Help me plan a 7 course meal

[DcD]

Hi all,

I'm cooking a seven course meal as a celebration - I won't be eating or entertaining, so I'll be locked in the kitchen and giving my undivided attention to the food. Money is not an issue, and I have a friend coming along to act as cocktail maker (he's a barman) and wait on the guests (there will be 6 dining in total).

I have nailed down some ideas already for a few courses, but i'm still looking around for ideas for the missing ones. Any ideas would be swell and some feedback on the dishes I've decided on would be welcome.

One of the guests has allergies to gluten and lactose. Dishes marked with G or L respectively for gluten and lactose, show where there are problems. S denotes that the dish is easily solvable with ingredients changes, and then noted. If they are not solvable like the dessert idea, then a single portion alternative is required (obviously that's gluten and lactose free).

1st - Cocktails & hors d'oeuvre

• Bacon-wrapped king prawns on rosemary skewer with lemon-olive oil dip.
• Asian crab salad croustades. G (Pastry/Flour) S - Gluten-free flour
• Olive and pistachio bruschetta. G (Bread) S - Gluten-free baguette
• Bacon and sweet potato rosti. L (Creme Fraiche)

2nd - Consomme.

• Chicken consomme with sage crusted melba toast.

3rd - Salad

• Tuna salade Niçoise.

4th - Fish

• Grilled sea bass with marsh samphire, beetroot relish on spiced yellow pepper purée.

5th - Sorbet

• Champagne & pink grapefruit sorbet.

6th - Meat

• Rack of New Zealand lamb with fondant potatoes, balsamic cherry tomatoes and pea puree.

7th - Dessert

• Lemongrass & white chocolate panna cotta with raspberry coulis. L (Cream, Milk etc)

Ingredients
£145.54

Equip.
£92.18

Total
£237.72

Per Head Food
£24.26

Per Head Total
£39.62

 

[McPhee]

http://www.lactofree.co.uk/products/

All problems solved?

I'm not sure how the stuff behaves in cooking. Personally I'd want to do a dry run with any alternative ingredients to see how they behave. Might be similar to the real thing, or it might be a disaster (panda cotta doesn't set etc.).

 

[randomshenans]

I'd sack off the soup, mainly as it's really filling for its mass. Also, what do you mean by salad?

Could do a lemon drizzle cake/ pudding with polenta instead of flour & oil instead of butter? Though, this is heavier than a panna cotta, so you might want to think about the whole balance of the meal, as well as your "theme", as it were.

 

[glitch]

I'd say you've got your courses a little muddled-up there.

You shouldn't need the sorbet course after the salad unless the latter is something totally out of character, so I'd put the sorbet after the fish as that's the point in the meal where I'm going to want my palate cleansed and refreshed, ready for the star of the show in that lamb dish.

In terms of the actual courses, and as QuickLink has already mentioned, soup in a long-format meal can be tricky, so I'd either replace it with a light consommé or velouté and make something that looks visually stunning and is full of flavour, yet light on the stomach.

I'm also not entirely taken with the idea of the sorbet as you might have the devil of a time getting it to set with champagne featuring heavily in it. A granita would be a good alternative and a little lighter on the stomach, although the sorbet would be fine if you can get it to work.

With the appetisers/ hors d'oeuvre, you've got three carb-heavy items in there which might not work for the length of the meal, but sound really tasty at the same time - tough one to call there. And does the rosti really have crème fraîche in it? Or is that dolloped on top or served as a dip?

Having cooked long-course meals for large numbers on a fair few occasions, you really want to make sure that as much of the food as possible can be made in advance and takes very little effort to put together. Every hour in prep will save you heaps of stress during service!

I'm not sure how the stuff behaves in cooking.

It's okay, but not ideal - there's just something about it that doesn't sit quite right for my palate. But you can set a panna cotta with the usual amount of gelatine and people won't notice the difference.

 

[DcD]

Cheers for the feedback fellas.

@Satchef - I did look into certain lactose-free ingredients, but for something like the panna cotta, I'd have to replace the entire lot really. Not worth it when the person with the allergy will be perfectly happy and grateful with a replacement.

The soup is gone. I was in two minds already with it but as you guys have reinforced my doubts I've ditched it. Need some ideas to replace it, I'd quite like to try something a little Heston Blumenthal-like - something that's relatively small but is visually stunning.

