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Party food

Sea blue vanilla milkshake

Octopus Sandwiches

Pink Meringue Shells

Jelly boats

Fish sandwich

Mock sushi

Cake ideas

Sea blue vanilla milkshake

You will need:

What to do:

  1. Place 2 or 3 scoops of vanilla ice cream in a tall plastic container.
  2. Let the ice cream sit in your plastic container for about 10 minutes at room temp.
  3. Put 1 or 2 drops of blue food colouring into the ice cream and then pour in about one quarter cup of milk.
  4. Use a big spoon to gently stir all of the ingredients together.
  5. You may need to add a little more ice cream or a bit more milk, depending on the consistency of your milkshake.
  6. Pour your milkshake into a small, clear, drinking glass.
  7. Add a drinking straw.  For extra effect, colour and cut out a fish shape and glue it to the straw. 

Octopus Sandwiches

You will need:

What to do:

  1. Cut a hot dog down the middle (length wise) to the centre. 
  2. Then cut each of the "legs" into 4 pieces. That makes 8 floppy legs coming out of the top half of the hotdog. 
  3. When you boil them the legs curl up. 
  4. Put it on a hamburger bun bottom and that's it!

The legs curl because the innards of the sausage expands slightly but the skin doesn't.

Pink Meringue Shells

You will need:

What to do:

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 110oC/225oF/gas1/4.
  2. Whisk the egg whites until firm.
  3. Carry on whisking, adding 1 tablespoon of the sugar at a time and using up half the sugar.
  4. Using a wooden spoon, fold in the remaining sugar together with a few drops of the pink food colouring.
  5. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 15 mm (1/2 in) star nozzle.
  6. Pipe about 40 small shell shapes on to baking trays lined with non-stick baking paper.
  7. Bake the meringues in an oven for about 1 hour 40 minutes or until crisp.
  8. Arrange the meringues on a wire rack to cool.
  9. Whip the cream until it forms stiff peaks and use it to sandwich together pairs of meringue shells. 
  10. Use edible silver balls to look like pearls in the middle of the open shells.

How are pearls formed? As the Oyster grows in size, its shell must also grow. The mantle is an organ that produces the oyster's shell, using minerals from the oyster's food. The material created by the mantle is called nacre. Nacre lines the inside of the shell. This iridescent coating is more commonly known as mother of pearl.

The formation of a natural pearl begins when a foreign substance slips into the oyster between the mantle and the shell, which irritates the mantle. It's like the oyster getting a splinter. The oyster's natural reaction is to cover up that irritant to protect itself. The mantle covers the irritant with layers of the same nacre substance that is used to create the shell. This eventually forms a pearl.

From http://science.howstuffworks.com/question630.htm

Meringues

What is going on?

One minute egg whites are a gloopy clear liquid and the next minute they are like fluffy white clouds! Eggs contain both water and protein, and protein is made up of amino acids. Some amino acids are hydrophilic (attracted to water) and some are hydrophobic (repelled by water). When you add air through beating egg whites, the protein molecules uncurl so that the water-loving parts immerse themselves in the water and the water-hating parts can stick out into the air. This is due to denaturation. These rearranged proteins then bond with each other, creating a network that holds the air bubbles in the whipped egg whites in place.

From http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/icooks/11-03-03.html

Why not add sugar at the beginning?

Adding sugar at the beginning can double the time you have to whip the egg whites to get a foam. That’s because the sugar molecules get in the way of the egg proteins. With sugar molecules in the way, it takes longer for the proteins to find each other and form bonds.

When meringue is cooking, sugar helps keep it stable by bonding with water molecules and preventing them from escaping as water vapor. Delaying the evaporation of water from the foam helps keep the foam stable until it stiffens.

