Ideas for a meal

Nitefly

Nitefly

Nitefly

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Joined
24 Sep 2005
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Hello all,

Me and my house mate are cooking for two friends tomorrow to return the favour of them cooking for us at the weekend.

Whilst we have settled on cooking an apple crumble for dessert, we are looking for ideas for a main so I thought I'd ask for some recipe suggestions.

Requirements:

1) We have a student equipped kitchen which means a rubbish, small oven with one shelf, which although usable makes things like roast dinners a pain in the arse.

2) We are looking for something tasty but relatively simple to make - no beef wellington-esque suggestions please!

3) Ideally we want something that sounds moderately impressive (the girls cooked for us chicken stuffed with cheese and parma ham), so we want to avoid 'boring' dishes like sheppard's pie.

Thanks in advance :)
 
Thai green curry with sticky rice. Good winter warmer, and it's bloody lovely.

To be honest i'd see chicken stuffed with cheese and parma ham as a boring dish, seems to be the one thing everyone serves at a dinner party (usually with a bit of risotto) because it's so simple to make. Don't get me wrong, a nice organic chicken breast, bit of cheese and some good parma ham, it's like an erection in my mouth, maybe why it's so popular?

If you're doing lasagne do it properly, fresh ingredients (yes, no dry pasta), good steak mince, home made sauces etc.
Then make your own garlic bread, it's cheaper than buying it and so much better. Or you could consider something a little more interesting like lavender bread?
Only trouble I can forsee with lasagne is the tiny oven space.

If you're gonna do a starter, personally i don't think you can go wrong with soup. Really fresh veg from a market, give it that extra flavour.
 
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Start with some Mushrooms in a white wine and garlic sauce on top of something like bruchetta or ciabatta with a little bit of side salad (and dressing)

main course you could cook some rack of lamb marinted in something or seasoned well, if you cook it right it will be to die for, nice and pink on the inside and falling off the bone - never overcook lamb that its gray on the inside, nobody likes a tough lamb :(

for desert do creme brule.. everyone loves creme brule

these are 3 very easy dishes despite sounding complicated, and you will WOW your guests :p

I agree with what some people have said abou the chicken in parma ham, it sounds fancy but it is so easy to make, not very impressive imo :D
 
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Griddled salmon fillets on bed of spinach and cherry tomatoes with balsamic vinegar caramelised mushrooms and onions is nice.

Or bake the salmon in a packet of tin foil with lemon juice and herbs, is nice too.
 
A good hearty pie, with mash, mushy peas and gravy. So easy to do. What ever flavour you want really. Chicken, leak and cream, Beef and mushroom, beef and ale, steak and kidney, lamb and mint, Moroccan lamb. Literally thousands to choose from.


Serves 4
1 tbsp olive oil
4 rashers smoked streaky bacon
750g cubed casserole or braising steak
4 tbsp plain flour
75cl bottle red wine
1x 450g jar baby pickled onions drained and rinsed
2 fresh thyme sprigs
handful of baby button mushrooms
375g pack ready-rolled puff pastry
salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 Heat the oil in a large casserole pan cut the bacon into 1 cm wide strips, and add to the pan.

2 Season the flour with salt and pepper then toss the steak in the mixture. Shake off any excess flour then add to the pan and cook for 7-8 minutes, turning from time to time until nicely browned.

3 Add the wine, pickled onions, mushrooms and thyme. Bring to the boil, partially cover and simmer for at least 1 hour.

4 Preheat the oven to 200c / gas 6. Open out the pastry and cut to about
2cm larger than the pan, rolling out slightly thinner if necessary. Place on top of the steak, tucking in the edges to enclose the filling. Brush with milk then bake for 20 minutes until golden and puffed.
Click to expand...

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=13348500&postcount=28

Mushy peas you can ether do the long method of boiling in stock for a few hours with celery, onions, herbs etc.

Or the fast way of boiling some frozen peas till cooked, adding to a food processor add some cream and seasoning and blitz.

Gravy
1) Roast some veg (carrots, onions, celery, whole garlic cloves with paper still on) with a generous drizzle of olive oil this can be done hours in advance. Till brown and soft.
2) Mash this roughly with a masher add about 1 heaped tablespoons of plain flour and stir in, place on top of stove and heat till sizzling for about 1-2minutes. Add a 1 pint beef or stock of choice and stir till it comes to the boil, strain out vegetable mash.
 
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How about the Enchiladas i made friday, but simplified.

Herby wraps/tortilla
chicken
mozzerella
chedder
pasta sauce (i used home made leftovers, i guess a jar would suffice).

I coated the chicken with garlic and ginger paste, grilled it for 5 mins in the foreman, then cut it into strips. Place a few strips in a wrap, add a hanfull of grated chedder, a spoonful of pasta sauce and season. Repeat this till you have as many as needed.
Grease an oven pan, place the wraps in. Place a nice chunk of mozzerella on top of each wrap then add all the pasta sauce carefully.

Bake at 190ish untill the cheese is brown.

Was loverly.
 
Smoked gammon fried in maple syrup, on a bed of lettuce, all wrapped in a tortilla. It's what I'm having tonight and it's easy to make. Literally, just fry the gammon, add a couple of tablespoons of syrup in the last few minutes, maybe add some chopped peppers if you want, then serve it in the wrap. I add cheese and mayo as well, but that's up to you.
 
will sex be involved? if so you want something very light on the stomach for example a tomato pasta oven bake dish with salad and plenty of rose wine, theres nothing worse to kill your chances of the legover than a heavy stodgy meal ;)
 
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