Fail-safe dinner party puddings

MsDee

hi everyone,

I am hosting a dinner party at the weekend. It will be a spanish style tapas dinner with salad, meatballs, rice, prawns, pots - basically I'm ripping off the dishes at La Tasca.

I want to make a nice easy dessert to finish with - any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Deexx

pennywisepoundstupid

HI MsDee, few ideas
Eton mess
Banoffee pie
Profiteroles (sp)
Chocolate trifle
Fruit platter
Summer pudding

Hope these help, if i think of some more i will post.

Penelope_Penguin

Soft fruit is in season I made strawberry mousse for a party last year. Easy, sits in the fridge until wanted, looks and tastes impressive :T I made mine in teacups, so no serving required.

There are more ideas here; I'll add this thread to that one later.

pennywisepoundstupid

Tiramisu
Poached pears with chocolate sauce
Baked peaches with icecream
Strawberry tart
Lemon Tart

jaxx46

Have a look on the philadelphia site, loads of lovely easy desserts. I made one of the oreo cheesecakes for a friends birthday and apart from melting the butter for the base and dissolving some gelatine no cooking just chill in fridge.

ubamother

melon and strawberry fruit salad, macerated in a liqueur and icing sugar?

xxvickixx

I love balsamic strawberries with marscapone

You slosh a bit of balsamic vinegar and caster sugar on the strawberries (don't do it in advance though)

Whip up the marscapone with some vanilla and caster sugar and serve on the side. Simple and delicious.

Stephen_Leak

Try this ..

FIGS IN BRANDY

Serves 2

INGREDIENTS

4 ripe fresh figs
4 tablespoons of brandy
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
¼ of a teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg
150ml (1 small pot) of yoghurt

METHOD

Wash the figs and cut a cross in the top.

Put in an ovenproof dish. Spoon the brandy over the figs. Sprinkle the sugar over the figs. Grate the nutmeg and sprinkle over the figs.

Cover the dish with foil. Cook in a preheated oven at 180°C, 350°F, gas mark 4 for 25 minutes.

Serve with the cooking juice spooned over the figs, and the yoghurt.

ADDITIONS & ALTERNATIVES

Use Cointreau or port instead of the brandy.

Use brown sugar for preference, but white sugar will do.

Use double cream, crème fraîche or ice cream instead of the yoghurt.

MsDee

thanks everyone,

great ideas - I woudl like a eton mess/strawberry concution as we will be having so much booze throughout the dinner.

This is what I anticipate will happen...

Guests arrive and sit down and have a glass of champers (aldi fizz) with a couple of these - http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1175/spanish-tomato-bread-with-jamon-serrano

Then for dinner - meatballs with tom sauce, warm bread and olives, greek salad, prawns with onion and garlic, squid and these two - http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1177/patatas-bravas
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/6010/paella-fried-rice

I think that will be enough for the main course - thoughs welcomed!

Am off to look for an easy dessert to make

Dee xx

MsDee

Stephen_Leak wrote: »

I had this last weekend, and thought I'd whip some up for all of you ...

ETON MESS

Serves 2

INGREDIENTS

450g of fresh strawberries
1 tablespoon of sugar
250g of meringue
250ml of cream

METHOD

Wash the strawberries, remove any stalks and chop them into quarters. Break or chop the meringue into rough 2cm (1 inch) pieces.

Put the strawberries in a bowl. Sprinkle over the sugar. Mix together.

Add the meringue pieces.

Pour the cream into another bowl. Lightly whip the cream. Don’t over-do it: it should still be pourable.

Add the strawberries and meringue pieces to the cream, or vice versa. Mix together and serve.

ADDITIONS & ALTERNATIVES

Use ready-made meringue nests, especially if they are already broken and reduced in price.

If you make your own meringue, this is the dish to practice with. If they weep, crack or even collapse, you can still use them in this. However, you do have to make it a day in advance.

An authentic Eton mess uses strawberries, but other summer fruits work well.

However, even Heston Blumenthal has had to admit that Eton mess is "quite simply impossible to improve upon".

HISTORICAL NOTES

Eton mess originated at Eton College in the 1930’s, when a mixture of either strawberries or bananas with cream or ice cream, all stirred together (hence the name "mess"), was served in the school’s "sock shop" (tuck shop). One anecdotal story is that the dessert was 'invented' by a Labrador dog, when it sat on a picnic basket in the back of a car. With the later addition of the meringue, it has evolved into an unashamedly wicked, yet still utterly English, summer dessert. It is traditionally served at Eton College's annual prize-giving celebration picnic on what is still called the "Fourth of June", despite actually taking place on the last Wednesday in May.

Hi everyone,

I am going to steal Stephen Leak's recipe for Eton Mess for my weekend dinner party. However, I would like to add pink champagne to it - along the lines of this one http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4536/sorbet-fizz- however will it just drown the pudding and make it soggy?

Many thanks