Help! cooking for 20 people - all dh's family - very stressed!

[mavornia]

20 of dh's relatives are coming over on friday, including my very overbearing and critical mil

i have some ideas for appetisers but id really appreciate some ideas for main courses, especially those that can be prepared a day ahead and will feed 20

also, im in egypt and to look gracious the table has to be groaning with food (particularly as it's the first time we've had them over)

If you want your table looking groaning with food do lots of side dishes of veg e.g. potato dauphinoise, carrots in glaze, peas & bacon etc - these can be prepped in advance and then cooked/warmed up on the day. If you do stuffed chicken breasts wrapped in parma ham in a roasted pepper sauce, something like that, it's easy to bulk up - make sauce in advance and then people can help themselves to all the veggies.

Same with puds, do several choices of simple but elegant things.

Don't envy you, that's quite a task!

I'm feeding 50 on Friday and I've done nothing and my house looks like a building site and I'm working on Thursday. AAAAAAARRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHH!

Anyway, I don't want to trump your stress but rather to give some practical suggestions.

1. Do a buffet and ask guests to make a small contribution to it. A buffet of love, if you will.

1. I'm doing one big pot of veg curry and one big pot of meat curry to have with naan, rice, chutneys and also some samosas. Asda do really great samosas made by Channa, so proper Indian, which you can just put in the oven.

1. Bakes potatoes people can fill on their own with butter, cheese, beans etc.

1. I'm doing four big bowls of salad. (Wild rice and aubergine, pasta and possibly tuna, three bean salad and some leafy salad.)

1. Make some humous and provide bread to dip in it.

1. Get plenty of booze in and 1-5 won't be so important.

Have a good one.

I'd probably go italian and do the following:

• meat lasagne
• veg lasagne
• nice bread with bowls of olive oil
• basil/tomato/mozzarella salad
• olives
• green leaf salad
• lemon tarts with berries and cream for pudding

I'd do a lot of a few things to get that plentiful thing going on.

Good luck.

great ideas spidermama but the buggers guests coming to me:

1. would crow forever and a day that i asked for a contribution (ie couldn't pull it off myself)

1. don't eat curry or any of my "weird chinese and indian stuff"

1. could do some baked potatoes, thanks

1. salads are good - will look up some recipes

1. my humous wouldn't be as good as theirs - don't want to show myself up

1. the friggers don't drink (except mil - I'll fling her a bottle of wine and that might silence her)

also, whilst pork is available, it's not very good quality - in a muslim country there isn't much call for it

thanks weegel, will look into veggie side dishes

and feeling better knowing that you have to cook for 50 - you well and truly trumped me!

ooh, basil/tom/mozz salad would be good - hope i can find mozz cheese here

i've never made my own lasagna - would be nervous trying it for the teeming masses

god, i wish i hadn't invited them

Can you do a large pot of pasta sauce (or two - eg one roast veg, one bolognaise these you should be able to cook day before - then have a large lot of pasta to cook just before - drain and put in a tiny bit of olive oil to stop it sticking. Also do a risotto you can keep this warm in the oven covered.
Those would go well alongside assorted salads.

o yes, good idea, mistlethrush - I'll do roasted veg and pesto (no one in dh's family has eaten pesto before so they won't know how easy it is and I'll sprinkle the top with olives, parmesan and coriander)

I thought you had to eat risotto immediately - wouldn't it dry out in the oven? The problem with risotto is having to stand and stir it - how far in advance do you reckon I could make it?

What a difficult bunch. I haven't really trumped you as dh will be in charge of around 80% of the cooking. I'm happy to do the baked potatoes though.

I do bean salad. Three sorts of beans (from tins is fine) eg kidney, harico and chick peas. Then green/french beans cut and balnched, add chopped celery and very finely chopped onion (ideally red onion but not essential) then add a french dressing - made or bought.

I also copy an M&S wild rice salad which is wild rice mixed with normal white basmati rice. Roast some aubergine, garlic, peppers and onion. Ad them to the rice with some chopped celery, herbs and vinegrette.

I might be taking some of the ideas on this thread too.

Bas/tom/moz salad is fairly straigh forward and uncontroversial. Lots of fancy bread to fill 'em up and make them feel they've had a good deal.

I totally understand need or both quantity and variety in these situations. So I second all the suggestions here and add a few:

Some stuffed/ baked vegetable dishes? Eg aubergine and tomatoe bakes (any greek/lebanese book will have a recipe), butternut baked then stuffed with ricotta, sage and parmesan is nice.stuffed peppers - with rice, tomatoes etc? You need at least one lamb stew and a chicken casserole - done the day before and gently reheated. Nibbles - olives, dolmades etc which you can buy in (from quality deli - not local market). Dips - if not hoummous then aubergine - baba ganoush? - and perhaps some fish ones? Smoked mackerel with cream cheese, lemon and pepper is nice, and easy.

Another butternut option in a salad format is roasted chunks, mixed with mild goats chhese, rosemary, and toasted pine nuts.

Cold meat cuts? Ot a cold roast lamb to serve in slices?

I've got some great Pampered Chef stoneware, so I cook my risotto in the oven normally. However, if I was doing risotto on the hob, I would get it most of the way cooked, then take it off the heat - I would then give it about 10mins more cooking with any additional liquid needed - yes, 10mins required for occasional stiring, but don't need to do it all of the time, and I usually find that it is fine doing this (not 'by the book' of course, but seems to work OK when we've done it in the past). Options for risotto - butternut squash or pumpkin - you can just add cubes when you start, don't need to cook first. Or add peas and sweetcorn, top with roasted almonds and omelete cut into strips. Or you could do some seafood separately and add that at the end.