Dinner Partaaay

FrenchTart

FrenchTart

FrenchTart

Man of Honour
Joined
16 May 2005
Posts
31,297
Location
Manchester
Nothing as fancy as QuickLink's but pretty fancy for the likes of me and my friends :p

Just wondering what people thing really. I'll probably post up pictures here + recipes if anyone is interested.

Starter
oyster, shiitake and chestnut mushrooms on toasted soda bread - garlic butter glaze/knob/something

Main
confit shin of beef
dauphinoise potato cubes
honey glazed chantenay

Dessert
kladdkaka with whipped cream and a strawberry garnish

Drinks
Prosecco, red wine (chosen by someone other than me as they're more into their wines)
 
It's Swedish sticky chocolate cake. I had some when I was over there and it is amazing. Definitely the best chocolate cake I can remember eating :) Making it from scratch (assuming I'm not lazy and just buy something) means that it will be nut-free for one of our guests too.
 
Ook. I'll try and resist the urge to be lazy and make it tonight (eating tomorrow - most of the other food prep is done). If I don't manage it I'll post it up another time.
 
I couldn't imagine a worse starter! Eugh!

I'd probably turn the whipped cream into chantilly for a bit or extra flavour. Plus, I'd have another veg, maybe asparagus or purple broc?
 
Ahleckz said:
I couldn't imagine a worse starter! Eugh!

I'd probably turn the whipped cream into chantilly for a bit or extra flavour. Plus, I'd have another veg, maybe asparagus or purple broc?
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Due to dislike of the ingredients? I'm trying to cater to people that are super whiny about vegetables so it's basically mushrooms and carrots - the latter raw for this particular person. The joys of picky eaters :s

edit: Not all of them - just one actually, but heyho :p
 
Yea, due to the ingredients. I hate mushrooms & soda bread, even if I did like those ingredients it seems like it's missing something though. Psh, just serve up some more veg, make it look pretty and hope to bring them round. That's what I do when I cook and people tend to eat it up
 
Ahleckz said:
Yea, due to the ingredients. I hate mushrooms & soda bread. Psh, just serve up some more veg, make it look pretty and hope to bring them round. That's what I do when I cook and people tend to eat it up
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I agree with you tbh but on this occasion I cba arguing with the person and they're *very* picky :p
 
That beef sounds divine! You can't beat that with dauphinoise potatoes! I could eat that all day.

I do find one of the hardest parts of cooking for guests is catering for all the people that are picky. Half of me just wants to say sod them, but you can't really! :P

Looking forward to seething this
 
The beef has been quite 'fun' to make. I cooked two large 'joints' of shin in a giant vat of beef dripping for about 10 hours at 120C (minimum my rubbish gas oven will go to). Once it had cooled I took the beef out and removed the fat and connective tissue so you just end up with all the pieces of muscle. These went back into the beef dripping and have sat in the fridge for a week.

Before leaving for work today I stuck the whole mix back in the oven, once again at 120c. When I get back from work I'll take it out and let it sit for a few hours and the finally I will either fry or blast in the oven at super high temperature for a few minutes to heat through and crisp up the outsides.

My hope was that the way the individual muscles are shaped in shin beef would mean that with not much effort the food would look presentable but sadly this isn't really the case. In future I think I need to get just one big giant block of meat, confit it and then cut it into cubes and fry off the sides. I reckon this would look a lot better. The test bit I had the other day still tasted delicious though :)
 
It's supposed to be heavenly and creamy. You don't get heavenly creamy cubes. It'll be far too dry if you can cube it.
 
It's pretty damn creamy. Cooked at a low temperature until the potatoes have absorbed a ton of the cream.

It's only cubable because it has been cooled to make it set.

Most of the food was chosen because it could be made in advance and require only minimal work to be eaten on the day.
 
Cold potato :(

[edit]IMO you'd be much better choosing a completely different starter, something people will actually enjoy, for instance. Then not ruining what is effectively beef and potato.
 
Gilly said:
In the microwave?
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Of course not. I don't use a microwave in any of my cooking. This is La Cuisine you know.

In the oven on a high heat. Potato dauphinoise is perfectly suited to being reheated like this. As is the confit of beef, which is actually improved by it.

The potato will be warmed through on the inside and the high heat and cutting it into large cubes will mean that a good portion of the surface area will be caramelised.

Gilly said:
IMO you'd be much better choosing a completely different starter, something people will actually enjoy, for instance. Then not ruining what is effectively beef and potato.
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Eh? The people eating this food like all of the components of the starter and will enjoy it :confused: If you don't like mushrooms or other bits in there, fine, but the meal isn't built around your personal tastes - it's built around the people that will actually be eating it.
 
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