Your ideal dinner party menu

Faith · 19-05-2009 10:39am #1

So, after watching WAY too much Come Dine With Me, I'm now a little obsessed with dinner parties. I want to know what you'd serve at a dinner party. There's a minimum of three courses, but you can serve as many more as you think you can handle. Money is not an object, and let's be fair and say you have 4 guests eating with you. You should bear in mind timing and being a good host - ie. You shouldn't have to spend an hour away from your guests before courses preparing and cooking.

Would you serve haute cuisine that's bound to impress? Or tasty comfort food that you know won't go wrong? Would you venture back to the 70's and serve prawn cocktail and sherry trifle, or try out Heston Blumenthal's recipes?

tSubh Dearg · 19-05-2009 7:03pm

Okay, I'm assuming there are no vegetarians and coeliacs.

I would start with wild mushroom brushetta with a slice of parma ham on the top. It's simple to prepare and only the toast needs doing at the very end, the rest could be made ready in advance and reheated while the toast was cooking.

Then I would serve Moroccan spiced poussain, as I think it's kind of fun to give everyone their own little chicken to eat. These would be served with couscous spiced with similar flavours to the poussin and a large salad.

For dessert I would either make my homemade chocolate ice cream and pair it with something biscuitty or I would make a Danish dessert called Medallier (spelling not quite right - basically medals in English) which are thin biscuits squished together with a thin layer of custard with a coat of icing on the top and a blob of redcurrent jelly.

I would finish with really good coffee and petit fours.

And now I am hungry. Thanks Faith!

taram · 19-05-2009 9:32pm

Hehe I love Come Dine With Me

I'd start with a hot spicy tomato soup, with cream and chives on top, and warm ciabatta on the side, brushed with garlic oil.

Then I'd go for a salmon portion, veg and baby potatoes poached in a tinfoil bag with fresh herbs, stock and some white wine, really easy to do in advance then leave in the oven cooking in it's own stock. Veggies would get the veg and potatoes, and something like a courgette stuffed with ricotta. I'd cook some plain gnocchi for the base, then put the contents of the bags over it minus most of the stock. I'd keep the sauce to the side because my sister drinks the sauce

For dessert I'd make my version of panna cotta, it's gelatin free which means it's slighty on the wobbly side and needs to be in a little pot, but I use a lot of fresh raspberries, vanilla pod and lots of fresh mint, and freeze it so it's nearly like semi-freddo and really refreshing.

Then I'd make a giant pot of sludgy Arabic coffee and we'd read our fortunes and have nibbly nut biscuits (light biscuits with whatever nuts I have in the house ground up)

Then I'd explode from eating everyone's leftovers

rocknchef · 19-05-2009 10:47pm

my version of a prawn cocktail
Asian slaw springroll, pan seared tiger prawns and sweet chilli mayo

wild mushroom cappucino, trufle froth

beef wellington, cepes and foie gras baked in broiche, creamy mash potato, baby carrots

crouquembouche

xxdilemmaxx · 19-05-2009 11:25pm

rocknchef wrote: »

my version of a prawn cocktail
Asian slaw springroll, pan seared tiger prawns and sweet chilli mayo

wild mushroom cappucino, trufle froth

beef wellington, cepes and foie gras baked in broiche, creamy mash potato, baby carrots

crouquembouche

OMG sounds amazing. Feel free to share any of the recipes :pac:

lallychops · 03-06-2009 9:19am

id have prawns in lemon,butter and garlic with thick crusty bread for dipping.
then main course would be cajun chicken and vegetable skewers grilled and for dessert id have either chocolate pots with ice cream or chocolate cloud cake

Minder · 03-06-2009 10:43am

A half dozen fresh oysters with a variety of dressings - tabasco, lemon, shallots in vinegar.

Main course would be fillet of beef cooked at 65c in the oven, horseradish mash potato, a wedge of cabbage poached in chicken stock and some pan fried wild mushrooms. Beef stock and red wine jus finidh the plate.

Dessert would be a slice of chocolate and poached pear cake - layers of chocolate sponge and poached pear liberally doused with a Eau de Vie spirit and surrounded with a chocolate ganache .

antoniosicily · 03-06-2009 11:24am

Minder wrote: »

A half dozen fresh oysters with a variety of dressings - tabasco, lemon, shallots in vinegar.

Main course would be fillet of beef cooked at 65c in the oven, horseradish mash potato, a wedge of cabbage poached in chicken stock and some pan fried wild mushrooms. Beef stock and red wine jus finidh the plate.

