Menu - friends for dinner

[MrsMontyD]

Last time you had friends for dinner (just adults) what did you serve? I usually end up serving a main course that's essentially a nice roast dinner.

Pizza! Home made of course

The last time few times we’ve had friends for dinner we’ve made:

butter chicken curry
venison with stroganoff sauce
steak with blue cheese sauce
smashed patties
ooni pizzas

Roast chicken and mahoosive MN salad, of course.

A proper French(*)-style couscous. That's a big bowl of couscous grains, a big pot of mildly spiced vegetable stew (carrots, turnips, swedes, sweet potatoes, canned tomatoes, chick peas) with plenty of liquid because the couscous soaks it up, and a platter of various meats: grilled sausages (preferably merguez/chorizo), a whole chicken chopped into 10-12 pieces (which you can cook in the vegetable stew), meat balls, maybe some small lamb chops. Serve chili jam (harissa) or any chili sauce separately for those who like it to stir into the juice of the stew. There are good recipes all over the web.

The only last-minute stuff is the couscous itself (which takes 5 minutes) and grilling the meat balls and sausages. It makes for a good (dinner) party dish because you can plonk everything in the middle of the table and people can help themselves (and skip over any items that they prefer not to eat).

(*) Obviously it's a Maghreb dish, but I'm hedging a bit because I have only ever had it in restaurants in France, and that's the version I know. Maybe that's the French equivalent of chicken tikka masala, which is not Indian at all, and Moroccan couscous is actually quite different. 🤷‍♂️

I rarely host but for my book club lunch I did salmon mousse terrine (Waitrose) and a green salad then lasagne and followed by ice cream sundaes with chocolate sauce and marshmallows.

Roast gammon , Nigella’s macaroni cheese deluxe , green salad & crusty bread.

Curry (chicken, lamb and veggie), basmati rice, chutneys, salads, breads, etc. All made from Madhur Jeffrey's recipe books. Pudding was meringues, fruit salad and cream.

Selection of vegetarian curries and all the trimmings or home made pizza with coleslaw and salad.

https://www.hairybikerskitchenware.com/blog/beef-goulash-hairy-bikers-slow-cooker-recipes/?srsltid=AfmBOoqbADW1vcdG3QUderV8mZVT4Bmiat_JYfP2dWC4DS5lhNKHtmK1

Easy and even better if prepared to previous day. Also from their healthy/diet book. Couple of tips:

• thicken it up a bit with cornflour
• swap beef for venison

For dessert I'd do a choice of chocolate tart or banoffee pie and a lemon posset. Again, easy to do in advance (like most puddings).

I was expecting the poster to be Hannibal Lector.

I rarely have people round for dinner anymore. Bit sad really... Anyway, last few times I've done chicken/yasai katsu curry; Sabrina Ghayour chickpea and vegetable kofta with couscous; and Jamie Oliver's jools pregnant pasta.

I've made a Mary Berry Tuscan chicken dish before that was a great hit. Served with hustle back potatoes and veg.

Starter: celeriac & apple soup, garnished with crisped Serrano ham, thyme and crème fraîche, with home-made soda bread

Main: pork cooked in milk (lovely Italian recipe), new potatoes and chargrilled Hispi cabbage

Pudding: crème brulée ice-cream with millionaire shortbread and strawberries

Vietnamese summer rolls, itsu pancakes, gyozas.

then a Thai red curry, one vegetarian, one chicken. Rice. Noodles.

dessert - those gu pots to make my life easy lol

last time I wanted to keep it simple (and had no dietary requirements!!!) so served this Ottolenghi slow cooked chicken crisp corn crust with the kale & grapefruit salad in this link, followed by a lemon tart. All went down a storm.

Last time, I did tikka masala paneer with pilau rice, couple of fresh samosas from the local market, and mini peshwari naans. I like to focus on things that can be cooked earlier in the day and then just be heat up in the evening. So curries are fantastic as the flavours just intensify throughout the day. And then rice can be flung into the rice cooker with all the spices and forget about it to have a glass of wine and spend time with our guests.

Salmon roulade, raw and poached salmon in quark with dill etc. encased in smoked salmon and served with salad leaves and a garnish of salmon roe.
Followed by wild boar in red wine with creamed celeriac and potatoes plus sprouts with lardons and chestnuts.
Followed (a long time later) by mincemeat lattice tart. Loads of brandy in the mincemeat and whipped cream (served with coffee).
It all went down very well.

Unless it's specifically for a Sunday roast, I never do a roast dinner when entertaining - too much hassle and last minute stuff.

Last few times we have done:

Slow cooked lamb shoulder with mediterranean style sides and wraps.
Lamb, butternut and chickpea casserole with rice
Paella (chicken and chorizo)
In the summer we did a lovely rib of beef but served it room temp with a variety of salads, some new potatoes and nice bread.

I also often roast a couple of chickens but serve on a pilaf or risotto with some greens on the side.

These are all brilliant ideas thanks

We usually do Indian but have friends coming this week and I am making chicken shish kebabs, kofta, spicy lamb chops, halloumi, dolmades, tabbouleh, tzatziki, homemade chilli sauce, french fries, pickled peppers and kebab shop style salad with flatbreads. Plan to serve the meat on a big platter with everything else in bowls scattered around. I'm honestly looking forward to it more than Christmas and am hoping for lots of leftovers to stuff my face with 😂.

Last time we had friends over it was for Sunday lunch - roast pork with apple sauce, or for Saturday lunch - baked salmon with lemon and dill, new potatoes and pruple sprouting broccoli. Last big dinner party was curry.

Curry is always a hit. Last time I made Nigellas Thai yellow seafood and pumpkin curry, but made double quantity of the sauce part and used vegetable stock and vegan fish sauce. I then split the portions and added chickpeas to one portion and salmon and prawns to the other. It went down really well!

She also has a chicken mughlai recipe which can be made the day before which I'll do. I'll then make a vegetable curry of some sort in the slow cooker and make some sides to go with it all such as tandoori prawns, saag paneer and lots of naan and rice!

I think I’m nearing the beginning of my ‘dinner party era’ and have started looking through cookbooks and trying out ideas.

Focusing on nailing deserts at moment.
Burnt Basque Cheesecake and Guinness Brownies with Basil Ice Cream have both turned out well so far.

All home made
Smoked mackerel pate with melba toast.
Wild boar in red wine (with a bit of dark chocolate and a pinch of chilli flakes in the sauce), served with potato and celeriac puree and leafy green vegetables.
Blackberry sorbet with a bit of Creme de Mure over the top and a thin shortbread biscuit.

Pizza and tapas, a mix of Italian and Spanish....with a home made trifle to follow.