Dinner parties are more affordable than eating out and you can have just as much fun if you plan carefully in advance.

To avoid stress, it is vital that you make all possible preparations in advance. When we are having a dinner party at home, my wife Catherine, normally sets the table on the day before. We also chill the wine; prepare drinks etc, as this is one less job out of the way.

In this segment, I am presenting a four or five course meal because I have included a choice of meat or fish as main course. A good tip is to buy your meat and fish fresh for your dinner party. Then, if you have any uncooked produce left over, you can freeze it for another time.

Another top tip for dinner parties is to have a little soup made up prior to your soiree. After you serve your guests a drink, dish out a small demitasse of soup. I find that it immediately brings everyone to the table, allowing you to concentrate on the necessary cooking requirements in the kitchen.

Note, there is no need to serve huge portions to your guests. Rather, you should choose a good balance of flavours and textures and compliment them with a well chosen wine.

Following starter and main course, I normally leave a little gap before serving coffee and desserts. 9 times out of 10, I  serve what I like to call a low maintenance dessert. By low maintenance, I mean a dessert that can be prepared in advance with very little work or effort required at the last minute.

Most of all, remember to enjoy the evening!

Happy Cooking,

Kevin Dundon

Menu

Starter: Pan roasted scallops with a brandy cream reduction

Main course (option 1): Fillet of beef, spring onion potato cakes, roast shallot reduction

Main course (option 2): Pan fried monkfish, braised leeks with saffron cream

Dessert: Crème brulée

Time Plan

10.00am Make crème brulée and shortbread biscuits. Store until later on

11.00am Do all the chopping, peeling, prepping etc. Blanch and refresh the vegetables at this time and make the spring onion potato cakes

6.00pm Ensure that the table is fully set, glasses polished. Also make sure that your wine is chilling and that you have sufficient ice, lemon and mixers to see you through the evening

6.15pm Place all of the portions of beef on one plate and all of the monkfish on another. Likewise with the scallops so that everything is ready to cook.

6.30pm Gather together all your cooking equipment, pots pans etc.
Gather all required crockery, serving plates and spoons at this time also.

6.45pm Prepare the sauce for the beef and the scallops and the monkfish

7.20pm Give the kitchen a last minute blitz and clean down.

7.30pm Guests arrive, offer drinks and warm soup.

7.45pm Bring guests to the table and serve soup. Return to the kitchen and cook up the scallops. Seal the meat and fish and store this in a low oven also.

8.00pm The dinner party is now underway. Enjoy it!

Tags: family occasion, home cooking, Kevin Dundon

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 10:36 am and is filed under Christmas, Consumer friendly chef, Family Spending, Value Family Spending. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.