Dessert would be a slice of chocolate and poached pear cake - layers of chocolate sponge and poached pear liberally doused with a Eau de Vie spirit and surrounded with a chocolate ganache .

what's the point of cooking a fillet at 65c?
Meat with little connective tissue (like a fillet) should be cooked very quickly at high temperatures

Minder · 03-06-2009 4:05pm

If you cook a fillet of beef to medium rare, the core of the piece of meat will be 65c. So I take a piece of fillet large enough for two, pan fry it for colour in a very hot pan for about a minute. Wrap it in foil or ovenproof clingflim and cook it at 65c (not 165c) for about 1 hour. Remove, season with salt & pepper and pan fry again for 1 minute, then carve straight away. No resting. Result, perfect medium rare fillet beef. Three slices each.

antoniosicily · 03-06-2009 4:13pm

Minder wrote: »

If you cook a fillet of beef to medium rare, the core of the piece of meat will be 65c. So I take a piece of fillet large enough for two, pan fry it for colour in a very hot pan for about a minute. Wrap it in foil or ovenproof clingflim and cook it at 65c (not 165c) for about 1 hour. Remove, season with salt & pepper and pan fry again for 1 minute, then carve straight away. No resting. Result, perfect medium rare fillet beef. Three slices each.

the way to cook a fillet to medium rare is to use a pan and bring it at a very high temperature, 65 degrees in the oven will humiliate a great meat cut as a fillet; the only place where I've seen a piece of meat put into the oven was in the States but they keep it at 250 degrees for a couple of minutes per side. Again, cooking at low temperatures will drain the juices inside the meat.

There are scientific reasons why you need to cook meat with low connective tissues at high temperatures (same with the inverse).

Minder · 03-06-2009 4:37pm

antoniosicily wrote: »

the way to cook a fillet to medium rare is to use a pan and bring it at a very high temperature, 65 degrees in the oven will humiliate a great meat cut as a fillet; the only place where I've seen a piece of meat put into the oven was in the States but they keep it at 250 degrees for a couple of minutes per side. Again, cooking at low temperatures will drain the juices inside the meat.

There are scientific reasons why you need to cook meat with low connective tissues at high temperatures (same with the inverse).

Thanks, but I don't need a lecture on how to cook beef. Granted, a fillet steak is normally cooked as you describe, but as you haven't seen the recipe or cooking method before, please park your high horse and at least try it before passing judgement.

The meat is cooked as a single piece, so not a steak, but a larger cut of fillet of beef, enough for two people. It doesn't dry out at all - how can it, it is not seasoned before going in the oven, so no salt to leech juices from the meat and it's wrapped. The temperature is 65c - evaporation takes place at 100c. There is a little juice in the wrapper after the oven, about a tablespoon. The beef has that lovely caramelised colour on the outside and is medium rare all the way through - not well done to blue from outside to the centre.

Maybe you would like to tell John Campbell, it's his recipe. BTW John Campbell holds two michelin stars at his restaurant, The Vineyard at Stockcross.

Original recipe here.

antoniosicily · 03-06-2009 4:44pm

Minder wrote: »

Thanks, but I don't need a lecture on how to cook beef. Granted, a fillet steak is normally cooked as you describe, but as you haven't seen the recipe or cooking method before, please park your high horse and at least try it before passing judgement.

The meat is cooked as a single piece, so not a steak, but a larger cut of fillet of beef, enough for two people. It doesn't dry out at all - how can it, it is not seasoned before going in the oven, so no salt to leech juices from the meat and it's wrapped. The temperature is 65c - evaporation takes place at 100c. There is a little juice in the wrapper after the oven, about a tablespoon. The beef has that lovely caramelised colour on the outside and is medium rare all the way through - not well done to blue from outside to the centre.

Maybe you would like to tell John Campbell, it's his recipe. BTW John Campbell holds two michelin stars at his restaurant, The Vineyard at Stockcross.

Original recipe here.

checked the recipe, you were talking of the *entire fillet*, not a slice of fillet, ok, I misread, sorry.

NewFrockTuesday · 03-06-2009 4:50pm

Minder wrote: »

Thanks, but I don't need a lecture on how to cook beef. Granted, a fillet steak is normally cooked as you describe, but as you haven't seen the recipe or cooking method before, please park your high horse and at least try it before passing judgement.

The meat is cooked as a single piece, so not a steak, but a larger cut of fillet of beef, enough for two people. It doesn't dry out at all - how can it, it is not seasoned before going in the oven, so no salt to leech juices from the meat and it's wrapped. The temperature is 65c - evaporation takes place at 100c. There is a little juice in the wrapper after the oven, about a tablespoon. The beef has that lovely caramelised colour on the outside and is medium rare all the way through - not well done to blue from outside to the centre.

Maybe you would like to tell John Campbell, it's his recipe. BTW John Campbell holds two michelin stars at his restaurant, The Vineyard at Stockcross.

Original recipe here.

