Dinner party ideas - please inspire me.

[Ali1cedowntherabbithole]

I'm planning a celebration sit-down dinner for about a dozen of us in a few weeks and need some menu inspiration.

I'm a reasonably confident cook but don't want to spend my evening in the kitchen and so I'd prefer dishes that can be made or bought in advance. It's family so informal and not stressy. On the other hand, its a celebration and so I want to serve some something with a bit of wow factor.

I can think of plenty of options for starters and dessert, but I'm struggling for main courses that aren't too mundane.

Fish and peanuts are off the menu, but a fancy veggie dish could be an option. I'm currently looking at a hog roast from Waitrose Entertaining - but not sure that would be different enough from roast dinner??

Can you inspire me please?

Successful meals I've done for 12, looking back through my diaries...

Slow cooked shoulder of lamb, Persian jewelled rice, yoghurt and cucumber raita

Bouillabaisse, garlic sourdough toasts, rouille

Pulled beef chilli, rice, chopped Mexican salad

Roast capon stuffed with sour cherries, dill, walnuts and feta cheese, dauphinois potatoes, sautéed spinach with walnuts (Georgian evening!)

Butternut squash, sage and hazelnut lasagne, green salad

Nigella's beef stew with anchovies, mashed potatoes and celeriac

(In terms of quantities I think we had 2 shoulders of lamb, two capons etc - never knowingly undercatered )

Slow cooked shoulder of lamb, Persian jewelled rice, yoghurt and cucumber raita gets my vote. The Persian jewelled rice sounds rather splendid.

Xiaoxiong that's a great list thank you!

Especially loving the slow cooked lamb with Persian jewelled rice - that would be so easy to serve.

Might have to try the lasagne too - I often do pasta with butternut squash and sage and am a big fan of hazelnuts anyway so that's a no brainer.

Capon is another good one and I like the sound of your stuffing, but I have done stuffed capon for a previous Xmas for the same group before so probably not different enough.

Have DC + partners coming who are all in their early 20s. Not under-catering is the way I need to go

Osso bucco served with gremolata and rice.

Roast saddle of venison, spring vegetables, mashed potatoes.

I think the pulled beef chilli meal from XiaoXong sounds great and would be ideal to have it all done in advance ready to just reheat on the day... Half the fun of chilli is all the difference trimmings and garnishes so you could really go to town on those!!

They both sound good too Ada - I've never done Osso bucco - but I Imagine that could be done in advance.

We also have a good local venison supplier - which I hadn't considered.

Like the sound of pulled beef chilli too - I've done pulled beef ragu before which is very good - so I imagine the chilli would work well and have better texture than mince.

Jamie Oliver's pasta rotolo makes a nice change from lasagne, it is basically veggie lasagne but you layer the filling onto a lasagne sheet, roll it up, cut it into sections and place the sections into a dish of passata. This makes it an impressive looking dish with soft pasta under the passata and the top edges go really crispy. People always go back for seconds!

Beef short ribs cooked for 12 hours in black lager or properly traditional coq au vin (with lots of red wine brandy, whole pearl onions etc but no chicken blood), Parmesan parsnips, extra buttery mash and some sort of green veg.

I do love a Persian theme though

Rolled stuffed shoulder of lamb served with a cauliflower cheese tart and Sicilian vegetables (fine beans, peppers, julienne carrot stir fried wth some garlic and skinned, deseeded tomatoes.

Is seafood OK? Dressed crab with a simple salad and new potatoes. (You can but the crab from Fish for Thought quite reasonably). Always really popular. Just add lemon mayonnaise.

Slow roast lamb shanks with roasted veg.
Porchetta with stuffed apple cups.
Venison and blackberry pie.
A simple Coq au Vin, paella or an asparagus and lemon risotto with Parmesan crisp.

I'm glad I asked - lots of ideas to try. Pasta rotolo sounds like my sort of thing, as do the short ribs. I had considered coq au vin - although it can be quite rich - I like Simon Hopkinson's recipe which uses brandy as well as a vat of wine [griin]

I'd like to avoid having to do veggies at the last minute so some of the options with rice and salad would avoid that. Or I could look at roasted veg / mash / dauphinoise.

Sadly fish and seafood is off the menu cherry as I would have loved to have done crab.

I’d probably do a slow roast leg or shoulder of lamb, the 7 hour one on BBC good food is lovely. (2 legs or shoulders). Served either with a layered potato dish (dauphinoise or boulangere) and roasted veg or cous cous packed with herbs and stuff, plus tzatziki. Both are fully prepared in advance.

If I wanted a less expensive, more casual option, I would do a pulled pork with bread rolls, coleslaw, wedges etc.

What dessert are you planning? We have people coming next weekend and I could use some inspiration

Enjoying the ideas keep them coming! Some of them are fab.

Probably some sort of cheesecake for dessert - easy peasy and make in advance.

White choc cheesecake on Bourbon biscuit base is a good one to do with raspberries.

I like hot puddings too - but not so much with robust mains.

And robust mains is the way this seems to be going

I sometimes do a "volcano" like the rainforest cafe, - Pile brownies around a turned out tub of ice-cream, then pour over sauce and put an indoor firework in the top!