We’ve had the great privilege for New Year’s Eve to spend a few nights with some friends at the fantastic Heron House in Newquay, and were lucky to be able to have NYE itself catered by Emma and Heber at Rodriguez Events, and what an absolute Spanish feast it has been!

Delivered to us on NYE eve (the 30th) everything was ready to reheat in tinfoil dishes with easy to follow reheat instructions. We grazed over six hours, starting our evening with cava and a deli board including jamon Iberico, cured chorizo, manchego, tetilla cheese, besos cheese, olives, crisp breads, stuffed vine leaves, and Valencia almonds.

We warmed through cloud-like focaccia with garlic, rosemary and olives, and ate it with some juicy and light lamb and pine nut albondigas (meatballs) in a tasty tomato sauce, crispy croquettes filled with an oozing chorizo béchamel, plus king prawns with white wine and paprika.

Next up was a beautifully seasoned tortilla with basil and red peppers, and sweet piquillo peppers stuffed with herby cream cheese and pine nuts.

All of the food was washed down with Cava and other spanish wines, but despite our advancing tipsiness it was still very easy to follow the instructions to heat and plate up lovely looking dishes. We had a good hour or so break at around 9pm then cracked on with the ‘Cod a la Valenciana’ – generous cod fillets with a tomato, sherry and herb sauce.

After the fish it was approaching 11pm and we decided we couldn’t squeeze any more savoury food in so prepared the gooey delightful hot chocolate fondant with Pedro Ximenez ice cream.  Cooked from frozen the individual fondants were practically volcanic and the Pedro Ximenez ice cream was a perfect accompaniment tasting like Christmas.

I write this on new year’s day evening, having eaten the rest of the feast today to cure the hangover including ‘Flamenquin de Pollo’ – tenderised chicken breast rolled and stuffed with Serrano ham, Manchego cheese and crispy crumbed, with a creamy mushroom sauce.  We also ate piquillo peppers stuffed with chicken paella rice, patatas bravas with a punchy aioli, and a healthy green spinach and smoked cheese tortilla with a melting middle.

You can contact Rodriguez Events on Facebook here to get a quote for catering an event – they do anything from small parties to weddings and I can’t say enough how delicious the food has been.

An excellent way to see out the old year and to bring in the new!