develop.

Then it's ready to go in the smoker.

So, effectively, all this is, is a brick cupboard

and now we've laid the floor here with just oak dust.

So that trail there that we've laid there, will burn for 18 to 20 hours.

It'll take that long to burn, like a slow burning fuse

and produce huge amounts of smoke but no heat and no flame,

so nothing's getting cooked.

So what's in here is raw and what comes out is going to be raw.

It'll just be smoked.

And, of course, it's the salt that cures it along

-with the smoke.

-Absolutely.

The salt and the smoke kill bugs which is why, originally,

people started smoking food.

-As a form of preservation.

-To preserve the food.

At 20 hours, it's a process that cannot be rushed.

OK, that is a classic finished side of salmon, well refined

and all that flesh is nice and tight, so, hopefully, when we cut into it

we'll see a nice, subtle, moist fish and something nice to bite into

with some decent texture.

-So shall we try a bit?

-That's just what I was waiting for.

And a piece for me.

This is not oily and it smells not too strong but it...

I can't wait any longer.

It's very... Wait a minute. What is it?

There's a texture, so hopefully you get...

There's plenty of texture but it's holding together.

You definitely have to eat it, you have got to bite it.

You've got to bite it.

But I think that's such a good texture, such a good flavour

and just the right amount of smoke.

Thank you very much.

When it comes to dinner parties I used to avoid steak,

having to abandon my guests to cook the main course.

But my rib-eye steaks with stilton butter can be fried

ahead of time and still come out perfectly cooked.

To serve with the steaks, I'm going to make a shallot

and stilton butter.

I've got some very finely chopped shallots.

Shallots add a lovely flavour to the butter.

I don't want them dark brown.

I just take them to a gentle colour and they're done.

So, I'm going to tip those out to get cool.

Meanwhile, blend 50g of stilton with 75g of softened butter.

Add some freshly chopped chives and the two fried shallots,

then mix it all together.

Can you smell it?

It smells a bit like Christmas when you have stilton

always at Christmas and there's always lots left.

And sometimes I mix it with some creme fraiche and have it...

with pasta and that's jolly good.

When you've finished, take a sheet of clingfilm

and transfer the cheese mixture.

So, I'm going to take that and I'm going to roll this down.

The reason for making it into a sausage shape is,

when the butter is really, really hard, you can then cut discs

of this off and serve it on top of the steak and it just melts over

the top and makes it so tasty and rather easier than doing a sauce.

Place the butter in the fridge to firm up.

In the meantime prepare the meat, oiling the top side of the steaks

and seasoning well.

Never look for steaks that are absolutely bright red.

They want to be a little bit darker like this

and it shows that they've been hung.

The pan, now that really does feel fiery hot.

That's very important because I want to get a crust underneath

and they should sizzle and spit and that's how it should be,

so expect a bit of noise.

I thought up this idea of cooking the steaks ahead,

because I don't want to smell of a fry up when my guests arrive,

so I decided I would try it to cook them ahead on the day

and then reheat them.

So you cook them to absolute perfection.

Cool them quickly and then put them back in the oven

just to reheat and it works perfectly.

Now, that had one and a half minutes, so time to turn them over.

That has got a lovely crust on the top

and the marbling of the fat has become beautifully brown.

When all the meat is cooked, cover with foil and put in the fridge.

Remove the steaks an hour before serving, to allow them

to get back to room temperature.

Then put them in the oven at 200 fan for six minutes.

In the meantime, cut the stilton butter into slices

and when the steaks are done, place on top and you're ready to serve.

So, let's have a look inside.

Now, that should be a beautifully pink rare inside

and it's got a lovely crisp crust on the outside and that savoury butter

with stilton is just melting down over the top.

So, no need for a sauce.

When I was young, on special occasions, my mother would

serve guinea fowl.

Today, it's readily available and with a flavour somewhere

between chicken and pheasant, it's perfect for my next recipe.

For six people, you'll need two guinea fowl

because they're a little bit smaller than chicken.

