ottawa foodies

I'm calling on the OF team, for help again. I am having a semi-formal Party on Saturday Dec 12 in my home for 20 adults. We had a caterer lined up, but they have not returned my calls or emails in a week. I've gone by their kitchen and it looks like they left in haste (dirty dishes) and have not been there in a while (green bin still on the front step). I don't want to name them or slander them as I am afraid they've had some sort of personal emergency... however, it would have been nice to know this last week!! I probably shouldn't have waited this long to make other plans...

So, I am looking for alternatives. I have some culinary skill, but VERY little time, and a rather limited set of serving dishes. Looking for fast ways to fix this issue.

For reference, the menu was:

Cheese & Charcuterie Platter with Assorted Preserves (done by me)
Shrimp Cocktail Platter (me)
Antipasto Platter (caterer)
Dessert Platters (me)
Smoked Salmon, Dilled Cream Cheese, Pumpernickel Toast (caterer)
Cheddar & Carmelized Onion Crustini (caterer)
Mini crab cakes with Chili-Lime Aoili (caterer)
Moroccan Lamb on Potato Fritter (caterer)
Prunes Wrapped in Bacon (caterer)
Curried Apple and Raisin Tartlettes (caterer)
Chocolate Fountain (me)

So, you can see the caterer was doing the heavy lifting. Does anyone know of a store that might have quality bouches ready-made, or at least the tough parts?

I need to limit my running around (live in West End), limit prep time, and limit oven time.

Anyone have any surefire shortcuts for me?

My advice would be to coax someone into giving you a hand and doing it yourself. The Moroccan lamb on potato fritter looks like the most time-consuming dish, you could always swap it out for something else.

I don't know what desserts you are planning for your dessert platter....but every Christmas I usually do a batch of small choux puffs (even a small batch of choux paste makes a fair amount of puffs) and do half as profiteroles or cream puffs for the kids. The other half I do with goats cheese or cream cheese, smoked salmon and cucumber dill and red pepper garnish. It's one the easiest apps ever.

Caramelized onions can cook in the crock pot while you do other things.

The curried apple and raisin tartelettes you could do as turnovers, with purchased phyllo dough.

I'm sure Nicastro's can make you a nice antipasto platter if you don't want to do it yourself, or at least you can pick up all the components there.

That's all I have for now.

thyme and again catering has ready to cook appetizers. nicastros or la bottega for an antipasto platter and switch out some of the cooked things for really good cheese and bread.

thyme & again website for home catering options - they need 3 business days. cost is around $21 a dozen:
www.thymeandagain.ca

I would echo Mousseline's suggestion of Nicastro's for the antipasto platter.

As for the other dishes you could try Culinary Conspiracy. They may not have exactly what is on your menu but they can probably come up with something equally as delicious.

You could replace the Moroccan Lamb dish with what I call Rack of Lamb Finger Food. It is easy enough you could prepare it yourself. You herb crust (or dijon, or mint, or maple glaze) some rack of lamb. It cooks fast (20 mins?) and for serving you cut the rack into individual ribs, which make perfect finger food (i.e. each morsel of lamby perfection has a handle!)

I can vouch for Pete's lamb. Delish. And the handles are so cute!

I second Thyme & Again (bonus because its on the west-end) and Culinary Conspiracy (a bit further, in Sandy Hill) because I've been to events catered by the two and they were fabulous.

There's also the Foodery, with their cocktail party catering menu here: www.foodery.com/?page_id=124 Have never been to any events of theirs so can't vouch for the quality though.

Another side note, I was at Petit Bill's for a canapés event earlier this month and their bacon maple scallops and crab cakes (two separate items) were delicious and perfectly sized for cocktail-ish party. Perhaps they wouldn't mind making them for you to take home?

LOL, if this happened to "moi", I'd certainly be looking for alternative catering options... the stress of having to DO MORE would be more than I'd want to handle... organizing a party and all the last minute stuff would have me stressed out enough on the day of (and the few remaining).

Although, I gotta say that the foodie suggestions by Mousseline and P-i-O sound absolutely amazing.

Hungry Hungry Hippo - The original menu sounds delish, do hope you can get some comparable alternatives. Please let us know when all is said and done, how you handled the crisis and what was served.

Thanks to everyone (so far).

I didn't mean to put the menu out there as a must have... it was more to set the mood (i.e. this is not a meatballs-in-a-crockpot, event, not that there is anything wrong with that).

I've decided to go at it myself... mainly because all of the caterer's I have contacted are (understandably) busy.

I'm taking tomorrow off to do my shopping. Nicastro's and Thyme and Again are definitely on the list (as is the Piggy Market).

PiO, I like the lamb rib idea (have had it before). Do you think it scales well to 20-25 guests (in a standard kitchen)? What are your thoughts on preparing it hours in advance and serving at room temperature (with an appropriate cold dip... thinking a mild tzaziki).

