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Food/Recipes

Birthday buffet near Christmas

5 replies

Impatientwino · 12/11/2014 21:58

It's my birthday the Saturday before Christmas and I'm having around 12 people over for drinks and food in the evening. 2 are pescetarians.

As it's my actual birthday and I'd like to go out for some of the day I don't want to be doing loads on the day but DS is in nursery all day the day before so I will spend that day doing things.

I want to do some warm food and I've always wanted to do a cheese fondue so I've provisionally come up with the following.

Crisps, cashews and pistachios

Cheese fondue with cubed sourdough for dunking
Nigellas ham in coke
Vegetable tart or quiche
Spanish omelette
Tempura prawns with sweet chilli dipping sauce - will be bought
Samosas/bhajis - will be bought
Spring rolls - will be bought
Cheeseboard and biscuits
Homemade pickles
French bread and salted butter

What do we think? Tried to come up with things that can mostly be done in advance and then I'll just have to cook the party food, heat the fondue on the stove and warm the tart when people arrive?

Is this enough? Too much?

I don't want people to need knifes and forks and to have to sit down but just graze and chat really?

Thanks!

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zipzap · 12/11/2014 22:18

I've never made a cheese fondue, only eaten them. Over-riding memory was of suddenly realising at the end of the evening that I was incredibly pissed despite not having a lot to drink because there was so much alcohol in the fondue and it hadn't burnt off when it was cooked... So make sure that there's plenty for the drivers to eat that doesn't involve the fondue if you're making it with alcohol!

Needless to say my memory is slightly blurry about it but I remember they had small pickled cornichons which were nice with it. Also things like bits of raw cauliflower, florets of broccoli, chunks of raw carrot, pepper, courgette, spring onion etc - whether you ate them dunked in the fondue or not - were great to provide a fresh counterpoint to the greasiness of fondue. And I'm guessing you could have a big platter of them done in advance, and wrapped in cling film before being put in the fridge. Also olives and mini cherry plum tomatoes, again for tasty juiciness alongside the fondue. And then I'd probably have some dips (easily bought) so that people could dip the veg into them if they preferred.

At the moment I'd say your menu sounds nice but lacking in the salad/veg side of things!

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ClashCityRocker · 12/11/2014 22:20

I'd add a salad, but it sounds good to me.

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Impatientwino · 13/11/2014 07:44

Lovely, thanks for taking the time to post and yes I can't quite believe I left a veggie platter off my list Blush

I'll do a big platter and add some houmous and a sour cream dip or similar

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Impatientwino · 13/11/2014 07:48

Re the booze in the fondue the recipe I was going to use suggests 600g mixed cheese and 300ml wine (along with some kirsch but I'm not going to add that)

Presumably keeping it on the stove for quite a while will burn the alcohol off. I might have a trial go with a smaller batch to see how long it takes for the alcohol taste to go....

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Loandbehold · 13/11/2014 15:46

I would worry about people 'double dipping' with a fondue so this would put me off having any.

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