Dinner party food

Does that mean cheesecake for dessert isn't an option?? ?

? For some reason, cheesecake is fine - maybe it's the added sugar ?

I love doing Vietnamese spring rolls - it's well impressive when you have guests, but best of all is you don't have to actually make it, and it's cheap as chips and serves as entertainment too!

You have rice paper on the table and a bowl of hot water, people dip their rice paper to 'cook' it, and then build the spring rolls themselves. You can prep some stuff in advance, marinated prawns/chicken pieces, dipping sauces (do a couple of different heats), then just very thinly slice veg - carrots, peppers, cucumber, spring onions, chillis, bean sprouts, chop up a load of chilli, perhaps some unsalted peanuts oh and vermicelli noodles and let people go to town. It's so healthy, it looks impressive, it's surprisingly filling as a main meal.

Tip - have a little practice making the rolls before, with some noodles and veg so that you can show your guests how to do it when they arrive, it's abit fiddly, a bit of a giggle if you're having a few drinks with it!

ETA: To give you an idea of what they look like: /recipes/vietnamese-prawn-summer-rolls

E(again)TA: better tutorial here - I wouldn't bother with making it quite so pretty though!! https://www.notenoughcinnamon.com/how-to-make-vietnamese-fresh-spring-rolls-step-by-step-recipe/

Iceland are doing 'different' meats - they have ostrich, kangaroo, crocodile and boar. I think they are mostly burgers but might make a good talking point and gives people a chance to try something different.

Thanks SW, that looks like a great idea!

and thank you MrsMonkey - we've tried Kangaroo, ostrich and crocodile before and they do basically taste just like steak - well they did to me anyway, but yes - good talking point ?

I cannot recommend www.bbcgoodfood.com enough! I get almost all my recipes from there. For example, this is what I'm eating right now. Yum!!

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1031/thaistyle-steamed-fish

I've never held, or been to, a dinner party. Is that weird? Is it just a product of being northern and working class?

I can't say I have really ID, but I do have my parents round and I do feed friends, so I guess that kinds kinda counts

I guess one of our friends did come round for tea a while ago. Coincidentally after mentioning it in the other thread, I made pie, mash and gravy but I don't think one person really counts. We rarely even use the dining table ourselves - at the moment it has my toolbox, H's laptop and a pile of paperwork on it. Like I've said elsewhere, we're not great at this adult business.

It may be just that I define a dinner party as a 3 course meal rather than a couple of mates coming over for a takeaway or quick meal.

We like spending time with our friends and we're real food lovers, so we tend to meet for food in one shape or another. Sometimes we go out for a meal, other times we eat in.

However, these parties are kind of special. Over the course of the wedding preparations, we had a lot of help from our friends and family - both financial and practical and we honestly couldn't have got married without them. We decided we wanted to make a real effort this year to thank them all and also to be a little more sociable than we have been. Both of us have a tendency to get a bit hermit like and we are a little bit lazy about making enough effort with our friendships.

Anyway, I love to cook and so does H and it's something we can give our friends without it being overly expensive or embarrassing and we get the bonus of a nice evening in with them all. We had our bm and his wife round in January, our oldest friends in February and we have two more meals booked over the next couple of months. I think we'll fit in everyone by Christmas ?

I have no suggestions for a starter but what about a traditional Italian ragu with gnocchi and Guinness cake for dessert - nigella has a fab & very easy recipe on her website.

I've made this a few times its delicious but usually serve it with sweet potato mash and roasted Mediterranean vegetables www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/pork_loin_with_parma_ham_56872

For starters I generally go for something fishy/shelllfish/vegetarian if I am serving a meat based main. I also quite like starters you can share/serve at the table like mezze/tasting platters (to go with whatever type of main course e.g if I was doing Asian style main I would also do Asian influenced starters) .

If you want something very simple, cheap but yummy dessert frozen berries with hot white chocolate sauce http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3107/iced-berries-with-hot-chocolate-sauce

Following on from Mrs Shep's excellent goodfood recommendation (most iof my recipes come from there too), I recommend the good food "ultimate makeover" recipes. low fat, tasty versions of classic dishes - great for when you're calorie counting but don't want your guests to be put off by a "diet menu". the lasagne in particular got rave reviews from my mates.

I was thinking about the recipes that are good for guests, and remembered this one. It's amazing

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/10586/massaman-curry-roast-chicken

Love this one too

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/644633/threehour-shoulder-of-lamb

Oh, and I'm just looking at recipes I'll be cooking H when he gets home and remembered that www.jamieoliver.com is good too. Although this recipe (jerk chicken) would be too hot for most people! It makes me cry!

Thank you MrsS! And everyone. I shall definitely have a long browse ?

Same, but if we have friends round for tea, then I'll do a pudding. Does that count?

I have embarked on a very restricted diet for health reasons. Its been just over a week now, I am bored and hungry and have about another 10 weeks to go before I can begin to expand my diet again. I LOVE food so I'm eating vicariously through all your suggestions!

