Grazing Platter

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A heady combination of cold meats, cheese, nuts, dried fruits, fresh fruit and vegetables, crackers and, if you like, some fish and other delicious cold nibbles and crudités.

Grazing Platters can be served as aperitivo, as a starter or main course or even after the meal to finish up. As the name suggests, whenever you serve it, the idea is to spend time grazing, enjoying all the different choices over a period of time.

Lyngen Lodge

Last April, we were lucky enough to be included in Chris Mathias’ 60th birthday celebration at Lyngen Lodge in Norway. Every breakfast and afternoon tea included incredible grazing boards. This is a Grazing Board I put together for Julie Gill’s 60th birthday – it was in the middle of Covid and we needed something we could nibble away at whilst sitting in the garden. This was the perfect and logical solution. As Julie (and Martin) were also on the Lyngen Lodge trip, I thought I would include this Grazing Board in my collection of recipes to celebrate the wonderful food we enjoyed there.

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What to put on a Grazing Platter:

Grazing Platters can include:

• a combination of meat, fish and cheese, or
• a combination of different cheese, or
• a selection of different fish/shellfish
• a variety of different meats
• strictly vegan

Common additional features alongside can include:

• fresh and/or dried fruit
• fresh and/or cooked vegetables
• crackers and breads
• nuts
• nibbles

Tips on assembling a Grazing Platter:

As everybody should help themselves, the food is intended to be finger food or food which can be easily cut or sliced; it is important to remember this when deciding what to serve. A few tips to remember:

1. Ideally use a platter which is built up a little on the edges. If you don’t have one, this is not a problem but be very careful when moving it!
2. Make sure the food is easy to remove from the board. For example:
   1. separate slices of meat and fold them so they can be removed easily.
   2. bunches of grapes – snip into mini bunches of 4 – 6 grapes each. You can still pile them together on the tray but small bunches are easier to remove without leaving the platter in a muddle.
   3. if food needs to be sliced or cut into pieces, provide knives or spoons to do this
   4. serve food that is likely to be a bit messy in a dish or jar on the platter – such as anything drizzled in honey or olive oil. This will also prevent any oils or honey getting on to other food and ruining it – such as making crackers soggy.
   5. equally, you may wish to put any food with particularly strong flavours in a separate bowl.
3. Put foods which are good to eat together, next to each other. For example, I put Truffle Honey next to the Brie, the cherries next to the goats cheese, the gherkins next to the cold meats and so on. I also interspersed the crackers around the board placing them next to the food, they work the best with.
4. Place large items on the platter first, saving the smallest items to last. These can then be used to fill the gaps. Small bunches of fresh herbs can also be used to fill in any gaps and add colour. Grazing platters are typically served absolutely brimming with a delicious selection of food.

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This is how I put my Grazing Platter together:

Collect all your ingredients together.

Please do not be put off by the number of ingredients.

The majority can be bought from a supermarket and require little or no preparation. I used –

• Feta Cheese and Semi Dried Tomatoes Marinated in Olive Oil, Chilli, Garlic, and Fresh Oregano
• Smoked Salmon Dip with Horseradish, Lemon and Dill
• Goats Cheese Balls with Rosemary and Chilli Honey and Fresh Cherries.
• a wedge of Brie
• a pot of gorgonzola
• a chorizo rose
• Italian salami
• San Daniele Ham
• truffle honey
• fig jam
• tuna filled small peppers (from my local deli)
• olives
• gherkins
• pecan nuts
• Marcona almonds
• large dried raisins
• Mejdool dates
• fresh celery
• fresh strawberries
• fresh cherries
• fresh blueberries
• red and green grapes
• crackers
• oatcakes
• fresh bread

How to put it all together:

1. Place the larger items on the platter first. I was using a wooden platter. To avoid any fat/cheese being absorbed, I lined it with some baking parchment. This is optional.. To start with I added the:
   • Feta Cheese and Semi Dried Tomatoes Marinated in Olive Oil, Chilli, Garlic, and Fresh Oregano
   • Smoked Salmon Dip with Horseradish, Lemon and Dill
   • Goats Cheese Balls with Rosemary and Chilli Honey and Fresh Cherries.
   • a wedge of Brie
   • a pot of gorgonzola
   • truffle honey
   • fig jam
   • tuna filled small peppers (from my local deli)
   • olives
2. This is how I made the chorizo rose – layer and build up the slices of salami around the top of a wine glass. Invert and you will have an amazing salami rose.
3. I placed the rose in the centre of the board and then added the:
   1. folded Italian salami
   2. strips of San Daniele ham
   3. the celery, next to the Smoked Salmon dip
   4. a bowl ready for the gherkins
   5. the cherries, next to the goats cheese and the gorgonzola
4. I then removed the wrapping from the Brie, added different crackers around the board and transferred the fig jam into a smaller pot.
5. I finished the board by:
   • adding the gherkins to the bowl
   • filling the gaps with –
     1. grapes
     2. strawberries
     3. blueberries
     4. pecan nuts
     5. Marcona almonds
     6. Mejdool dates
     7. Large raisins
     8. I also added some fresh rosemary to add some colour and a delicious smell.

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Made this recipe?

If you make this recipe, do please tag me on instagram @daffodil_kitchen. You could also leave a comment in the box directly below the recipe.