Dinner Party ideas?!

DKLS

Am liking the marmalade Lamb, the one area I always struggle with is puds, and usually try and pass M&S off as my own creation, and I really cant serve Eaton Mess again!

strumpet

If you're having a dinner party you want to spend time with your guests not slaving in the kitchen so you need "Bung in the oven and forget about it" food!

As their tastes are "vanilla" I suggest:

Starter:
Smoked salmon, cracked black pepper and squirt of lemon juice
Salad greens
Brown bread and butter

Main:
Chunks of chicken breast casseroled in asparagus / celery / mushroom sauce
Sauce made from Campbells condensed soup made up with milk!!! Cheating I know but it looks good and is dead easy and they'll think you're a whizz in the kitchen!
Fry the breast off first to give it a nice colour (fry in balsamic vinegar for a bit of a kick)
Baked Potatoes (Bang in oven and leave for an hour - oven's on anyway for the casserole = saves money!!!!)

Dessert:
Mandarin Oranges, chopped pineapple (fresh or tinned) couple of tablespoons of Cointreau added to the juice - make the day before and refrigerate
Serve with ice cream

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!!!

Starving now after writing all that - off for a scone!

Love and Light!
Strumpet
xxx

maltesers_2

I would go for something that won't spoil if not served on time.

to start either smoked salmon or gravadlax with mustard sauce, salad and lemon garnish, brown bread and butter or prawn cocktails

Roast leg of lamb, or for ease of carving boned and rolled shoulder, serve with home made ratatouille and roast potatoes, plus if ratatouille too iffy seasonal veg of choice

cheeses grapes

A scrummy home made trifle, with fresh raspberries and marsala

coffee

maltesers_2

Sorry Strumpet - didn't see yours

muz

Nigel Slater's 20 minute Tiramisu is very easy to make, and tastes delish....


Serves 4-6.

20 sponge fingers
175ml / 6fl. oz. very strong coffee (eg espresso)
7 tablespoons Marsala or sweet sherry ( I usually substitute this for Tia Maria if I have any in!)
4 eggs
4 tablespoons sugar
450g / 1lb Mascarpone cheese
30g / 1oz. dark chocolate, grated OR 2 tablespoons cocoa powder.

Break up sponge fngers into short lengths and drop into a shallow serving dish, then mix the coffee and Marsala and pour over the fingers. Press them down into the liquid, then leave for a while so that they soak it up.
separate eggs, yolks in one large bowl, whites in another. Beat yolks and sugar preferably with an electric whisk, then add Mascarpone. Rinse the beaters, then whisk the eggs whites until stiff. Spoon them into the Mascarpone mixture and mix thoroughly with a metal spoon. Spoon this over the sponge fingers, and spread reasonably flat. sprinkle with the chocolate or cocoa powder.
Leave for as long as possible before serving.

Oldernotwiser

DKLS wrote: »

Budget is £30 a head excluding booze.

£30 a head??!! And nobody's commented on it!

Hell_Dans_Un_Handcart

I'd keep your starter nice and light in this weather. Either pate with crackers, chutney and a small salad, or scallops and bacon strips lightly fried in butter, garlic, parsley and lemon.

For the main I'd go with mackerel and rosemary pot roast. One headless mackerel per person and two large potatoes each, plus a portion of sliced runner beans each. Boil your potatoes until almost cooked. Arrange your mackerel in a large roasting dish, and place a thick slice of lemon and a rosemary sprig in the cavity of each fish. Scatter your potatoes around and drizzle over olive oil, salt and pepper. Lightly splash balsamic vinegar on the potatoes and throw on a few more lemon wedges. Cook until the potatoes begin to brown and crisp on gas 7. Boil your runner beans. Serve with baked lemon wedges and tartar sauce.

Pudding - chocolate Baileys mess. Incredibly easy! Melt 2 large bars of milk choc and 2 large bars of white choc. Blend whipping cream slowly into each choc batch until you have a thick, flavoured cream (slosh in some Baileys as you're doing the white choc cream). Layer in wine glasses and top with a fresh strawberry. Around a litre of cream should serve four.

Penelope_Penguin

floss2 wrote: »

With Blue Nun or Mateus Rose?

And a bit of Demis Roussos :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

I'm doing something similar on Friday (but with a smaller budget ). I'm planning fresh breads with pate and olives; Basque chicken; rhubarb fool, fruit cheesecake, fruit salad, chocolate torte.

I'll add this to the existing dinner party thread.

Penny. x

cashwise_2

If you want something abit different and vegeterian, I would suggest Halloumi as a starter, delia does a great halloumi starter http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/fried-halloumi-cheese-with-lime-and-caper-vinaigrette,1315,RC.html
She also does a vegeterian lasagne which is fab but definately more time consuming than most of the suggestions above.

Seakay

Easy peasy pud is lemon or lime sorbet.

Peel 3 limes or 2 lemons - scrub them first and use a veg peeler so there's as little pith as possible.
Put in a pan with 1 pint water and 6 oz sugar. Bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve sugar, and then simmer with the lid on for 2o minutes.
Leave to cool.
Strain into a lidded tub and put in the freezer for up to 2 hours. Check after 1 hour - if it's at the slushy stage of frozen then mix in 1 stiffly beaten egg white and replace in the freezer.
That's it.
It can be made in advance because it won't get too solid. Scrape it up and serve in pretty glases or martini glasses or whatever.
Very refreshing.
You can offer it with wafers, shortbread, a swirl of coulis or ice cream topping sauce or on it's own.