@glitch Cheers for the advice. The sorbet will be staying as it's been specially requested that I make it. There's a lot of recipes online that claim to get around the freezing problem of alcohol. The common concensus is to heat the liquid before freezing to burn off the majority of the alcohol, just leaving the taste. I'll be making this nearly a week in advance and freezing it so no problem if it goes horribly wrong, I'll have a contingency plan.

The sorbet coming in at 4th course did seem a little strange to me, actually. But as I Googled common 7 course plans, they always came here. Must be a very standard template that bares no thought to the dishes - I'll move it to after the fish. After further research, it appears French 7 course meals the sorbets comes after the fish.

Just found a rather neat looking recipe for grilled sea bass, beetroot relish, yellow pepper puree and samphire. I think this will be pretty cool for the fish course.

 

[glitch]

@Satchef - I did look into certain lactose-free ingredients, but for something like the panna cotta, I'd have to replace the entire lot really. Not worth it when the person with the allergy will be perfectly happy and grateful with a replacement.

You can make a panna cotta with lactose-free ingredients if you really want to.

Coconut milk/cream is a great ingredient to use, if you want that flavour, but there's plenty of lactose-free alternatives to the usual milk and cream and you won't really notice the difference.

Desserts are an intensely personal thing, but one of my current favourites is a 'tasting plate' of chocolate. It's a quenelle of chocolate mousse, a chocolate macaron and a cube of flourless chocolate cake served on a chocolate sand/soil with a few other touches here and there.

I guess it could work for someone with allergies to gluten and lactose, but it doesn't sound like it fits in with the ethos of your menu.

You could do a little tasting plate of strawberries with various foams, jellies, mousses, gels and meringues dotted around the plate amongst the fresh fruit?

The soup is gone. I was in two minds already with it but as you guys have reinforced my doubts I've ditched it. Need some ideas to replace it, I'd quite like to try something a little Heston Blumenthal-like - something that's relatively small but is visually stunning.

A crystal-clear consommé would be an ideal replacement here as it satisfied both the lightness and visual requirements perfectly.

I'm thinking along the lines of a little half-sphere of mousse in the middle of the bowl, studded with enoki mushrooms and decorated with something like an edible lichen - you can then pour the consommé into the bowls as it is served.

Very Heston-like and not altogether complicated to make, although it will take a fair bit of effort.

The sorbet will be staying as it's been specially requested that I make it. There's a lot of recipes online that claim to get around the freezing problem of alcohol. The common concensus is to heat the liquid before freezing to burn off the majority of the alcohol, just leaving the taste. I'll be making this nearly a week in advance and freezing it so no problem if it goes horribly wrong, I'll have a contingency plan.

Sorry, I didn't mean to say I didn't like the idea of the sorbet - I've just never had much luck with champagne in that regard!

It's actually just the thing I'd like to be served during a long-course menu and a very clever and welcome addition.

Just found a rather neat looking recipe for grilled sea bass, beetroot relish, yellow pepper puree and samphire. I think this will be pretty cool for the fish course.

That sounds very nice indeed.

Can you explain what form the salad course will be taking? I think that's the one that the three of us that have pitched in thus far are most intrigued by - I know I am!

 

[DcD]

You can make a panna cotta with lactose-free ingredients if you really want to.

Coconut milk/cream is a great ingredient to use, if you want that flavour, but there's plenty of lactose-free alternatives to the usual milk and cream and you won't really notice the difference.

Desserts are an intensely personal thing, but one of my current favourites is a 'tasting plate' of chocolate. It's a quenelle of chocolate mousse, a chocolate macaron and a cube of flourless chocolate cake served on a chocolate sand/soil with a few other touches here and there.

I guess it could work for someone with allergies to gluten and lactose, but it doesn't sound like it fits in with the ethos of your menu.

You could do a little tasting plate of strawberries with various foams, jellies, mousses, gels and meringues dotted around the plate amongst the fresh fruit?

A crystal-clear consommé would be an ideal replacement here as it satisfied both the lightness and visual requirements perfectly.

I'm thinking along the lines of a little half-sphere of mousse in the middle of the bowl, studded with enoki mushrooms and decorated with something like an edible lichen - you can then pour the consommé into the bowls as it is served.

