Goats Cheese Bruschetta – Fillet of Beef  With Red Wine Sauce & Gratin Dauphinoise Potatoes – Homemade Chocoate Tart

My style of cooking for our dinner parties is fairly basic, but tasty (I hope) and easy to. The hardest part is to think up different menus, so I don’t repeat anything, and also when you are hosting, it is nice to prepare and cook as much as you can in advance, or dishes that do not need to be cooked when your guests are ensconced, so you spend most of the time with your guests rather than being in the kitchen. You can read about my style of cooking here

Dinner Party Menu Idea for 4 People

STARTER:  Goats Cheese Bruschetta

 Ingredients

Ciabatta Loaf or you could use a French Stick
Jar of ready done pesto
Garlic Glove
Goats Cheese
Olive Oil
Lettuce, diced tomato and diced pepper to garnish

Method

Slice the bread into slices, and place on a baking tray. Brush the tops with olive oil. Pop in the oven and toast slightly on one side, turn them over, brushing the other side with the oil and toast lightly again. Remove from the oven and rub over with the garlic clove. Then spread a light layer of any pesto. Top with a slice of goats cheese, pepper and drizzle olive oil. Pop back in the oven until the cheese starts to melt. Place in the middle of a plate and garnish with lettuce, topped with the diced tomato and pepper (but this is optional)

MAIN COURSE:  Fillet of Beef with a Mushroom and Red Wine Sauce, Gratin Dauphinois Potatoes

Ingredients

A joint of Fillet of Beef( large enough for how many guests you are cooking for, but I would allow 6-8oz of meat per person as a rough guide)

Season the beef on both sides, and then seal all over in a hot pan

Roast in the oven at 200 (fan) for about 20 – 25 mins for medium rare for a 1kg joint (20 mins if long and thin).  I do like all my meat very well done, so I will always carve my bits from the ends, as they will cook more quickly than the middle. Take out of the oven and cover with foil to allow it to rest.

When ready to serve just slice

Gratin Dauphinoise Potatoes (A Delia Smith Recipe)

Ingredients

2lbs good quality potatoes (King Edwards or Desiree)
3 oz butter
½ pint double cream
½ pint milk
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
Whole nutmeg grated
Salt and freshly milled black pepper

Method

Peel the potatoes and slice very thinly (a mandolin is ideal if you have one), then plunge them in to a bowl of cold water and swill them thoroughly to get rid of the starch. Dry them in a very clean tea towel. Then in a gratin dish (or deep sided dish) arrange a layer of the potatoes, a sprinkling of the crushed garlic, salt and pepper, then repeat this for a second layer. Now mix the cream and milk together and pour it over the potatoes. Sprinkle with a little of the freshly grated and then add flecks of the butter over the surface. Bake for about 1 ½ hours until soft.

Mushroom and Red Wine Sauce

Ingredients

Mushrooms of your choice
Onion sliced
Little red wine
Double Cream
Butter
Salt and pepper

Method

In saucepan add the butter, and when it foams add the onions and cook until soft. Add the mushrooms and season with salt and pepper. Stir everything together for a few minutes. Add the red wine, stirring to scrape up any stuck bits. Cook and stir to evaporate the alcohol. When the wine is almost all gone just add the double cream. Serve over the sliced beef

Serve with vegetables of your choice

DESSERT:  Chocolate Tart

Ingredients

Shortcrust pastry to line the flan case, either buy a ready done flan case, or buy your shortcrust pastry and then line the case, and bakef blind or of course you can make your own sweet shortcrust pastry
14fl oz double cream
2 tablespoons caster sugar
3 1/2 oz butter, softened
11b cocoa butter chocolate 50 – 70% cocoa solids in chunks
3 ½ fl oz milk
Cocoa and icing sugar for dusting

Put the double cream and sugar into a saucepan and bring to the boil stirring. Immediately remove from the heat and add the butter and chocolate and stir until melted. Allow to cool slightly then stir in the milk until smooth. Cool completely then pour into the pastry shell. Shake to even the mixture out and leave to set at room temperature for about 2 – 3 hours. Dust with cocoa powder and icing sugar

Dinner Party Ideas and suggestions of what I think goes together best

See my other dinner party menus suggestions here