What would you cook for a winter celebration meal?

[notnowlater]

I am cooking a birthday meal in mid December for a family member's landmark birthday.

There will be 7 adults. Three of the adults are reasonably fussy and let's say not very adventurous. Two won't eat nuts (preference not allergy) or smoked salmon.

I'm happy to cook 2 starters, and maybe 2 desserts (although there will also be birthday cake so maybe that's unnecessary!).

Ideally I would like to be able to prepare/cook the starters in advance. I have the previous day free for preparation, so would have time to do something more labour intensive.

What would you cook for a celebratory winter meal with these requirements?

Smoked mackerel pate and melba toast

Wild boar in red wine with creamed celeriac and potato, tender stem broccoli (mushrooms and carrots in the casserole with the wild boar)

Fruit pavlova

French onion soup
Beef Wellington with steamed veg
(Chocolate) birthday cake

Chicken liver pate is easy and best done in advance.

Frozen chicken livers from a supermarket
Butter
onion
seasoning

optional extras

brandy
garlic
fresh/dried herbs

peel the onion and fry in butter, add the defrosted livers and fry in LOADS of butter
Add the other ingredients and cook until the livers are cooked through

Put in a blender and then pour the gloop (looks awful at this stage) into a bowl or individual ramekins, top with a little melted butter.

Fil parcels filled with cream cheese and whatever they will eat (I'd normally use salmon trimmings) mushrooms work well - make sure you cook them before putting in the pastry.

Or filo parcels made with a piece of brie and a dollop of mango chutney.

If you wanted to do a couple of tapas type things

dried apricots, soaked overnight, fill with cream cheese or brie or a pitted olive, wrap in streaky bacon, use a cocktail stick to secure and cook for 10 mins.

Asparagus wrapped in Serrano a ham, just 'butter' the ham with dijon mustard first.

cheese straws - pack of puff pastry, I use ready rolled.

score into stirp about 1.5 cm wide - you don't need to go all the way through. spread a fine layer of dijon mustard and then scatter grated Parmesan cheese all over, bake for 10 mins, when cool enough to handle brak across the scoring into straws.

Soup or pate

Individual steak pies or fish pies with veggies and choice of potatoes

Cheeseboard with all the extras

Birthday cake

All can be prepared in advance and then you get to spend time with your guests

Butternut squash soup
Beef Wellington with dauphinois potatoes
Pavlova

Quite similar to PlainVanilka!!

Brown potted shrimps with Melba toast
(good method [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9nlLzqVZCKM
here]]

Cold duck breasts roasted day before (cold duck often superior in flavour cimpared to when it's just out of oven) potato and celeriac puree, a variation of Cumberland sauce, kale or purple sprouting broccoli

Cheese board

Birthday cake and fruit platter

But I suppose some sort of tiny cup of soup (consommé, vichyssoise, watercress, spicy squash?) might be a safer bet for starter if guests really fussy and maybe swap duck for beef?

Meant to say duck and pot & celeriac puree and sauce can all be prepped in advance!

Some lovely ideas here - thank you.

I like the idea of a couple of tapas type things for starters. Then I can do some more adventurous things too.

I was a vegetarian for 15 years, so have never been brave enough to attempt a beef wellington incase I ruin a piece of very expensive beef fillet!!

Cheese board is a fab idea too.

I do a huge Venison and juniper stew every year for an event and serve it with buttery garlic mash and steamed tender stem broccoli.
It does it's own thing in the oven so it's not labour intensive.

A started I'd do a nice butternut squash soup or smoked mackerel pate on Melba toast.

I would make a couple of delicious pies that can be shared at the table.

Steak and mushroom
Chicken and vegetables

Big bowl of potatoes - mashed or boiled
Peas and carrots

Gravy

I prefer canapés to starters.....something to nibble with drinks.

Desserts would be tiramisu and sticky toffee pudding and cream.

Light vegetable soup, with fresh home made bread (soda bread is perfect and it's quick)
or
Prawn cocktail with salad.

Coq au vin
Steamed or mashed potatoes
Green beans

Or

Beef bourguinon
Celeriac mash
Steamed greens

Exotic fruit salad, mini meringues and cream
or
Nigella's Mont Blanc chocolate/chestnut desserts

Plus a cheeseboard with lovely crackers and oatcakes, chutney and two or three of the best cheeses the deli has.

cheddar souffle to start

Then Delia's salmon coulibiac. If too 'fancy', either a beef wellington, a steak pie or Delia's beef in Barolo would be nice.

Finish with a beautiful squidgy make ahead chocolate tart with berries (can post a recipe if wanted).

What about something old fashioned but very British like a steak and mushroom or even kidney pie, served with extra gravy and accompanied by a green vegetable. Would only need a light starter and birthday cake to finish.

