Informal party food - big pan stuff for a crowd

[LowLevelWhinging]

What would you want to see at a gathering of 20 odd friends?

We always do curries for our parties - easy but predictable!

Chilli is a bit dull, no?

so, maybe a stew with dauphinoise potatoes? easy to cook in advance.

or pies perhaps? then easy to have a meat version and a veggie.

or pasta bake type things?

any thoughts?

Noooo!!! although that recipe says mince, most would make it from the leftovers of the Sunday roast, so it would be chunks of beef rather than mince. Hash is more like it.

I love spinach and ricotta cannelloni, I use this recipe here

And a meat one yum

Haggis, neeps and tatties. You could prepare it all in advance and layer into a big deep dish, haggis on the bottom then mashed neeps and top with mashed potato. It'll keep warm in the oven or I've used my slow cooker. Serve with onion gravy, whiskey gravy or peppercorn sauce or a choice of all three.

You could do a meat and a veggie one.

At NYE I had the same problems so did the following and it went down a storm - had 3 big pans on the table so people could help themselves:

Chicken Chinese Curry - mild, plain, simple
Lamb Rogan Josh - lots of green red peppers fresh coriander
Italian Beef meatballs - tomatoey and garlicy

then next to them the following:

Jacket potatoes
Plain rice
Garlic Bread
Grated Parmasan
Mixed salad

everyone just helped themselves and really enjoyed the food