prufrock, PPH, any other foodie advisors please....

[Heathcliffscathy]

accompaniments for rick stiens basque squid stew please (squid slow cooked in red wine essentially).

i'm thinking rice is too ordinary, cous cous not quite right, but don't want to be faffing at last minute with mash....

also, what to do for starter, can't really do fish or seafood.

have a vegetarian (who will eat ethically raised meat, but not lamb or any other baby animal or anything too meaty like liver etc) coming.

hmmmmmmm

bump otherwise they are getting bread with it.

buggered if I know .. would american long grain mixed with wild rice rice be appropriate .. it has a nuttier texture

but did snort slightly at definition of vegetarian as one who will eat ethically raised meat

actually you know a nice rustic bread .. maybe with olives in it in big chunks would work beautifully

imo bread is actually right. a good fish stew needs huge hunks of excellent fresh bread to mop up the lovely juices. and in a funny way it's kind of a novelty these days to have bread as your carb so it's almost special, if taht makes sense.

I vote for bread too. it saves faffing about at least.

starter: maybe follow the iberian theme, and go for a selection of olives, ham and cheese (that's if you don't want to do too much prep), or saffron rice with butter beans & chicken (i.e. paella without the seafood!)?

i vote bread too.

I would say bread too

pmsl at that "vegetarian"

oh thanks ladies.

yes, more i think about it more i think a good loaf of organic sourdough type stuff will do the trick.

but if i do bread i sort of feel duty bound to do a vegetable of some kind, which is a massive problem as i've no idea....oh i could do green salad couldn't i.

starter i was thinking roasted fennel and mozzarella salad....what do you think?

ALSO

I'm doubling quantities of the recipe, but i don't double liquid do i? even if i've got a giant casserole to do it in???

any advice on that would be good

i know i've painted the vegetarian badly, but she has never claimed to be vege, except that she never eats meat, but when i asked her she said she does if she knows it has been happy meat, she just avoids it out, and won't eat baby animals hmmmm

do your starter
then stew and bread
then salad after innit?

fwiw I would double everything as you are doing as a soupy kind of stew so would be nice to have lots of juice to mop up with the bread

How the f did I get to be a foodie advisor?
FWIW, I would do bread too. Though wild rice idea is nice if you are really anti-bread.

For a nice simple starter you could do something pasta based as your main is light on carbs. Or maybe gnocchi with a pesto/creme fraiche dressing

And I agree with CD that as it's a soup/stew ros you can just double everything as there is meant to be liquid left over

sophable - tell your friend that lambs have very happy lives - you don;t get "free range" lamb becuase it is all free range.