Dinner Party ideas?!

shazziere

the easiest very stress free main course i have ever made was lamb shanks in red wine gravy.bung 6 lamb shanks in a large dish.Add bottle of cheap red wine. and an oxo lamb gravy mix..Add shallots .Add rosemary.Bung in oven for 3 hours.If you want,you can add mushrooms half way through.Serve with roasted new potaoes and julieene carrots

The beauty of this dish is that timing is not a worry.If you need to leave it another hour cos guests turn up late etc it just means the lamb is more tender.

HariboJunkie

HariboJunkie wrote: »

Have you seen this current thread?

Did you get a look at this thread? The OP got some lovely ideas and some of them were very impressive IMO.

Maybe you need to tell us what sort of thing you have in mind.

Debt_Free_Chick

I reckon I could feed six a three course meal for a tenner - although I find that very few people can manage three courses these days - I certainly can't!

I guess the cost depends on what your store cupboard is like, but here's a very quick suggestion

Warm Chicken Liver Salad

James Martin's beef bourguignon from yesterday's Saturday Kitchen (I'd forgotten just how impressive this can be and you can make it in advance, to reheat on the day!)

Personally, I prefer saute or even roast pots with this, with creamy, pureed celeriac. And I would substitute the green beans with a seasonal green - Cavolo Nero would be fantastic, but that's "nil cost" for me as I grow it

Pannacotta with espresso swirl

The main and starter can be made in advance - the pannacotta must be and the beef would improve in taste if made the day before and reheated on the day.

I generally find that recipes have rather generous proportions and with three courses you can afford to stretch the starter and main course ingredients to feed three, rather than two. A rustic home made bread would be great for mopping up the beef sauce and will "bulk" it out too. Or increase the pots/green as they are cheapest ingredients.

Too many possibilities without having a steer from the OP, though.

gingin_2

I made this paella for 6 a few weeks ago. It was fantastic. I bought a traditional paella pan for around £12, and served at the table. It looked really good (the picture doesn't really do it justice). I played around with it a little bit ,and added squid and clams, but left out the oysters and scattered chopped flatleaf parsley on the top. You could swap the chicken for rabbit if you wanted it to be really different, but I used halved chicken thighs and they worked really well.

http://www.cookuk.co.uk/ethnic/spanish/PaellaTraditionalRecipe.htm

Quillion

How did your dinner party go. Did you like the cheesecake?

Emstick14

Have some friends coming over next week

STARTERS - thought of doing stuffed peppers, but what to stuff them with??

MAIN - prok loins covered with leek and carrots in stock, but what to serve with it?

PUDDING - no ideas as I don't eat puddings haha!

Can anyone help me by giving me some ideas that don't cost the earth but will still be ok for a dinner party.

Thanks in advance:-)

no.1swimmum

What about stuffing the peppers with Cous Cous ~ try one of the flavoured ones in a sachet and mix in some mushrooms, cooked onions etc Cut the peppers in half and scoop out, fill with cous cous and top with breadcrumbs mixed with cheese.

I cook pork in the slowcooker with apple juice and a jar of cheap cranberry sauce, before serving I sieve the juice and then thicken with cornflour and serve. Keep the veggies simple new potatoes etc

Dessert umm so many to choose from... if you want to keep it simple why not a fresh fruit salad - easy and refreshing, or a crumble ( you could add some slivers of almonds to the crumble mix).

misskool

Stuffed peppers with rice, fry off an onion and a touch of mince (optional) and then fry the rice for 1-2 mins (long grain works better), add stock and cook until the rice is done. Cool for a few mins then grate some cheese (cheep chedder works perfectly fine) and then cook in oven until peppers are done. add some breadcrumbs on top if you want a crumble type topping

mains, pork loin with sauteed potatoes, just slice up some potatoes and lightly shallow fry until a bit crispy on one side. A simple salad will work well.

Pudding, depends on what you like really. Easiest option is ice cream with some stewed fruit probably.

skiTTish

Pudding -Asda £1 frozen desserts ( american cheesecake etc ) add a few bits and pass it off as your own;) ,not very OS but you cant make one for that price !:p

KittyKate

For the peppers I'd pre-roast them, then stuff them with savoury rice (Asda do a lovely golden veg smart price one for about 19p!). Mix the savoury rice with a few veg (handful of cooked frozen peas or sweetcorn) for crunch.

For the main, rosemary goes really well with pork and leek, why not wedge some med sized potatoes (wash but don't peel) then sprinkle with a little salt and plenty of dried rosemary, roast up for about 30 mins. Or do beer-battered deep fried cooked green beans - had these in TGI fridays and they're lovely with sour cream and chive dip.

For pud, you can't beat a nice crumble - my hubby cooked a raspberry crumble (whole bag of frozen raspberries £1.99 in Lidl). Use brown sugar if you have it for a nice caramelly top and serve with cream or ice cream.