Sweet table for a corporate party. Traditional buffet dishes: what appetizers are suitable? Fragrant ham rolls

Organizing a buffet table for a birthday – the best choice celebration, if you need to ensure informal communication between all participants of the holiday. During the buffet, each of the invited guests will be able to find company and an interlocutor of interest, and the role of the host and hostess is reduced to a relaxed walk among the guests and directing conversations in the right direction.

Arrangement of tables for a birthday buffet.

Tables are arranged at buffets in 2 ways:

1. Along the walls - long and narrow tables are good for this.

2. In the middle of the hall. This method is only suitable for large rooms. In this case, tables can be installed in the form of the letters “P” or “W”

The main criterion for arranging tables is that guests can move freely around the room and choose any treat without interfering with each other.

Organizing a buffet table for a birthday.

As a rule, the buffet menu includes appetizers (cold and hot), main courses, and desserts. Appetizers and main courses are served in small portions “fork-sized” - so that guests do without knives. Salads are served in small portions in tartlets or on toast.

The tables are covered with tablecloths and decorated with low bouquets of flowers and bunches of greenery. In addition to buffet tables, there are usually also special tables for ashtrays, napkins, and used dishes.

When serving, glasses, glasses, and stacks of plates are placed on the tables in groups, and cutlery is placed nearby—snack and dessert forks, snack bars and fruit knives. Vases with fruit and jugs with juices, bottles with mineral and fruit water are placed at equal intervals.

An hour before guests arrive, cold appetizers are served and sliced bread is placed. Side dishes for meals and snacks are served in separate dishes. Sauces are served on the buffet table in gravy boats on appetizer plates, they are placed next to the appetizers or dishes for which they are intended. Next to each appetizer, dish or side dish you need to place utensils for laying them out. Already after the start of the buffet, hot appetizers and second hot courses are placed on the table, and the stacks of plates and cutlery are replenished as necessary.

Dessert is served after the hot dishes. For dessert, ice cream, fruit, sweet canapés, confectionery. Tea or coffee is served with dessert.

Alcoholic drinks You can place them on a common table with labels facing the guests, placing them next to the corresponding glasses and glasses. You can also arrange an impromptu bar counter on separate table. The selection of alcoholic drinks depends mainly on what dishes are on the menu.

Alcoholic drinks for the buffet table.

TO spicy snacks You can serve strong alcohol chilled to 10°C drinks - vodka and bitters, for non-spicy dishes - chilled to 12-14 °C strong wines, for example, port, Madeira or sherry.

Experts recommend serving white table wines with a temperature of about 14°C for seafood appetizers. With meat gastronomic products(ham, sausages), cold roast beef goes well with red table wines room temperature with hot appetizers - strong wines.

Chilled dry and semi-dry white wines at a temperature of 14 degrees are served with second fish courses, as well as hot poultry dishes.

Champagne (dry and semi-dry) is offered with game dishes, and dry red wines heated to 20 degrees are offered with hot meat and game dishes.

To vegetable and mushroom snacks You can offer guests chilled white semi-sweet table drinks, and dessert wines to accompany sweet dishes.

For dessert they offer champagne chilled to 5-8°C, for coffee - cognac, and for tea you can serve sweet liqueur.

Recipes for a buffet table for a birthday.

As mentioned above, it is best to serve dishes on a buffet table that can be eaten without the help of a knife. Such dishes include, for example, sandwiches, canapés, salads and julienne tartlets.

We offer you several recipes. Which can be served at a festive buffet table.

Ingredients for 24 pieces:

loaf 6 slices
boiled peeled shrimp 200 gr
processed soft cheese 3 tbsp. spoons
chili sauce 1 tbsp. spoon
horseradish sauce with vinegar 1 tbsp. spoon
pitted olives 6 pcs.
ground red pepper
parsley

Preparing canapés:

Leave 24 shrimps and decorations, chop the rest finely.
Mix chopped shrimp with cheese, chili sauce, horseradish, and season with pepper.
Cut the olives into rings.
Cut the crusts off the loaf slices, brush the slices with the prepared mixture and cut each into four triangles.
Decorate the finished canapés with shrimp, olives and herbs.

Pepper tartlets.

Ingredients for 16 servings:

Sweet pepper different color 3 pcs.
4 things.
garlic 4 cloves
soft cream cheese 200 gr.
mayonnaise 8 tbsp. spoons
chopped dill greens 4 tbsp. spoons
canned sea cabbage 220 grams
greenery

How to prepare tartlets:

Wash the peppers and, after removing the stems with seeds, cut lengthwise into four parts.
Chop the eggs, garlic and seaweed without filling, add cheese, mayonnaise and dill, mix well.
Place the “rafts” of pepper on a dish, put the prepared mixture with seaweed on each, and decorate with small pieces of pepper and herbs.

More recipes for salads and julienne tartlets.

You are faced with the task of organizing a buffet table, and you don’t know what to cook for the buffet? You are welcome to the thematic section of the site with ideas and delicious recipes for the buffet table. For you I have collected original, tasty and available recipes for the buffet table so you can prepare snacks for the buffet table on a special occasion.

All presented buffet snacks accompanied on the site step by step photos And detailed description preparing the recipe. And it doesn’t matter at all whether you are preparing a buffet table for a wedding, a buffet table at work, or a buffet table for a birthday - buffet menu (recipes with photos) from the site Home Restaurant you will definitely need it.

Look through the buffet appetizers for the festive table (recipes with photos) and you will understand what you can cook buffet dishes at home without special troubles. Thanks to the recipes presented on the site, you can create a menu for the buffet table, and the dishes for the buffet table listed on the site (recipes with photos) will help you make your choice.

