Soon we are having friends over, In total there will be nine of us, one vegitarian who will eat quorn or fish but rest of us will eat meat.  So what I want is ideas for a main dish.  as it is in december my parent sujjested a christmas dinner with all the trimmings, but I want to do something different and I am always up for a challenge in the kitchin and will give most things ago.

so what can be the main dish, starters and pudding are sorted....

thanks

What about posh fish pie??   Use prawns (or scallops) smoked haddock, & cod - poach the cod & haddock gently in half milk, half water (add a bay leaf to the poaching liquor).   Make a good cheesy sauce, using the poaching liquor, then flake & mix smoked haddock, cod & prawns/scallops to the cheese sauce.   Add some sweetcorn, a couple of roughly chopped boiled eggs, then top with mashed potatoes.    Brown in the oven until you have a nice golden brown crust.   Serve with broccolli & roasted cherry tomatoes  - that way it looks really good!

HTH

Margot

Thanks margot...should have mentioned I really don't like fish much, So I will end up doing two dishes...one meat, and one fish....Will keep hold of recipie though as sounds REALLY nice for someone who likes fish....

Well you could make it easy & do 1 fish pie & one posh shepherds pie! (saves too much messing about, oven same heat, same veggies, etc......

Margot

Very true....like the idea of being "posh" lol...also simple, easy and quick...leaves more time for my speciality of getting pudding ready....

a quick and easy one that always goes down well is Corriander Chicken. I find I can pop it in oven and forget about it. I'll PM recipe to you. You can use the same sort of sauce for fish for the vegi - I usually do a starter of Mozarella Cheese, and tomatoes with Balsamic vinegar dressing and some rocket/salad - can be made in advance and popped in fridge. For main course do baby new potatoes (don't need to peel etc), and dress with butter and spring onion before serving, and some roast courgetts and carrots (cut quite chunky and drizzled with olive oil) which you can also pop in oven with chicken.

My dinner party speciality (ok, so it's the only thing I can cook, but no-one else need know :D ) is lamb in a red wine and tomatoe sauce with stellini pasta (tiny rice sized pasta) with diced roasted potatoes.  If you like the sound of this let me know and I will post the recipe.

The good thing with this is that the main dish can be mostly be cooked earlier in the day and just heat up and the potatoes all prepared ready to go in the oven.

Don't tempt me with red wine...had lamb in red wine other night....would like recipies please,

What about nice steaks. Diane sauce or something with plenty of steamed Veggies.. ymmmm

What about beef wellington?  You could then do a vegetarian pastry for your veggie guest?

Its a very special dish you don't get every day, can look very fancy if you take some time over the pastry and preparation and it's easy to do a veggie pastry alternative of some kind.  Impressive too!

OOOOHHHH I had forgotten about a beef welligton....ooohhh I'm tempted...will suggest to parents (who are the ones buying ingreedients) just me who gets to cook!!!!