A long-lost friend and her new partner are coming over for dinner at the weekend. Her partner likes plain meat and 2 veg style food. I'd welcome any ideas for a starter and main that would tick that particular box but be interesting and tasty.
Personally, I would never cook a recipe for the first time when having guests round. Having said that...
Give everyone a treat and get a bit of fillet in. Tippy hint - after looking at the farm shops with fillet at £70 a kilo, I got the fillet from Morrisons based on a recommendation for quality - £27 a kilo is very cheap, but the meat is always absolutely melt in the mouth.
I am not normally a fan of Gordon Ramsay's cooking, but this is different. This is probably one of the best British main course dishes I have done for a long time, everyone has gone mad about it whenever I have cooked it, and they are all very critical foodies with a perchance for honesty bordering rudeness.
It is a bit of work up front but easy, and the good thing about it is you can prep it to the pastry-on stage, and put it in the fridge for up to 24 hours. So the last thing to do is just get it out and bake it for the time you need it to be ready.
I altered the cooking times. 30 minutes first session, and 45 more with the pastry on to get it golden. Came out just as we like it, cooked but pink in the middle with no horrible slimyness in the texture.
I put it with some roasted potatoes with garlic and rosemary and other veg as required.
Another good use of fillet is here from Ben O'Donoghue. Very simple for the beef, but make sure your cream has reduced properly (you may need to start it 5 minutes before the recipe says) and your spinach is BONE dry or you will end up with fluid all over the plate from the horseradish spinach.
We did some roasted vegetables in olive oil and herbs (not spuds) to go with.
Personally I'd rather go for something like brisket, done in the slow cooker, loads of taste, far cheaper can be put in and just left to cook away and will come out really tender
------------- Good cakes aren't cheap. Cheap cakes aren't good
For starters this time of year I usually serve a very simple but nicely arranged melon with a few red fruits to garnish. Or sliced fresh pineapple with a piece of smoked ham.
A more adventurous main course maybe.
Dessert, a chocolate gateau, you can have a tiny portion. More red fruits on the side.
Offer cheese and biscuits too.
You don't want to be spending loads of time fretting over the food when you want to be entertaining these people.
Seafood crustini starter, poach a small fillet of fresh salmon and allow to chill in the fridge until cold, then flake and mix with a tablespoon of seafood sauce, take a wholemeal round roll per person and halve to form the crustini, use the flat base only and butter lightly, top with some of the flaked salmon mixture and top with a few smoked salmon ribbons, sprinkle with a few defrosted good quality prawns, and garnish with a sprig of flat leaved parsley, serve with a small garnish of garden salad, there lovely and went down a treat at my Dads dinner party last weekend.
We followed this with a traditional Roast chicken dinner with all the trimmings, bacon rolls, home made stuffing, and chipolata sausages, but added an optional twist for the firemouth lovers lol, we offered a choice of three sauces, traditional golden gravy, honey and mustard sauce, or warmed sweet chilli sauce, and as the meal was for ten, all three were very popular, and provided a low fat meal option for all guests.
We finished off with fresh fruit merangue nests, and offered ice cream or creme fraiche to accompany them, made a choice of fruit fillings too, used frozen berries to make a summer fruit compote using a tub of fruit from asdas freezer section, just lightly poached them with a spot of red wine, and sweetened to taste, then also offered fresh strawberries drizzed with 'Treats' strawberry sauce.
All very yummy, and fairly easy to do, with colourful eyecatching presentation, that was enjoyed by all our guests
Julia
------------- Just love to be out amoungst Nature and Wildlife
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Topic: Simple but interesting meal - ideas plz
