The days before the holidays are full of pleasant troubles: what to cook, what to wear, how to meet guests? The first question is especially relevant, because you always want to surprise guests and family with something tasty and unusual. How to please culinary gourmets for a birthday? There are a lot of dishes that cause appetite alone and delight the eye. We bring to your attention a selection of the most interesting.
Serving hot: what to surprise?
In everyday life, the first hot meal is compulsory food. As for the holidays, not all cook such dishes, since they are considered not particularly solemn. But there are many very interesting recipes for hot dishes. And for your birthday, such dishes can be prepared without any fear that guests will not like some. Next, consider a couple of soups that will be not only useful, but also very tasty and pleasant to look at.
Shrimp Cheese Soup
Hot, very tasty and festive soup, which is beautiful when served. To make a hot birthday meal using this recipe, you will need:
- 3 liters of water;
- cream cheese - 1 package;
- 3 medium potatoes;
- shrimp - 300 grams;
- bulb;
- salt to taste;
- sprigs of parsley.
Cooking:
- Shrimps are boiled until cooked. Cleared of shells (if necessary). If the shrimp are large, then they are cut in half. Little ones are left intact.
- Water is boiled on a stove along with chopped potatoes. By the way, peeled tubers can be cut in half or in three parts, not necessarily in cubes. In the end, everything will turn into mashed potatoes.
- As soon as the potatoes are cooked, grated cheese is sent to the water.
- While the cheese is heated, onion cubes are fried in a pan.
- After that, the contents of the pan are slightly cooled and whipped with a blender, the onions are sent there and whipped again.
- Shrimps are sent to the prepared soup, mixed. A sprig of parsley is placed in each serving plate with soup.
For an effective serving, you can place 3 shrimps with lemon slices on the edge of the soup plate.
Hodgepodge
A hearty hot dish that is quite suitable for a birthday festive table. You will need:
- beef meat;
- pork meat;
- smoked sausage;
- sausages;
- can of olives;
- pickled cucumbers - 4 pcs.;
- potatoes - 2 pcs.;
- lemon - 2 pcs.;
- parsley;
- sour cream.
The amount of meat ingredients is determined taking into account the number of guests and the degree of desired density of the hodgepodge.
Cooking:
- First, boil the meat broth and filter. The meat can be boiled in its entirety, or it can be immediately cut into pieces.
- Once the broth is prepared, cut the meat into small cubes, add the cubes of potatoes. Cook until the last ingredient is cooked.
- Smoked sausage is cut into pieces or sticks. Sausages turn into rings. All these products are laid in a pan.
- The olives are opened, half of the juice from the can is poured into the pan, and the fruits themselves are cut into rings. Lay in the emerging hodgepodge.
- Cucumbers are diced and added to the hodgepodge. A third of the brine is poured into the cooking soup.
- One lemon is cut into slices, juice is squeezed out of another and also sent to the pan. Adjust the amount of juice to taste, so as not to acidify.
- 5 minutes before cooking, chopped parsley is poured into the hodgepodge.
- Serving a hot dish is carried out in beautiful soup plates with the addition of a spoonful of sour cream and lemon wedges.
Second courses for birthday
After the first dish, as usual, the second follows, preferably also hot. We will not deviate from the rules and present to your attention a couple of recipes for delicious second courses. On their birthday, they will be very welcome. In addition, especially “splurge” on such treats will not have to.
Meatloaf stuffed
Ingredients:
- ground beef or pork - 1 kg;
- salt and pepper to taste;
- processed cheese - the amount to taste;
- champignon mushrooms - 200 grams;
- sour cream - 1 tablespoon.
Cooking:
- Stuffing salt and pepper.
- Cheese is cut into cubes.
- Mushrooms are fried until cooked.
- Spread a sheet of foil on a baking sheet. On it lay the minced meat in a layer.
- Cheese and mushrooms are laid out from one side of the bed, and sour cream is distributed.
- The minced meat is wrapped in a roll, covered with foil and sent to the oven to bake at 180 ° C for 40 minutes.
The finished roll is cut into slices and served to the table in a cooled form.
Stuffed Potatoes "In Italian"
The preparation of this dish will require the involvement of many spices, because Italian cuisine is always a piquant and spicy taste.
For 6 servings, you need:
- 3 potato tubers;
- 1 chicken egg;
- onion head - 1 pc.;
- half a lemon;
- small ginger root;
- half hot pepper;
- 2 garlic cloves;
- a third of a teaspoon of dry rosemary;
- 20 grams of dried mushrooms;
- half a teaspoon of turmeric;
- 3 pieces of walnuts;
- 1 nutmeg;
- 3 tablespoons of low-fat sour cream;
- salt to taste;
- a small amount of vegetable oil.
