I need a chef...

[pinkfloyd45769]

I hve to make a dish for this dinner party with some friends and it is just driving me nuts. I have to make some kind of meat, i was thinking duck. I just need something easy that will blow these people away and not take me forever to make. I want the prep time to be 3 hours or less. Cheebs and Spall, i need you guys!!!!

[newb]

If you're serving mashed potato's I have just the thing.

[pinkfloyd45769]

I'll take all the help i can get.

[Spallalala]

Originally Posted by pinkfloyd45769

I hve to make a dish for this dinner party with some friends and it is just driving me nuts. I have to make some kind of meat, i was thinking duck. I just need something easy that will blow these people away and not take me forever to make. I want the prep time to be 3 hours or less. Cheebs and Spall, i need you guys!!!!

Well..hmm...lets see what we can come up with.

How many people and are they alergic to anything?
Is it only 1 dish your after or a few small ones?
How long till this dinner party is happening?

Answer those and we can help ya out :)

[pinkfloyd45769]

30 people give or take a few, no allergies that i know of,
1 dish, and i have a week from today. Thanks guys you are the best!!

[Spallalala]

Ok..Give us a lil while and we shall come up with something full of goodness and simplicity. :)

[Spallalala]

Cheebs and I had a bit of a chatter about this and now we wanna make it for dinner ourselves hehe. Heres the idea and then we shall make up a recipe for ya.
Of course this only works if you guys like indian food.

Tandoori chicken ( boneless, so if you got the cash make it chicken breast, if not well just buy thighs)
Raita ( which is yoghurt, cucumber and some mint with a few other small things)
Wraps with all sorts of salad.

What I was thinkin is you could have a few bowls full of stuff.
Salady stuff ( cherry tomatos cut in half, lettuce of your choice, capsicum strips, chiffonade ( means finely shredded) purple cabbage
tandoori chicken
raita

and then you have your wraps. And ya just chuck things in ya wrap and well wrap em up and eat em. :) We have some other ideas too but lets see how we go with that.

[Phalanx]

Yeah, for simplicity, and stuff that usually goes down well crowd-wise, I'd go with something to do with tandoori. It's tasty, can be made mild to spicy, and to make an authentic recipe (no packet shit), it's really quite easy, and definately within your time constraints. Addition of the salads, and the "wraps" is a really simple, healthy, good thing to throw out onto a table, and let everybody dig in (just make sure you use implements for those people that don't "get" that you shouldn't just attacj everything with your hands.
We know some pretty good (from scratch) recipes for all this stuff including the salads, and the raita, when made right....is just fucking unbelievable.

Otherwise, I know how to throw together a few good thai items, some asian/chinese stuff, pretty much a bunch of different "crowd" food. Pastries, assorted salads, some sauces from scratch (a bit more time consuming though)...look, essentially what you want, we can come up with.
But...if you want it easy, I'd go with suggestion #1.
I mean...I can come up with full set meals that'll have these people thinking you're a chef...but the time thing, and people power at your disposal (just you right?) doesn't really make that a possibility.
With the aforementioned, all you have to do is crush up a paste (I'll throw you the recipe) or two, marinade overnight, chop some things up, and make things nice and presentable. Easy.
If you're after any dessert suggestions, might be able to help there too.

- B

[pinkfloyd45769]

Thanks guys!! You two are reminding me of the show Top Chef, i love that show. I'm going to try this,i think it will turn out great!! Thanks again and i might need your help when i start trying to make this.

[Phalanx]

I'll write up the specifics then foward them.