You two should not go to the same dinner party

Therell be food wars!

Minder · 03-06-2009 5:20pm

antoniosicily wrote: »

checked the recipe, you were talking of the *entire fillet*, not a slice of fillet, ok, I misread, sorry.

Not quite an entire fillet in Campbell's original recipe and I've cooked a piece for two people. I found an oven thermometer useful as my temperature guage starts at 100c.

I would hate to recommend a new method of cooking and then have to deal with a load of flack because the result wasn't as expected. Suffice it to say that I was very surprised with the result and have cooked it again.

I also tried the low temperature cooking for a long time on a piece of topside. The result was a perfectly medium rare piece of tough-as-old-boots topside. If it isn't tender to start with, cooking it a low temperature will not change that.

Uncle Oswald · 04-06-2009 2:10am

I love cooking and I love Come Dine With Me and I love 70s retro...

so...

Starter: Prawn cocktail or Coquilles St. Jacques

Main: Steak Diane or Beef Wellington

Sweet: Creme Brulee or Black Forest Gateau

I recently bought 'The Prawn Cocktail Years' and can only recommend it if you have a thing for 70s food.

just little me · 22-03-2011 2:21pm

Hi all,

I went to a dinner party at my friends a few weeks ago and she had gotten an unreal dinner party menu from a website called <mod snip>. Everything comes delivered to the house already prepared, all the meat, veg and everything. It was cool, she got instructions on how to cook the food and all. We had tomato tart for starter, baked haddock for main and pannacotta for dessert - all like they came from a top notch restaurant! Great value for money aswell she said, and so easy.

The Hill Billy · 22-03-2011 2:55pm

just little me - Do you have any relationship with the business that you just tried to plug by raising an old thread?

HB

just little me · 22-03-2011 3:48pm

Hi HB,

I didnt realise it was an old thread - I googled dinner party menus today (looking for more dinner party menu ideas) and thats the one that came up on google. It was my first post, guess I should have checked the dates on it - when are threads considered old? What date does the last comment have to be for it to be too old to comment on?

JLM

green_dub_girl · 24-08-2011 3:12pm

I am doing a CDWM competition with my friends next week. I'm up first on Monday and I'm totally unprepared.

I am considering a seared scallop starter with maybe a pea puree with it,

Stuck on the main...some suggestions of something fool proof would be good! I'm considering beef Wellington with horseradish mash and steamed seasonal veggies.

Desert will most likely be chilli choclate brownies with vanilla ice cream.

Padraig Mor · 24-08-2011 3:35pm

Your menu sounds yum. I'm certain I came a cross a scallops/pea puree recipe in the last few days but can't remember where! Have never cooked it but I'd hazard a guess beef wellington wouldn't be exactly foolproof, especially if your guests like different levels of 'doneness'! This was my menu for a recent CDWM:

Starter:
Goats cheese in filo pastry with raspberry and walnut vinaigrette.
or
Chorizo and chickpea soup (one guest didn't like goat's cheese).

Sorbet:
Basil and lime sorbet.

Main:
Roast mustard encrusted rack of lamb with apple and rosemary jelly, mashed potatoes and sticky apricot roast root veg.

Dessert:
Individual sweet cheese custards on a pastry base with macerated berries.

All easy to make TBH.

green_dub_girl · 24-08-2011 4:00pm

Padraig Mor wrote: »

Main:
Roast mustard encrusted rack of lamb with apple and rosemary jelly, mashed potatoes and sticky apricot roast root veg.
.

Sounds delicious!! There is a lot to consider with this CDWM business, theme, how to dress the table etc. etc. It is fast approaching and no practice runs have been done-I perhaps can overcompensate with lots of wine

Corsendonk · 24-08-2011 5:54pm

I watched a few of the CDWM shows but I can't help noticing there seems to be a trend with the food menu, again and again the old reliables such as

Chocolate Mousse
Eton Mess
Goats Cheese Tartlet
Fruit Jelly/Champagne Jelly/Rose Jelly

pop up, fish seems to be a no no because its a love/hate food unless you know your guests food tastes.

vepyewwo · 24-08-2011 8:28pm

Padraig Mor wrote: »

Starter:
Goats cheese in filo pastry with raspberry and walnut vinaigrette.
or
Chorizo and chickpea soup (one guest didn't like goat's cheese).

Do you have a recipe for the soup, sounds yum?

Padraig Mor · 24-08-2011 11:02pm

vepyewwo wrote: »

Do you have a recipe for the soup, sounds yum?

It was in one of Rachel Allen's books; the one with.....errr.......the green cover (first recipe in book IIRC)! Unfortunately we loaned it to someone and haven't seen it since. However, I think this recipe is pretty close IIRC (I dropped the celery - yuck).

Your ideal dinner party menu

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