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

[Quattrocento]

Please?

Corney, we are waiting for you over here

quat, i would like to advise, but my ideas usually involves fanny about for 3 hours more than need be!

although i do know a good chicken breast with skin on, and bacon and leek sausce
recipe if that sounds any good?

If you don't want it to be 'ordinary', fill the cavity of the chicken with several lemon quarters, and squeeze some lemon juice over the chicken, along with some olive oil (and the usual seasonings) and any fresh/dried herbs you like.

Roast on a high heat for 20 minutes, and then chuck in a glass of white wine into the roasting tray, then turn the heat down and cook for the rest of the time.

In a separate tray in the oven, roast some sliced peppers, courgettes, onions, tomatoes, chillies (optional) and cloves of garlic

Serve with warm baguette to mop up all the juices of the chicken and the veg. (Or ciabatta, or white crusty bread of any kind).

Sorry - that's not an 'incredibly sophisticated' recipe, but it is easy, relatively quick and very, very tasty!

'Roast on a high heat for 20 minutes, and then chuck in a glass of white wine into the roasting tray, then turn the heat down and cook for the rest of the time.'

or a glass of champers or sparkling wine.

It's all wine, wine, wine at this hour of a Friday night with you lot.

Hell, I'm a foodie - but I don't expect michelen starred cuisine at a friends house. Good home cooking is fine

Starter
Fresh baby spinach leaves with roasted pistachios and fresh lemon juice

Main
Smoked salmon pasta: soften onions, add squeeze lemon & dash white wine, let it fester while the linguini/spaghetti cooks (use the longest, poshest dried stuff not fresh as goes guggy). Add smoked salmon trimmings to onions with fresh dill, warm through till ss goes pale pink and add blob creme fresh. Serve in one big messy bowl (olive oil on pasta) with posh bread & butter.

Pud
Stewed rhubarb in ramekins with clotted cream & thin biscuits

Coffee

In my experience it is very difficult to remain a food snob when trying to eat slithery linguini politely.

good luck.

Thanks for everything. Have read all the suggestions and done the shopping and here is the menu:

Asparagus to start, with lemon juice. Tiny bit of risotto on side.

Then a frenchified roast chicken thing with petit pois and lettuce and white wine and thyme - dead easy to make and more importantly have made it before so less risk of it going wrong.

With a gratin dauphinois

Then the lemon posset thing.

Then a cheeseboard - I did go to the cheese shop - four cheeses.

If I have time I might do an apple cake to do a choice of desserts ...

Sounds delicious, Quattro. I'll be right over!

fucking hell budge up expat, i'm coming over too

thats made me really hungry now

hope it goes well

What time did you say?

oh oh oh quattro, do braised petit pois with smoked bacon....SO good and SO easy (use frozen petit pois, fry finely chopped shallots or onion, fry some pancetta or smoked bacon lardons until crisp and have released their fat and then chuck in the peas and some stock, simmer on low heat for a while...half an hour, an hour? very low heat).

really delicious and very low maintenance and extremely good with chicken!

[wishes the Loch Fyne Food Festival were this weekend and not next weekend . . . ]

Oh you have some lovely ideas!

I don't do desserts. I serve good quality ice cream with fresh berries and maybe chocolate sauce or fresh figs with little pieces of halva (bit of honey on top of halva)

I have to report a bit of a culinary disaster, chaps.

I don't know if you've ever done a gratin dauphinois, but this is what you are supposed to do:

Peel and slice potatoes, and then cook in salted water (check)

Layer with garlic, grated gruyere and single cream (check)

Cook in the oven for 40 minutes or so on a relatively low heat. This is the bit that I forgot to do.

So the starter went well, and I was just dishing up the main course, when I observed this gratin, staring at me UNCOOKED.

I blame the wine. Seriously

Was much fun apart from the uncooked gratin, though. They are still going strong at hearly 2am.

Thanks for all the help.

Qx

Ooops!
Still, you'll have a lovely lunch today. Gratin is one of my favorite ways to eats spuds, never had the balls to make it though.
How's the head ?

Sounds like a good time was had by all. And that's what it's all about.

Now, try making that beef curry. It's FAB.

well done quat.

next time cook the pototoes in gordon stylee

No - do it Nigella stylee - slice potatoes, chuck in a dish, higgledy piggledy, - throw everything else in and bake slowly covered in foil for a couple of hours.

Everything cooks and magically it rearranges itself into neat layers. Honestly!

NO!! do it my way!

right thats it!

very pleased you did the peas...they are fab aren't they, raise the pea to a whole new level of yum.