The home straight!

Now for the pork …

This dish is perfect for slow cooking and ideal to cook ahead for a dinner party.

Slow cooked pork loin steaks with

Calvados cream sauce

600g/1lb 5oz pork loin steaks – 6 steaks, trimmed

glug of rapeseed/Canola oil

salt and black pepper

generous sprinkle of dried herbs – sage or

thyme

2 tsps of garlic paste – optional

500ml/1 pint approx vegetable stock – use a stock pot if you're

not using your own stock

Heat the oil in a large frying pan until hot. Seal the loin steaks on both sides, add salt and black pepper, garlic and herbs. Set aside the steaks in the slow cooker then add your stock to the residual juices in the frying pan, bring to the boil, pour over the steaks and slow cook for 3 hours.

At the end of the cooking time remove the pork steaks from the stock and set aside, covered, to cool.

Pass the stock through a sieve and set aside, covered, to cool.

Fridge the steaks and the stock.

Now for the Calvados cream sauce!

Once again you can make the sauce ahead, leaving only the last step – adding the cream and the pork steaks and gently warming through, 20 minutes into the 30 minute finish time, on your hob, in a large frying pan.

I made my “base sauce” in a small saucepan which is much easier, when cooled, to fridge.

You'll need approximately 200ml of stock from the cooked pork steaks which you've already strained. Freeze the remainder of the stock.

Calvados cream sauce

15g/¾ oz unsalted butter

15g/¾ oz plain flour

1 tsp garlic paste or 1 clove, crushed

glug of Calvados

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

200ml/7 fl oz stock

300ml/½ pint/10 fl oz double cream

salt and black pepper

Melt the butter, take the pan off the heat, add the flour and whisk. Return to the heat and cook out the flour for 2/3 mins, stirring continuously – add the garlic paste and mustard and then, on a high heat, add the Calvados and cook for 1-2 mins. Add the cold stock straight into the sauce and whisk until smooth, then cook on a low heat for 10 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper.

At this point cover and set aside to cool, then fridge.

On the evening, tip the base sauce – carefully – into a large frying pan - whisk and warm gently - add the cream and simmer for 5 minutes then add the pork steaks – simmer gently for 20 minutes as mentioned above.

P.s. Calvados is an apple brandy produced in Normandy, France.

Pp.s. Just in case you needed “glug” defining – about two tablespoons.

Appetiser up next!

On the night – the appetiser

I mentioned right at the start that I wanted to spend as much time as possible with my guests. The sure fire way that I can is to choose dishes that I know work and that my guests will enjoy.

I also said that the only dish to be cooked from scratch on the night is the appetiser, which is why I chose the following recipe. I've served this dish three times now and it has never let me down, in fact it has very been well received - so - stick with what you know!

Scallops and king prawns in black bean sauce

for 5 as a starter

3 scallops per person (defrost from frozen)

5 cooked king prawns per person (defrost from frozen)

drop of rapeseed oil

salt and black pepper

Romano peppers – one orange, one

yellow, de-seeded and finely chopped to a similar

size

1 bunch of spring onions, finely chopped

200g black bean sauce – make your own

or buy a good quality ready-made

This is a dish that you pull from your freezer – the scallops and the king prawns and from your pantry/store cupboard - the black bean sauce.

You need to remember to take the scallops and king prawns out of the freezer the night before and fridge them. Make sure you drain any liquid and pat dry with kitchen roll before cooking.

I always use the clock face method when cooking scallops – heating the rapeseed oil until hot and beginning at 12 o'clock and forming an outer circle in your pan, sealing and seasoning with salt and black pepper. When you return to where you began turn each scallop again to seal on the other side. Set them aside on a baking sheet and cover with foil.

Stir fry the peppers and onions for 2/3 minutes, then add the king prawns, season and toss together for 2 minutes to warm the prawns through, add the scallops and the black bean sauce tossing to cover thoroughly. Serve immediately in small bowls with small flat breads to mop up the sauce.

My final tip – prep the peppers and onions ahead then bag and fridge!

Last up – pudding …

The Dinner Party Pudding – the finishing line!

I chose the following pudding because it ticks all the boxes. It's delicious, it looks amazing and three of the four elements I made ahead – boom!

My pudding is Gateau a l'Orange - Orange Cake if you prefer. Despite its French title it's actually Jewish.

2 oranges

6 eggs

250g sugar

2 tbsp orange blossom water

1 tsp baking powder

250g ground almonds

Wash the oranges and boil them whole for 1 – 1 ½ hours or until they are very soft.

