Please help me with my menu......

[micku5]

We have friends coming over for dinner on Friday. We usually have take away but I decided this time I'd actually cook.

I thought about making this Delia chicken recipe as main with maybe a fresh fruit salad as dessert, but I don't know what to make as starters or a side dish. Any ideas anyone??

That looks nice

easy starters:
hard boiled quails eggs and celery salt
good bread with balsamic vinegar and olive oil for dipping

I would do rice and baby sweetcorn, mange tout or sugar snap peas with that

i would do rice + a some cruchy raw veg dressed with chilli, coriander + lemon juice

for starters perhaps shell on prawns with a thai dipping sauce (from the bottle)

or buy some salads and olives and salamis from the deli at the supermarket with foccaccia as a starter. Everyone can help themselves.

Get some meringues and cream and strawberries for dessert.

Serve the chicken with noodles or rice.

yum!!

Actually get some prawn crackers and Chinese starters......

A great starter is asparagus in parma ham. Boil some asparagus for 3-4 mins. Lay out a slice of parma ham and sprinkle a little bit of grated parmesan on it (you could probably do it in half a slice of ham actually). Roll the parma ham around the asparagus. This can all be done well in advance (do 3 asparagus spears per person).

Then heat up a griddle pan or frying pan and pan fry (only a teeny tiny bit of oil) the bundles until the parma ham is a bit crispy. Serve drizzled with a little bit of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Potted crab with melba toast.

Melt butter in a pan with cayenne pepper and mace. Put crab meat in ramekins. Separate the clear yellow butter from the milky white solids and pour the clear butter over the crab meat until it is above the surface. Pop in fridge (can be made 2 days ahead). Serve on a plate with melba toast, rocket and lemon slices. To make melba toast, toast slices of bread, cut toast in halfthrough the middleso it is half as thin iyswim. Toast the newly exposed side under grill then cut each piece into quarters. Can be stored in an airtight container for a few days.

Of course that doesn't fit with the oriental style chicken - should have checked the link out first... I'd serve that just with plain rice. You can make the rice look posh by packing it into a ramekin or cup or something like that and turning it upside down onto the plate to make a tower of rice, then just put one of your spare coriander leaves on top of the rice tower and spoon the chicken around it. I agree with waterwitch that mange tout and baby sweetcorn would go well.

An exotic fruit salad with fruits like mango, papaya and lychees would be great for dessert and go well with the oriental theme.

Sorry can't open any links atm for some reason as it makes my computer freeze. If you are looking for oriental starters, how about making some thai crab/prawn cakes with chilli dipping sauce.

bruschetta:

Ingredients
ciabatta, sliced on the diagonal
tomatoes, sliced
extra virgin olive oil
mozzarella, sliced or ripped
garlic
basil leaves, roughly shredded
fresh ground black pepper

toast one side of bread lightly, crush garlic into the oil, mix, drizzle (be pretty generous) on other side of bread (toast lightly). layer on the toms and mozz, try to cover the bread well, then toast until the mozz is starting to bubble and brown. sprinkle over the basil. sprinkle of pepper. Really tasty and moreish, pretty cheap

Eton mess for dessert - yum

don't bother trying to kiss anyone for the next few days as you'll be honking of garlic lovliness

Thanks for those.. i'm getting hungry just reading them. I have mangoes and pineapples and mango sorbet so will make the exotic fruit salad. Love the idea of the crab cakes.

We are having a garden party/ bbq in August so some of the other meal ideas have already been noted for then.

Ok I've searched through my cook books and numerous pieces of paper but can't find a decent one for crab/prawn cakes.

Does anyone have a recipe that they can post online?

Never tried these (DH hates seafood) but this looks good and most of it can be done in advance

Thanks. Looks easy enough (she says).

Can't afford Waitrose ingredients though!