Party food - 40 people!!

[dippica]

I need some ideas to think about - I'm having a birthday party (40! yikes!) and I need to feed everyone.
I could do a buffet-style thing, but would rather do something hot - like a couple of huge cauldrons of some sort of stew (one meaty, one veggie) and some rice or couscous. Any ideas? Or other ideas, (which aren't vol au vents)? Its for a big number so need to keep costs down as much as possible.
Needs to be something that can be done in advance and heated up in the kitchen attached to the hall where I'm having the do.

Thanks folks.

Chile con carne and rice with chunks of French bread?
Veg curry and same rice and bread?

Could always do baked potatoes with a variey of filling for people to help themselves to.
Beans-dead cheap,cheese,chile,ratatouille etc?

Big pots of pasta, meat and veggie, with garlic bread or french stick and salad which guests can serve themselves?

Meat chilli /veggie chilli / rice / soured cream / grated cheese / tortilla chips / salasa. Yum.

Or meat curry / veggie curry / rice / bhajis and samosas / yoghurt dip / mini poppadoms.

Or baked potatoes / homemade coleslaw / ratatouille or veggie chilli / big bowl of green salad.

Or lamb tagine / veggie tagine with chickpeas / cous cous flavoured with herbs and pine nuts / a couple of moroccan style salads - maybe a rocket one, a carrot one and a tomato one.

Or tabbouleh.

I have an excellent recipe for Moroccan meatballs that uses those Swedish meatballs- so all you really do is make a sauce. It is a real crowdpleaser and can be seved with rice pasta or potatoes. You cna also get cauldron veggie balls and do a Vegetarian version of the same thing.

For cold buffet i would say do a ham- easy and popular and a cheese board
or Coronation chicken is still popular
then just bread and a selection of salads-
green
tomato and basil
tabouleh
mixed beans

let me know if you want that recipe

I will tell you what I tell everyone... lamb stew/curry/casserole using shoulder of lamb. It is astonishingly cheap and lends itself to slow cooking and then reheating.

I've got a good lamb shoulder casserole recipe in the recipes section. Or make a lamb curry using shoulder.