If you buy them at a supermarket, they're usually whole

whereas the butcher will very likely joint them for you.

And what you do to skin them, is you just push your finger

underneath like that and then, sort of, pull it back.

Once the bird is skinned, season well.

It all adds flavour and you can't just add it at the end.

Then fry the guinea fowl, season side down over a high heat.

Season again and turn.

Once the meat is nicely browned all over, transfer it to a roasting tin.

I'm going to squeeze them up so they keep moist in the tin.

The reason why I'm putting the breasts on one side,

I always find with a chicken or with a guinea fowl,

the breasts cook faster than the sides,

so I'm going to put them in the oven at 160 fan

for about 20 minutes and then I will take the breasts out

because they'll be ready.

Now, place 200g of lardons into the pan

with four chopped banana shallots and cook for five minutes.

Then pour in 300mls of sherry and add four sprigs of thyme.

I keep sherry for cooking because it keeps much longer

and it gives a lovely flavour but I usually reduce it a bit.

So, I'm going to reduce this by a third.

Cover 10g of dried porcini mushrooms with boiling water

and leave to soak.

Now for the sauce.

Whisk 500ml of hot stock, a little at a time into a roux

made from 50g each of butter and flour.

This is the stage when you really want to make it smooth,

then it's much easier to add the rest of the stock.

Now, that is thick. In fact, at college we used to call it,

at this stage, a panada.

Keep whisking the roux until all the stock is incorporated.

Then remove the thyme sprigs from the lardon

and pour in the roux stock mixture.

It's a gorgeous colour. Everything's tender.

It's a beautiful consistency.

After 20 minutes, remove the guinea fowl from the oven,

set the breasts aside and return the leg joints for a further 10 minutes.

Now add 200g of chopped chestnut mushrooms to the sauce,

along with the chopped porcini and their stock

and leave to simmer gently.

Once the 10 minutes is up, remove the leg joints from the oven.

I'm just going to see whether they're tender.

If not, I'll give them a bit longer in the sauce.

The knife is going in like butter. Oh, that's hot.

And into the thighs and that's tender too.

Halve the breast so everyone gets some, then add all the meat

to the sauce with two tablespoons of full fat creme fraiche.

So, just stir that in. It wants to be one even colour.

That needs nothing. It's just right.

As you can see, there's a lot of sauce there

and I'm married to a gravy man.

To finish off, garnish with a handful of fresh parsley.

Be generous with the parsley. Put it on at the last minute.

And there it is.

At my dinner parties, I like to serve the cheese before the pudding.

We have so many good home grown varieties

and I've come to the west country to meet Catherine Mead,

who produces a Cornish cheese called Yarg,

which uses a very interesting ingredient, stinging nettle.

Yarg was first made by Alan Gray and he rediscovered a 17th century

recipe which looked at covering cheeses with nettles.

But when they covered them in the 17th century,

they just loosely wrapped them in a lot of nettles.

Alan Gray had the idea of making them much more integral to the rind

and Yarg, of course, is Gray backwards.

-Oh, goodness, of course.

-That's where the name comes from.

And so the nettles go round the cheese.

How do you apply that?

We dip this leaf into the solution

and then we paint it onto the cheese.

Would you like to have a go now?

-They're not going to sting me are they?

-No.

-Oh good.

Catherine, what's happening when the leaves go on?

Well, the leaves create a natural rind

and the natural rind attracts the natural moulds in the atmosphere

and that helps the cheese to mould ripen and the cheese

to break down and mature.

And we've tried a number of different leaves

and there aren't that many leaves that have that property,

so this is integral to our maturing process.

It's really most satisfying. Well, I've managed that not too badly.

Not quite as smooth as yours.

I think you're very good.

Once the cheese has been nettled on both sides, it's left to mature

and after six weeks, it's ready to eat.

OK, so what we're looking for in this cheese, is a nice firmness.

We're looking for the cheese to be a nice open texture.

