Dinner Party Dishes

Hey everyone, I'm back with a post about all the dishes I cooked and recreated for a recent dinner party. I made several dishes for appetisers, entrées, drinks and dessert to serve 5 people - it was quite a challenge! Everyone loved the meal and were stuffed full by the end of the night; I mostly cooked recipes which I have previously posted about (and I'll link them in), but for the few new recipes I tried, I'll post them in subsequent weeks with photos of the process. Anyways, here's what the night's menu looked like:

Appetisers: Guacamole & corn chips

For appetisers, I made guacamole dip served with corn chips just as a fresh yummy snack to begin the dinner. It was super easy to make and I recommend making it as close to the dinner (time) as possible, so everything retains its freshness and bright colours. The guacamole itself tasted amazing and was very likely my favourite dish for the night, it's an added plus that it's inexpensive to make as well! Compared to my previous try at guacamole, this time round's was less sour (less lime juice) but still totally flavoursome.

Appetisers: Sweet corn fritters/savoury pancakes

Another appetiser I made were some savoury pancakes that I recreated from the sweetcorn & chive fritters recipe, this time 'round, I didn't use chives and used less oil so that instead of a crispy crunch, the texture of the fritters were more pancake like. I also added in some cumin into the batter, which made the pancake/fritters take on a more savoury twist - it also complemented the sweetness of the corn very well!

Entrées (main): Thai green curry

As for the main meal, I opted to go for a thai green curry - something which I think can really appeal to anyone, even picky eaters! I followed the recipe I posted a few weeks ago and obviously decreased the amounts for serving less people. It is a pretty simple dish that you can prepare a few hours earlier and heat up on the stove when it's time for dinner. I forgot to take an individual photo for this one (sorry!), so I'll leave you with a pic from my first time cooking it (looks almost identical). 

Sides: Garlic potato mash

A side dish that I made came from the idea of garlic potato circles that I did quite a long time ago. I wanted to make a panfried garlic potato dish that had the same flavours from that recipe, just with the potatoes in a different colour and shape. The new method involved boiling the potatoes for a few minutes (until they were just soft), except once it reached that stage, I left them in the saucepan for a while (I was making something else), which caused them to overcook and become a crumbled mess. It ended up looking like a roughly mashed potato mass (still tasted delicious though!), a bit of an aesthetic fail! Nevertheless, my guests/family were very nice about it (perhaps avoiding it a little still). It was very colourful and tasted great - also very filling.

Dessert: Nutella ice cream slice 

And finally for dessert, I made a rich Nutella ice cream slice, which I'll post the recipe for next week. It was such a tasty end to the dinner and so refreshing with it's coldness. Thankfully, this recipe can be prepared the night before (in fact, you should make it the night before to ensure it freezes completely) saving you some time from the frenzy of cooking other dishes. I also gave them an extra drizzle of chocolate for those who were feeling extra chocolatey.

Dessert: Fruit skewers drizzled in chocolate

I prepared a simple and somewhat healthy dessert/snack that looks so colourful and is very tasty (like all fruit is); a nice touch to end the whole dinner party. A very easy recipe that I can post up if anyone is interested. 

Drinks: Fruity infused water

For drinks I would've liked to go with a recipe I've tried before, except the only one that I had tried was an avocado shake - a drink too thick to help 'wash down' the other yummy dishes - and lemonade - something that I thought was a bit too simple. I also didn't want to just give everyone soft drink, juice or plain ol' boring water, so I made fruit infused water! I infused the water in strawberries, lime, cucumber and mint for a few hours in the fridge and served with ice, fresh mint and cucumber slices. Super refreshing and pretty too!

Here are some other photos from the night:

Most of the dishes for the night in one shot (don't mind the silver plate or soup - made by family, not moi)

Want your drink a little sweeter, add some sprite/lemonade flavoured soft drink, voilà!

Mmm ice cream...

The fruits I used for the skewers were pear, banana, strawberries, oranges and apple!

Overall the dinner party was mostly a success and much more well-received than I anticipated! A great experience of cooking numerous dishes in one night/day and a fun night with everybody. Thanks for reading!

- C