help ideas for party food.

jackyann

If you are doing salmon, it can be a bit dry. Hollandaise sauce is expensive, here's my tip for a classy substitute: get the very cheapest mayonnaise and an equal quantity of creme fraiche (low fat or not, whatever is cheapest) - beat together well & snip in chives and/ or chopped parsley (one of those plants from a supermarket will go a long way if chopped finely) - add a bit of lemon juice if you think it needs bite. Will double up as a dip, and you can dust paprika on the top if you like.
I would do "winter salads" - much cheaper than green stuff (although you could get a little to "dress" everything & make it go a long way). Do variations on coleslaw - one without mayo, but oil & lemon instead, one with red cabbage (looks lovely), grate some celeriac in for extra flavour (toss in lots of lemon juice to prevent discolouring). Also bean type salads using tins of chick peas, bortelli beans etc. with strips of red & yellow pepper.
Buy a bottle of cheapest lemon juice for all of this & don't use "extra virgin" olive oil.

On another note I would consider asking guests to contribute a pudding - people like to do that and taste other people's - not too much to ask most of them (people from a long distance or too frail excepted) and will make a big difference to your budget.

meritaten

one of the most popular dishes at my sons 30th birthday party was my Fruit platter - using one of those enormous foil meat trays I put together a punnet of green grapes, punnet of red grapes, a fresh pineapple cut into chunks, some tangerines and a couple of punnets of strawberries - it cost around a fiver (everything was from aldis). you would think people hadnt seen fruit before!!!!!!!!!! it was the first platter to be cleared!

another popular one was the filo pastry tartlets - I cut them into three inch squares and used two (laid across to make a star shape) and filled them with either crumbled white stilton (whoopsied to a silly 50p for a huge chunk) and a basil leaf then a half cherry tomato and baked them. the others were filled with a tin of chicken supreme mixed with some chopped up fried mushrooms. they disappeared fast too.

Josslette

At my last party I made a big vat of chicken korma and kept it warm in the slow cooker. It was gorgeous everyone loved it.

I chopped a couple of onions finely, softened them and some garlic, then added a jar and a half of korma paste, some water and lots of cream, then when the chicken was cooked I added some flaked, toasted almonds, some ground almonds and some dessicated coconut(i just had the nuts hanging around so i used them up. but they added alot to the curry and made it more special).

To serve with it i did a large amount of rice, lots of naan bread in different flavours, cut into strips. Then I did little bowls of mango chutney, raita, flaked coconut, sultanas, chopped coriander, poppadums.

Was yummy

Josslette

Also a big pile of homemade brownies with white chocolate chunks in, i normally put mine on a pretty charger plate and then sprinkle with edible glitter and little white chocolate stars. Looks really lovely.