Cook stress-free for guests - how it works!
No experiments!
Play it safe - cook only dishes that you know will succeed. Not a good idea: try complicated new recipes on the guests - this only adds unnecessary stress.
Choose suitable dishes
Nobody would like to celebrate with hosts who come out of the kitchen completely harried. Refrain from dishes that bind you to the stove all evening. Choose something that you can prepare well the day before or even earlier. Then you also have something of the evening and your guests.
Watch out for quantities
Especially with roasts and other meat dishes, the amounts given in the recipe can not be easily converted for more or less people - then it can easily happen that the roast dries or floats in too much liquid.
Prepare dishes as early as possible
Think about what should be available in good time and make a note of when it can best be prepared - the day before, in the morning or à la minute. Gratin, braised meat or veal stew, for example, cook well the day before and only need to be warmed up later. Also mousse, creams or brawn already one, two days before cook - and always with an extra test portion. If the brawn does not set, or the mousse does not crash, you still have a time buffer and can try again (or choose a simpler alternative).
If you have time in the morning, you can, for example, prepare the salad (spin dry and store it in a freezer bag in the fridge) and clean the vegetables.
Think about alternatives
If you have never made a mayonnaise yourself, you should not start with it when visiting. If so, then a glass of ready-made mayonnaise in the refrigerator is recommended as an emergency substitute. The same goes for hollandaise sauce - if the homemade sauce goes awry, do it out of the bag too.
Have emergency food ready
Something goes wrong in the kitchen and you need more time? In this case, you should have a plate of trifles in the hindquarters. Crackers, salad or salmon snacks as a greeting from the kitchen shorten the waiting time.
Check dishes and glasses beforehand
Do you have enough glasses for the aperitif? Are the soup plates enough for everyone? Before you check whether you have enough dishes - then you can buy the missing champagne glasses in time or borrow from the neighbor.
