Party recipes and ideas

[Davred]

Post your favorite party foods here.

Pigs in Blankets

8 rashers of smoked, streaky bacon
8 chipolata sausages
small bunch of fresh sage leaves
olive oil
freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 400°F/200°C/gas mark 6.

Begin by laying the bacon rashers on a clean, flat surface.
Place two or three sage leaves towards the end of each rasher and place a sausage on top of them (at right angles to the bacon).
Now roll up the bacon nice and tightly to form a neat parcel. Hold in place with a wooden cocktail stick.
Lightly grease a baking tray with the olive oil and evenly space the rolls onto it. Season with freshly milled black pepper.

Bake for about 30 minutes until crisp and golden brown.

[Oddley]

My little flat will be packed to the rafters Christmas eve so here's what I'm doing.

Christmas eve food

1: Sausage rolls
2: Yuletide chipolata sausages on a stick
3: Spring rolls
4: Small burgers in small buns
5: cherry toms with goats cheese and basil
6: small bread open sandwich smoked salmon tartar sauce with dill herb
7: Potato Salad
8: tortilla chips
9: Salsa
10: Crisps
11: cucumber with roasted almond and red wine vinegar and olive oil dressing salad
12: tomato, red onion, chili, thyme and olive oil and lemon dressing salad
13: mixed leaf salad with balsamic dressing
14: potato & pea samosa
15: salted peanuts
16: Assorted pickles
17: gammon

Later on:
Apple strudel & custard

[Davred]

Savory Eggs

6 eggs hard boiled
2 tbsp mayonnaise
8 oz sausage meat
4 oz dried bread crumbs
freshly ground pepper and salt to taste

Coarsely mash the boiled eggs. Mix the mayonnaise and salt/pepper together.
Separate the sausage meat into 8 and flatten into circles.
Separate the egg mixture into 8 and form into balls.
Wrap the egg balls in the sausage meat making sure they are sealed.
Roll in the breadcrumbs.
Deep fry, grill or oven bake until golden brown.

[wheels]

My little flat will be packed to the rafters Christmas eve so here's what I'm doing.

Christmas eve food

1: Sausage rolls
2: Yuletide chipolata sausages on a stick
3: Spring rolls
4: Small burgers in small buns
5: cherry toms with goats cheese and basil
6: small bread open sandwich smoked salmon tartar sauce with dill herb
7: Potato Salad
8: tortilla chips
9: Salsa
10: Crisps
11: cucumber with roasted almond and red wine vinegar and olive oil dressing salad
12: tomato, red onion, chili, thyme and olive oil and lemon dressing salad
13: mixed leaf salad with balsamic dressing
14: potato & pea samosa
15: salted peanuts
16: Assorted pickles
17: gammon

Later on:
Apple strudel & custard

Looks nice Oddley - I don't envy you though if you're going to stuff the cherry tomatoes with the cheese!

Mmm.. Potato and pea samosas are one of my favourites.

Phil

[Davred]

Salted peanuts are sooo yesterday, why not salt some mixed nuts?

Peanuts
Hazelnuts
Almonds
Half walnuts
Cashews
And any others you fancy.

[Davred]

Mini Pasties

Makes around 35

8 oz pastry
8 oz lean minced beef
1 small onion
1 small potato
1 small carrot
1 tsp plain flour
Worcestershire sauce
About a cup’s worth of stock, veg or beef
1 egg


Finely dice the onion, potato and carrot.
Set a nonstick frying pan on a high heat and when it’s good and hot, tip in the minced meat and move it about, browning it.
After a couple of minutes, tip in the diced veg and give it a stir.
Splash over a few shakes of worcestershire sauce and some salt and pepper.
Be a little more generous with the pepper than you normally would be. Sprinkle over the tablespoon of plain flour, mix it in and cook for a further minute.
Now pour over a cup of stock and reduce the heat to a simmer.
After 5 minutes or so the veg should be softening up and the liquid thickening and reducing. You don’t want it too wet otherwise it’ll make the pastry soggy, it just wants to be moist. If there’s too much liquid, turn up the heat and reduce it a bit.

Take the filling mix off the heat and set it aside to cool. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6.

Divide pastry into thirds and wrap two pieces and put them in the fridge.

