lunch menu, comments invited!

[mint]

Hi, everybody

Just want to run a lunch menu past you all, discerning gourmands:

Going to serve:

onion and anchovy quiche (paint of mustard on the case , as per 5-e's suggestion, and anchovies in a trellis pattern but not chopped up in the filling, in case someone doesn't like anchovies)

served with my special carrot and honey and mustard relish

pork escalopes (banged out thin) in cider with tomatoes and black olives served with rice, or mashed potatoes or buttered noodles (which is best?)

cheese platter with salad

fried bananas in rum, butter and muscovado sugar with vanilla ice cream from Leclerc!

Will it be too rich, any suggestions for tweaking or to make more sophisticated?  Despite living in a chateau, I don't really do sophistication![:P][:-))]

[Pierre ZFP]

Sounds yummy - when is it? [:D]

I would vote for noodles but that's just because I like noodles

A small variation for the bananas is to leave them in their skins, slit the skin and squish in butter and sugar and some rum, wrap the whole thing in foil and bung in hot oven (or these are great on the BBQ too)

When they are cooked, undo the foil and add more rum then set on fire and serve still flaming - very dramatic!

[mint]

Pierre, your suggestion for the bananas sound very, very good.  Will tie my hair well back so as not to set that on fire as well....[8-|]

Thank you, Pierre, it will be as you have suggested![:D]

[woolybanana]

What is wrong with reheated pizza?

[ericd]

Sweet, can I suggest a little (home made of course) coulis de tomates to serve with your pasta? Pork is already dry and that would compliment the dish nicely. You can just use the tomatoes/olives you have cooked around the pork to which you might want to add a glass of white wine and a tin of tomatoes, throw in a couple bay leaves from the garden.

[mint]

Merci, Eric.  Tin of tomatoes already open and white wine all to hand.  But, alas, no bay leaves in this house though lots of bay leaves in Chateau 17.  But, how about some thyme or oignon blanc?

[Patf]

Well SW17, if you want honesty ( you didn't say you did) I think the whole thing is too heavy.

If you're serving a 4 course meal you might have a main course which is heavy,  the preceding light and appetising, the following two light and refreshing. So leave out the quiche and the bananas.

 I would serve a 1st course based on egg or fish with dressing and salad. Then your pork main course, probably with pasta. Then your cheese, ( if you must). And finally a light fruit dessert.

Finish off with coffee and mints.

[mint]

Aaaaargh............Pat, I wish you'd come on earlier!

I have now done the pastry case but, hey, could do smoked salmon on blinis or something similar.

Then, could do fruit salad but that's soooo boring?

Can't avoid the cheese as everyone expects cheese, n'est ce pas?

[woolybanana]

dump the cheese after a main meat dish in my view. doublez the salad

[debbie]

Poirs au Vin would be a light and refreshing fruit desert.

[mint]

 Good thinking, Wools.  I will just ask, does anyone want cheese and just give it to people who do want it.

Debbie, alas, didn't buy pears today but I do like that for dessert and you could make it in advance which is a bonus.

[idun]

I always always offered fromage blanc ou sec. Lots of people like that choice, especially if there is a good fromage blanc moulé a la louche, and nice little coulis and cream with it.

I never put salad with the fromage sec, I started doing the dessert thing of grapes, apple slices, nuts and dates with it and it always went down well.

I have been known to serve a salade verte as a separate course though, on top of the starter, main course etc, although friends/family from England used to find that really strange.

[mint]

idun, I have made the pastry case with your marscapone pastry.  I have cooked the onions and I am looking forward to putting the anchovies in a trellis pattern on top.

I, too, have often served a salade verte as a separate course but I only do that with French friends.  I do not invite French and Brits for the same meal as it just gets too complicated!

French with French and Brits with Brits and then they can all speak their own language and eat their own type of meal and everyone's happy.....at least they don't tell me if they aren't![:D]

[woolybanana]

Who have you invited, the Pope? It can't be a Jewish family as you have killed the fatted pig!

[mint]

No Pope, Wools.  It's for Friday and so I guess no meat for Old Pope-Eye.

[ericd]

Sliced button mushrooms and hard bolied eggs muched up with a nice covering of home made vinaigrette with chives....My Great-Grand Mother used to serve this to me when I was a child, made my own family eat it from the start and they all love it.

Onions and thyme is good also as a replacement to bay leaves.

[idun]

The few brits I knew in France all spoke french, so we would often have mixed groups a table. I have been known to invite french friends when I have had none french speaking friends staying, it always worked out ok.

[cooperlola]

[quote user="woolybanana"]dump the cheese after a main meat dish in my view. doublez the salad[/quote]Forget the salad and double the cheese, surely?[:D]

 

Your nosh sounds fine, Sweets.  Cook what you feel comfortable with.  With dinner parties it's usually the company and the conversation I remember most.  Far more important to have a relaxed, stress-free host whom you actually see than one who spends all the time in the kitchen and produces perfect meals (not that such a thing exists, of course.) 

[woolybanana]

All you super cooks are making me feel very inadequate!

[idun]

But you ARE a SUPER FOOD, so there is no need to feel inadequate.

[cooperlola]

[quote user="idun"]But you ARE a SUPER FOOD, [/quote][:D]

And what's more, you are on Sweets's menu... complete with rum, butter and muscovado sugar.[:P]

[woolybanana]

Sweets taste do run to exotic dishes but covering me with those things makes me go all stiff and we all know how edible a stiff banana is!!

[idun]

I would personally have nothing to do with a 'soft' banana, cannot think of anything worse. I like mine firm and unblemished.

Can't say I am a fan of cooked banana though, I like mine as they come, get that skin off and get at it.

[debbie]

Hi Sweets: When I really want to do gourmet I check with World renowned French Chef, Eric Ripert as he is fabulous! and his recipes are easy. You can also see his videos of how to make the meals at his website: http://aveceric.com/wp/

[mint]

Hi, guys

Well lunch seemed to have gone off just fine.....one couple went after 6 hours and the other after nearly 8.

Mind you, OH kept plying them with booze and coffee so that must surely be the key?

Everybody loved the quiche with idun's marscapone cheese pastry and also, TWO people fought over the second helping of banana desert.

Pierre,  I did as you suggested.  Warmed the rum in a ladle and poured it all flaming.

Clearing up all done and now I am relaxing and having a chat with you all.

Debbie, I will look at your link, perhaps tomorrow.

BTW, NOBODY said about the meal being too heavy or that they couldn't eat it.  Even the dog seemed to think it was OK though she didn't eat the bananas (I wouldn't let her because of the high alcoholic content)![:D]