Mixed vegetarian/meat eater prom dinner...

Hey ho!

I am working on a menu for my kid’s prom night dinner. We have 5-6 prom couples come over for prom dinner and make food/juice pairings (they are 17/18.)

Two guests are vegetarian, but eat egg/dairy, just no flesh. So, I am going for a meat and non-meat fiesta that makes the vegetarians feel like they were considered and not an afterthought. (Having cheese and egg options is a life saver, for me.)

I am looking for further suggestions.

Tentative plan:

Appetizers:

Cheese

What else?

Would deviled eggs be a good pick?

Musubi

Mains:

(Small plates of several dishes)

Fettuccine Alfredo (I will make the sauce) and butter poached colossal shrimp that can be added on top of the pasta and keep the pasta ‘flesh free.’ Accompanied by carbonated blood Orange juice?

Stir fried chopped vegetable medley with ginger, rice wine vinegar, spicy sesame oil, lemon grass, touch of soy sauce. On the side, thin sliced beef, quickly wok cooked with ginger, lemon grass. Accompanied by 3 small tastes of different Bruce Cost brand ginger ales.

Chickpea, pea, carrot, apricot, date, parsley, herbs from tagine (lots of saffron.) Would tangerine juice match well?

From Flannery’s perfectly timed sale…New York steak from sous vide at 128 degrees. For the vegetarians, big ol’ portabello cap sauteed in butter. What juice?

If anybody has fun ideas, I am flexible. I want it to be special and make a nice juice pairing! Is there enough for the vegetarians to feel engaged?

For apps I would add some type of olive dish and/or an assortment of pickles. I love deviled eggs so wouldn’t pass on those. For the portabello dish I would go the route of the grilled king oyster mushrooms I’ve been doing lately (see what did you cook tonight thread for the deets). I’d also add some charred cruciferous veg (charred broccolini with garlic, chili flakes, parsley, pan fried large bread crumbs, red wine vinegar and olive oil) or a potato dish to that course or combine that course with the chickpea course to have a more balanced plate. What’s for dessert? Sounds like fun!

I would pick a theme and stick to it. Italian, Asian, Moroccan all together is kind of weird. Personally, I think deviled eggs are disgusting. I’m guessing not a lot of teens would eat them, as they’re kind of old-fashioned.

Hmm. Count this millennial in the disgusting old-fashioned food circle lol. I do agree to keeping the overall food theme a little more specific but can see the variety being fun. Are 18 year old kids going to care or even notice that there isn’t a specific theme? They’re basically like a giant swarm of locusts that will eat anything and everything you put in front of them. At least that was me at that age.

Thanks for being a sounding board!

I will work on the menu more!

Do you mean the people, or the food?

A Spanish “tortilla español” (potato and onion omelette is always good and filling.

I think it’ll be hard to stir fry 10-12 portions and not have them steam. I’d roast the vegetables or do some other prep which can hold better while you bring everything else together.

I also try not to serve giant hunks of meat when vegetarians are dining with me. Some of them might be ethically vegetarian and it would set the mood off. Why not just make the meal vegetarian?

Middle Eastern food (hummus, taboulli, baba ganouj) make great appetizers.

Stuffed mushrooms are another good mixed option, you can stuff them two ways.

Deviled eggs - at least here in Chicago - have made a comeback with variations popular…one restaurant adds a touch of truffle oil (which I normally do not use but works in this case) and a little fried trumpet mushroom garnish, another does a mixed egg yolk and potato salad for the filling … could be fun to offer variety and gives your vegetarians some good protein.

I greatly appreciate the ideas.

Hummus!

I am streamlining the menu.

We did this last year and several kids are looking forward to the steak, so I feel compelled to keep it.

Hummus with veggies to dip, deviled eggs, musubi, cheeses, mushroom caps…so only the musubi will be non-acceptable for our vegetarian eaters. Y’all’s imaginations are great!

