Foodiva's Kitchen: Forever Nigella - Royal Wedding Street Party Fare!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Forever Nigella - Royal Wedding Street Party Fare!

"It sounds like something on a very trite T-shirt, but life is what happens."
  ~ Nigella Lawson


Tomorrow, Prince William and his bride Kate (Princess Catherine?) will officially commit to each other, and as we watch them do this live, they will be committing their commitment to the rest of the world as well. What a bagpipe of nerves they must both be in the midst of high expectations of their fairytale union...

My advice to you, Will and Kate, is to just chill out and enjoy your big day. Laugh a lot, kiss each other because it's spring and the flowers are out but more importantly, because you mean it. Forget about the rest of us. A regular wedding bash, let alone a Royal Wedding, is so overrated anyway. Afterwards is what really matters. Oh, and Kate, keep your wedding bouquet. You'll need it to remind you someday why you're in this for the long haul. Bouquet and yes, that delicious ring.


Now that that's out of the way, let me get to the heart of this post. This British Royal Wedding  gives us an opportunity (or excuse, rather) to gather family, friends and neighbors round and throw a street party à la Nigella! This month's Forever Nigella host is Mardi of Eat Live Travel Write blog. She's done a great job in coming up with exquisite food for the street party using Nigella's express recipes, so I'm just going to follow in her cleverness.

Since these are very easy and non-time consuming recipes that I've picked, I've decided to make three types of dishes you can simply pick up and eat with your fingers. Licking them afterwards (your fingers, not the plate) is very much allowed, encouraged even, because this is Nigella's realm, after all.

Halloumi with Chilli

My first contribution to the street party is grilled Halloumi with Chilli. Before I made this, I had never eaten halloumi but Nigella's description of it as "that squeaky, salty Polystyrene-textured cheese" made me want to have a taste of it right away. And she was right, you know. If you've ever bitten into polystyrene (what do you mean, you've never?) and felt it bounce back against your teeth, well that's what halloumi is like. It's springy in texture and the flavor is salty, mellow and tangy. 


The cheese doesn't melt when it is fried and I only needed to dry-fry this quickly in a non-stick pan. After drizzling some chilli-infused olive oil - extra virgin would of course be lovely but is not requisite in naughty Nigella's kitchen, nor mine - all over the cheese slices, they were suddenly ready to be served! A splash of acidity from the lemons worked wondrously to balance out the spicy, salty flavors. How can something so simple look/taste so beautiful? I wonder if they'll be serving these to the Royal Wedding guests? Perhaps not, they won't know what they're missing. This superquick recipe can be found at Nigella.com.

Pigs in Blankets

My second party dish is Pigs in Blankets, essentially cocktail sausages wrapped in the same dough you would use to make scones. Unlike the tender touch you'd need with scones, this dough can be manhandled without any consequences. The three-step process of 'roll, wrap and bake' was so annoyingly pleasurable that it was quite easy to make 50 pieces from a single batch of dough! One thing I did change in the recipe was to use chicken cocktail sausages instead of pork. Perhaps these should now be renamed Chix in Blankets?

As easy as roll, wrap and bake.

Cherry Cheesecake

Lastly, a dessert. What, no more space for dessert? But you must make room for some.... because you wouldn't want to miss out on a piece of this loveliness that is Nigella's Cherry Cheesecake. I threw this together in such a short space of time (10 minutes?), it's almost embarassing. It's an absolutely no-bake recipe and only needed to be set in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours. The luscious cherry topping was shhh.... out of a jar of very fruity St. Dalfour jam. No one needs to know that this labor of love isn't as laborious as it looked in the end. Trust me, the recipe insists that you don't break out into a sweat while making this.


Take a slice for the Street Party!

So there you have it. I hope you've enjoyed my quickies selection. Now I'm going to make myself a hot cup of tea (like the British do), kick off my flip-flops and put my feet up. In line with all things Royal Wedding, I leave you with these famous words from when Shrek rescues Fiona:

Princess Fiona: What are you doing? You know, you should sweep me off my feet out yonder window and down a rope onto your valiant steed.
Shrek: You've had a lot of time to plan this, haven't you?


Have a wonderful future together, Will and Kate!

Royal mwaahs,

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

OMG, all your selections! You went all out! Amazing! I love the halloumi bites!

Unknown said...

@yummychunklet - Don't the halloumi slices look marvelously tempting? They're ridiculously easy, it's hard to resist making them!

spcookiequeen said...

Can I come to the party. Never had halloumi, they looked so tempting, but the styro part doesn't sound so good. I want some of those pigs in a blanket and a piece of cheesecake to wash it all down. I haven't seen much about the wedding, where have I been.
-Gina-

Unknown said...

Oh Gina, of course you can come! My goodness, I want to live where you live.... Where I am, we have a Royal Wedding special series featuring the couple and other British Royals EVERY DAY for a week! On 29 April, everything will stop and we get a whole day's broadcast of the event. God help us...where do you live again? ;-)

the [sugar] apothecary said...

Now you've got me Googling halloumi (and the peculiar way it refuses to melt). I have to try some! What's not to love about Nigella?

Anonymous said...