.... I was hoping someone was going to jump out with a "Heck, I've nothing to do on Saturday, and love to cook, I'll drop off a few items at your place"... guess I was too subtle :) <<< just kidding

Hi, what about a platter of sushi from T&T Grocery store and they also have party platters with all sorts of mousse type cakes...not sure if it's high end enough for your party or not! But it will save you some time...make sure you don't take on too much that you don't enjoy yourself too!

HHHippo - does it scale? I served it to over 30 people I believe, but I only provided approx 1 rib each (just an appetizer, walked around on a tray). It all depends on what role it plays in the meal. Also cost can factor in, as 'good' lamb racks are quite pricey. The logistics of cooking for 25 are pretty easy to figure out (i.e. if it will fit your kitchen etc). If you want appetizer-size quantities of about 2+ ribs per person, that is about 7 racks ( $200 ish? at Glebe Meat Market) You can probably cook 4 racks comfortably on a small cookie sheet (with sides to collect grease). So, you then have the option of cooking one set of racks at a time, or get both oven shelves going and cook them all at once. You will need counter space to hold the meat before cooking (big tupperware?) as they should be at room temperature before cooking. I think it's doable, but you will need to be organized. I 'marinade' mine in a mixture of fresh rosemary, and dijon mustard (overnight?) and when ready to cook, I dip the racks in a mixture of bread crumbs (or panko flakes mmm) and graham cracker crumbs. I also recommend you do a test run the day before so you know how long to leave the lamb in. Uncoated racks can be done medium-rare in as little as 15 or 20 minutes, but ones coated with crumbs can easily take 10 minutes more.

When ready to serve, just get out a big knife, and slice the racks into individual ribs. For this tender cut, to get maximum effect, I recommend serving warm, not cold. Don't forget to tell the butcher that you're planning on serving them individually, to make sure he has properly cut away enough of the chine bone so you can cut between the ribs easily.

Unfortunately I'm away this weekend...

Costco has had very nice lamb racks for less than the Glebe Meat Market (no, I don't recall how much they were). And the lamb racks at Loblaws are fine, too--I think they run about 10 bucks per rack.

Not sure about Costco, but Loblaws only sells vacpac lamb from NZ which is quite frankly inferior to the local stuff. Lamb at the local butchers ( such as Glebe Meat Market) and at Farmboy is from Canada. You get what you pay for. I only mentioned the GMM, because of the lamb I've purchased in Ottawa, it has been the best ( by a small margin over FB, and by a large margin over Loblaws).

Agreed--quality of local lamb is unquestionably better, but for everyday use I find the NZ stuff to be just fine (and I can afford to eat it more frequently--I no longer view rack of lamb as a luxury!).

The local racks are also quite small (perhaps that is why they are so good), so they seem to have a lower ratio of meat to bone/fat/connective tissue.

As promised, here is my follow-up. The night was a pretty successful despite a finicky chocolate fountain that I had to yank from the table last minute. In the end, a nice walk down Wellington (with bonus lunch at WGP) helped pull the whole thing together. Thanks for all of the suggestions.

The finalized menu.

Antipasto Platter - selected items from Nicastros and Farm Boy

Cheese and Charcuterie - Nicastros, Piggy Market, Costco (the star was an ash rolled goat cheese, the name of which escapes me, but comes in two small logs for $9 at Costco... go buy some!)

Grilled Shrimp Cocktail with Key Lime Cocktail Sauce - Lapointe's (and sadly, my last 3 key limes)

Pork & Cabbage Dumplings with Spicy Tamari & Scallion Dipping Sauce - T&T, Costco (the dumplings were the only item I ended up "outsourcing")

Smoked Salmon on Cucumber Rounds with Dilled Cream Cheese - Ottawa Bagel Shoppe (actually, I cheated here too and used OBS prepared cream cheese)

Mini Crab Cakes w/ Chili Lime Aioli - Lapointe's (I had to make these myself as Thyme and Again was out of stock, tasty, but next time... I will definitely get someone else to do the cakes)

Blue Cheese and Bacon Stuffed Medjool Dates - Costco, Piggy Market (the hit of the party)

Duo of Beef Crostini with Horseradish Cream - Stittsville Butcher (housemade roast beef), Sasloves (smoked Bison)

Cookie and Treat Station - my lovely wife

2.5 cases of red wine, 4 bottles of white, and copious amounts of homemade egg nog

on a side note, I was really tempted to use PiO's suggestion on the lamb, but waited until Costco to pick up the racks. I passed, as they were cut strangely (on a bias, so the end two ribs would be unpresentable) and they were rather skimpy.

Geez, who cuts ribs on the bias?? Somebody's going to get it for that.

Your party sounds like it was a hit! And the menu sounds great.

In future- Costco had some excellent frozen crab cakes. God they were good but probably too big for app size.

Glad to hear that the party went well. It sounds all fantastic.

And good call on the dates! I once brought bacon-wrapped dates that were stuffed with slivers of parmesan cheese to a party, and they were definitely a hit.

For an extra piggy experience, try dates stuffed with a piece of chorizo and wrapped in bacon.