Beat the eggs with the sugar. Add the orange blossom water, baking powder and almonds and mix well. *Cut open the oranges, remove the pips and purée in a food processor. Mix thoroughly with the egg and almond mixture and pour into a 23cm cake tin – lined with baking parchment, preferably non-stick and with a removable base. Bake in a pre-heated oven 190c/170fan/Gas 5 for an hour. Let it cool before turning out.

What put me off baking this cake was the boiling of the oranges so to bring it up to date - instead of boiling the oranges, microwave them for 8 minutes on high. I used 3 medium sized oranges (as a guide 67-74mm) and turned after 4 minutes. Make sure your fruits are in a covered vented microwave container. Continue with the recipe at *.

The Orange Cake is moist – moist is good but, to use the northern vernacular, it can be claggy. This calls for “drizzle” to serve with so here's my orange syrup (or drizzle if you prefer).

Orange Syrup

200g icing sugar

250ml orange juice (no bits)

Put the sugar and orange juice in a small saucepan and heat gently so that the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and simmer on a low heat for 10 minutes.

You'll then have a syrupy drizzle ready to dress your cake.

I made a vanilla ice cream ahead so the final pudding would be a slice of gateau a generous drizzle of orange syrup and a scoop of ice cream on the side. Ordinarily that would be enough, however, I chose to top the gateau with a small scoop of clotted cream. I wanted to showcase a quintessentially English tradition which I thought lent itself to the pudding – a pudding should after all be an indulgence it was also an opportunity to serve an ingredient that I thought my American guests had never tasted – flying the flag as it were!

My favourite cake – the photo guide

Take it from someone who doesn't “do cake” - this is the exception.

The final bonus – it freezes!

Coming next … the aim of this game and then the verdict!

The aim of this entertaining game …

… and more hints and tips.

Make it easy on yourself. The purpose of sharing my dinner party has been to show what you can do ahead of the game.

The more thinking and planning you can do, before you even begin to cook, the better. You need to decide on a menu that is balanced. As an example, a small bowl of deliciousness packed with flavour and texture as an appetiser gets the show on the road. It should not be too large, you don't want to overload your guests.

I mentioned choosing serving dishes earlier and using your small oven as a warming drawer – now both come into their own. Serving vegetables in bowls at the table gives your guests a choice and they are far more likely to take a small portion of something they like the look of but ordinarily wouldn't eat. It also takes the pressure off when you know that your vegetables are all served at the same time, hot and in warmed dishes. I loaded a tray with my five bowls – quick and easy to transport to the table.

The Chestnut and Apple roast is also served straight from the oven in its attractive dish oh – don't forget a jug of caramelised onion gravy to serve with the veggie roast!

Plate the main for each meat eating guest adding a jug of extra sauce on the table.

After an appropriate rest and table clearing the pudding can be plated – either at the table or in your kitchen, whichever you prefer. Hopefully you should get a wow reaction from your guests if you're brave enough to serve it at the table. Note to self, remember to take the ice cream from the freezer before you sit down for your main, if you don't it'll take ages to soften and delay your pudding.

Finally, making sure your guests are replete and relaxed with their drinks topped up, pour yourself a large one – you deserve it!

The verdict … and the definition of success!

The Chestnut and Apple roast - the vegetarian option – was also very well received and, believe it or not, my American vegetarian friend had never had a “nut roast”. To say that Rox loved it is an understatement. The other guests tried it too – this has happened before, the vegetarian option turns out to be as much of a success as the meat option.

My definition of success is when meat eaters ask for a recipe and a “doggy bag” of the vegetarian roast to take home. At this point I did divulge my other secret. The roast is yummy on a sandwich, veggie style with a home-made mayo et al, add chicken or turkey for those that like.

Two days later … here's a snippet from the delightful thank you card …

“...Thank you so much for inviting us into your home and being such gracious hosts. You really outdid yourself with everything. Gracey and I are still marvelling at the variety and flavours of the dishes. I've had numerous accounts of the pork melting in her mouth. Nut roast was on the pub menu but we decided not to have it because we knew it couldn't be as good as yours ...”.

How great is it to read how much guests have enjoyed themselves and that all the hard work was worth every second – of course they could just be polite but somehow the empty plates and requests for recipes told a different story.

It's Thanksgiving in November and the recipes will be winging their way to the USA soon – who knows, may be the Chestnut and Apple roast might make the menu!

I hope that you'll find the concept of the dinner party useful – you may not like all of it or indeed the menu choices but that's not the point – as I said, the principles you can use to suit your own menu and enable you to enjoy yourself too!