DS Forums

 
 

Help me with my menu PLEQSE HELP!!


Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 14-01-2009, 09:27
monkeyking87
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: France, but an irish at heart
Posts: 4,876

My prestigious foodies


At the moment Im living in a flat in france. After we had people over for dinner we decided to do our own Come Dine With Me filming menu reveals and scoring and taking photos of everything else!Its gonna be lots of fun but Im worried about my menu! Im an english language assitant and dont have lots of money, I need to make a starters a main and a desert but with VERY limited appliances. We have a rather small and weak oven with 3 hobs so I cant do anything fancy but nor can anyone else really.

I just want you to see my menu and see what you think and how you would change and improve it!

Cocktails on arrival (we are all young students after all )

Starters

Veggie Pastry Pockets

Im gonna quickly panfry some veggies ie onion pepper aubergene mushroom garlic and herbs and place it in a triange of pastry to put it in the oven for 10 mins and serve with dips of salsa and mayo Im thinking one big one each?

Mains

Pan fried Steak with oven roasted potatoes and creme de marron sauce

Basically gonna fry the staeks how they want it and roast some potatoes in the oven to make the sauce ill put in some chestnuts and cream which is really french but lovely and im the only one to of had i

Desert

Home Made Choccie cake and double cream

Was thinking of making a choclate sauce ie melted choccie and butter but I dunno

Can you please give me advice please foodies but please remember the limited situation Im in!!

Thanks in advance
monkeyking87 is offline   Reply With Quote
Please sign in or register to remove this advertisement.
Old 14-01-2009, 09:57
andallthatjazz
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 5,488
You don't need any help......that menu sounds YUMMY!!!

Good luck!
andallthatjazz is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 14-01-2009, 10:34
DaisyBumbleroot
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Derby, UK
Posts: 23,456
pan fry... where else would you fry something?
DaisyBumbleroot is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 14-01-2009, 11:19
indianwells
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,236
As an English language assistant your punctuation, spelling and grammar are dreadful.

Your menu however, sounds delicious!
indianwells is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 14-01-2009, 11:43
Lainiomonkio
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: The Enchanted Wood
Posts: 878
If you're in France I would take advantage of the delicious and cheap food and drink they have there. What cocktails were you thinking of serving? I would serve Kir Royale as Creme de Cassis (blackcurrant liqueur) is so cheap over there - it's like €3 for a bottle . You could get a cheap fizzy wine to do this with...

I would save your veggies to go as a side with your steak and I'd buy a camembert and bake it in it's box with some rosemary, garlic and olive oil and serve with lots of delicious crusty bread, pickles, grapes and some cold meats for starters... Coeur de Lion is a good, cheap brand in sold in supermarkets over there and is perfect for cooking in the oven. Or even some pan fried scallops as they are cheap when buying from the fishmongers.

Don't forget as well that double cream (creme pour patisserie) in France isn't always the easiest to find and the substitute - creme double isn't as rich as double cream... you might be better off with creme fraiche?

And for chocolate sauce you could try something a little different with a chocolate chilli sauce?

100g dark choc
3 tbsp golden syrup (or honey I guess if you can't find syrup)
juice of 1 orange
few drops Tabasco to taste

Place chocolate and syrup in a bowl over simmering water, add orange juice once melted and stir and add Tabasco to taste.

Lainiomonkio is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 14-01-2009, 11:44
monkeyking87
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: France, but an irish at heart
Posts: 4,876
Cheers for the nice things said guys

As for my English, I was in a rush to get to class earlier but you wouldnt be wrong about my grammar, punctuation and spelling
monkeyking87 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 14-01-2009, 11:47
monkeyking87
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: France, but an irish at heart
Posts: 4,876
If you're in France I would take advantage of the delicious and cheap food and drink they have there. What cocktails were you thinking of serving? I would serve Kir Royale as Creme de Cassis (blackcurrant liqueur) is so cheap over there - it's like €3 for a bottle . You could get a cheap fizzy wine to do this with...
I was going to serve a cocktail we ve made over here its served with Paassoa (dunno how to spell it!!) Tesseire (again rubbish spelling but its like a fruit cordial but its a syrup) and white lemonade! Might take your advice on stocking in on creme de cassis

I would save your veggies to go as a side with your steak and I'd buy a camembert and bake it in it's box with some rosemary, garlic and olive oil and serve with lots of delicious crusty bread, pickles, grapes and some cold meats for starters... Coeur de Lion is a good, cheap brand in sold in supermarkets over there and is perfect for cooking in the oven. Or even some pan fried scallops as they are cheap when buying from the fishmongers.
This sounds good but Im not really a huge fan of cheese or fish Im afraid Im a rubbish foodie I know!!

