Foodies HRML - friends to dinner ... what to cook?

What's the weather like there? Is it autumn there too? <thickicon>

There aren't really seasons here, although the temp does drop towards 30C at the end of the year. Most produce comes from SE Asia or Australia so summer stuff at the moment... (also it's a bit hot for cooking & eating roasted veg and thick soups etc)

Okay, that helps - it's impossible to imagine being hot when you aren't ?

Pistachio-crusted tuna? You can do all the prep in advance and it just needs a few minutes in a hot pan. For pudding, what kind of thing do you want? Something serious and sophisticated or something a bit fun?

Hadn't even thought of tuna and you can get really good sushi-quality stuff here. Great idea! Can do a good green salad and some roasted balsamic tomatoes - what would you serve carb-wise?

For pud, something a bit decadent that doesn't need individual serving dishes (no space in the kitchen!). I have a good lime and choc cheesecake recipe but mascarpone is about £10 a pot and I would need several. Cream is difficult to get hold of but creme fraiche is available. Thinking a treacle tart or something a bit British to remind us of home. Any thoughts?

The sooner H gets a bbq, the better .....

I normally do it with wasabi mashed potato, but couscous would work, especially with the green salad and roast toms. You just chuck pistachios, lemon zest, S&P and a load of fresh dill in the food processor, dip the tuna steaks in flour then egg, then press the pistachio coating on. They can rest in the fridge quite happily for a few hours, and they cook in about a minute or two a side, because you want the tuna pretty raw in the middle.

For pudding, how about chocolate truffle cake or coffee fridge tart?

Just go out get Roti Kanai, Kari Ayam and follow it up with Kuih Kodok and grape fanta in a plastic bag.

Malay food is too good to pass up........

If you do want a desert though then a mixture of berries marinaded in maple syrup, brandy and brown sugar served on really good vanilla ice cream is always an easy one dish winner in my book.

Fab - and wasabi mash sounds great but couscous would be easier (and less hot to cook!) I think. Thanks for the recipe.

Chocolate options sound fab - can you point me in the direction of recipes?

The choc truffle cake I've made is the River Cafe one. Google comes up with this, which sounds similar. I bet you could just sub cf fro the double cream.

http://www.coeliac.info/suppboard/viewtopic.php?p=3057&sid=bcba9d0bec69162f856b2c5335ef23f1

Here's a coffee fridge tart recipe. It's a SA thing - v delicious and seriously rich.

http://www.daisyrecipes.iblog.co.za/2007/03/30/coffee-fridge-tart/

? at grape fanta meyselfandi - one of the friends who is coming to dinner is Malay and has cooked her favourite dishes beautifully for us so I'm not going there (had though about throwing money at the local Thai take-out though....)

Thanks for the link Sophie, and for all your suggestions. Choc will be the way to go I think as kids may well be around and coffee might be too much. I have Nigella's Feast book too with a good choc section so will browse through that too.