The thing is I love kebabs!

When I was head chef at Odette's, after service on a Saturday night we used to go down to the Edgware Road, where there are lots of Lebanese restaurants, and have a sneaky couple of lamb kebabs.

Just for a late night snack you see, as we had just finished a five hour service, so we needed some food!

I didn't think I could get away with serving up kebabs to our Saturday night wedding guests but it did get me thinking about other popular Saturday night dinners.
So this year I decided to offer a couple of new buffet ideas, dishes from Thailand or India.
And not forgetting our famous "ELFC" - East Lodge Fried Chicken. All we need is some black and gold boxes to serve it in and we'll be sorted! We brine boned, skin on chicken legs for 12 hours, then drain them for another 12. Dredged in our secret blend of herbs and spices and deep fried they really do taste better then the original. And it means I can have my Saturday night fast food fix!

Along with the fried chicken we served a Thai green curry, made with lots of Asian green vegetables, Clay pot rice with sour Thai sausages and tiger prawns and a spicy roast pork belly salad. With the addition of a caramel and tamarind dipping sauce and a red hot birds eye chili relish I think it all looks rather good!
Oh we garnished the pork salad with "son in law" eggs, hard boiled and deep fried I thought they would go well in a wedding buffet!

Eaten all together everything gels together, providing a pleasing range of textures and tastes.

The thing about serving a buffet is that there should be a nice mixture of different cooking methods, meats or fish, salads and textures. And, of course, it should all look appealing.

Thats what I tried to do with our Saturday night Indian delight!

Made up of tikka spiced pork fillet, served with a spicy cucumber and roasted peanut salad, diced lamb cooked with mint and yoghurt and then baked with basmati rice, stir fried cabbage with mustard seeds and finally, butter chicken.

Made with marinated chicken thighs, and then baked in our new ovens at 300 oc they come out nicely charred.
I'm trying to recreate a tandor oven you see.
And its not too bad really.

When mixed in a rich tomato sauce and finished with cream and butter and corriander sprinkled on top you could almost imagine you were in the local curry house!





And the great thing about buffets is that everyone shares, and I love that, getting everyone eating and enjoying themselves.
Its what life is all about!
So you see, all I've done is made sure all of our guests have a proper English Saturday night!

The added bonus is that I get to taste it all as well, so I don't even need my kebab fix on the way home.

Right, thats it.

I'm watching Bear Grylls eat locusts in some rain forest and its got me thinking about next years Saturday night buffets!