This polpo recipe for duck ragu with black olives and green peppercorns is wonderful.

www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/foodanddrink/hot-dinner-duck-black-olive-and-tomato-ragu-8159503.html

Always a crowd pleaser, and doesn't suffer from being prepared in advance. Flavours are quite 'robust' (pepper, olives, duck...) so not sure how that would go down with your less adventurous ones?

The recipe in the link doesn't include the tomato sauce recipe, which is listed separately in the cookbook, but I can find it for you if you're interested.

Do you have a slow cooker OP?

I'm taking windgates traditional idea one step further, you could make a steak and kidney pudding, just put it in a pyrex dish and have a couple of inches of water in the slow cooker, put the pyrex i and leave.

I love the sound of this menu from Diana Henry's book "how to eat a peach":

Smoked eel with beet remoulade & Guinness bread; partridges with red cabbage, blackberries & star anise; Seville orange tart. Sounds so wintery and delicious!

@sashh that's a brilliant idea! Might try it myself.

Windgate full recipe. I've made this for a few people, the person most impressed was a French student, suet puddings are not a big thing in France.

steak and kidney
flour
suet pastry
salt and pepper
oxo cube (I love oxo, I have been known to eat cubes asa snack)

grease the largest pyrex dish (can use plastic but it tips over easily) that will fit in the sc.

fill the kettle and put it on to boil

Grease it with whatever you normally use.

roll suet pastry into a circle about 1/2 - 1 inch thick, cut out 1/4 for the lid.

Line the pyrex dish with the suet pastry
dust the steak and kidney with season flour, you need each piece to be lightly coated to get the thick gravy.

put the floured meat into the pie, crumble on the oxo, add any herbs / mustard/anything you want to make it your recipe.

roll out the remaining 1/4 suet as a lid, put the lid of the pie, sealing the edges with water.

Put in the dry slow cooker and switch it on

Make a hole in the centre of the lid with your finger, just big enough for you to see the inside.

pour water from the kettle through the hole until it is full. Pour the rest of the water around the pudding. Put he sc lid on and leave until your guests arrive.

Deffo pie or pithivier

To start: Big platter or board of home made pates, home made Melba toast, potted shrimps, mini tarts (you can buy ready made cases. IKEA do a great thin one....yes, Ikea!) filled with (at the last minute) soured cream, topped with smoked salmon (for the 5 people who do like it) with lemon already squeezed on, chopped dill and ground black pepper and watercress, pomegranate seeds and orange segments to decorate the platter and eat. Something for everyone!
Serve a glass of champagne with it.
That'll get everyone happy

Main: Roast Beef or Roast Lamb or 2 Roast Chickens. Approximately flavoured.
Potato Dauphinois. Tender stem broccoli. Carrots cooked in a little orange juice, butter and a pinch of sugar. Petits Pois a la Francais (if you can be bothered doing a third veg)

Pudding: Birthday Cake, I'd probably do a lemon cake filled with raspberries and cream. Make it decadent. A homemade (or buy a good quality one and transfer to your bowl) ice cream to have with or without the cake.

An hour or so later: Then a big block of Dolcalette with artisan crackers with a glass of Port.

Roasts *appropriately flavoured....not approximately

Deep fried Brie with cranberry/sweet chilli sauce (you can do the brie crumbing in advance) and make up the plates with salad/sauce so you just have to fry the Brie.

Beef Wellington with dauphinois and braised red cabbage (all done in advance

Lemon posset with winter berries (done and kept in the fridge

Soup
Coq au Vin
Pavlova

I'm a bit meh about starters eaten at home, I think they are too much fuss for the host, you need too many knives and forks and plates, I think they work fine in restaurants - they give the chef time to prepare your main course and much prefer drinks - cocktails etc with marinated olives/crisps/popcorn etc to nibble on.
For main I would serve Jamie's Incredible lamb shanks with a buttery mash and some greens - they are a thing of beauty, look amazing and are make ahead - still fairly traditional and safe with out being boring.
Pudding - I'd do a traditional British pudding or a tart and I'd make chewy cookies and serve them with vanilla ice cream. I'd definitely serve cheese - at least one blue, one hard and one soft - some local honey, a plain biscuit like Carrs.

Wow! Thank you for all the ideas!

sashh yes I do have a slow cooker, but sadly 2 of the guests will definitely not eat kidneys .

Chewbecca yes please for the choc tart recipe.

primoestate thanks for the tip about IKEA pastry cases.

QuantumGroan thanks for the link to the Jamie recipe - looks amazing.

Whatever I decide on, I am going to do a dummy run first, so my husband is looking to forward to me trialling lots of your suggestions!