Culinary process:
- Potato tubers are peeled. Each potato is cut in half lengthwise and a boat is made from each half, cutting out the core. These cores are finely chopped or grated.
- Peel the ginger root and cut into thin slices.
- Hot peppers are chopped.
- Dice the onion.
- Walnuts are crushed.
- Water is boiled on the stove, into which dried mushrooms, garlic, citrus juice, rosemary and salt are sent. Mushrooms are cooked until half cooked, removed from the marinade and chopped.
- Mushrooms, walnuts, chopped chili and potatoes are combined in a separate bowl. Add turmeric and egg. Mixed.
- Ready stuffed fill each slice of potatoes.
- The prepared heat-resistant form is greased with oil and the stuffed potatoes are laid out in it. A small amount of sour cream is placed on each slice.
- Milled nutmeg is still sprinkled on top of sour cream.
- Send the dish to bake for half an hour at 200 ° C. If the potatoes are large, then the baking time is extended.
- The finished dish is served still steaming, sprinkled with chopped parsley or rings of green onions.
Salads
What to cook for a birthday from salads? These dishes are bright, light, very appetizing. Not a single feast is without them. Here is an example of one great recipe.
Birthday Salad
Products:
- 2 pieces of chicken fillet;
- 3 eggs;
- sweet and sour apple - 1 fruit;
- 2 fresh cucumbers;
- mayonnaise to taste;
- citrus juice;
- 3 tomatoes;
- salt.
Preparing a salad is simple, but it turns out delicious.
- The eggs are boiled, and the chicken is fried until golden brown. Spread the meat on a paper towel to stack excess fat.
- Cucumbers and apple peel.
- The meat is crushed into cubes or fibers.
- Grind the eggs.
- The apple is cut into cubes and sprinkled with lemon juice.
- Cucumber flesh is cut into thin, but not long straws.
- All ingredients are mixed, salted and seasoned with mayonnaise, focusing on taste.
- Tomatoes cut into circles and decorate them and greens cooked salad.
No meat anywhere!
Meat and meat dishes are an indispensable component of the festive table, and birthday in this case is no exception.
Ruddy Pork Ham
Products:
- kilogram of pork neck;
- mustard and mayonnaise - to taste;
- garlic cloves - 5 pieces.
Cooking process:
- The meat is washed and dried.
- Mustard is mixed with mayonnaise and this piece is generously lubricated with a piece. Cover with cellophane and put on the shelf of the refrigerator for 2 hours.
- After the meat is marinated, it is taken out and pierced with a knife in several places. Garlic cloves peeled from husks are inserted into several holes.
- Prepared meat is wrapped with foil and placed in a convenient heat-resistant form.
- Sent in the oven for 1 hour at a temperature of 200 ° C.
- If necessary, bake the meat.
- The finished dish is removed from the foil and cut into medium slices.
- Meat can be served hot or cold.
Such a delicious meat dish for a birthday is served on a plate with lined vegetables.
Snacks and Sandwiches
What dishes to surprise for a birthday? Snacks and sandwiches! It is such small culinary delights that can be prepared from almost everything you want. And serving can be all kinds of.
Next, we present a couple of proven recipes for holiday dishes. For birthday, you can serve, for example, chicken in bacon. Unusual and tasty!
To prepare a hearty snack you will need:
- a couple of bird fillets (chicken or turkey);
- sliced smoked bacon - 300 grams (take it sliced, it will be more convenient to wrap);
- cooking oil.
Preparing the appetizer as follows:
- The chicken fillet is washed, dried and cut - first along, and then across to pieces.
- Each piece must be wrapped in bacon and fry on both sides in a pan.
- You can serve by decorating with lemon slices.
Without sandwiches, there’s nothing on the birthday table, so here’s a simple recipe.
Products:
- loaf slicing;
- processed cheese;
- fresh cucumber;
- slightly salted salmon;
- lemon;
- mayonnaise;
- black olives.
Cream cheese is grated and mixed with mayonnaise. Then a sandwich is formed: a cheese-mayonnaise mixture is spread on a piece of bread, a slice of cucumber, salmon, a slice of lemon and three slices of olives are placed on top.
Original birthday dish
Simple and at the same time, you can originally serve a snack called "Bacon Roses" on the table.
To do this, buy slices of smoked bacon, toothpicks and bamboo skewers. A slice of bacon is laid out, slightly bent the bottom edge and rolled up. The finished "bud" is fixed with a toothpick and sent to bake for 15 minutes at 200 ° C. Each finished bud is put on skewers, decorated with green leaves and inserted into a vase, like a bouquet. It will turn out a very colorful and tasty dish. For a birthday, such a treat will be very handy.