Sprinkle flour on a large chopping board or just a kitchen surface and sprinkle some on your rolling pin to stop it sticking.
Roll out the pastry until it’s quite thin, about as thin as you dare before you think it might tear when you move it.
Now cut circles out of the pastry, if you have a pastry cutter, well done and you should use that. I don’t have one, so I use the end of a can of tomatoes which works just as well.
Peal away the offcuts of pastry, ball it up and cover it to stop it getting dry.
Now put a small amount of pilling in the middle of each circle, and fold the circle over.
Pinch the edges together and put it pinched end up on a baking try.
Do the same with the rest of the circles and roll out the rest of the pastry and repeat until it’s all used up.
Beat an egg and if you have a pastry brush, brush the egg over the pasties to glaze them. If you don’t have a pastry brush use some kitchen roll dipped into the egg and then wiped over the pasties. Works just as well.

Put the baking tray with the pasties into the oven for 10 to 15 minutes until they’re golden brown. Do it in batches if necessary.

[Davred]

Cheese Straws

4 oz Self Raising Flour
3 oz Cheddar Cheese (grated)
2 oz Margarine
1 egg beaten
Pinch of salt
Dab of mustard

Mix flour, salt and mustard together, then rub in the margarine.
Mix in the cheese, and add enough egg to make a stiff dough.
Roll out very thinly and cut into strips.
Optional: Cut out some circles, and thread strips through, to make a fancy pattern.

Place on a greased tray, and bake for 10 to 15 minutes at 180C.

Some coarse sea salt sprinkled over before cooking adds a crunch to the straws.

[Oddley]

Looks nice Oddley - I don't envy you though if you're going to stuff the cherry tomatoes with the cheese!

Mmm.. Potato and pea samosas are one of my favourites.

The toms with cheese should be ok. What I'm worried about is I'm making it all fresh, I'm making your soft roll recipe but tiny 30-40g buns, filled with small burgers a little salad, gherkins and mayo.

The smoked salmon is being served on tiny slices of bread from tiny loaves. I have about 12 tiny loaf tins. So I'm a bit worried whether I can make all this bread, sausage rolls, samosa etc. Still a little lubrication and it all should be ok.

Davred, thanks for the recipe. I don't really care what others say is yesterday, I do what I like and I love the salt on salted peanuts you can't replicate that.

[Davred]

Davred, thanks for the recipe. I don't really care what others say is yesterday, I do what I like and I love the salt on salted peanuts you can't replicate that.

Hey, that was tongue in cheek. (there is no smiley doing that) Sorry if it offended you, that was not the intention.

[Oddley]

Not at all Davred, no worries. It was not my intention to offend you, I'm sometimes a bit blunt, don't mean to be.

[grisell]

Take some common green olives, pimiento filled. Wrap them one by one in thinly sliced smoked belly bacon. Secure with tooth picks. Sprinkle with flour and deep-fry until golden brown. Serve immediately.

Great as an amuse-bouche or to a Dry Martini.

[wheels]

Looks nice Oddley - I don't envy you though if you're going to stuff the cherry tomatoes with the cheese!

Mmm.. Potato and pea samosas are one of my favourites.

The toms with cheese should be ok. What I'm worried about is I'm making it all fresh, I'm making your soft roll recipe but tiny 30-40g buns, filled with small burgers a little salad, gherkins and mayo.

The smoked salmon is being served on tiny slices of bread from tiny loaves. I have about 12 tiny loaf tins. So I'm a bit worried whether I can make all this bread, sausage rolls, samosa etc. Still a little lubrication and it all should be ok.

Davred, thanks for the recipe. I don't really care what others say is yesterday, I do what I like and I love the salt on salted peanuts you can't replicate that.

Respect! (as the kids say!)

If I were you. I think that I'd buy a rye loaf and serve the salmon on circles cut out of 'slices' of it. Or something more simple like a 'mock blini' - basically a savoury 'drop scone' made with baking powder rather than yeast.

I don't want to 'teach my grandma to suck eggs', but I have used a pasta machine in the past when I needed some samosa pastry doing a bit quick!

Phil

[Oddley]

Fortunately living in multicultural central London I can easily buy spring roll wraps and samosa pastry, maybe even in the same shop.

[wheels]

OK, you win!

I can get the spring roll wraps, but (incredibly) not the samosa pastry - I make that myself.

It's a bit daft really in one of the most multi-cultural cities in the country with a massive Asian population. However, I can get superb, massive samosas for 18p each!

Make sure you have some tamarind sauce to serve them with.

I bet that your family and friends look forward to your 'do' all year!

Phil

[Oddley]

Christmas is a special celebration, we try to do it with gusto...