Stilton Stuffed Portabello Mushrooms Wrapped in Parma Ham – Duck Breasts with Cherry Sauce Served with Noodles and Warm Little Gem Lettuce with Peas – Lemon Cheesecake

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:   Stilton Stuffed Portabello Mushrooms, Wrapped in Parma Ham

Ingredients

A large portabello mushroom for each diner
Stilton Cheese
Parma Ham
Couple of Shallots
Fresh sage chopped

Method

Dice the shallots and fry them in a little butter, add the chopped sage and combine with the stilton.
Cut the stalks off the mushrooms and fill with the stilton mixture
Wrap each mushroom in the parma ham and leave in the fridge until ready to cook
When ready, cook for about 15 minutes
Serve on a bed of salad

A variety of stuffings can be used to stuff these mushrooms.  Try frying some pancetta and combing with breadcrumbs and goats cheese.  They do not have to be wrapped in parma ham and just pop in the oven

MAIN COURSE:   Duck Breasts with Cherry Sauce, Served with Noodles and Warm Little Gem Lettuce with Peas

Ingredients

4 Duck Breasts
Olive Oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Score the skin of the duck with a sharp knife and season well
Heat a frying pan and when hot sear the duck skin side down until golden brown.  Remove from the heat and transfer the ducks into a baking dish
Cook in a hot oven for 4 minutes (rare), 7 minutes (medium) and 10 minutes (well done).  Remove the duck when cooked for required time to rest

Braised Little Gem Lettuce with Peas

Ingredients

4 Shallots
50g butter
3 Little Gem Lettuce Hearts
100g frozen peas
100g chicken stock
2 small knobs of butter
Small bunch of flatleaf parsley
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Slice the shallots and sauté gently in the butter.  When soft add the Little Gem lettuces cut side down.  Allow to gentry brown and soften
Add the peas and the stock
Cover the pan and simmer for 10 minutes until the peas and lettuce are cooked
Take the pan off the heat and stir in the remaining butter
Add the parsley and season
Serve immediately with the duck sliced and placed on top of the lettuce and drizzle over the cherry sauce

Cherry Sauce

Ingredients

1 Shallot finely chopped
75g Cherry Jam
1 tbsp red wine
1 tpsb raspberry vinegar (although I had trouble finding this and used red wine vinegar as an alternative
Juice of 1 orange

Method

Saute the shallot over a gently heat until transparent.
Add the jam, wine and vinegar.  Let the mixture bubble gently until it reduces to a syrup
Remove from the heat and stir in the orange juice
Pour over the duck and serve immediately

Serve with freshly cooked noodles or sweet potato mash

DESSERT:  Lemon Cheesecake

Ingredients

390g tin of sweetened condensed milk
300g soft cream cheese
285ml double cream
4 large unwaxed lemons
12 digestive biscuits crushed
80g of butter

Method

Melt the butter and add the crushed digestive biscuits
Line a 7 inch loose bottomed cake tin with the mixture
Place the soft cheese in a mixing bowl and start to soften with an electric mixer
Add the condensed milk slowly to ensure all the lumps are incorporated
Add the double cream
Add the juice of the lemons (try rolling them first to get more juice) a bit at a time until you have a beautiful creamy mixture and it starts to thicken
Pile on top of the biscuit base and refrigerate for an hour

You can add some grated lemon rind if you want an extra textured lemony tang

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

See my other dinner party menus suggestions here