Celebration / Special Dinner - start to finish in about 40mins?

[RomainingToBeSeen]

It's my Dad's birthday in March - a milestone one - and I would want to cook a nice dinner for him and my Mum, along with DH and DC.

Unfortunately I've just had details of a work event which means that I'll be away from home for the two days beforehand and won't get back until around 6:30pm on his birthday.

Has anybody got any ideas for a special dinner that I can get on the table in less than an hour? I can shop and do some prep at the weekend but it'll have to sit in the fridge until the Wednesday evening.

My parents aren't big meat eaters but love fish and seafood. My 'go to' would be a big seafood platter but the timing doesn't work. There will be six of us in total - no allergies, no particularly fussy eaters.

Maybe it's a post-Christmas thing but I'm completely out of inspiration when normally I'm pretty good at this stuff.

Any ideas for something quick but special would be really appreciated.

What foods/dishes do you consider special? I would consider a really well made beef bourguignon, which will actually benefit from being made a couple of days ahead, special and you could do a seafood starter, such as scallops, on the night.

That's a good question @NigelHarmansNewWife. I guess something that we wouldn't normally have and that isn't one of the 'one pot' type meals that we live on the rest of the time. We eat fairly well with lots of home-cooked food but it does tend to be a lot of stew, casserole, curry, traybake, one pot, big 'family style' pasta/rice dishes.

In my head it looks more like a restaurant meal but without the brigades of chefs and hours of prep! 😂😂😂

I think you're looking at something you make in advance and reheat with a starter cooked on the night, unless you do something that's an expensive treat like a huge steak on the bone and cut it into slices to share, served with homemade chips, chimichurri sauce and veg or salad and roast veg.

Prawn and Prosecco risotto https://www.coop.co.uk/recipes/prawn-prosecco-and-lemon-risotto

What about something like a cheese fondue? I'm a big cheese person so it's a great option for me. Buy some nicely crusty bread (or those bake at home rolls with really remarkably well for it) and grate all the cheese etc in advance. Then all you need to do on the night is cook the fondue and slice up some appropriate vegetables. Will there be anyone you can make buy bread on the day?

Then you could do a pudding you've made ahead. Probably a bit major after a fondue but I've had great success with homemade melt in the middle chocolate puddings before - they definitely felt restaurant level fancy but you could make them at the weekend and pop in the fridge to bake on the night.

If not a cheese fondue would a souffle be doable? Again, really good fresh bread, nice butter, grate all the cheese etc in advance and I think you could even make the white sauce ahead. So then it would just be getting the sauce out too come to room temperature, if there would be anyone at home to do that. Whisk the egg whites, mix and bake. I've not personally tried it that way but I reckon it would work.

What about one of the gusto or similar type meal?

Do they eat duck? It takes more than an hour but I assume you will have drinks and starters.

Filo parcels make great starters, my go to is cream cheese and smoked salmon but you can do lots of other things.

Duck(s) just shove in the oven on a rack with a tray to catch the fat. Leave alone for about 1.5 hours.

Or do duck legs.

Sere with green veg and a sauce made with 50/50 red wine and cherry jam heated in a pan together until it thickens. Nicked from Delia.

A fish stew can be done quickly, a jar or two of passata and 2 - 3 different types of fish, and seasoning to taste and put on the hob for 20 - 30 mins. Sorry I have just seen you do a lot of stews but this is different. Serve with crusty bread.

Fish kebabs served on lemon rice.

Home made fishcakes can be made to look special.

Chicken can be poshed up. Put chicken breasts between 2 layers of cling film and beat flat. Stuff with whatever you want I find mozzarella works well then 'close' the chicken and wrap in streaky bacon or parma ham.

Put some green veg on the plate with some new potatoes.

That stuffed chicken also works really well with Boursin (not other cream cheese, Boursin has a higher fat content), and you can then add some more Boursin and white wine to the pan and make it into a sauce on the stovetop.

@Ineffable23 Thank you I'm going to give that a go.

Given the time constraints I'd probably do something like this if they'd enjoy that kind of thing. Maybe not special but I'd also buy some tempura prawn, spring rolls, prawn crackers, maybe some dumplings and serve them with a nice dipping sauce and some crispy kale (like Chinese seaweed).

I think I'd go for a fish dish, maybe sea bass. If you got fillets you could pan fry with flavoured butter to form a sauce eg lemon, garlic and caper, honey, garlic and ginger etc whatever flavour you think he would like. Then match your sides to the flavours you pick.

I'd do drinks and nibbles instead of a first course, you could have traditional style olives, crisps & dips (bought in advance), cheese cubes, radishes etc or you might try a selection of Indian or Chinese starter snacks also bought in advance.
For the main course I'd do a tray of salmon fillets baked with lemon, dill and a splash of white wine.

The vegetables could be Parmentier potatoes or Greek style roast potatoes both would cook in the oven with the salmon, and a green vegetable medley, peas, broccoli and Romanesco cauliflower.
You could make a quick sauce with finely chopped watercress stirred into Greek yoghurt.

Thank you so much for all the suggestions - I have loads to work with now - it's really appreciated.

I've decided not to try to be an idiot and leave myself in a frazzled mess so I think I'm going to go with a shop-bought selection of seafoody sharing starters/nibbles that I can throw together really quickly and make it look nice. I may have to break the 'fish and cheese' rule and add a token baked camembert for my Mum as it's her favourite (she won't manage a fondue on her own!)

Main course still undecided but oven-baked salmon, sea bass, or the seafood stew that someone mentioned are all on the list.

(Have also added the risotto recipe, the salmon/noodles and the duck recipes to my file - looking forward to trying them even if it's not for Dad's birthday).

Thanks again. 😊