I don't think I've ever had a pig in the blanket before, is that similar to hotcakes wrapped in sausage?

Unknown said...

What a fantastic selection Maya. I've just done my prep for the event tomorrow. My friends are coming to watch the wedding. I am also making pigs in blanket. Great minds think alike :)
Have a nice day!

Unknown said...

Elle Marie, in this case, it's the sausage that's being wrapped. If you mean Japanese hotcakes which has the texture of pancakes, then no, it's not the same as these blankets resemble flaky pie crust.

Unknown said...

Michael...yeay! I'm glad you didn't say great piggies think alike! Haha.. You're actually having friends over to watch the wedding? I think that's simply awesome, I hope you guys have a great time. We'll be watching the ceremonies live over here as well!

adorasbox said...

Perfect choices for a Nigella style street party. I adore Nigella's easy going entertainment style. Indeed the key to successful hosting is to enjoy the party yourself. I can imagine her opening her fridge, grabbing a big wedge of the cheesecake and eating it right there and then without the aid of any utensils.

Unknown said...

Adora, yes that's what I imagine Nigella would do too. In fact, come to think of it, isn't that what we'd do too in the middle of the night when no one's watching? Yumms....

Mary Bergfeld said...

I really love your street party contributions. This is my first visit to your blog and I've been exploring and poking through your earlier entries. I really like the food and recipes you feature here and I'll definitely be back. I hope you have a great day. Blessings...Mary

Unknown said...

Hiya Mary, welcome to Foodiva's Kitchen. Poking around is very much encouraged here! Thanks for taking the time to leave your comment.

Tasty Trix said...

Well, even though I don't honestly care about the royals (I mean, I don't want to watch a wedding of people who wouldn't deign to speak to me in real life!!) I am ALL ABOUT the street party food thing. Your dishes look amazing. Love haloumi - and somehow you managed to do the impossible: make pigs in a blanket look elegant!!

Carolyn said...

Fun little array of food! You know, I don't know if I will bother to watch, although I am sure I will see rebroadcasts of it at some point. I know it's a huge event, but I don't think I can rouse myself early just to watch it!

Mardi Michels said...

Absolutely fabulous spread Maya! I love the food you chose, especially the halloumi :) Mmmm squeaky cheese! Thank you for participating in Forecer Nigella this month. I think Ms Lawson, Wills and Kate would approve!

Steph said...

What a great menu!! You stole my heart with pigs in a blanket! :)

Celia said...

Awesome! I've eyed that halloumi recipe a number of times and you're tempting me to try it...great menu!

Unknown said...

Trix, well the British Royal Family have been spotted stepping into our Bruneian rainforests a number of times (because we have a big rainforest research center here) over the years, so in case Will and Kate do make it here someday, I'm hoping to give them some private pastry lessons. That's the ONLY reason why I'm watching their wedding today (she sezs)!

As for the piggies, it was either sticking more bamboo toothpicks into them or using the Chinese soup spoons. I went with the latter, and really only had those 5 pieces at home...haha. So much for a street party!

Unknown said...

Mardi, thanks for hosting Forever Nigella. Your approval (and perhaps Nigella's) is all that really matters, forget about the rest!

Unknown said...

Carolyn, Steph and Celia, thanks. Hope you've enjoyed the street party!

Joy said...

Everything looks great.

Sandra said...

Do you ship? hahaha amazing party food, and you did fantastic job!!!

Unknown said...

Sandra, I bet you're wishing I DO ship...haha! Thank you, sweetie ;-).

Aveen said...

Yummy! It all looks fantastic but the cherry cheesecake is so tempting... I looked at that recipe and decided against it but having seen yours I'm definitely going to make it soon. I couldn't quite escape the Royal Wedding fever either, I ended up watching and enjoying it despite claiming for weeks that I wasn't interested!

Victoria said...

What a lovely way to tie in the Forever Nigella challenge and the Royal Wedding :) I must say, I can't remember the last time I had a pig in a blanket, but every time I see them on blogs I vow that I will make them soon and I never remember. Next time I need an idea for appetizers, I will have to keep that in mind :)

Spoon and Chopsticks said...

They're all tempting and look delicious but right now I'd like to have the cherry cheesecake.

Nancy said...

Great advice Maya! So many of us get caught up in the stress and forget to fully enjoy our special day. I love Halloumi and Halloumi with Chile well I'm totally there. Love the pigs in blankest and cherry cheesecake!

Sally - My Custard Pie said...

Pigs in blankets - or a variation in Nigella's latest book - franks in blanks! Great finger food for a party. Very elegant presentation.

Elizabeth said...

That cheesecake looks amazing!

http://agirlinherkitchen.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

What a lovely platter of things you made for the challenge! really impressive

Betsy said...

Your street party food looks amazing. The chix in the blanket make me want to go to the kitchen and make them right now. I made the cherry cheesecake as minis. Very messy. I think your cake was the way to go.

Anonymous said...

Love your menu!
Grew up on Halloumi for breakfast with bacon and eggs! Now I've got my husband and kids addicted to it!
What's not to love about pigs in blankets!
And we love cherries! Perfect menu!

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