From http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/eggs/eggscience.html

Jelly boats

You will need:

What to do:

  1. Squeeze the orange halves and reserve the fresh juice for drinking.
  2. Scrape out the orange skins.
  3. Prepare the jelly according to the instructions on the packet but add slightly less water so that the jelly will be nice and firm.
  4. Fill the arranged halves with jelly to the top.
  5. Leave to set in a refrigerator.
  6. Slice the oranges in half using a wet knife.
  7. Make a paper sail and thread a cocktail stick through it before placing it in the ‘boat’.  Nautical but nice!

Jelly contains the protein gelatine. Before you add boiling water the amino acid strands that make up the gelatine are arranged in a triple helix structure and are held together by weak bonds.

The heat from the boiling water breaks these weak bonds so the amino acid strands can’t hold their structure and the jelly dissolves in the water. Once the jelly is a liquid, it can be poured into a mould and left to cool.

As the jelly cools down the bonds between the amino acids start to reform producing a mesh of interlinked fibres with water trapped between them. When enough bonds have formed, the jelly becomes set in its new shape.

Fish sandwich

You will need:

What to do:

  1. Slice the bread roll open horizontally and spread both sides with low fat spread.
  2. Place lettuce leaves and slices of tomato so that two slices of tomato protrude a little at one end (like fish lips!)
  3. Arrange slices of boiled egg or cheese on top.
  4. Put the top on the roll and make a vertical slit in the top.
  5. Place halves of cucumber in the slit so that they look like fins.
  6. Insert two cucumber ‘fins’ in the sides of the roll.
  7. Arrange two slices of cucumber at the rear of the roll to look like a tail.
  8. Break a cocktail stick in half. Secure two olives to the front of the roll to look like eyes. Seems a bit fishy, eh?

Mock sushi

You will need:

What to do:

  1. Grease a 12- by 17-inch baking pan
  2. Melt butter in a large pan over medium heat.
  3. Add the marshmallows and stir until smooth.
  4. Remove mixture from heat and stir in the rice crispies until evenly coated.
  5. Turn the baking sheet so that the shorter ends are at the top and bottom. Then press the marshmallow mixture on the sheet, distributing it evenly.
  6. Starting at one side and 1 inch up from the lower edge, place gummy worms atop the mixture end to end in a horizontal line.
  7. Gently roll the lower edge of the marshmallow mixture over the gummy worms.
  8. Then stop and cut the log away from the rest of the mixture. Use the same method for 4 more logs.
  9. Slice each log in 1-inch-thick "sushi" rolls and wrap them individually with a strip of fruit leather.

Sushi is a Japanese delicacy, containing fresh fish, seaweed and rice, it is low in calories, high in omega 3 fatty acids, gluten-free and packed full of protein, minerals and vitamins.  The word ‘sushi’ refers to the rice not the topping so, contrary to public belief, it does not mean ‘raw fish’.

It’s said that sushi originates from the practice of preserving freshwater fish in salt and cooked rice to provide food out of season in Japan. But only the fish was eaten, because the rice didn’t keep well.

Oily fish contain Omega-3 fatty acids, which have been linked to protection from heart disease, arthritis and the skin condition, psoriasis. The acids have a blood-thinning effect which may help to reduce heart disease and improve circulation.

The sushi conveyor belt was invented by Yoshiaki Shiraishi in Osaka in 1958. The speed of the belt is crucial. The optimum speed is 8 cm per second. Any faster and the food would dry out or the dishes fly off the belt, any slower and the customer gets bored.

To be a master sushi chef takes years of training. Apprentices can take up to three years before they even start to make rice. Reaching the stage where you’re seen as skilled enough to work at a sushi counter with fish can take anything up to 10 years.

However, beware the fugu or blowfish. Fugu is a fish which contains deadly poison in the organs. Despite the risk, fugu dishes remain as special feasts in Japan. Since fugu's poison can lead to instantaneous deaths of diners, only licensed cooks are allowed to prepare fugu. Just as well really!

Cake ideas

Fish cake:
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/6459/oceancake.html

Fancy fish cake:
http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/special/cake/cake_fish/

Under the sea cake:
http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/special/cake/cake_sea/