friend for dinner tonight who is a fab cook - what do I make?

[tracyk]

No food in house so have to go shopping. She is v. good cook - all from scratch etc.

Weather is sposed to be dry but not overly warm so prob not outdoors.

Any suggestions for something easy to make but kind of impressive.

We normally start with king prawns and chilli dip - scoff 4 platefuls and 3 bottles of wine and fall asleep!

wot about a thai curry - they're sooo easy and tate fabulous

and they taste fab too [der]

do I buy a thai curry paste?

Tracyk just do something tasty that you are comfortable making, if you try to do something new you may make a mistake and get stressed and not enjoy yourself and the idea of having a friend over for dinner is to have a laugh is it not?

No don't try anything complicated

And god no you don't make curry from PASTE darling

I make this when entertaining posh chefs:

1. buy a couple of pounds of NICE ripe tomatoes - cut in half and lay in oven-proof dish
2. cover in olive oil, fresh torn basil leaves, salt, pepper, cup of red wine, finely chopped red onion and lots of slivers of garlic
3. Bake in oven on low for 1.5-2 hours
4. Chop roughly with knife and fork
5. Serve over some nice pasta

Serve with a nice fresh salad (rocket/parmesan/balsamic vinegar and olive oil) and some bought ciabatta

DROOOOOOOOOOOOOL she will be v. impressed and the house will smell DELICIOUS

yeah, buy a red or green curry paste, put about half a jar of it into pan that you've put your meat/king prawns/whatever & veg in and stir round to coat them. add a tin of coconut milk, simmer til it's done and add handful of coriander just before you dish up. serve with jasmine rice.

Bake a whole fish in the oven and serve it as it is. Very easy and looks stunner.

i wouldnt do an indian curry with paste but defo a thai curry

problem with whole fish is that you have to faff around with bones

not easy when slightly merry

I do Thai curry with a paste that I make myself

I do red, green and yellow thai pastes

[preen]

i have a cracking, piss easy, all-in-one recipe.

chicken breasts in a large casserole dish with: olives, tinned apricots (halved), prunes (halved), quite a lot of olive oil, same quantity of white wine, splash of wine vinegar, 2 bay leaves, crushed garlic, salt and pepper, oregano.

leave for min 1 hr. cook 1 1/2 hrs at 170. serve with cous cous.

Hmm.

lamb cutlets with freshly minted pea and rice salad.

I always overcook lamb

It ends up like old shoes

Very disappointing

Fry them on a high heat, it leaves them very juicy and still pink in the middle.

I suggested lamb because it is hard to wreck!

I would do something that is slow cooked in the oven - so something like a leg of lamb (or any other cut), pour in red wine, tomatoes...actually, I'll look the recipe up. It tastes divine and all you have to do is bung it in the oven about 4 hours before they arrive and it takes about 5-10 mins to prepare before that!!

here it is

it is so easy this recipe and leaves you free to do the starters and chat etc.

must admit, I skipped the anchovy paste (because I hate the taste)

can i join in? i need an idea for what to cook for a pregnant vegetarian!

go for my slow-cooked tomatoe sauce

tomato

I don't like tomatos though
strictly speaking , SHE isn't veggy but her dh and ds are so would have to cook seperate for them if i did meat. mmm

Tofu passanda with brown rice.

No, I don't know where to start with it, but it sounds nice, doesn't it! LOL

vegetarian lasagne (with spinach and ricotta)

even meat eaters normally like it

that does sound nice foxinsocks.
can preg ladies have the riccotta or is it on the banned list?( have to check as it's all different to when i had mine!)

don't know

yes you can have ricotta when pg