Crowd pleasing but easy NYE meal for eight adults

[NetflixandWill]

Hello,

We're hosting eight adults for NYE - drinks and food at ours.

I'd love to make something delicious and crowd-pleasing but easy - ideally prepped beforehand.

Any tried and tested recipes to share, please?

No dietary requirements - happy with meat or veggie as long as it's tasty.

Thanks

@Cordial11 we did nearly exactly this for family over Christmas - made our own curries and raita and legged it to a take-out for naan and poppadoms! It went really well and thank you for the idea, but I want to do something different for NYE.

This
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/pulled-lamb-shoulder-sticky-pomegranate-glaze

With pittas and salad

I did Mary Berry’s Fish Pie for 8 on Christmas Eve. Made it the day before and then just baked when I needed it. Did a petit pois, mint and pea shoot salad with it. All went down very well!

We had bought M&S canapés rather than a starter and I made a chocolate, coffee and rum torte with vanilla ice cream for dessert.

Chucky chilli would be my choice (lasagne is great but chilli is simpler to make - especially if you have a slow cooker).

What's the failsafe pudding, OP?

Can never have too many recipes for those.

@LaMarschallin it's this, but with shop-bought shortcrust pastry and ready-made custard!

I prep the tart to completion the day or morning before, then bake it on the night.

I find that it needs about 20 minutes longer in the oven than the suggested 40 mins - about an hour in total.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/frangipanetartwith_63856

Thank you

Couldn't get the link to work but Googled and think I've found it.

Shop bought pastry is a wonderful thing - I've got to really want to push the boat out to bother making it from scratch.

Have a lovely evening 🥂

If you are going to do chunky chilli check out Thomasina Miers recipe - it is lush and always been a total winner when we have guests. www.telegraph.co.uk/recipes/0/braised-beef-chilli-con-carne/

Slow cooked shoulder of lamb with Greek / Turkish style sides eg pita bread, tsastiki, roasted veg and cous cous etc

@LaMarschallin oh sorry - it's James Martin's Frangipane Tart with Custard
🥂

Will do @NotSureWhoIAmToday - sounds great. And thank you too @FusionChefGeoff

I'm hosting New Year's Day and are planning on doing a vat of pulled pork, stuffing, freshly baked rolls, homemade slaw and some wedges or roasties.

My go to is Mexican chickpea stew with sliced steak and salad.

A good easy starter is buy some part cooked baguettes, cut into slices and on top out sliced mozerella/goats cheese. Pop in over for 10 minutes. Then place on a large serving plate, sprinkle basil, walnuts and lavender honey over the top - it's basically posh cheese on toast but it is lovely if you're entertaining a large group.

Another vote for chilli main (especially if you have a slow cooker!) Plus as PP said have some easy things for it to go with guacamole, salsa, microwavable rice, fajitas, tacos etc so everyone can just dig in and have what they want.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipe/braised-beef-onepot

This has gone down very well at New Year before now. Slow cooker-friendly, or in the oven.

Marking for ideas

I did Jamie Oliver's pulled beef brisket chilli in pressure cooker this evening. It was delicious

Massive platters of loaded nachos, hot dogs with pulled pork / beef chilli topping, mushroom stroganoff with rice and cheesy polenta fries for the vegetarians. Dessert: panettone sliced horizontally and reassembled with ice cream / chopped fruit / cream between layers. Chilled nyetimber rosé.

Sausage, mushroom and red wine casserole

Marking my place, i am entertaining this weekend!

this seems maybe too simple but I did it for a dinner party and it was a huge success
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4716/creamy-courgette-lasagne

Spaghetti Bolognese with Garlic bread. Can’t beat it. Not everyone likes spicy so if you are going with chilli, check their spice tastes.

I made (up to assembly) this lasagne earlier today & will serve with garlic bread & green salad tomorrow night. It takes a little while but is completely delicious and makes a tonne.

www.recipetineats.com/lasagna/

Oh god do the coq au vin. Few things are more grim than the compulsory MN 'big pot of chilli'. Mince and beans... bleurgh.

Happy New Year to everyone but the one negative poster on this thread!

Thank you for all the suggestions. Braised steak chilli was lovely and flavourful and smoky thanks to the chipotle, and much more special than the usual mince version. I followed the BBC recipe posted here but added in a few Thomasina Miers elements and plenty of red wine. It was the first time any of us had had the steak version.

Most importantly it took zero effort on the night - served with rice, homemade guacamole and a really simple dressed salad. Would do it again for a large group, in a heartbeat. Thank you!