Gourmet Caterers Orange County

Gourmet Caterers had the honor of catering for US Labs Holiday Party.  It was for 375 guests and it really went very smoothly.  I am beginning to resemble a turkey, as we cooked so many and cut up so many….The menu was simple but plentiful…        

Fresh breadrolls and sweet butter                                                                                                      

  Oven roasted Turkey with fresh herbs and caramilized shallots                                                                       

      Cranberry delight-cranberry relish with fresh fruit and   nuts                                                                                   

delicious apple and apricot stuffing                                                                                                                       

          caramilized sweet potatoes, baked with butter and brown sugar                                                                 

             Mandarin grove salad with mandarins and toasted sliced almonds and a poppy seed dressing

pumpkin cheesecake

For a hundred invited guests this was a great barmitzvah in a great setting.  Held in a beautiful home, Gourmet Caterers served the adults  Cashew crusted halibut with a fruity salsa, boneless chicken breast cooked in wine, herb and mushrooms.  A mixed salad with yellow and red beets, cherries and a lime dressing.  Wild rice with dried apricots and toasted pecans, and roasted mixed vegetables, marinated in a balsalmic vinagrette.  The kids had a pasta bar with alfredo and marinara sauce, and roasted crumbed chicken legs.  Desserts was a delicious moist Mexican carrot cake and chocolate brownies.  See pictures at :
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Gourmet Caterers does a Thanksgiving dinner buffet for 200 guests, that was something special.    Guests casually arrived for appetizers of creamy butternut soup and homemade health bread, vegetarian spicy vegetables in phyllo pastry and baby meatballs in a tangy sauce.  A bread display with butter.  Each guest got a delicious fresh spinach salad at their seat, with pears, Gorgonzola cheese and cranberries with a fruity dressing.  Later on they had a huge thanksgiving buffet for their main course.  This was of course Turkey which had been roasted with fresh herbs - thyme, rosemary, tarragon under the skin of the turkey with fresh garlic and olive oil.  All the cavities of the turkey had been stuffed with fresh sliced oranges which gave the turkey a delicious flavor.  The turkey was moist and flavorful.  A separate stuffing of celery, onions, garlic and chicken stock with the dry cornbread was also soft and delicious.  Yams with coconut was sweet and very good.  Our green beans with almonds , garlic and onions was also very good.  Garlic mash potato and regular sautee’d potatoes.  Regular gravy for the turkey and cranberry sauce.  Desert was brownies a la mode with ice-cream, and pumpkin pie and cream.  Everyone was so stuffed, and so enjoyed the food.

What a wedding it was. Gourmet caterers made amazing tasty foods. The passed appetizers were Dahi Bar - black pea fritters with a yogurt dressing. Pakaros - deep fried fritters made with chickpeas and onion and spices served with a hot chutney.

We served Parantha breads, which is like a flat bread- delicious served hot or warm. We also served Carrot Moong Dhal salad, and Chile cucumber salad.

The Entrees were Tandoori Chicken- Lemon chicken with coriander, ginger, garlic marinaded in yogurt and then grilled. Chicken Tikka-also marinaded in yogurt, garlic, ginger , chilli and coriander and then baked out. Prawn curry-prawns, coconut, onion, curry, and lemon. They also had Khoorma- onion, diced lamb and yogurt cooked slowly on the stove top. All served with an assortment of hot and spicy and fruity chutneys. Dessert was steamed dumplings made with coconut and poppyseeds and rice. Kalfi-indian ice-cream with cardomon. We also served Indian cheese cake called Burfi with ricotta cheese.

Amongst those World famous artists, Gourmet Caterers displayed their amazing food selections.  Sizzling appetizers were passed around to appreciative guests.  Shrimp Ramaki - delicious shrimp with crispy bacon wrapped around it, crabs leg pieces with a delicious lemon butter sauce, mint lamb chops served in a wine glass with garlic mash potatoes and a mint sauce,  cutesy little appetizers passed on tiny platters of  polenta corn cakes with wild mushrooms glace, apple and walnut stuffed mushrooms, Asian latkes with nuts and gingered sour cream, blinis with red cavair and sour cream, and then to complete the amazing event, glasses filled with tantilizing chocolate and cranberry mousse, fruit cocktail, chocolate truffles, cheese balls with walnuts, WOW what an amazing event it was..

Gourmet Caterers specialize in kosher and kosher style Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, we have separate businesses, and kitchens to achieve this. We do a lot of Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, and are very accustomed to what the Family require on this special day, or weekend. We often do a Friday night dinner for all the family and out of town guests, and then after the synagogue service on the Saturday, we usually do a kiddush lunch, and that evening is the big party. Often on the Sunday morning there is a brunch for the family and out of town guests.

Many of our Bar and Bat Mitzvah parties are theme parties. The kids choose a theme - sports, colors, candy whatever, we work around that theme, and decorate our tables in the theme. The room can be decorated by ourselves or a party planner, we work with a lot of other vendors. Menus are chosen around the theme, maybe a few Nationalities, or if red white and green can be Mexican food, or Italian, with a whole menu around pastas, pizza, etc. We have so many ideas to advise a client of what has worked before. We also have a lot of venues that we have worked with before, like the Marconi Car Museum in Tustin, great place to have a Bar Mitzvah. We have done a Bar Mitzvah on a beach, a BBQ, one in a park, one in a gymnasium, so if you are looking for ideas we can surely help.

