Ideas for sit down meal - Golden Wedding

[PosiePootlePerkins]

Hi, I need some inspiration! My Mum and Dad are celebrating their 50th Wedding Anniversary in September and I have agreed to host a small gathering at my house. I will be providing a sit down meal for about 16 people and would like to offer a couple of choices of main course. Ideally something I can prepare in advance, but not sure if something like a casserole is special enough?
Any ideas/suggestions gratefully received!

It depends on the casserole - I would say something like a carbonnade of beef, or a coq au vin would be special enough, if cooked from scratch with plenty of herbs and good quality ingredients. If offering a choice of two dishes, try to make sure they both go with the vegetables/side dishes to minimise the work involved. Maybe one of those casseroles, with a side of salmon as an alternative, with green beans and new potatoes as the veg? You could offer Hollandaise with the salmon, as well. The casserole you could cook in advance, then reheat after you've taken the salmon out of the oven - I'm not a fan of over-cooked salmon!

Ooh I like those ideas thank you! I will look up some recipes. Good point about the side dishes.

I agree that it's all about the casserole. Jamie oliver has a great hunters chicken recipe I do for more fancy meals. If you use large chicken pieces it looks less like a casserole and more like chicken in a sauce when you serve it. It's dead easy too.

I'd serve with some sort of potato dish (usually roasted new potatoes with salt and rosemary or a dauphinois) or lentils, green veg and nice bread.

I shall look that up, hunters chicken is yummy, thank you.

www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chicken-recipes/hunter-s-chicken-stew-pollo-alla-cacciatora/

I wouldn't do a casserole, it just doesn't seem fancy enough. I would do two sorts of meat, probably slow roast beef in onion and garlic gravy and roast chicken. I would serve this with a choice of vegetables and roast potatoes.

Desserts I would make in advance and probably do Mary Berry meringue thing, with cream and fruits on top and a cheese cake.

Thank you for the link PurpleDaisies
My concern about doing a roast is that it can't be done in advance. Having said that I did Christmas lunch for 12 last year so it is doable. Just trying to keep it feeling manageable.

I recently went to a 50th wedding party that was done as an afternoon tea

There were loads of tasty nice sandwiches, several different v tasty mini quiches and some savoury scone/vol au vents served with salad garnish around them if people wanted.

Then there were assorted cakes, choux buns with different icing flavours, malt loaf, scones with jam, brownies, home made cookies and more. Finally there was a big fancy fruit cake that got cut into after the speeches.

It was a really lovely event that didn't need too much intervention and hassle for those hosting. There were plenty of choices and plenty of each so everyone managed to eat their fill.

And as it was a Sunday it meant it didn't finish too late so people were able to get home and have a chance to get ready for the week ahead. It also means it's not quite such a rush to get everything done in the morning.

If you're worried about the catering then it's worth considering!

But other than that the beef carbonade and salmon sound good. My only concern with cooking salmon (or indeed other fish) is that it can make the place smell very fishy which might not be the atmosphere you want to celebrate in! And it can also be pretty grim eating other food which would normally be delicious when there's lots of fishy smell around, it taints the other food. Particularly noticeable if you don't like fish (or maybe I'm biased!) - have memories of mil serving up fish or lasagne when lots of people were ther - and although the lasagne was ok if that was the only thing on offer, it was never good when eaten with the smell emanating from the salmon or trout that she served up alongside it.

bunningsbunny that does sound lovely, and much easier to cater for, unfortunately it has somehow been decided that a sit down lunch would be preferable! I do agree about the fishy smell of salmon, I had wondered about a posh fish pie, could be a bit sloppy though!

A fresh salmon shouldn't smell fishy either during or after cooking! Posh fish pie would be good though - maybe with salmon, cod, smoked haddock and prawns? I like to add hard boiled eggs, a bit of bacon and - ideally - some winkles (yeah, I know it's odd!) to mine, and add cheese to the sauce and topping. Am in the middle of cooking roast lamb with anchovies (not smelly!), garlic, rosemary, oregano and cinnamon at the moment, with lemon and garlic Greek potatoes - am bloody starving and full of foodie ideas!

What did they have as their wedding meal? Might be a nice touch to recreate it (or other meals from 50 years ago)

I would do similar to suggested by FurryDogMother except that I would serve roast gammon instead of salmon along with a casserole, (gammon cooking time is less critical than salmon and no fishy smell). Serve with a potato dish, green veg, baby carrots and crusty bread. Mustard sauce or something for the gammon. If the potatoes can be done in the oven (dauphinoise?) then the only time thing that needs to be cooked just before serving is the veg.

