Buffet suggestions

How about a curry and rice that can be made in large quantities we always found that popular unless there would be problems with keeping it warm.

Take a leaf out of The Bake Off and do vol au vents! There's a good reason why they were so popular...the fillings are infinitely variable and you can store them 'empty' and keep extra filling if more are needed.

A decorative cheese board with garnish of vegetables and fruit always goes down well too.

Tiny bakes potatoes are a good standby for the food allergy brigade...some can be filled to be decorative and other garnishes and fillings can be 'on the side'.

Coronation chicken?

If your considering curry which is a good idea. May I suggest you do an alternative to go with the rice lots of people don't like curry. What as bolognaise sauce too.
Don't forget those good old staples sausage rolls, mini pork pies, cheese straws.

Hi, it has to be a cold buffet, each year we have lunches cooked by the many nationalities in our Church, one of them is from the Asian and Indian members, so curry is not an option.

I am putting a menu together, also using vegetarian dishes. I will do 5 tables of Charcuterie and Cheeses.
Would be a lot of work to make 250 mini pork pies i think, but the sausage rolls are good.
We can't buy pork Pies here except in M&S and that would be very expensive.
Keep throwing ideas at me I get in a bit of a rut sometimes always going back to tried and tested dishes.
I did a Vegan wedding last year which was great and really stretched my repertoire.

Meat loaf would be popular I think. If I want to do something a bit special I have a layer of the minced meat mixture then some strips of chicken breast and another of minced meat.

A platter of cold meats - continental sausages etc, with jars of nice chutney?

Ready puff pastry topped with cheese + other tasty bits and pieces, cut into small bite sized pieces?

Potato salad, unless it is a finger buffet (messy )

Sorry, none of the above very original, but they are easy!

Why not enroll some of the other church members for suggestions.../help

Pakoras/ Samosas. Mini pizza made with cut wraps

Quiche can be made with asian/ african fillings.

However the main binding is egg, to some Indians that is a nono.

Depends how adventurous the congregation is.

Most things can be assembled at home and then transported to the kitchen.

What are allergies? did not exist when I was young, and Im still here

@ Felice.

Sorry sue to this dumb site I cant access your profile.

Enjoy the feast and the company

jollyg there is reason to suspect that many people have allergies now because of the highly-processed foods they were fed when they were younger - myself (50s) included!

I second the plates of cold meats, but was going to suggest mini chicken kebabs on cocktail sticks. Just roasted diced chicken breasts with a grape and a piece of cucumber or a cherry tomato. Bowls of carrot, celery and cucumber fingers with dips.

So many buffets are just a sea of pastry, and can look so bland.

felice you don't have to make 250 of each snack, surely? What I mean is not everyone will eat everything!

I went to a party a few weeks ago where small boiled eggs were capped with small tomatoes cut in half, decorated with a few cream cheese dots (piped on, I asked) and placed on a bed of humus and fine raw broccoli, making the dish look like mushrooms on a lawn, or in a forest. Perhaps a lot of work but very impressive in terms of presentation - everyone was ooh-ing and ah-ing over the dish. I ate about 6, scooping up the "lawn" as a dip.

Hope that all makes sense.

I actually found a photo of the dish (pinched from fb).

That looks very impressive. Are they quails' eggs?

However, I have clumsy fingers, it would end up a complete mess if I tried it! Even shelling the eggs would get me flummoxed!

Someone had done a half salmon with lemon, baked then dressed with cucumber, at a buffet I went to recently.

It looked impressive and was very popular. It could have been this recipe:
realfood.tesco.com/recipes/lemon-dill-and-bay-baked-salmon.html

I think they may be quail's eggs, but I bought 6 "Medium" eggs in error the other day (I usually buy Large) - and they were pretty small

It is fiddly I agree but looks so appetising!

I have made scotch eggs with quails eggs and they were good but fiddly. They always seem to go down well. You could do it using small hens eggs. Medium would probably do as even large eggs seem small to me these days.

Hi it needs to be a 'proper' lunch as it is a very important occasion. Our congregation is very adventurous 67 nationalities at the last count.
When i do a large buffet I do 75% of each item for the numbers coming. There will just be 2 of us doing the prep for this lunch as there are 2 other lunches being prepared that weekend all for more than 100 people. the kitchen is quite well equiped but not that big.We wil get plenty of help to serve and clear up, it is going to be a logistical nightmare as people will come down one set of stairs into the hall get their food and drink(wine mainly!) then go up an outside set of stairs to return to the church to eat in the pews. We can seat 60 in the hall but not for this size of lunch
The Charcuterie tables will have plenty of cold meats and cheeses my SIL is a partner is a Cheese distribution company so thats sorted.
I am looking more for ideas for salads different flavours for Quinoa etc. anything exotic you have had on your travels , something you have had or made which was just a bit different.
I have been trawling through all my recipe books and the internet, on the list on the wall yesterday at the Church we have 9 quiches and 2 greek salads. Perhaps it is just me and i am so used to cooking that I forget most of the people attending will not even have eaten my old faithfuls. it has been great to be able to discuss this on here, we host his event every 7 years it goes to a different congregation on each of the intervening years, it was even held once in Damascus, there are Chuch of Scotlands everywhere!!last year it was in Sri Lanka, so you can imagine we want to impress a bit.
Jane I agree about the pasrty and i think the Quiche will cover that, i like the mini kebabs, a job for the senior Sunday School perhaps, yes they meet in the hall during the service so we cannot even put out the tables until after they are finished. Although the lady who runs it is a good friend so we will come to an arrangement.
And how is this for bizarre, the meeting which the weekend is all about, will close with all the delegates (60) exiting the church coming downstairs standing in a circle and closing the meeting, more like a conga line as i said on Sunday.
Sorry this has been so long, just a bit of background. thanks folks

the catering team at one of my old churches used to do various salads...

pasta, rice, couscous...

doing coleslaw in a food processor?

hummous for vegans. (I make with sesame seeds and water whizzed up in the magimix... as I can not find tahini... flavoured with red onion and garlic.

serve with strips of pitta or vegetables (cucumber is quickest to chop up)

2 of you catering for 100!!

Well, I suppose you have got the bread sussed out already (fills them up!)

Perhaps Jamie can help with some suggestions
www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/category/dishtype/salad/

ahh rose, I was going to suggest Jamie, he does some interesting coleslaws. I was having one of those moments where I could not think of his surname.

200 Rose, i am a professional chef and used to own a catering company before i retired so the numbers are not really a problem. It is more a case of putting out lots of selection, I never thought of Jamie as I am not his greatest fan, will take a look.

Just google 'Jamie' and he is sure to appear, blackeyedSusan

Felice, you have experience, then (the numbers would put me in a panic!)

No the numbers don't phase me, it's just the logistics of this event and knowing we need to impress a bit.
Will google Jamie, he is not really a Chefs chef.

need to clear my head anyway spent the morning trying to buy a new printer online, even DD couldn't get the site we were using to play this morning.
Media mart on Friday with SO I think.