supper for 20 and a few special diets ... ideas and advice please

[LadyPenelope]

20 friends over for supper and drinks ...

Allergies I am catering for are a few people who are either ... lactose intolerant, wheat intolerant, allergic to tomatoes and fruit!

Had planned on chilli with cornbread topping and rice - will now miss off the cornbread topping, so it works for everyone except tomato allergy.

What do you think of mushroom stroganoff as an extra dish? Was planning on doing the Nigella one, never tried it and it seems to have loads of different mushrooms. Anyone done it - is it good?

Or any other ideas and suggestions?

For dessert, thought I'd do chocolate torte and also need something suitable for lactose intolerant and wheat intolerant combined ... ideas? Don't mind making a couple of things as long as can do it day before.

All ideas gratefully received.

Also, what could I serve with drinks that's more interesting than crisps but very easy to prepare?

How about fresh fruit salad for the lactose and wheat intollerant - surely they can eat that?

The one allergic to toms and fruit can have the torte.

Not done a stroganoff before, but that does sound nice.

To serve with drinks - big fat juicy prawns, warm pitta bread cut into strips, cut up carrot/pepper and dips?

I thin k it's bloody rude to make your 'intolerances' known to the hostess. One should put up or shut up.

With drinks:

Cherry tomatoes, cut in half. Mozzarella cut into small chunks/cubes.

Dip mozzarella into green pesto, then on a cocktail stick, thread one cherry tomato, a chunk of cheese and then the other half of the tomato.

Devils on horseback:

Ready to eat, stoned prunes - stuff the hole with a blanched almond that you have fried with a bit of cayenne or chilli powder, then wrap it in some streaky bacon (usually half a rasher per prune should be enough).

Put them on a baking tray (with the join on the bacon rasher on the underneath so that it doesn't unravel) and bake in a hot oven for about 5 minutes till the bacon is browned but not too crispy.

Chop chicken breast or turkey breast meat into cubes, and marinate for 30 minutes in garlic, ginger, lemon juice, soy sauce, curry powder and oregano.

Remove from the marinade and bake in a hot oven till cooked through, then serve one or two cubes on a cocktail stick.

Thanks

BellaBN - could do fruit salad - lots of people like something lighter and refreshing anyway, so good as healthier option in any case.
Prawn addition to the dips more interesting too.

Moondog - to be fair, none of them volunteered it, I asked and I'm glad I did. Would piss me off if people were saying they just didn't like something, but allergy and intolerance is different and I would have hated if they couldn't eat the food I'd spent the day preparing.

ClausIWI - they all sound good. I do something similar with toms/mozzarella and I love the addition of the pesto.

Any other ideas?

bumping for some more ideas please

bump

Indian for all

• curry: tumeric/coconut milk based - no toms
• basmati/saffron Rice or Quinoa jewelled pilaf for the wheat intolerant

All asian food is wheat dairy tomato free
Example:
Beef stirfried with basil
stir fry of aspargus and shitake mushroom
Rice noodles /vermicelli with beansprout soy sauce

pudding is tricky though. You'll have to do different ones.

You are obviously insane LP. But good luck. I always cook very plainly for dss who have multiple allergies so probably wouldn't be very helpful for a lovely dinner party.

Slim22 - that sounds delicious ... is it easy to make in large quantities? Can it be made ahead?

noiamnot - It's one of those situations that when I invited them last week I thought - "how hard can it be?" Just cook a vat of chilli, shove it on the table with some rice and waft around looking fragrant, totally chilled and festive serving drinks! Hah! Had kind of glossed over the details.

I blame Nigella myself ...

For the lactose/wheat intolerant guests, you could make these for pudding. They are YUMMY.

Chocolate brownies
125g butter
200g soft brown sugar
125g plain choc chopped
50g rice flour
20g cocoa powder (choose a nice one, like G&B's)
1/4 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
150g mixed nuts (or just almonds, walnuts or hazelnuts)

Preheat oven to 180/350/gas 4. Grease and line a 20x20cm baking tin.

Place butter, sugar and chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir until melted.

Sift flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into the mix and stir well. Add eggs and beat till smooth then stir in nuts.

Pour into baking tin and bake for 35 mins until cooked through but still quite soft in the centre. Cut into slices and cool on a wire rack.

(I am assuming that the dark chocolate and cocoa powder I always use are lactose free, being plain, but I finished mine up making these a couple of days ago, so I can't check I'm afraid).

I haven't made them with the nuts in, as I make them quite a lot for DD1's school fairs etc, and they are fantastic without nuts if you would rather leave them out.

For a dessert I would serve them with raspberries and ice cream - Swedish Glace is dairy free I think, but not sure if it's lactose free.

this is the best resource for genuine asian recipes.

Curry of curse will be even tastier if made in advance. Large quantities no problem if you have a mahoosive cooking pot.

For the beef stir fry, make sure you get paper thin slices of meat ( best freeze sirloin steak then slice thinly from frozen).

Make in batches and reheat in microwave.

Same for veggie stir fry. Make sure greens remain crispy.

For noodles, boil very briefly as per packet then refresh under cold running water and make sure you drizzle them with some oil and toss before keeping until last minute to stir fry with garlic/ginger/shallots/spring onion/ beansprout and soy sauce

you will obviously need a big wok