Picnicking platters for every occasion!
Platters make picnicking easy. Display your favourite gourmet cheeses alongside lashings of quince paste and lavosh or entertain guests with a medley of fresh fruit with nuts and chocolate – the possibilities are endless. To get you started, here are five of our favourite entertaining platters that are super easy to create and look pretty great too!
Cheese
For the ultimate cheese entertaining platter, Naheda from Naheda’s Choice suggests using three different varieties of cheese – a brie or soft cheese, a blue and a hard cheese such as cheddar. When serving your cheeses, get creative with shapes and placement. They don’t all need to be the same size or shape. A wedge, a log and a round piece of cheese can work really well together. Pair your cheeses with lavosh, a fruit paste (we love fig or quince) and everything from grapes to honeycomb, strawberries, nuts, dark chocolate, and of course, wine! The best thing about lavosh, aside from it tasting great, is that it also works as a palate cleanser, which means you can eat all the cheese without the worry of mixing too many flavours together. Find out how to prepare the perfect cheese platter here. <add link>
Fruit
There are so many fruit platter combos that you really can’t go wrong. Whether it’s for weekend family snacking, a post-exercise sugar hit or a healthy dessert option after a delicious dinner, you can get as creative as you like. Fruits such as rockmelon, watermelon, pineapple, grapes and oranges help to refuel the body and are perfect for replenishing after a game of sport. Mangoes, pineapple and kiwi fruit make up a stunning tropical fruit platter because of their vibrant colours. For something a little more decadent, try a strawberry and cherry platter with a small bowl of dark chocolate in the middle for dipping! We recommend preparing your platter no more than half an hour before serving for optimum freshness!
Seafood
Seafood platters are a great option for your next picnic, especially during the warmer months. For a seafood entrée platter, load it up with oysters and prawns along with a couple of lemon wedges to accentuate the taste of your seafood. For a larger platter, more suitable for a shared main, we recommend adding lobster, crab, smoked mussels, marinated baby octopus, smoked salmon or trout. Don’t forget to add a small bowl of seafood sauce to dip your prawns into! A great tip for keeping your seafood cold and fresh (especially for those large platters) is to place a layer of finely chopped ice underneath your ingredients.
Charcuterie
It can sometimes be tricky to decide which meats are best paired together when creating a charcuterie platter, so here are a few recommendations for you to try: cured sausages, kabana, ham, salami (hot or mild depending on your taste) and prosciutto. If you’re willing to try something a little different, substitute the prosciutto for Jamon Ibérico – it’s delicious! Serve with crackers or if you want something more substantial, pair the meat with baguette slices and breadsticks. Other complementary ingredients are pickled vegetables such as pickled onions, zucchini and gherkins. Trust us, these vegies taste so good wrapped in salami or smoked ham!
Antipasto
Antipasto platters can often be combined with fruit, cheese or charcuterie platters, with just a few extra ingredients. Antipasto is most commonly eaten as an entrée as ‘antipasto’ means before the meal. Depending on your main meal and how many guests you are catering for, your antipasto platter can be as complex or as simple as you like. Thinly sliced prosciutto, salami, salted almonds, marinated olives, sun-dried tomatoes and parmesan cubes make a nice platter for pre-dinner snacking. The salty flavour of the meat works really well with the Parmesan cheese and the sweetness of the sundried tomatoes! Take it up a notch by adding stuffed peppers, chilli mussels, marinated artichokes, chorizo, bocconcini and a couple of dips too. The best thing about an antipasto platter is there are so many different ingredients to choose from. Serve with some bread or some breadsticks and you’re done!
