Plan to bid farewell to 2020 with a house gathering? Experts share tips and tricks to jazz up the affair
Create an interactive bar for guests to fix their own drinks
Raise the bar
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Tasheen Rahimtoola, founder, Taste Retreat, a menu curation and catering service, shares that at the heart of every good party is the ability to keep guests engaged:
. Set up an interactive bar with a selection of seasonal fruits, herbs, alcohol, mixers and ice. Leave your tablet on the table with a few cocktail recipes and let your guests fix their drinks up.
. Arrange a corner with statement decorations and lights, where people can take pictures. Recycle your old Christmas decorations or bottles, cups, pictures, etc, to avoid buying new decor.
. A definite ice-breaker is a party game such as The Ballot. The rules are simple: you ask a question such as who has the best shoes tonight, and your friends can vote. It helps guests ease into the mood.
Keep it cheesy
Chefs Ryan Braganza and Annabelle Lobo who run a home delivery and pop-up service tell us that presenting even the simplest of food well is key:
. Opt for a cheese platter that is easy to curate and sits pretty. Pick up different varieties of locally produced cheese. Throw in some cheese spreads and add garlic or crushed peppercorns to it for more diversity. Pick fresh figs and grapes to dress up the board.
. Buy puff dough from your local bakery. Roll it out, cut as you like and bake. Top up with fillings — savoury like home-made garlic or herbed butters, and sweet ones. You can also try bruschettas with kadak pao from a local bakery and add a variety of toppings like tomato oil and basil or Baba ganoush topped with marinated aubergine.
. For presenting your food, try and place the platters at different heights on your table; you can overturn bowls and use that as a prop. Microgreens also work wonders to dress up tarts or bruschettas.
Turn a chopping board into a cheese platter
Sorbet
Ingredients
. 500g fruit purée (used green apple here)
. 50g liquid glucose
. 50g sugar
Method
Put everything into a pan and bring it to a boil. Freeze in a container overnight. Cut up into chunks and blend it in a mixer until smooth. Freeze it again for an hour; scoop and enjoy. If using green apple, dice up some of it with chopped mint and lime juice and spread it as the base for the sorbet.
Gin up!
Chef Juliano Rodrigues from Out Of The Blue picks Bramble, a gin and berry-based cocktail that is served in a Tom Collins glass, for an NYE house party. "Fresh raspberries are preferable for garnishing, but if you don't have it, even the purée works. It's best had freshly prepared," he suggests.
Bramble
Ingredients
. 30 ml Tanqueray gin
. 30 ml crème de Cassis
. 1 bottle ginger ale
. 15 ml sugar syrup
. 30 ml raspberry purée
. 10 g ice
. 10 gm cranberry
Method
Shake the gin and crème de Cassis, followed by an addition of lime juice and sugar syrup. Pour the contents in a Tom Collins glass with ice, and top it with ginger ale and raspberry puree. Garnish with frozen cranberries.
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