Still working on the mains. The points about a more unified theme were thoughtful. I’m keeping the tagine dish, maybe some saffron rice, maybe some mango/cucumber/plain yogurt over cous cous or quinoa?

Dessert: One of the kid’s mom will be baking some desserts and I will make ice cream and have fresh berries. (My son is yet to pick the ice cream flavors he wants. I love turning people on to home made ice cream.)

Again, many thanks, it’s kind of a puzzle!

Make your own taco or pizza assembly line?

I’d make the deviled eggs Mexican (swap out half the yolks for avocado, cut down the mayo)

See post 44 in this thread

Agree that there are too many themes… if staying in the Italian vein… Fettuccini and then roasted vegetables…

Then beef / Portobellos

Thanks!

You are right about the theme, I am heading toward a more Moroccan style meal.

For people my age, deviled eggs are old-fashioned. I guess it’s the circle of life. And I would like to think you wouldn’t find my mother’s deviled eggs disgusting.

FWIW - I have served the Mexican deviled eggs 2x… Once at my running club’s picnic (mostly young and health conscious) and once at a Yom Kippur fast break (first food they had in 24 hours). Wildly popular both times

Pomegranates and oysters.

…and Viagra.

At their age, Viagra would be redundant!

I want to thank people for the great advice!

Kept a theme…after the appetizers.

Appy:

Sauteed mushroom caps with Brillat-Savarin. (I made a plate and at each corner placed one cap with Cheese Wiz topping - they went untouched. It was like sneaking a pill into the dog’s food and coming back to an empty plate with only the pill left in it.)

Deviled eggs. (Mayo, egg yolk, paprika, small amount of chipotle pepper powder, whole seed mustard, topped with half a martini olve and one drop of Oregon black truffle oil.) Made 24 and they were gone in 3 minutes.

Cowgirl Creamery Red Hawk and Murray’s Cavemaster Reserve Cornelia wedges with sliced baguettes.

Spam and mango musubi, nori wrapped. Also gone quickly.

Hummus made with lemon and La Kama.

(All but the musubi were vegetarian approved.)

Mains:

Mango/cucumber/yogurt (mixed together a day ahead of time to meld flavors) served over quinoa (instead of cous cous so as to avoid gluten.) Served with orange blossom syrup, simple syrup, and seltzer water ‘sodas.’

Chick pea, carrot, date, apricot, English Pea, parsley Tagine with La Kama Moroccan spice. (Served with home made rose flavored soda.)

Chopped/shredded kale, broccoli, cabbage, carrot stir fried with dried cherries, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, fine bits of dried apricot…wok’d in a touch of sesame oil (hot and regular,) Ras el hanout, and a splash of soy sauce for salt. Served with hibiscus syrup, simple syrup, and seltezer ‘sodas.’

Thin sliced lamb wok’d for about 30 seconds with berbere powder and a touch of ginger. For the vegetarian, some tofu sofritas with the same spice profile. Served with a flight of three different ginger sodas.

Sous Vide Flannery’s California Reserve New York, 128 degrees for 4 hours, then seared and sprinkled with scant salt and the smallest amount of harissa possible. (For the vegetarian, a portobella cap sauteed and then sprinkled with the same salt and harissa.) Served with blood orange juice, blood orange extract, simple syrup, seltzer water.

Dessert:

One of the moms made a chocolate cherry bundt cake with cherry syrup, I added home made vanilla/lavender ice cream and ‘house-invented’ root beer ice cream (with vanilla notes.) Served with Henry Weinhardt’s Vanilla Cream Soda with lavender bitters stirred in.

I only took pics of the first part because then I got too busy…

(Good news, the yogurt bowl made it into a pic!)

A sincere thank you for the great advice y’all provided. I know that many times on the forums, people ask a question and we never get feedback, but I took your advice to heart and am very grateful!
(The wine in the pic was Myriad 2012 Dr. Crane cab.)