12 course tasting menu

[Halfjob]

Hit me with ideas!
I’ve done this for the past few years and would appreciate some new input to stop it being samey. I can cook, but only have a domestic kitchen and no sous chef so do have some limitations. I prefer to keep it fairly simple so that I’m not panicking about dishes going wrong or having to spend days cooking. Nothing too out there as I want people to actually eat it. No foam!
I’m cooking for either 6 or 9 people. Two of them are children, all family members. No allergies but some dislikes.

(Also I don’t have unlimited money)

Not expecting full menus from anyone but ideas for individual dishes would be greatly appreciated.

A friend did this , the guests did not realise it was 1st April !
Most of it was the contents of 3 normal courses, but served separately.
She also provided written menus, with the descriptions in very florid language.

I remember we had 5 baked beans adorned with a basil leaf - the beans were home-made. The beans were late harvest from Farmer Jones, anointed with a tomato reduction.......

A Jenga small pile of chips.
A single mushroom stuffed with something.

Not quite what you were after, but it was a lot of fun.

Oh that’s brilliant! I love it!

At Christmas we have a palette cleanser of lemon sorbet, super easy and can be prepared beforehand, we usually hollow out a lemon and then fill with sorbet Kids always love it as they think they're getting ice cream and then we do with a shot of limoncello for the adults! You could also do Gazpacho as easy to prepare beforehand :)

Firstly , 12 courses ? Stick with 6/7 courses or you will lose your mind - also will it be appreciated? It’s a lot of work , I have done it several times.
Start with a cauliflower or butternut squash veloute in small cups , as amuse bouche , then do a light salad , like beetroot and goats cheese , do scallops and pea puree for fish course , scallops least amount of fuss to cook on the go as dont take long.
Do homemade bread and flavoured butters as a course ( garlic & herb, miso , sundried tomato - just whip normal butter throw in whatever and reform into a log in cling film ) ,then you just need a meat course as a main course , a simple sorbet , palate cleanser and then impressive pudding .
Look on Great British Chefs website for ideas.
Organise yourself with plates ready for each course and remember to pace it well.

Steal this ebay seller's menu https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/387811154041

1. an amuse buche of something tiny, like a vol-u-vent size

2.Sour dough bread and fancy butter ( say 2 types)

1. Soup - small portion say 1 cup at most
2. Smoked salmon or smoked trout pate
3. Pasta - say three ravioli or similar stuffed pasta
4. Lemon Sorbetto
5. Duck breast (half each with veg)
6. Roast lamb or beef on a mini yorkie
7. Blood orange sorbet
8. Dessert 1
9. Cheese course
10. a small chocolate

My numbering is wrong, but adds to 12

some Canadian and UK multi course tasting menus...
https://www.firesidegrill.com/3-course-menu
https://www.pecksrest.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/P_D8_25_Menus_DEC.pdf
https://www.theritzlondon.com/restaurant-epicurean-menu

I have found that if you offer a cheese course everyone is then either too full to eat or then do not want anything more !
also unless one meat course tiny no one wants more than one ?
Meat courses involve lots of cooking too best limiting to one - I’ve probably cooked a dozen or so tasting menus as a home cook and a stressed cook is not a pleasant host 🙈

Amouse boosh

Fruity cocktail

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Starters

Melon wrapped in Parma ham

Carrot soup a single finger of warm buttered bread

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Salas

Goats cheese and sweet potato salad tossed in oil and balsamic. With seeds and cherry tomatoes.

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Fish course

One scallop on pea puree with a shard of bacon and mini greens.

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Lemonade slush cleanser

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Pasta
Ravioli

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Main
Duck breast in sticky sauce on roast carrots and potato puree.

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Puddings

Chocolate ganache pot

Lemon posset

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Cheese

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Coffee with truffles

Knocked from Delia Smith, if you do duck then for a cherry sauce mix 50/50 of red wine and morello cherry jam.

A chilled soup in shot glasses, carrot and coriander works well.

Dried apricot soaked overnight, stuff with brie wrap with streaky bacon and bake for 10 -15 mins.

If you are serving lots of small plates then I think miniature versions of classics work well.

Good luck with it.

This is very similar to last years menu 😃

One year I did it so all six people had two courses containing their favourite foods.

Another year I did months with each month containing a seasonal food (this was a pita, not doing this again!).

Mostly I do it without a theme! But it’s become a tradition now that our last meal of the year all together is 12 courses.

dd2 found some dinky little pastry spoons in Lidl yesterday that she thought I could use…so ideas of what to serve on them appreciated!

Soup in a shot glass is a great idea, I did it in tea cups last year but it was still a bit much with everything else!

Thanks for all the ideas everyone, will report back once I finalise the menu.

It’s funny I absolutely despise the day to day cooking now but still get excited about doing things like this!

Whip goats cheese with marscapone cheese and a few drops of truffle oil. Drizzle with honey. You could serve on those spoons. So good!

Great idea, thank you

Take a date, stuff with chorizo and wrap in bacon. Bake.

They are delicious. I'm not sure how I would fancy-ify it - maybe with a drizzle of pomegranate molasses and some micro leaves.

On the goats cheese mentioned above, I have had an amazing warm salad made with goats cheese, confit duck, sweet and sour cherries, some seeds and some salady veg. That was amazing.

I have also had a delicious salad involving samphire, prosciutto and grilled peach, which works with either mozzarella or with goats cheese.

I also love smoked salmon pate/mousse. You can make this with smoked salmon trimmings, cream cheese, lemon juice, black pepper and then add some sort of herbs to give it some nice green-y flecks. I have either served this in parcels made of smoked salmon, or one could make a little roulade and slice it up. Then I would again be breaking out the micro greens if I could locate them here I think and maybe adding a small slice of lemon or similar for people to squeeze on to add interest to the plate.

I would probably do petit fours as one course as well. I love cinder toffee so that would feature amongst the petit fours.

Pudding wise, maybe something you can do very small and serve with the tiny spoons - white or dark chocolate mousse in a sherry glass or an espresso cup. Or crème brûlée always goes down well in my family.

And then presumably the second pudding would need to be fruity to do a reasonably balanced menu. A tiny pavlova? Or some sort of miniaturised crumble or pie?

You could do a 12 days of christmas theme:

Partridge Liver with pear sauce,
Dove breasts with little nigh neck jumper
Chicken nuggets with a couple french tries.

Although it would be a bit poultry heavy...

You could base it on signs of the zodiac. I don’t know all the names but you could have lamb for Aries beef for Taurus, fish for Pisces , consommé for Aquarius, crab for Cancer, etc.

You could add a cheese straw to the soup. or a couple of basil leaves to make it look like a miniature cocktail.

I did a 10 course one one year. It was a lot of work but it was fun too. I can’t remember everything I did but I did a shot glass of vichyssoise with chives on top for one course. Another was an egg yolk raviolo. One of the desserts was a little bit of one of these brownies: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/best-ever-chocolate-brownies-recipe