Don't forget as well that double cream (creme pour patisserie) in France isn't always the easiest to find and the substitute - creme double isn't as rich as double cream... you might be better off with creme fraiche?
Im giving myself time to track it down but I might go for your choccie sauce only thing is I dont want it to be TOO heavy so Im thinking about doing creme anglaise or just plain old ice cream? Might even heat the pôrtions up in the oven a lil bit to give it a bit of contrast?

Wow first proper dinner party and Im already looking forward to it!

monkeyking87 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 14-01-2009, 11:54
kimindex
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Cornwall (ex-London)
Posts: 65,312
pan fry... where else would you fry something?
That's what I'm always saying!

Yes, OP, the menu sounds lovely!
kimindex is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 14-01-2009, 12:28
Lainiomonkio
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: The Enchanted Wood
Posts: 878
I was going to serve a cocktail we ve made over here its served with Paassoa
- Yep, that's passion fruit liqueur and it's delicious!!!


Im giving myself time to track it down but I might go for your choccie sauce only thing is I dont want it to be TOO heavy so Im thinking about doing creme anglaise or just plain old ice cream? Might even heat the pôrtions up in the oven a lil bit to give it a bit of contrast?
- Warm choc fudge cake and ice cream is a classic and delicious combo so I reckon that would definitely hit the spot!!!! There's also a recipe that I know of that is bread and butter pudding but made with pain au chocolat - do you want me to see if I can find it for you? I think it's pretty easy - sliced pain au chocolat in a custard mixture and baked in oven that you could serve with ice cream.... don't worry if not!
Lainiomonkio is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 14-01-2009, 12:54
analogueagent
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Posts: 1,562
pan fry... where else would you fry something?
In the deep-fat fryer?
analogueagent is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 14-01-2009, 15:06
monkeyking87
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: France, but an irish at heart
Posts: 4,876
- Yep, that's passion fruit liqueur and it's delicious!!!


- Warm choc fudge cake and ice cream is a classic and delicious combo so I reckon that would definitely hit the spot!!!! There's also a recipe that I know of that is bread and butter pudding but made with pain au chocolat - do you want me to see if I can find it for you? I think it's pretty easy - sliced pain au chocolat in a custard mixture and baked in oven that you could serve with ice cream.... don't worry if not!

That sounds amazing and infinantly easier than choccie cake! would like to have all my options open at least so if ever you find it whack it in this thread or PM it to me! question would you be able to make it in advance and then heat it up in the oven later or does the cook time not take that long anyway? just need to remember Ive a rubbish small oven here!!!

Last edited by monkeyking87 : 14-01-2009 at 15:08. Reason: Stupid french keyboards
monkeyking87 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 14-01-2009, 15:44
Lainiomonkio
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: The Enchanted Wood
Posts: 878
4 pain au chocolats pref stale but doesn't matter if they aren't
500ml milk
500ml double cream
3 tbsps sugar
1 egg
4 egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1) Preheat oven to 160C / gas mark 3 and grease an ovenproof dish with butter
2) Slice the pain au chocolats into 2cm slices across the chocolate and arrange in layers in the dish
3) Bring milk and cream to the boil
4) Whisk the egg, egg yolks and sugar together.
5) Take the milk off the heat then whisk in the egg mixture
6) Add the vanilla extract and then pour everything on top of the pain au chocolat.
7) Leave to soak for 30 mins then put in oven for 45 mins until golden and the custard has set.

I've been told to spread the pain au chocolat slices with Nutella to make it even naughtier but I haven't been brave enough to do that yet!!!

You could make it in advance and pop it in the oven when everyone arrives. By the time you get through your starter and main it should be done. If you make it ahead of time, the bread just soaks up more of the yummy custard.
Lainiomonkio is offline   Reply With Quote
 
Reply




 
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 17:32.