Very Heston-like and not altogether complicated to make, although it will take a fair bit of effort.

Sorry, I didn't mean to say I didn't like the idea of the sorbet - I've just never had much luck with champagne in that regard!

It's actually just the thing I'd like to be served during a long-course menu and a very clever and welcome addition.

That sounds very nice indeed.

Can you explain what form the salad course will be taking? I think that's the one that the three of us that have pitched in thus far are most intrigued by - I know I am!

I really haven't decided on the salad course yet. I'm to be honest, very stumped.

 

[glitch]

How about something like a beef or venison carpaccio topped with a nice selection of baby leaves, drizzled with a light shallot and hazelnut vinaigrette and finished off with a few goats cheese beignets?

That's enough of a salad to fit in with your course plan, light enough to not weigh the diners down, meaty enough to satisfy the palate, pretty easy to put together and stunning to look at.

Or how about a salad Niçoise where you replace the carpaccio with thinly-slice seared tuna fillet, top that with some small pieces of baby gem lettuce, extra-fine green beans, confit cherry tomatoes, anchovy fillets and a light vinaigrette, then top it all off with some soft-boiled quails eggs, split open to show the yolk?

 

[McPhee]

If you want to try a Heston dish there's a recipe for Liquorice Poached Salmon in H@Home. Visually it's a blinder, taste-wise it's incredible. I could see it fitting really well in to the menu, preceded by a Carpaccio or tagliata. It keeps the first half of the meal light but punchy in flavour.

(BTW, it's not the recipe you get when Googling. This one is salmon poached in olive oil or court-bouillon, with liquorice jelly on top, vanilla mayo and a few other bits. The salmon isn't actually poached in a liquorice liquor. Prep wise, everything bar poaching the salmon can be done ahead of time)

If you were going to do a soup then a small portion (3 spoonful's tops) of Gazpacho or consommé (probably cold) would be my choice. Using ice filtration to clear a consommé would yield something really quite stunning in appearance and flavour (ice filtration should get rid of all of the impurities while preserving the flavour). Easy enough to do as well - make the consommé then freeze it and thaw in the fridge in a sieve lined with muslin. You might need to add gelatine to the consommé before freezing depending on the amount of natural gelatine present in the consommé to begin with.

 

[DcD]

Added Tuna Steak Salade Nicoise and Chicken consomme with sage crusted melba toast.

Also added total per head etc.

Thoughts guys? The equipment costs are for new porcelain plates and metallic moulds for the panna cotta - I don't have nice white square plates and really want some for better presentation.

 

[glitch]

Added Tuna Steak Salade Nicoise and Chicken consomme with sage crusted melba toast.

Sounds fantastic, particularly the latter dish.

How are you going to be making the stock for the consommé? From scratch, with a whole chicken, etc?

And have you thought about the impact of two 'fishy' courses, in the salad and the sea bass, straight after each other? Will it work?

Thoughts guys? The equipment costs are for new porcelain plates and metallic moulds for the panna cotta - I don't have nice white square plates and really want some for better presentation.

Personally, and your mileage may very here, I'd avoid making the panna cotta in individual moulds - it's expensive and the desserts can be somewhat fiddly to turn out, often resulting in the dreaded 'pool' of melted panna cotta on the plate.

I'd go with the approach of using a cling-film lined baking dish, or similar, and then turning the whole thing out before cutting the portions out from that. It makes life easier for large numbers of portions and, to my mind, looks better.

Square plates are also tricky. It's tough to plate up on those without the food looking unbalanced, although that obviously depends on what you are serving. I'd stick with circular and rectangular plates where possible and look at some slate tiles for the salad course and possibly the dessert.

With regards to the financials, have you budgeted for a dry-run of all the dishes before the event itself? Have you taken into account the amount of crockery, cutlery and glassware you'll need to avoid having to constantly be washing things up? Do you know where you're buying all the ingredients from and how they are being transported to the venue?

Equipment-wise, do you know exactly what you need for the entire meal? Have you looked in to hiring things instead of buying? How are you going to be keeping everything warm, in particular the plates? Do you have enough cooking space to complete the six-courses? Can the oven and hob be trusted and relied upon to work effectively?

 

[Spuj]

I can't really offer any help on dish ideas etc.

However, based on what you have selected so far, could I get an invite please?