Simple, but good dinner for 10?

[lisbey]

We are going on a self-catering holiday with my parents and my sister and her family. 10 of us altogether. Age range 2-67.

My mum and my DS2 are very fussy eaters, but TBH I think they'll have to have what they're given or go without!

The plan is that DSis and I will be responsbile for alternate nights' dinner as parents have paid for the house (seems like a very good deal to me ) Of course if we want that can mean eating out, but for 10 . So, at least a couple of evenings, I shall have to cook. In an ideal world the weather will be perfect and we'll BBQ every night, but if it's not, what would you cook?

we regularly go away with other families and take it in turns to cook so I have done numbers up to 20+.
It's not hard. The key is to do things where the cooking will scale up properly, so big stews tend to work better than pizza or stir fry

Our most successful ones have been a Moroccan lamb stew (had apricots in so went down v well with kids) and baked apples for pudding. Lasagne is another good one.
One of the best that my friend did was a bean and sausage hotpot - it worked well because she cooked the sausages in the oven first (browning meat on the hob in batches can take a long time if there's a lot).
Roasts work well for large numbers too.

You can help simplify even more by doing either bread or couscous for the starch and salad for the veg.

I do trays of white fish with stuff (eg. olives, cherry toms, rosemary, preserved lemons, capers) on top for a holiday crowd. Bake for 10mins-ish in a hot oven, plus new pots and greens or salad. Fahitas (sp?) also work well, but get at least one other person to help chop and do extra veg filling too or it will be pricy.

Starters -

couple of baked camemberts (just score the top and stick slices of garlic plus rosemary leaves in, drizzle with a drop of white wine and bake in the box) with piles of radishes, celery and crusty bread

or -

homemade hoummus, pitta, cucumber and carrot sticks.

Mains -

Chilli, rice, guacamole etc

Loads of baked potatoes with a choice of toppings, plus salad

Sausages, baked potatoes and cauliflower cheese

Ratatouille, new potatoes, salad

Puddings - huge crumble with cream or icecream

That chocolate pudding that forms a sauce on the bottom, with icecream

Baked plums and Barbados cream (Nigella)

anyone said antipasti and eton mess yet?

are you cooking ahead

Nice ham,jacket potatoes and salad? Or any cold joint of meat really.

Buffet type thing?

Soup?

For pudding; Trifle, pavlova, fruit salad.

I did a whole shoulder of pork slow roasted for 24 hours and it fed 45. You could get a smaller half shoulder and do the same. Its meltingly delicious - age ranges 2-70 ate it at my party with apple sauce and floury baps.

It couldn't be easier - just leave it in the oven.

Can post recipe if you're interested.

Pizzas also go down well - make the dough in the morning, it will be ready by the afternoon. People add their own toppings.

Nigella's sausage and chicken drumstick bake thing is popular with all ages. Marinade during the day and then roast in a big tray.

Wow, Taffetacat, I bet the pork was lovely! Was that a normal sized oven?

yes - I measured the oven and took the roasting tin into the butchers to check that it fitted.

It fitted - just - on the lowest shelf. The butchers had a good old snigger at me.

I would do it again in a shot - it was to die for. Pulled it apart with 2 forks.

Would second taffetacat's suggestion for a shoulder of pork. Try HFW's Donnie Brasco Pork about halfway down the page. Or Nigella's aromatic shoulder. I like to slather the meat side with a mixture of garlic, sage, salt, pepper and lemon rind & juice. I usually do it without the bone (that's how my butcher sells it) and do it over 6 or 7 hours, or sometimes overnight.

I made Jamie's sausage & tomato bake for tea last night - it was bloody lovely and would seem to be a good recipe for a crowd in a monster tray - recipe here.

taking the roasting tin to the butchers' is a great idea! They may have sniggered but I bet they loved you really, buying a massive great shoulder

Taffeta - tell us more I'm drooling.

Most recently Ive done Duphoise (sp) pots with boiling bacon and veg.
i just par boil the sliced pots layer in a big roasting tray and pour over double cream that has chopped garlic in adn cheese cover with foil and cook for 30-40 mins then take foil off to crisp. This is my DD (5) favorites dinner.

great minds sporting - I used HFW's Donnie Brasco recipe. I (half) joke about the butchers - of course they love me! Although as its shoulder its a relatively cheap cut - it cost me less than £35.

The sausage and tomato bake recipe looks good. Jamie is generally very good at easy robust crowd food - op may be worth looking at his website for inspiration if you're still pondering.

Pasta with pesto or creamy sauce and chicken & brocoli, I would make the sauce using three either mushroom or chicken condesned soupes and use the recipe on the back of the tin times three - also this will be easy to pack and take iwth you for the third night

I would do new potatos and salmon - bake the fish in the oven, for the children take monkfish (as it has no bones) and serve with coleslaw

I would make my own chicken curry, (jamie Oliver) home made with either your own paste or a shop korma paste and chicken breast, coconut milk and tomotos. I would make a large batch for ten and take a pot of plain yogurt to ame down agian for the children and serve with rice. I would make this dish at home and freeze - then serve on the first night

Wow . Thanks everso. That pork sounds fab. Can you really pull it apart i.e I won't have to carve it?

Lots of ideas - good job I've still got a couple of weeks to worry think about it. Thank you all.

I kid you not. No knife needed. In fact the forks were only as I was being watched - you could do it with your fingers. In fact one guest did, kept coming and "checking how tender" it was.

Lisbey I've done this one and you can do it with forks.