Need Menu Help ASAP! Lamb & ???

[ErinB]

I need all of my gourmande ladies to help me out! I have a client that does a monthly dinner party for the company board meeting at her home. This is a super fancy $150+ per person meal. (Too bad a lot of that goes to service and top shelf liquor...)

 

Anyway, I've been developing a proposal for the coming fiscal year and now have chef's block! LOL

 

I have 5 each of Meat, Poultry, and Seafood 4 course dinners. That's a lot of damn food with no repeats! This doesn't count her appetizer, custom cocktails, or wine pairings for each menu.

 

I need to know what to pair with lamb. I never eat it and rarely serve it.

 

So far I have:

 

Bibb Lettuce Salad

Lamb Chop with Pomegranate Reduction

Apricot-Date Couscous

Spinach Stuffed Portabella Mushroom Caps

 

I need suggestions for another vegetable, bread, and dessert.

 

It is not easy to be on a diet and coming up with menus for fattening party foods! I love to do this type of cooking so I have been pouring over recipes all day! It's the most productive day I've had at work in a long time!

[Maura]

for a bread, what about a soft rosemary focaccia? rosemary & thyme both pair well with lamb.

 

as for vegetable, what part of the year are you serving the lamb dish? i could give you some better suggestions for veggies based on the month you're serving it (taking into consideration what's in season).

[ErinB]

Any vegetable really. She just wants a years worth of menus she can pick and choose from. When it is closer to menu deciding time I can steer her towards or away from a praticular one if seasonality is an issue

[becks]

I made a wonderful broiled peach stuffed with chopped pistachio and biscotti bits the other night. It's light enough to go with lamb and would carry over nicely from the pomegranate/apricot you have in the main meal.

 

For vegetables with lamb, what about a simple asparagus with chopped bell pepper?

[stacey]

To pair with the lamb, for a vegi I would do those small carrots, not baby parrots but they look like a realy carrot, only there about 1.5 inch long. And I would serve the lamb over a polenta infused with black truffle oil.

[ErinB]

Great idea about peaches. I can do a Peche Melba.

 

I love to serve asapragus but I have it on 2 other menus. I've got most of the basics covered--green beans, peas, beets, broccoli, rabini, etc.

 

She likes each menu to be completely different so the guests don't have the same thing each month. (Like any of them remember!)

 

Coming up with 15 different vegetables to match the entree and starch is a lot harder than it sounds!

[tvt]

wow you ladies are good!

 

i was just going to say asparagus! not that i know what goes with lamb, but asparagus is always a good choice

[MikkiStreak]

I gotta admit, my favorite pairing for lamb is a white bean flan or maybe a wild mushroom & rosemary flan...

[becks]

How about a grilled zucchini?

 

Or cauliflower in beschamel?