Haha, told you I was food obsessed and lonely!

Im so sad, I got super excited when I read this and i'm not even going! ha.

I also second BBC good food, I often cook meals from there. Their chilli is amazing and foolproof.

I have also found the meals in the Jamie Oliver books good. Think the last one I done was from the 30 minute meals book, it was garlic bread, spaghetti alla puttanesca and chocolate genance pots. I served it with extra salad and the chocolate pots with the little palmier biscuits.

(http://hotcooking.co.uk/recipes/35/jamie-oliver-30-minute-meals-spaghetti-alla-puttanesca) both recipes are on here.

Will keep thinking of other ideas though.

I'm such a dimwit!! I have all Jamie Oliver's books, including a signed copy of the Naked Chef ?

I think I've got a starter and dessert organised now - just got to check with the guests that there isn't anything they don't eat in there!

Aww, Jen-lou!! You'll have to have your own party ?

You'll have to let us know what you end up deciding on.

I am Bekki on Saturday for the girls, and even better I get to use my Denby dinner set I got for my birthday last year that I have only used once since then as we havent got the space to keep it out and safe, so its currently packed in boxes on top of our wardrobe. (yeah again i'm sad, my OH got me a dinner set for my birthday, it was one of the best presents he got me).

The sign of a true foodie Jen-lou!! Enjoy your meal and you let us know what you decide on too!

Thanks, but look...it's so pretty..http://www.denby.co.uk/monsoon-home-/veronica/icat/monsoonveronica (it's the white set, and he got me a 6 person one, he's a goodun ?)

We are having, chinese braised beef, with steamed rice and bok choi with garlic, chilli & oyster sauce, with prawn crackers and dips and possibly spring rolls and for the dessert we are having birthday cake (it's one of the girls birthdays) and I tend to avoid the starter and do a cocktail, this time it's either a lychee martini or lychee cosmo.

Ah, I collect Old Country Roses china to match the pieces my grandma left me. I just have it out as ornaments though! I'm always on ebay eyeing up the big coffee and tea pots.

Very pretty! I really should treat myself to a new dinner set - I tend to go through our cupboard trying to find four plates that may, just vaguely, match - we call it shabby chic ?

We've done two full on dinner parties over the past few years. We've done steak with stilton sauce, potato rosti and asparagus as the main both times. It's always gone down well, but the big downside of that is that H is in the kitchen cooking the steaks to order. It's fine if you've got a larger number of guests but I don't like having to leave guests for a long period of time.

Starters, we've done mini fish and chips wrapped in newspaper and scallops with cauliflower puree, crispy bacon and black pudding.

Dessert, we made white chocolate panna cotta with raspberry coulis once and a strawberry shortbread tower another time. Both make ahead desserts (although the tower did need assembling). I think both times we also bought cheese but never got round to it and once I made little petits fours, as well as a sorbet between starter and main.

I've only done proper dinner parties twice, I think, both times for H's extended family.

First one we had: -

Starter: Prawns flambéd in whisky (H had LOTS of fun with this!) with Jamon Iberico and salad

Main: Cassoulet with confit duck

Dessert: Passion fruit creme brulée (sorry, can't remember how to do all the correct accents there!)

Second one was: -

Starter: Scallops fried in panko breadcrumbs, with an assortment of smoked fish and sashimi

Main: Slow roast beef (flash fry the outside, then 6+ hours at ~60 degrees C) with all the trimmings

Dessert: Syllabub in chocolate cups

I think our general plan is something slow cooked for the main, which can go on hours beforehand and won't spoil if other things take a bit longer, plus a dessert that can be made in advance and heated up at the last minute if necessary. And LOTS of wine!

I LOVE dinner parties and do at least a couple a year. Along the way I've learned that the best dinner party is one that you can be at ... nothing worse than pulling your hair out in the kitchen while all your friends are having a lovely time around the table! Mains that can look after themselves in the oven are always good.

We're doing a murder mystery in May - we have 12 for that one ... people bringing their own chairs and squishing around our table! I need to keep that one cheap, feeding 12 people can get a big ridic!

I nearly always do cold desserts - cheesecake is my favourite - so that I can spend all my time with our guests. Anything we can do in the slow cooker is great - last time we did minted lamb casserole and it went down fabulously. But H usually does the main course for his friends and I do the main for my friends. It's just the way it's worked out, but it seems to be good for us!!

It is usually starters that I have issues with. If I had my way, I'd do a baked brie and have done, but H would be retching if I did!!! I've done stuffed mushrooms, good old fashioned prawn cocktail, mushroom pastries, sticky chicken ribs and various other things - if there's a vegetable capable of being stuffed, I've stuffed it!!!

But, I think I'm going for pan seared scallops with chorizo, followed by whatever H chooses to serve for main, then finished with this:

although it probably won't look quite as pretty when I've finished with it!!!

I almost drooled on my keyboard at that dessert!! Can I come?

Any time Mrs S ?