What to cook for friend & his wife?

I've a friend and his wife coming to dinner tomorrow night and I need to cook for them.

My cooking skills are pretty basic but I'm happy to put some effort in, one thing is that my house, although having a mega garage has a rubbish microwave/oven/grill combi thing that limits the normal type of nice food I'd be tempted to do (grilled/roasted etc.).

So any ideas or recipes out there? Nothing too herby/spicey as the wife is breast feeding and apparently it gives the baby colic!

Initial idea of a red wine based beef stew for the main course, but any ideas would be welcome for started/main dessert.

[fastdruid]

Risotto? Easy to make, very tasty and can be varied lots depending on tastes of guests, from fully veggie to carnivore.

I can give you the recipe I use if you want (which goes down a treat).

Druid

[gruntygiggles]

I can give you recipes for:-

Beef bourguignon
Italian beef stew - super cheap cut that becomes as tender as butter
stuffed beef with any red wine/peppercorn/mushroom sauce
My fav chicken recipe with slow roast garlic and mushroom sauce (very good for guests)

I have loads and loads and +1 to fastdruid......risotto is fab, but if you've never made it before, may not be the best to try for the first time. I made up a risotto recipe a few months back with wild mushrooms and blue cheese though, tiny bit of cheese, but everyone that had it said it was the best yet.

If you want any of the recipes, PM me. Or, if you've got ingredients and aren't sure what you can do with them, I have recipes coming out of my ears for most things.

Oooh, another thing that always goes down well is double roast pork. People love this. It involves wrapping a loin of pork in belly pork with a lemon and sage stuffing and I usually serve it with homemade potato wedges, roast veg and apple sauce and a roasting juice sauce. It looks really impressive and like it's taken hours and you're a masterchef, but is actually really really easy.

Let me know. There are loads of peeps that love cooking on here though, so I'm sure by tomorrow, you'll have loads to choose from x

Takeaway...

Starter idea, I made this the other day, easy, healthy and delicious. Butternut squash and ginger soup. Fry an onion, add three thumb sized pieces of fresh ginger chopped up, and a cubed and de-seeded butternut squash.

Add about a litre of good vegetable stock-I used Marigold swiss vegetable bouillon, the lower salt version, and cook for 20 mins. Then, whizz the lot in a blender or use a stick blender till smooth. Bung a swirl of creme fraiche in it and voila.

It's the best soup I've ever had, and it's a lovely colour too.

[gruntygiggles]

Originally Posted by shonadoll

Starter idea, I made this the other day, easy, healthy and delicious. Butternut squash and ginger soup. Fry an onion, add three thumb sized pieces of fresh ginger chopped up, and a cubed and de-seeded butternut squash.

Add about a litre of good vegetable stock-I used Marigold swiss vegetable bouillon, the lower salt version, and cook for 20 mins. Then, whizz the lot in a blender or use a stick blender till smooth. Bung a swirl of creme fraiche in it and voila.

It's the best soup I've ever had, and it's a lovely colour too.

+1, that sounds lovely. My fav starter for guests is roasted figs with goats cheese and panchetta and a port reduction sauce.

Oooh, PM'd Tara a recipe for homemade profiteroles and hot chocolate sauce as well yesterday. They are much better than store bought and really easy if you want an impressive dessert!

[fastdruid]

Originally Posted by gruntygiggles

I have loads and loads and +1 to fastdruid......risotto is fab, but if you've never made it before, may not be the best to try for the first time. I made up a risotto recipe a few months back with wild mushrooms and blue cheese though, tiny bit of cheese, but everyone that had it said it was the best yet.

I tend to do it with crispy bacon. My wife isn't that keen on mushrooms but that sounds very nice, I'll try some blue cheese next time.

Let me know. There are loads of peeps that love cooking on here though, so I'm sure by tomorrow, you'll have loads to choose from x

and if nothing else some inspiration for others too!

Druid

Originally Posted by gruntygiggles

I can give you recipes for:-

Beef bourguignon

...

My fav chicken recipe with slow roast garlic and mushroom sauce (very good for guests)

...

Let me know. There are loads of peeps that love cooking on here though, so I'm sure by tomorrow, you'll have loads to choose from x

If you could pm the recipe for the above two that would be great, the roast idea sounded good but I have limited roasting space in the little oven.

Risotto was also a good call, but is what I'm cooking for myself this evening!

Anymore suggestions out there?

[gruntygiggles]

Originally Posted by fastdruid

I tend to do it with crispy bacon. My wife isn't that keen on mushrooms but that sounds very nice, I'll try some blue cheese next time.
Druid

You need to use just a wee bit of good creamy blue cheese. The best are St.Argur or a good creamy stilton. The dolcelates and most others don't seem to work quite as well, but you really do have to be mean with it. Too much and it'll be horrible, so add a little at a time at the end and taste as you go. I don't bother adding parmesan or butter either when I use blue cheese as it's rich and creamy enough on its own. I can't stand mushrooms normally either, so I chop them really small, flash fry them in butter over a high heat and add them just before adding the cheese so they are not sloppy!

I've got a few recipes in my "threads I've started" on my profile so there are some more ideas there.

[gruntygiggles]

Originally Posted by Tim in Belgium

If you could pm the recipe for the above two that would be great, the roast idea sounded good but I have limited roasting space in the little oven.

Risotto was also a good call, but is what I'm cooking for myself this evening!

Anymore suggestions out there?

I'll PM you them later this evening. If you wanted to do the roast, I just PM'd the recipe to one of the posters on this thread that asked for it. I could easily adjust it so that you can add the veg to the roasting pan at the right time and take up less space in your oven...or you can just have standard boiled/steamed veg and crispy potatoes done on the hob. Let me know if you want me to PM you this too.

EDIT: Tim.....can you joint a chicken? Doesn't matter if you can't, I'll just write the recipe to suit.