How to create a show stopping platter?
We posted about creating a small family sized grazing board as a Father’s Day idea on our social media and many people asked us for some tips and tricks on creating the perfect board.
Cheese boards and charcuterie plates have received a huge makeover and popularisation in recent years with the ever-growing trend of grazing boards. These boards can be small to feed a couple or can take up many tables and feed a whole wedding party. Humans are built to be grazers, finding food where they can, and so the idea of going back to a platter or board for refills is innately satisfying. Also we often want to try a little bit of everything, and this style of spread makes it easy.
Our favourite part of serving a grazing platter, is that you can prepare it all in advance, so you will be out of the kitchen and enjoying the company of your guests, and they are the perfect showcase for SSS Foods Dips!
The key to a show stopping platter is using fresh seasonal produce including fruits, vegetables, meats, cheeses, dips and nibbles of good quality, and making the spread exaggerated. You want it to be abundant and piled into organised chaos with items overlapping and intertwining on the board. You and your guests will mingle, and so will the food!
Tips:
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Think about how many people you are feeding, then consider the size of the board or table you need to fill, as this will help you work out quantities of things to buy. Make sure you keep a list of everything you have purchased so nothing gets missed when you are assembling your platter. A great guide is to have multiples of the main components, so you want 2 or 3 types of cheese, 2 or 3 styles of dip and 2 or 3 types of smallgoods (50g per person is a good rule of thumb) if you are using them.
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Cut up all your veggie sticks and keep them in a tub with some water to stay fresh. The same goes for any fruit. Try and stick with fruit and vegetables that you know will stay crisp and not bruise easily. As you want the platter to look abundant try and get a few small whole fruits or vegetables on the vine as they fill the platter nicely and look like a feature -a bunch of grapes or a vine of small tomatoes is a great way to do this.
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Collect an assortment of bowls and small trays and use them for your dips, olives, cornichons so that juices don’t spread around the plate, and as the changes in height add drama and interest.
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If you want to add a burst of colour and a personal touch, blend your SSS Foods Hommus with some roasted pumpkin, blanched spinach and basil or beetroot to make new flavour combinations in a rainbow of colours!
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Take your cheese out of the fridge up to an hour before you need to assemble your platter to have them at the best serving temperature. If you are having an outside picnic board in summer make sure you get hard cheese that won’t sweat, and don’t get meats and cold cuts!
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Place your large key elements on the platter, then get creative stacking items around them. You want height and movement, and colour. You want lots of fillers like nuts, chopped vegetables, crackers and berries as with a platter clear space is your enemy in making this look as abundant as possible.
- Sit back with your guests and enjoy the spread you have created!😊
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