What would you most like to be fed at an informal and boozey dinner party?

[LowLevelBlinging]

I'm feeding 7.

Others are bringing dessert and cheese board.

So, what would make you go, "YESSSSS!" if you're at your mates' for dinner?

I'm good at proper curries, but I always always do this.

Please inspire me, ta.

Hot or cold?

If cold, then whole poached salmon would make me happy.
If hot then hmm, dunno - beef stroganoff with no tomato involvement, maybe?

Loads of chilli with sour cream, salsa, guacamole, nachos, jalapeños, cheese, cornbread. People can easily pick and choose what they want and help themselves to it then.

Something to soak up the booze, so a casserole or stew with some nice crusty bread and/or doughboys, or meatballs with pasta, or a chilli, or curry, or a pie.

Anything I haven't had to prepare myself :)

How about

• (Vegetarian) lasagne, salad & garlic bread?

• (Vegetarian) bolgonaise, spagetti, garlic bread?

• Jacket potatoes with bowls of various toppings?

• (Vegetarian) chilie (& toppings)

• Couple of different pasta bakes

^ hmm, it's all about the carbs isn't it

Lasagne.

Curry doesn't really work with wine. Needs to be rich, feeling, and carby.

Filling, even. Maybe the feeling comes later.
OP, do you have pampas grass?

Tagine, salads, pittas, couscous, yoghurty dip, chopped up feta...can you tell I'm hungry?

Roast chicken. With gratin pots. Everytime.

I agree with subhuman. You can't go wrong with a chilli with all the bits.

Are lasagne and chilli a bit, well, ordinary and not much of a treat? I'm happy to be proved wrong as it's cheaper than the kind of stuff I was thinking of!

I blummin love gratin or dauphinoise pots. Though I won't be doing chicken as I am the queen of 'hard chicken' in this house.

I've never made pie. Could now be the time to experiment??

Pie is easy, especially if you buy ready made pastry.

Fry some bacon, then fry some onions, chicken and mushrooms in the bacon fat.

Season with whatever you like (salt and pepper obvs, but coriander, herbs de provence, nutmeg, garlic - not all at the same time though).

Chuck in a chicken oxo and some double cream/creme fraiche and some water.

Put everything in a dish, cover with puff pastry and cook in the oven until the pastry is cooked (25 mins or so).

Serve with petits pois and leeks mixed up together.

stodge, to soak up the booze. Beef casserole, steak and ale pie, chili, lasagne or even a tip-top macaroni cheese.

If it's scrummy, accompanied by gallons of wine and I haven't had to cook it then I don't care how 'plain' it is. Plain and hearty is far better than posh and measly. IMHO .

Something nibbly on offer when you get there. Something that's not crisps or nuts, they bore me.

Ooh, unless it's spiced nuts, I like them.

Homemade burgers are good
I quite like sharing food so tapas type stuff too

I've done jacket potatos before with a load of different help yourself toppings inc. chilli, sausages etc and they went down a storm. Great to do most of it beforehand too so you can be sociable. That was more party food than dinner party though iyswim.

Oh and a nice, relaxed host. Fretting and faffing puts everyone on edge.

Ooh, I sound right bossy there, didn't mean to!

Anything I didn't have to cook myself, so long it was home-made and tasted nice. So chicken pie, flan, lasagne, shepherd's pie.

I make a chicken pie with a scone topping which is rated by my DC as my Top Dish. I'm happy to post the recipe if you'd like it. It's dead easy, but a bit special as it includes cream and brandy. It's also filling and a good booze-soaker.

For me it would be slow cooked beef in red wine with gratin or dauphinouise potatoes - rich and hearty and the thought is making me dribble!

Brown some diced beef, whole baby mushrooms, baby shallots, chopped leeks and garlic. Chuck it all in the slow cooker (or oven dish) add a good spoon of wholegrain mustard and a large slosh (half a bottle and some in my house) or red wine. Cook in the over for an hour or slow cooker for as long as you like. Before serving I stir in a spoon of instant gravy granules to thicken it up and add a glug more wine if needed!

*OF red wine not OR - wine is mandatory!

Fajitas!
Pulled pork, homemade coleslaw, sweet potato wedges.
Hungry now!

For me it would be slow cooked shoulder of lamb rubbed with spice paste and studded with garlic served with lots of middle eastern salads - hummus, baba ghanoush, tabbouli, roasted beetroot with walnuts, a big pile of fluffily pitta bread to wrap it all up!

You could start with stuffed vine leaves - from a tin! - and olives and things

Jamie Oliver's ox tail stew with spinach dumplings!! Lots of red wine - yum or a huge paella with chicken, chorizo, prawns etc or my fav is rib of beef with loads of fancy veg, such as roast beet root, leeks cream & tarragon, celeriac mash with lemon. I have done this for a group including two veggies and they loved it because of all the different cooked veg.

Tagines (veggie, lamb and chicken), couscous, olives, baba ganoush, hummus, flatbreads.

Similar to 21meals, slow cooked lamb, bowl of couscous with roasted vegetables, flatbread, dips or sauces, salad with olives and feta.

It's really easy to cook, put everything on the table so people can help themselves to easy to serve and filling, so people can line their stomachs properly before quaffing all the wine.

YY to chilli with all the trimmings

Cassoulet with green salad or posh fish pie with saffron mash.