Help with a meal for 7 people

emetic

emetic

emetic

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Heroville
At the end of the month I need to cook a meal for 7 people.

The meal must comprise of starter/main/desert.

I've got plenty of cooking kit at my disposal (my ex did cook a bit) but tbh I don't really bother using any of it. So I have an oven obviously, slow cooker (probably not big enough for 7 although I could borrow another) a steamer with 3 shelves, a large george forman grill and an assortment of pans/wok, and other standard cooking kit.

So far the themes for these evenings have been spanish, mexican and italian so I can't cook a meal from those countries.

If anyone has any ideas/recipes they would be most appreciated, i'm not much of a cook although i can follow instructions and obviously cooking for 7 makes things a little more complex.
 
Not sure I'd want someone with the name 'emetic' to be cooking for me!

Roast dinner is a great idea and is something almost everyone loves, also reasonably easy to prepare for 7 people as long as you're organized and well prepped.
 
I thought about an indian but i'm not really a massive fan, if I'm spending time to shop, prepare and cook it I would prefer something else (that said if someone else cooked it i'd be eating it)

Meal will be on a Sat night accompanying beers/cocktails/wine etc so probably not exactly the right scene for a roast dinner. Steaks are a maybe...
 
Beef or lamb curry in the slow cooker for about 7-8 hours. Proper melt in the mouth meat, and great infused flavours. That would be my first take.

The other thing I've cooked for 4-5 recently was a Mediterranean Fish casserole with pollock, tomatoes, lemon, basil etc.. Alas it's probably Spanish but well worth a Google for the recipe. Zesty and healthy, highly recommended.
 
Just some thoughts...

Swiss - Cheese fondue? Serve with crusty bread, a nice green salad, cured meats, spaetzle, and boiled new potatoes. If you go to waitrose you can buy cheese fondue kits which are pretty good, you just need to stick them on the hob. If you don't have a fondue set you could prob rig a saucepan over some tea lights or something...

French - Normandy pork? I do this a lot, its really easy and delicious. Get a bunch of pork chops (on the bone) and brown in butter. Set aside and fry off a couple of onions, and some sliced apples (prob 3-4 apples for 7 people). Add the pork back in, along with salt, pepper, some mixed herbs, and a bottle of cider (enough to cover the meat plus a bit more) make sure it's fairly good cider, if possible find a dry french one (this would be ideal, buy a crate and have it as you're drink for the evening, it's delicious!). You're prob gonna need a big pan for all this, either a big casserole dish or a stock pot. Either cook in the over or on the hob for 1.5-2 hours, then remove the chops and stir in a glug of cream/creme fraiche. If you want to, blend the sauce up smooth, but I kinda like it rustic:) Serve with anything really - sliced baguette to soak up the juices and some greens (tenderstem brocolli perhaps) would go down well.

For a starter you could just do a green salad with smoked bacon lardons and grilled goats cheese (get the cylindrical length of goats cheese with a rind that you can slice, cut 0.5cm widths and grill on a thin slice of baguette). Dead simple and cheap.

Pudding, if you feel like making it in advance then make a french apple tart (tarte normande) It can be kept in the fridge overnight and its not difficult to make. Fairly cheap too as you're just using apples. Serve with creme fraiche.

edit: buy a bottle of calvados too, chuck a bit in the pork, tart (it doesn't need it but if you have it...), and glug the rest in the evening:D yum.
 
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Roast is a good idea. Go for a best of British theme perhaps? Something like a soup (easily prepared beforehand), roast followed by Eton mess.
 
I think if you're cooking for a large group you might be better off making big dishes and allowing people to serve themselves at the table. It makes things less formal, more relaxed, and you aren't worrying about portioning and plating up on the night.

Whilst steaks might sound simple trying to cook seven of them perfectly at the same time could be a bit of a nightmare. Personally, I'd avoid steak.

You say you're not too keen on Indian food, is this because of the spice? If not then you might like to try some Moroccan food. A nice tagine for the main course could go down well.


Good luck and let us know how you get on! ;)
 
Depends if you want to go down the more formal meal route or the more picky sharey route.

Like plated up before served, or serve and help selves at the table.

If you go with the latter you could do things like mexican, spanish, thai, indian etc. do lots of things that people can grab from.
 
I will certainly be having a trial run beforehand, if its worth doing its worth doing right, i'll make sure to let you know how I get on.

I quite like the idea of French, if it all goes wrong at least I could get everyone smashed on Champagne.
 
emetic said:
if it all goes wrong at least I could get everyone smashed on Champagne.
Click to expand...

That's the spirit:D

I love French food, people tend to think it's complicated but if you find more rustic recipes (think Normandy/Brittany regions, I've spent a lot of holidays there!) they are generally really simple, tasty, hearty meals:)
 
If it's not too formal i'd do things like cheesecake for desert, chilli-con-carne for main, smoked salmon mousse for starters..mainly things you can do easy for large amounts and a lot of the work is done prior to them arriving.
 
Scallop cakes on endive with white wine and cream sauce
Beef or sausage stew with roast garlic mash
Caramelised mango or banana with puff pastry and ice cream or just whipped cream.

Very little on the spot cooking and all easy to make.
 
Can I suggest belly of pork. You can cook it very slowly in the oven, a month in advance if needs be. Then you can freeze the joints and get them out the day before the dinner party. Then all you need to do is fry to reheat and crisp and you have lovely tender pork belly, ready in ten minutes.
 
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