[Radical Edward]

I guess this is all over now, but I will make a few criticisms which I hope you find useful in future (I do alot of this entertaining thing)

Originally Posted by Yahwe

This thread does exactly what it says on the tin!

Now

1. Pre-Food Nibbles

Fizz and caviar, caviar is served on blinis with sour cream and optional lemon wedges

no too bad, though I don't bother with pre-food nibbles.

2. Starter

A thick onion soup, with red peppers, chili, and paprika. I'm serving this in individual hollowed out round granary rolls. inside the roll i'm putting strips of flash fried lambs liver then pouring the soup over and serving.

served with a good robust 2000 Chianti which should compliment the chilli

while the Chianti is fine for the chilli (I commend you on your choice of vintage by the way. 1997, 1999 and 2000 are all rather good. must be the global warming) and even the soup as a whole, in general it is best to beware of strong flavours as a starter, unless the rest of the meal is even stronger, in order to avoid overloading the pallete. one option if you really want to do this, is to serve a refresher inbetween the two, something like a light lemon or melon sorbet would go down really well here. It doesn't have to be big, just freshen the mouth up after all that liver, onion and red wine. Also bear in mind that it is summer, something like that could be a bit heavy - though I am thinking European weather here, it is probably crap and miserable in the UK.

3. Main Course

A nice Roast Chicken, stuffed with sausage meat and bramley apple (involves me getting my hands messy ), buttered under the breast skin to give a nice golden crisp skin.
Potatoes nd good thick carrots roasted in goose fat
Steamed just harvested broccoli (i'm in a bit of a broccoli phase atm)
with a rich gravy obviously

now. i'm serving this with quite a light flowery white burgundy.

how did you do the gravy? and as for the potatoes, I hope you remembered to boil them first. best way to roast potatoes is to boil them, then empty out the water and shake the pan a bit to roughen up the edges, salt them and cover them in fat and put them in the oven.

4. Pudding

Fresh English strawberries with jersey cream and on little home made meringues (which come to think of it i should start preparing ...)

served with a sauterne

not too bad. I did something fairly similar this very weekend. a shortbread base, with meringue around the edge to make the lip, dotted with flaked almonds, and filled with whipped cream and strawberries. Sadly I can't get good cream here. the supermarkets don't do anything more sophisticated than "schlagsahne"

5. Cheese

I never eat cheese so i just got some stilton, some goats cheese and a hard sheep cheese i would have to go look at to remember what it's called.

obviously port

of course, this is a bit better, getting the stronger flavours towards the end.

Now

One of my guests has just broken up with a girlfriend of 2 years and i am terribly fond of him, so i tailored the menu to be simple, homely and comforting.

I want you all to reassure me that this is a good warming comforting meal.

in general it is good, though I would have put a sorbet between the starter and main course, and tried to avoid so many strong things, especially since it is summer. nice choice with the Chianti, though I would have had a heavier wine with the main course, and I hope you did those potatoes properly. 8/10, just from the text anyway.