Homemade cake
Now it has become fashionable to order cakes for the holidays from master confectioners. But this does not mean that the purchased products completely replaced the home ones. In addition, you can decorate a homemade cake so that it will be no worse than a professionally prepared one.
So, now rustic cakes are very popular . Moreover, such a dessert will be appropriate not only at the wedding, but also at the birthday. Fashionable, relevant and tasty - what more could you want? And cooking it is not very difficult.
The set of ingredients for the holiday cake is as follows:
- 300 grams of flour;
- a teaspoon of baking powder;
- 2 eggs;
- 200 ml of milk;
- 100 grams of honey;
- 100 grams of sugar;
- 120 grams of butter for cakes and 100 grams for cream;
- 100 ml cream;
- a teaspoon of cinnamon;
- ground ginger - a small spoon;
- a small portion of ground nutmeg;
- 200 grams of curd cheese;
- 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar;
- vanillin - half a teaspoon;
- fresh strawberries.
Cooking will take some time, but the end result will delight everyone. And yes, cake baking should be done in molds.
- First, in a deep bowl combine flour, baking powder, ground ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. All mixed to a single friable mixture.
- In another bowl, beat eggs with sugar. The mixing process should take several minutes until the mixture increases in volume and becomes a homogeneous consistency.
- Melt 120 grams of butter in a water bath, cool, and then add cream and milk to it in the quantities indicated in the recipe.
- Now in the egg-sugar mixture add the friable mass, mix, and then add the liquid from butter, cream and milk. All beat with a mixer.
- 100 grams of honey are sent into the whipped mixture and mixed again.
- The selected baking dish (round) is greased with a piece of the remaining butter and sprinkled with flour a little. Or you can cover the bottom with parchment paper. Pour 1/3 of the test of the total mass.
- Preheat the oven to 180 ° C, send the dough into it and bake for 30 minutes.
- If the total mass of the dough is correctly divided into 3 parts, then each cake will turn out to be 1.5-2 cm high.
- Cakes are allowed to cool. Meanwhile, a cream for the cake is being prepared. The main condition for cooking is cold curd cream and soft (but not liquid) butter. Therefore, you need to keep the purchased cheese overnight in the refrigerator, and put the butter a couple of hours before cooking on the table. You should not ignore these conditions, because otherwise you will not get a gentle, soft cream.
- In a bowl combine curd cheese, icing sugar and butter. And first, for the best end result, beat the butter with powder, and then introduce the cheese. Beat until smooth.
- In cooled cakes, the tip is carefully cut off with a thin layer.
- The cream is placed in a confectionery syringe for convenience.
- Cream is squeezed onto each cake in a spiral. And you don’t need to skimp on the cream, even if its remnants fall out over the edge.
- Do the procedure with all the cakes, spread the cream on top of the last and smooth it. The cream flowing from under the lower cakes is spread on the sides of the cake with a pastry spatula or a simple spoon. You can try to gently smooth the cream, but you can do it carelessly. Rustic style is not capricious in this matter.
- On the topmost cake, flavored with cream, spread fresh washed strawberries.
Serving food
The decoration of the dishes (for the birthday you are going to serve them or for another celebration - it does not matter) also plays an important role. But if you don’t have time to puzzle over creative, then use simple tips:
- For beauty, put each dish (with the exception of soups) on a plate covered with a leaf of salad.
- Decorate meat and meat dishes with whole washed vegetables and herbs.
- The finished dish can be laid out on a plate with the ingredients that went into its preparation. For example: peas of peppers, handfuls of spices, a whole chili pepper, slices of unpeeled garlic, etc. are laid next to the prepared meat. Stylish and beautiful.
What else can surprise guests?
You can surprise your guests with drinks. In addition to alcohol, which is set based on the preferences of the guests, you can make homemade juices and soft drinks. They are cooled or ice cubes and pieces of lemon or orange are added to the carafe. Both beautiful and tasty. Want to pamper your guests with homemade lemonade? Write down the recipe! Hearty, high-calorie dishes are served for a birthday; after their consumption, guests will certainly be thirsty, so a light refreshing drink will not hurt.
Preparing orange lemonade from 1 orange, 3 liters of water and sugar. Citrus is removed for the night in the freezer. Pull out and grate. Fill the pulp with water. Filter and serve in a decanter.
Conclusion
Today, preparing for the celebration will not be difficult, the main thing is to get assistants. And also - find interesting recipes. A variety of dishes are prepared for a birthday, their choice is very wide, and the presented in our article is only a fraction of the rich culinary diversity that allows prudent hostesses to pamper guests with delicious delights. It is not necessary to master the haute cuisine. Even simple, at first glance, dishes can be nutritious, and tasty, and healthy. Good luck!