How 2 impress your friends
What better way to celebrate being a 20 or 30-something than to throw a dinner party? It’s very civilised, extremely grown-up, and a great way to show off your skills and impress your friends. Plus, it’s dead easy.
Your menu:
Starters: Parma Ham, Mozzarella and Leaf Salad
Main: Fish Fillet Parcel with New Potatoes and Green Vegetables
Dessert: The Chocolate Pot
Your shopping list:
(Based on dinner for four)
• Fresh green salad leaves
• Buffalo Mozzarella x 3 balls
• Parma Ham (6 slices or so)
• Figs (fresh if you can get them) OR Black Pitted Olives
• Sherry Vinegar
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Freshly Ground Pepper / Sea Salt
• Rustic Loaf (optional)
• 4 x 8oz Salmon Fillets
• 2 x Fennel Bulbs
• 2 x Leeks
• New potatoes
• Fresh Green Vegetable of choice
• 1 x Clove of Garlic
• Flat leaf parsley
• Tarragon
• Dill
• 2 x Lemons
• 200g Plain Chocolate (with a high cocoa content)
• 300ml Single Cream
• Squirty or Double Cream
• 1 x Egg
The Night Before ...
Prepare your chocolate pots:
Break the chocolate into the blender jug. Bring the single cream to the boil. Slosh it in the blender with the chocolate and whizz till all the chocolate has melted (with the lid on!). Stop the machine, add the whole egg and whizz a bit more. Pour the chocolate mix through a fine sieve into 4 small glasses or pots and chill overnight at the back of the fridge. If you can’t prepare the night before then 4 hours in fridge is sure to make it set. Add a blob of double/squirty cream to serve.
Prepare your fish parcels:
Preparing the night before means no fiddly bits and no washing up to do as your guests arrive. You will need to cut four pieces of greaseproof paper (or aluminium foil) large enough to easily contain each salmon fillet.
Finely slice your two bulbs of fennel and the white part of both leeks and mix together with a crushed clove of garlic. Divide amongst the four pieces of baking paper/foil in little piles. Lay your fillet on top, and season with salt and pepper. Roughly chop (or tear) a handful of the flat-leaf parsley, tarragon and dill and scatter over each fillet. Be generous! Add a good glug of olive oil and then fold and seal up your paper parcels so that no steam escapes. As long as you’ve cut a generous amount of paper it should fold down easy. Put your parcels in the fridge until you need them.
On the day...
Preheat the oven to 220C/425F ready for your fish parcels.
For your starter, tear up some salad leaves and generously pile on your plates. Tear up your three mozzarella balls and scatter the pieces amongst the leaves. Follow with a handful of olives, or, tear up your fresh figs and scatter around the leaves (don’t use both – taste clash!). Casually drape the six slices of parma ham between the four plates. Mix up your dressing – 5 tablespoons of olive oil with 2 tablespoons of sherry vinegar, salt and freshly ground pepper. Either pour over your salad or leave it in the oil-pouring bottle for your guests to add themselves. Serve at the table with rustic fresh bread.
With a dinner party timing is everything! Put your new potatoes on the boil as you sit down to your first course so by the time you finish (25 min or so) the green vegetables of your choice are ready to pop on top in a steamer just as you fling your fish parcels in the oven (if you don’t have a steamer a few minutes on the boil will do the trick). The fish will take about 10 – 15 min. Don’t worry if your paper parcels start to burn! As long as the parcels aren’t touching the top or bottom elements/gas they won’t burst into flames; they will only char a little. Positioning the parcels equally in the middle of the oven will help.
Serve up your fish in their parcels on a dinner plate and leave your guests to take in the wonderful aroma when they rip the parcel open! I usually pile my vegetables into serving dishes so that once the fish has been slid off the paper onto the plate my guests can serve themselves.
Top it all off with your chocolate pots and bask in your guests’ pleasure and delight over your amazing three courses. Wonderful!
For more recipe ideas, why not take a look in our Lounge?
Written by Emma Samuel. Posted on 23rd July.
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