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Okay, I know an obscure question, we have 12 people coming to dinner next Sat night - any ideas for the main course ...sorry my brain isn't working, has to be fairly easy but yummy (of course). What do you guys cook for large numbers....
Thanks in advance.
Laurin
Pasta dishes can always be made easily for large numbers and you can have a huge range of what you can have in sauce.
could get a large roast.
umm i have never cooked for that many people.
Good luck
when we're entertaining that many people it's one of two options - BBQ and salad (which it's probably too cold for) - or roast - couple of other things we do depending on who we're "entertaining" (relaxed stuff as opposed to more formal ) - really depends on what sort of atmosphere you're creating.
i tend to do a big smorgasbord food wise for a roast - cook up roast pork and beef the day before, lamb on the day. buy a bbq chook and break it up (we're always entertaining at least 20 when we do a big deal). vegie wise - i cheat and buy the frozen roast spuds - chuck them in the oven half hour before you serve. broccolli and cauli in white sauce, peas and corn, carrot if you're wanting to - you can boil them all early and just reheat at the right time. we usually throw some garlic or cheese bread in the oven for when people arrive so that there is something to munch, and often have a cheese/biscuit/fruit platter for after while having drinks.
with pasta dishes, you can do a mix of everything - bolognaise, lasagne etc. or you can cheat and do what we sometimes do, buy the jars of stir fry sauce (chicken/indian tonight) and make up a few different ones with different meats, put them out with a large amount of rice, and let people help themselves.
if we're being super conservative time wise (like xmas day) - we did up a huge vegie bake - cauli, broccolli, spud, onion, whatever other veg you want, boil cauli and broccolli, stir fry finely diced other vegies, stir fry in a bit of garlic butter, make a cheesy white sauce, mix it all through - YUMMM. you can make it in advance and freeze it in a covered tray ready to go in the oven, and chuck it in. if you want it to go further, whack in some pasta, you can double the size of the dish for next to nothing! delish = and you can serve with any meat (or as a creamy dish if you're doing lots of pasta dishes). we're about to make a heap of this tomorrow (minus pasta) and freeze it up in meal size amounts for DH and I. yummmmmmmm - can you tell i'm craving it??
dessert - depends on what you're wanting to do re formal dessert - i'd suggest having something available that you can chuck in the oven if you want (apple crumble/pie or something like that) - a lot of time if you do a big meal, people may prefer not to eat...
good luck - and most of all ENJOY!!!
Curries work well as you can prepare them before hand and they are fairly fail proof. Use a curry paste and coconut milk and fresh herbs. Then have rice, poppodums, mango pickle, yogurt dressing/sauce etc For dessert you could make a black rice pudding- very easy and very yummy with mango (canned).
Or like suggested a pasta bake or lasagne with a green salad and garlic bread. Then you could do a tiramisu for dessert. Again can be prepared the day before.
As you see I generally pick a theme (Italian, Indian, Greek etc and stick to it)
how'd you go with this one Boo Boo? what did you end up cooking?