Dinner party fish receipes

[ThomCat]

I know I could search the net and my cookery books but thought I'd also ask you girlies if you have any favourite recipes that involve fish that won't cost the earth and aren't too complicated to make. I a couple of mates coming over for dinner on Saturday and the 4 of us love fish.
Having said that I made fish last time they came so am not opposed to other ideas.
Thanking you - TC xx

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Hmmm I'm liking the sound of that. Especially because DP is the Risotti cook in our house so I get to pour (and drink!) the wine!!!!!

Nigella has a fabulous recipe for a Thai-influenced salmon & squash in coconut milk curry (it's in Nigella Bites, I think). You can add tiger prawns if you're feeling extravagent. And it's definitely easy.

Alternatively a fish pie is also cheap and utterly delicious and has the advantage that you can make it in advance and then just enjoy your friends' company. I love putting some capers and boiled eggs in and a mix of smoked and unsmoked fish, plus some prawns. Yum! Any leftovers and my dd laps it up too.

Yes, very simple. Waitrose Organic salmon fillets, dip them in a mix of flour, salt & pepper and lemon zest, pan fry in butter & olive oil mix. Serve with new potatoes and salad or veggies, plus guacamole on the side. Yum. And you don't have to spend ages cooking, just bung them in and leave them.

top a slab of salmon with v herby soured cream, top that with a slab of white fish - wrap the lot in puff pastry and cook for about 30 mins - if you can lattice/platt(?) the puff pastry it also looks great.

Nigella's salmon from How To Eat: make a mix of a teaspoon each of cayenne, ginger, sugar, salt, cumin, Colman's mustard powder and cinnamon and coat the salmon with it (I make more of a mix depending on how many pieces of salmon so 2 tsps for 2 pieces etc etc) Cook the salmon as you like it (so a few minutes for a crispy outside but a pink inside) and make a sauce with a teaspoon of mustard (she says Colmans but I've done it with Dijon as it's not so hot), 1 tsp hot water and 1 tsp of sugar. Very quick and very easy yet still impressive enough to cook for friends I reckon.

God I love you girls! How am I going to choose from your suggestions now??!! Will print this off and let DP decide. Thanks everyone.

And the winner is....

Oh, ummm will you hate me if I say non of the below!!!! Decided to do scallops!
Going to do a big pumpkin soup to start, kids can all have some, couldn't resist the seasonal aspect. DP want to do a bruchetta as well but...
Then settle kids down and make a huge bed in front room with loads of duvets and cushios etc, and put on a DVD for them.
Then was going to do scallops with baby leeks and something else which eludes me and probably creamy mash not really sure.
Desert = coffee/chocolate individual trifles or lemony magic pud or.......

Thomcat, do them with fresh sliced ginger and pak choi, we had them last night with sea bass, yum!

TC sounds lovely. A tip for the pumpkin soup, cut the top out of the pumpkin neatly with the stalk in the lid bit, hollow out the pumpkin and put it in the oven on a low heat. Once soup is make put in pumpkin and keep warm in the oven. A friend of ours once did seafood stew in a pumpkin and it was great

Yop tip Drac - cheers mate.
I was going to make soup on Friday and serve on Saturday. Think suff like that always tastes better next day. I'll still be able to keep outer pumpkin and warm soup up in it the next day though won't I?
Alibubbles - thanks for your receipe - my friend hates ginger though! This receipe includes asparagus spears, baby leeks marjoram, lemon, five-spice and butter. Think I'll serve them with dauphinoise (spelling!!??)

Can't see why not!

That was Top tip btw!

Thomcat how did it go?

Yeah good night. Pumpkin soup was lovely and served it in pumpkin shell. I have the scars to prove it - ouch - how hard was getting out the flesh to use for soup whilst not cutting into skin with the biggest, sharpest knife in the drawer??!! Scallops were OK - I wouln't rush back there on that particular receipe but I was the only one that felt that way. We all got smashed and had a really good laugh. All 5 kids were brilliant and slept in various rooms around the house!

Went for a lovely long walk around Clievden House and grounds yesterday to blow the cobwebs away and generally had a lovely weekend.

thomcat try a metal icecream scoop next time!

Sounds like a lovely weekend, am v jealous as we had a horrid one!