Unexpected v posh foodie guests and need incredibly sophisticated recipes that can be thrown together in 5 minutes.

[Quattrocento]

Please?

jesus now???

tomorrow?

i think you can ONLY go one way with this:

ingredients, source the very best you can, serve them as simply as possible and they will love you for it

asparagus deffo, in season now with lemon butter and a grind of pepper

halibut? cooked to perfection, served with a homemade mayo and new pots and asparagus and instead do something else for starter (good WILD smoked salmon?, a really good smoked mackerel pate? easy to make)

OR a really tasty hearty stew, my old standby is white bean and chorizo, never gone down badly.

you really must NOT go down the poncey route, it is passe and not what foodies want...they want simplicity and really really good ingredients.

desert british berries (they have arrived) and cream.

hth

what's in the fridge?
A pasta /salad thing? Is that not posh though?

simple is the new sophisticated...i promise you

so for tomorrow! I thought you had to rustle it up now! (Waitrose do catering btw - sushi and everything)

Now?? Or tomorrow??

some very nice cheese will be appreciated.

absolutely 100% really really good cheese from a proper cheese shop if you can (not supermarket, even waitrose).

or go for fish and chips, if they are posh foodies I bet they are starving!

Goats cheese - coated with honey and stuck under grill for 5 mins. Served with fresh bread.

you know, don't try to impress too much...they won't really care unless they're wankers!

Get to waitrose/fishmonger and get a fresh fish platter - smoked fish, mussels, cromer crab etc - serve with slices of lemon, nice mayo and artisan bread!

Oh, and some nice wine.

Put cream and brown sugar in pan, warm up gently, add peeled pears cut in halves, warm them up in it, add a drop of lime juice. Lush pears in butterscotch sauce !!

Nigella does a pared down plate trifle. Lemon drizzle cake topped with raspberries and syllabub and toasted almonds. It's very, very easy and I made it with bought lemon drizzle (in a rush) and it attracted very good reviews. It's in the domestic goddess book.

if it is tonight, pasta. home made tomato sauce (use tinned plum tomatoes).

fry onions til really soft, add little sugar and red wine vinegar if you have, sizzle, then add toms having squeezed them up with your hands.

simmer for as at least half an hour, adding little water if gets too dry.

freshly grated parmesan.

nice red wine.

ben and jerry's for dessert.

Serve them soemthjing you like and dazzle them with your charm and wit. If they do a catsbum, show them the door.

Can't go worng with seafood, a carefully dressed salad, good bread and fruit-as the ladies say.

I agree with sophable, super-high quality seasonal (even better if local) produce is the way to go.

Asparagus risotto (remember how I told you to make risotto? ) would be fab, if you have a good local source of asparagus and feel energetic enough to make your own chicken stock. Omit the wine, as it will drown the flavours.

Local fish, if you have it. Or even really good local sausages. Whatever.

My emergency dinner for guests is salad, fresh bread, and whatever deli bits I can lay my hands on. Olives, anchovies, cheese, nice ham, smoked fish.....followed by tart! No one has complained and people have returned....

Tub of creme fresh, fish stock cube, heat it up, stir in blanched baby leeks and any fresh fish cut into bite sized chunks, put in bottom of dish, cover in grated cheese, cover in mash bung in oven, yummy fish pie, posh people love fresh fish.

yup a good deli, like a good cheese shop (or both in one) could really save you some angst and time here...

Oh thank you

They are coming tomorrow. Which is better than tonight. Had totally forgotten they were coming.

There is nothing in the fridge - shopping tomorrow

Asparagus - fantastic idea

Yes, just go natural and good quality

Thanks

wild smoked salmon

Good idea

What about pudding?

Don't have to worry about wine, despite having nothing halfway reasonable in. They will bring oodles of that.

I'm serving new potatoes from the Ile de Ré or Noirmoutiers right now; white asparagus tips (can you get those in England?); gariguette or Mara des bois strawberries; Sicilian Camone tomatoes (fabulous); fresh broad beans; tiny irregular garden cucumbers.

rhubarb fool

Really good strawberries with whipped Jersey cream are a great pudding right now - early in the season, so people aren't yet fed up with it. Serve some kind of biscuit or macaron - I think Pierre Hermé does internet deliveries...