How to host an antipasti party

If you’re having a few friends over for drinks and nibbles, making an antipasti board is a great way to impress. It looks good and you can fill it with a selection of your favorite foods. Creating a platter of meats and cheeses is so easy with all the great independent food stores we have in Deal. You can find some really interesting treats beyond the go to easy option; cheese and pineapple on a stick.

We went to No Name Street where they helped us pick out a selection of food for our guests. Walmer Court Farm Shop is a great place to pick up quality fruit and veg that won't rot within a day (unlike most supermarket fruit), you can also find other local treats like Kentish apple juice and cakes. Finally, we made use of Rook’s discount day on a Wednesday to fill out our cheese and meat supply.

When you’re setting up the food, we’d recommend playing around with the layout of your boards and dishes to find the best arrangement, you want things to be close together and to look as full as possible to make the most impact. Use your most interesting bowls, boards and dishes. You can source some from charity shops for cheap, we got some of ours from Pilgrims Hospice in Deal. It looks even better if they are all a little miss-matching.

Cocktails & Mocktails

We made two drinks options for our guests, a raspberry mojito and a grapefruit and rosemary mocktail. Just in case you have anyone who is driving or does not drink a mocktail is a good option to have on stand by. Heres how we made ours:

Raspberry Mojito

Mojito Ingredients (makes one cocktail)

• 100ml raspberry simple syrup
• 8 fresh mint leaves
• 1 lime
• 50ml white rum
• Chilled lemonade
• Ice
• Fresh raspberries for garnish

Raspberry Syrup Ingredients (makes four)

• 110g raspberries
• 400ml cups water
• 150g sugar

In a saucepan, add the water, sugar and raspberries. Let it simmer for 5-10 minutes, stirring constantly, until the raspberries break down and mix with water. Let cool for 10-15 mins then strain through sieve. Juice the limes into a glass, then muddle in mint, try to be gentle enough not to destroy them but strong enough to release the flavour. Add ice cubes, the raspberry simple syrup, rum and top with lemonade till the glass is full then stir to combine. If you want to make your drink look more refined, you can add raspberries and extra mint to the drink to garnish.

Grapefruit Mocktail

Ingredients (makes six to eight cocktail)

• 5 pink grapefruit
• ⅔ cup of honey
• 4 sprigs of rosemary, plus extra for garnish
• Ice
• Chilled lemonade

1. Juice 5 grapefruits and reserve one of the skins, strain the juice to remove the pulp.
2. Take ⅔ of a cup of honey and place in a small pan with 4 sprigs of rosemary.
3. Slowly heat the honey until it bubbles a little around the edges, take off the heat and leave to cool for 10 minutes. Remove the rosemary.
4. Add the honey and grapefruit juice to a bottle or cocktail shaker, shake until combined. Leave to chill in a fridge and the honey will dissolve.
5. Take the skin of the grapefruit and cut into strips about 5cm long, place in an airtight container and cover with sugar. Leave for a few hours.
6. Serve over ice and lemonade, garnish with a sprig of rosemary and a your sugared grapefruit rind.

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