For dessert a cheesecake or pavlova and something chocolatey, all made in advance and ready to serve. Possibly a fruit platter as well.

My go to for this type of thing is beef bourguignon.

Tastes wonderful and is better the day after it's made.

Don't skimp on the wine - for that amount of people I'd be chucking in 2 bottles.

I did it for my Fathers 70th dinner. I didn't want to be chained to the kitchen rather than be with DF so the menu was as follows. I did pretty much all of it in advance.

For starter I made crab terrine. I used this recipe but simplified it by buying white crab meat and using good quality bought mayo. It looked really pretty.

www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/brown-crab-roulade-avocado-mousse

The beef for the main, served with mash (that I'd made in advance and just re-heated) and green beans.

Dessert was lemon tart with creme fresh.

Then I served cheese.

FurryDogMother hang on, I'm coming round for dinner I may well do a posh fish pie. Would only need green veg, which would also go with a meat dish.
FoofFighter nice idea, I could ask them! I wonder if they remember

Ooh more ideas while I was typing! Thanks so much everyone will have a good look at all the ideas and links.

I wouldn't do two meat dishes and no vegetarian option unless you are 100% certain that nobody coming is a vegetarian or vegan. I really like the idea of finding out what they had at their wedding reception and doing a version of that - if it was something nice! As far as I can recall (it was a looooong time ago), we had roast turkey at our wedding. It was OK, but nothing special, and I'd much rather have a good casserole or a succulent bit of roast gammon.

If a casserole doesn't seem special enough, how about a pie? You could stew beef and onions/mushrooms/ale/maybe kidney for a good long time the day before as pies actually come out better with the pastry put onto a cold filling. On the day, place filling in a baking or pie dish and lay a sheet of puff pastry across the top while the oven heats up, cut out nice shapes from the trimmings to decorate it, egg wash the lot, bake for half an hour or so and cook the veg while it bakes.

Vegetarian option (if needed): maybe that could be the pie? Or mushroom stroganoff.

For pudding, what about a big trifle, lots of fruit and cheese and biscuits?

Another quick point on the beef.

When I make it for posh events I cut the beef (I used rump steak) into large thick strips think 4cm x 10cm.

This way, when you serve it, you can plate it more attractively by having two pieces of meat slightly crossed and spooning the sauce, mushrooms, onions artistically around it - rather than just a bowl of stew iyswim.

I just served the mash and beans on the table for people to help themselves and put a gravy boat out for extra BB sauce for those that wanted it.

You can cook your meat the day before and make your gravy. The meat is easier to carve if you do this. Served on hot plates with hot gravy, no one knows it was cooked the day before. You can also make your desserts the day before.

That just leaves roast potatoes and vegetables to cook.

If you know your guests and are certain none are veggie I think it would be fine to offer a meat and fish dish or meat and poultry.
I often do beef wellington for big events as it looks like you've made the effort but can be mainly prepped in advance.
I'd probably do a chicken dish as well. Maybe this flamed chicken and asparagus

if your like our family.homely love big just chill gatherings,barn dance,parties in barns or hall rather than clubs.together people.
stew sounda fab.with some nice dumplings.any vegetarians you could do a veggie version too.
fish pie sounds beautiful.look up mary berrys. you can get mixed fish packets in the supermarket now too.we add prawns and peas. and also a must is sliced boiled eggs on top of fish before the potatos.oh so good.
couple big dishes of gorgeous unctuous lasagne.big salad bowlsn and garlic bread.went down fab at our parents anniversary similar thing done.
www.maryberry.co.uk/recipes/marys-all-time-favourites/exceedingly-good-double-fish-pie
we also did the above with simple green beans and broccoli.and prawns added.

Treacle tart is a nod to golden, for the dessert?

ha gran22 fab idea!
never even thought of dessert.

no pressure also here but wanted to add what little extra we did which went down really special.
you can get pictures put onto fondant.we did one of them on their wedding day and then put it on Victoria sponge covered in fondant(birthday style)cake.it was a lovely surprise and they both cried :)

Some lovely golden wedding ideas in Nigella's Feast book - peach pavlova with yellow rose petals IIRC

That's a really good idea about the fondant from kateandme. I did that for a local group and it was very easy. I am no hand at cake decorating but can manage a simple covering over a sponge cake, and with the printed picture on the very thin sheet of fondant on top it looked really good, and wasn't expensive either.