Our kosher Catering - Kosher Gourmet Caterers, offers a unique service to our clients, and we always go the extra mile, to make it a successful for all concerned.   We take care of everything.  We customize a menu for all our clients, thus giving them a special menu for a special day, or weekend….

Gourmet Caterers had the pleasure of catering for a South African party. A 75th Birthday celebration. Being South African ourselves its always fun to make a traditional menu. It was a small party, but had a big selection of foods. The appetizers were beef sosaties made up of beef, apricots and red onion and served with a delicious sauce with onions, curry, ginger etc…, also for appetizers we served traditional vegetarian samoosas, with a hint of chillies and curry.

For main course we served at room temperature pickled fish with curry, lots of onions and bay leaves and apricots. Cube steak with a monkeygland sauce, which is a sauce rich in onions, tomatoes, garlic and chutney -delicious. Babotie - which is a traditional dish similar to meatloaf but on the sweeter and curried side. Cape chicken curry-made with a delicious selection of fresh herbs, chilli powder, cardamon, tomatoes etc, served with yellow rice with raisins. The traditional home made boerewors (this is beef sausage) served with mielie pap, this is maize meal that has been cooked with water slowly at a low temp to get thick and is served with a tomato, onion like gravy we call train smash…. We also served pumpkin fritters with cinnamon and sugar. Dessert was koeksisters, this a donut type dessert, fried dough dipped immediately in a cold sugar liquid, this gives it, its sweet flavor, but it is not glossy, or coated in the liquid, it just absorbs some, and then drips off. Fresh fruit was served as well. All the South Africans and everyone else enjoyed the evening.

Gourmet caterers has some all time favorite recipes - Brunch being our favorite meal. On a brunch we can go all out on egg dishes, cheese dishes and speciality stuffed french toast dishes. Our very favorite and sought after being cheese blintzes, and an exciting french toast, here are the recipes……

Cheese blintz Recipe

Batter - 8 eggs and two cups of water - beat up till frothy,add one and a half cups flour and half a teaspoon salt, and 2 teaspoons bking powder, beat till smooth

Filling - 2 pounds cream cheese , half a pound cottage cheese, 1 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons flour,1 tespoon vanilla, mix all together until smooth

Method - make sure to use teflon coated small frying pans, spray pan with butter spray, make sure pan is hot, add batter and swirl around till coated, tip remaining mixture out of pan. When cooked batter will come away from sides of pan, remove from pan, allow to cool for a minute, fold over top of pancake, put a tablespoon of mixture on top of fold, fold over one time over cheese mixture, then fold sides in, and continue rolling batter with mixture down until all gone, make sure that mixture is all sealed in pancake. I freeze the blintz before frying. You can fry in hot vegetable oil, halfway up blintz, or just a little margarine or butter until browned. Serve with cinnamon and sugar mixture, or cream or applesauce…enjoy

BAKED ORANGE WALNUT FRENCH TOAST

Ingredients - 4 eggs, 1 cup orange juice, 1 cup milk, quarter cup sugar, quarter teaspoon vanilla, 1 loaf french or italian bread cut into 1″ slices, one third cup butter or margarine melted, half a cup chopped walnuts, grated orange peel

Method - whisk together eggs, orange juice, milk, sugar, nutmeg and vanilla, place bread in a single layer in large, flat dish.  Pour mixture over bread, turn once, cover and refrigerate overnight.  Preheat oven to 400, pour melted butter over pan evenely, arrange soaked bread slices in a single layer in pan.  Sprinkle with walnuts, bake until golden, 15 to 20 minutes.  Sprinkle fresh orange zest on top and serve with maple syrup, garnish with orange peel- serves 4 - 8 guests

75 Guests enjoyed Gourmet Caterers appetizer event, which was held at Deloittes offices in Orange County. It was a fast moving event, with only 30 minutes for the meal, but there was some time in between the seminar for the guests to come and enjoy more food.

They had a very upmarket menu of Honey roasted Lamb, served on a pita chip, with Lemon Mayonnaise and fresh fennel salad. Blackened Red Snapper on Red corn Tortilla with peach relish. Ginger chicken-lime skewers with peanut sauce. Bruschetta with roasted peppers and portabe mushrooms with butternut squash boursin spread. Phyllo pastry triangles with spicy mixed vegetables. Mini corn cakes with citrus salsa. Goat cheese truffles with pistachios and sun dried tomatoes. Sweet potato and ginger roste with chive cream, ending the meal with mini fruit tartlets and choc cups with mousse and maraschino cherries. It was a smooth event, for a great company.

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We at Gourmet Caterers are planning and setting up an online store. We always make foods for our Jewish customers on all the holidays, now we plan to expand on that. We plan to make available to all our customers through a website, the availability of purchasing those foods that our clients are always begging us to make more of. Foods such as cheese blintzes, beef perogen, kichel, chopped herring, our to die for roggelach, and many more food items. We also plan to have delicious home made soups and pies for winter, and some whole family meals. We plan to launch this new concept for Gourmet Caterers within the next few months. We have thought about this for a long time, and then we get really busy catering and this gets shoved to the back burner. We have also had requests for delicious cakes and cookies, this too is an option. We plan to start off small with about 10 items, and slowly grow this side of the business. We would love feedback from our clients as to what they would like us to produce, what their family loves that Gourmet Caterers makes. Email us at Ruth@gourmetcaterers.net

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