I will cut you off some rind

so you can actually just taste those nettles.

-It looks most tempting this lovely soft green.

-Yes.

And I like the idea that it's nettles. It's sort of wild.

Wild and it smells deliciously mushroom-y.

Amazingly, it's quite soft to go through the nettles

and it's adding something to it, it's, um, I'm really enjoying it.

It's crumbly, it's full of flavour but not strong.

For my dinner party cheese board, I like to come up with a theme

and to go with the Yarg, I'm buying British

but I'm only using three cheeses.

That may sound a bit mean,

but I think it's better to have three decent sized pieces,

rather than lots of little bits of cheese

that you can't use up afterwards.

For example, I always use Cheddar because any that's left,

I can use over a cauliflower cheese or something.

This is Wookey Hole Cheddar cheese and it's stored in the caves

and matured in the caves where it's very cool.

I know all about it because I come from Bath.

So, let's pop that there.

Then I've got some Yarg cheese with those nettles around the outside

all put on by hand, a fairly mild cheese.

Then I've got Tunworth, from East Hampshire and that's a creamy,

rich cheese, so a really nice selection there.

Then I like a little fruit. I've got some figs here.

You could have cherries, you could have grapes.

So, let's just cut those in half.

I like to serve the cheese after the main course because you've

still got red wine in the glass and it goes very well with the cheese.

That's just what they do in France and I think they set a good example.

I love to bring my dinner parties to a spectacular close,

serving a pudding that looks the part and tastes good too.

My warm chocolate fondant tart is easy to make but looks as

though it's been taken from the window of a French patisserie.

I always buy puff pastry

but when I want a really good sweet short crust pastry,

I always make it myself.

I've mixed 50g each of diced butter

and icing sugar with 100g of plain flour to make a crumb texture.

Add in an egg yolk, a tablespoon of water and blend to form pastry.

After 30 minutes chilling in the fridge, it's ready to roll

out into the base of a nine inch flan tin.

What I'm doing, is rolling it slightly bigger than

the base of the flan tin and I want it very, very thin.

I can see the black base coming through.

And if it cracks a bit, this sweet crust is very easy to patch up.

Now, pull that in all the way round.

So, I'm going to put that into the base.

Then just peel it back like that all the way round

and then press it into each of the indentations.

Remove any excess pastry,

then it's back into the fridge for 15 minutes.

Then having pricked the base, put a sheet of baking foil over

the pastry.

Then, to weight it down, most people use beans.

I don't have baking beans,

I have the same lot of pasta I've had for a long time.

Cover the base evenly, then place in the oven at 180 fan to blind bake.

Baking the pastry like this will ensure that it's cooked through

and there is no soggy bottom.

After 10 minutes, remove the foil and return the pastry to the oven

and bake for a further five minutes to dry out.

For the fondant, add 150g of plain chocolate

to 100g of butter.

Already, it's beginning to melt.

If you have a fierce heat, it'll lose its shine

and even could separate.

There it is. Beautiful shine.

Remove from the heat and add 75g of plain flour

and 150g of golden caster sugar.

Then beat in six eggs.

You add the eggs one at a time, so each time it mixes in thoroughly.

If you put all the egg in at once, you'll find you get a lot

of sloppy mixture and it'll most likely go over the side of the pan.

Once the mixture is combined, pour it into the pastry case.

And then bake in the oven at 180 fan.

After just 10 minutes, it'll be ready.

Now, it should have a little wobble in the middle

and then on cooling, that will become firm.

So let's see.

Can you see, a little bit wobbly in the centre

but that will just firm up but still be soft.

Finish off with a dusting of icing sugar and it's ready to serve.

So, there you have it.

My collection of dishes to serve for a dinner party.

I hope that you'll try these recipes the next time you

invite your friends and family to come around.

Next time, I'm cooking Sunday lunch.

Slow roast lamb with rosemary and paprika rub and a simple but

stunning plum marzipan tarte Tatin, dishes the whole family can enjoy.