Terrine of Spring Onion & Chicken in Parma Ham – Mustard & Rosemary Crusted Rack of Lamb with Sweet Potato Mash and Mediterranean Vegs – Easy Apple Strudel

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:  Terrine of Spring Onion & Chicken (Serves 4 – 5)

Ingredients

110g Self Raising Flour
3 Eggs
1 Bunch of Spring Onions
200g or 12 slices of Parma Ham
2 Cooked Chicken Fillets
2 tbsp milk
100g Gruyere Cheese
3 Heaped teaspoons cranberry sauce
Rocket and Basil Leaves
2 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt and Pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 180.
Line a medium loaf tin with the parma ham allowing the ham to over hang the edges of the tin.
Mix the flour and eggs together until, then add the milk and then whisk some more
Chop the chicken into small chunks and add to the mixture along with the cheese and stir well
Add half the mixture to the then a layer of spring onions running lengthways.  Add the rest of the mixture and fold over the parma ham hanging over the edge to form a parcel
Bake in the oven for about 1 hour, turn out and leave to cool
When ready to serve slice the terrine and place on a bed of rocket and basil leaves drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and serve with a few dollops of the cranberry sauce

MAIN COURSE:  Mustard & Rosemary Crusted Rack of Lamb (serves 6)
Sweet Potato Mash and Mediterranean Vegetables

Ingredients

6 Racks of  3 french trimmed racks of Lamb
Olive Oil
4 tbsp Dijon Mustard
3 Garlic Cloves, crushed
3 tbsp rosemary, very finely chopped
4 tbsp dried parsley

Method

Put the racks in a dish flesh side up and make slashes into the flesh with a sharp knife to allow the flavours to penetrate.
Mix together the 2 tbsp olive oil, the mustard, garlic, rosemary and parsley.  Season well and rub the mixture onto the flesh to coat the lam evenly.  Cover and marinate in the fridge for 1 hour or, ideally all day
Heat oven to 180 (for fan oven) 200 (normal oven).  Put the lamb in a roasting tin and cook for 15 – 25 minutes depending on the size of the rack and how your guests would like them cooked.
Remove from the oven, cover with foil and leave to rest for 10 minutes, before carving into cutlets.  Place on top of the mash and then circle with the vegs

Sweet Potato Mash

Peel and cut sweet potato (amount to suit your needs)  into cubes (it will cook a lot quicker) and cover with water adding a little salt.  Bring to the boil and continue to boil for about 20 minutes until soft.  Drain and mash with salt and pepper

Mediterranean Vegs

You can use any vegs of your choice but I like to use or if you want to cheat buy a bag of Frozen Mediterranean Vegs, just open the bag and pop into the oven for 40 minutes

Bunch of Asparagus
Cloves of garlic (amount depending on taste)
2 Courgette thickly sliced
Peppers cut into chunks
Onions cut into chunks
Butternut squash cut into chunks
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
Runny Honey (optional)

Lay the asparagus in the base of the roasting tin and then put the rest of the vegetables on top.  Drizzle over the olive oil salt and pepper and squeeze on some runny honey if you like, but this is optional.  Cook in a preheated oven for about 40 minutes until tender

DESSERT:   Apple Strudel

Ingredients

1kg bramley or tart eating apples, peeled, cored and finely sliced
4 tbsp sultanas
¼ tbsp slivered toasted almonds
Finely grated zest and juice of ½ lemon
2 tbsp runny honey
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Little flour for dusting
75g butter
2tbsp breadcrumbs (ideally wholemeal)
A little icing sugar for dusting
1 packet (about 350g) filo pastry (although I found that I needed a few more sheets)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 (fan) 200 (normal)
Butter a large baking sheet.
Put the apples, sultanas, almonds, lemon zest and juice, honey and cinnamon into a bowl and mix until all the apple slices are coated in the honey
In a saucepan, melt 25g of the butter and fry the breadcrumbs till crisp and put to one side
Melt the remaining butter.  Lay out a clean teacloth, dust lightly with flour and cover with a layer of filo pastry in a rectangle about 40 cm x 60 cm.  Brush with butter, cover with another layer of filo (although I added an extra level)
Sprinkle with the breadcrumbs.  Spread the filling down one of the long edges leaving a margin at each end
Tuck the two short ends over the filling.  Pick up the two corners of the cloth nearest to the filling and roll the strudel away from you, allowing it to curl over itself
Place the strudel on the baking sheet, brush with more butter and sprinkle with a few drops of water
Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes, until the pastry is crisp and golden and the apple filling is soft  (I test this with a skewer)
Take out of the oven and dust with the icing sugar.  Slice and serve warm with custard, crème fraiche, ice cream or cream

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

See my other dinner party menus suggestions here