Nourishing, tasty and very beautiful - this is all about a wonderful appetizer: profiteroles with liver pate, cheese and cucumber. Liver pate itself also has the right to be served on the festive table, but housewives know: it...

Stuffed unsweetened filling profiteroles are an excellent option for buffets and festive feasts. This appetizer looks bright and unusual, and is usually filling and tasty. So if you want to surprise your guests, then be sure to prepare snack profiteroles with filling...

Appetizing and incredibly tasty baskets with salad from canned tuna ready in minutes. Therefore, this snack is suitable for both special occasions, and for unexpected guests. You can use tartlets from shortcrust pastry, cheese or waffle baskets. ...

Sandwiches with pieces of herring and processed cheese- a surprisingly simple and tasty appetizer a quick fix. It can be prepared both as a snack and for unexpected guests. Ready snack can be served on boiled potato mugs, slices fresh bread or …

On the eve of the New Year, I hasten to please you with new delicious and original recipe, which is sure to bring a smile to your guests. Let's cook delicious snack in tartlets in the shape of cute pigs, since next 2019 will be the year of the pig. As a result, the snack...

Simple sandwiches with sprats and fresh cucumber Perfect as an appetizer before the main course. They can be prepared in a hurry when guests arrive, and can even be a hearty snack. This snack, beloved and familiar to many from childhood, looks very elegant and appetizing, ...

Today we will cook beautiful sandwiches with red fish on the festive table. Such original snack will delight your loved ones and guests not only with amazing taste, but also beautiful design as ladybugs. Cooking beautiful snack on the festive table To prepare festive ...

Older generation remembers well how difficult it was to get a jar of sprat. It is no coincidence that sandwiches with sprats were then considered a festive snack. A lot has changed since then. Now sprats can be bought at any grocery store. But sandwiches with this fragrant fish until now...

Not a single holiday or buffet table is complete without serving sandwiches. Today we will prepare sandwiches with sprats and eggs; they always turn out tasty, filling and beautiful. Crispy croutons from rye bread, greased with mayonnaise and garlic, slices fresh vegetables and fragrant...

How to set the tables in the office yourself so that it is not only delicious, but also aesthetically pleasing to a restaurant? How to treat a large group if the apartment area is more than modest? What snacks and aperitif should you offer guests at a wedding so that they don’t get bored while the newlyweds are busy with a photo shoot? Finally, how to uniquely set the table in New Year's Eve so that all guests can not only have a hearty meal, but also dance, sing, have quizzes and play games? The answer suggests itself - you need to arrange a festive buffet.

The main thing in the article

Buffet: when is it appropriate and irreplaceable?

It was the practical and sophisticated French who coined the term “buffet,” which means “fork.” That is, all the food served at the buffet must fit on one fork. Distinctive feature buffet is that people are not seated at tables, but move freely around the hall with a glass and a small plate in their hands, which does not prevent them from feeling comfortable and communicating with each other. Before organizing a buffet, you need to familiarize yourself with its first rules, one might say, commandments:

the number of dishes that will be on the tables (plates, glasses, spoons, forks and napkins) should be two or even three times more than the invited guests;

sometimes it makes sense to purchase disposable tableware, but only of the same type and decent quality, stylized and aesthetic;
at the entrance it would be nice to place a “hospitality table” with an aperitif: champagne, cognac, liqueurs or liqueurs;

tables with refreshments should be located so that they are easy and simple to get to;
buffet tables should be slightly higher than ordinary kitchen tables: usually their height is a little more than a meter.

Traditional buffet dishes: what appetizers are suitable?

All kinds of cold appetizers are extremely popular on the buffet table: small sandwiches, multi-layered canapés, stuffed vegetables, and especially rolls and mini-rolls with various fillings.

No buffet is complete without exquisitely decorated meat and sausage cuts, cheese plates, as well as assorted fruits.

Beautifully decorated tartlets with with different fillings, various sandwiches, snacks on skewers, slices or chips - all this will not only become part of a wonderful menu for any holiday, but will also be perfect for any corporate event, business buffet or friendly party.

If you want to have a fun holiday, be sure to take care of alcoholic beverages in advance. Basically, guests at the buffet table are offered champagne, table wines, and a variety of alcoholic and non-alcoholic cocktails.

What should you not serve at a buffet?

According to the rules of the buffet, all dishes and snacks served at it must be “one bite”, that is, they are decorated very laconically, but capaciously and compactly. The following are not at all welcome at the buffet table:

various first courses, in particular soups, at least in their usual serving;
traditional hot dishes - potatoes, meat, roasts, all kinds of stews and casseroles - are strictly not welcome. It should be convenient for the guest to put snacks on a plate and eat them with just a fork;

the fish must be thoroughly cleaned of bones and thinly sliced: guests should not experience discomfort when picking their hands in the plate in order to separate the bones from the pulp;
not allowed at the buffet puff salads in traditional salad bowls: There are many other ways to serve your favorite, sauced dishes at such an event.

Cold appetizers for the holiday: a tribute to the classics

Basically, the buffet table consists of cold appetizers, which should be light, unobtrusive, for every taste. At the same time, they should be portioned so that guests do not have to cut or share the dish, trying to take a piece for themselves.

Before the buffet, you should carefully consider the menu and serve universal snacks that will be good both cold and hot, since it is not customary to reheat food at such an event. Food should be in harmony with the drinks offered to guests. So, we offer you several popular and proven options for buffet dishes.

Nslices and rolls for the festive table

Traditionally, at a buffet table it is customary to serve a variety of cuts: meat, vegetables, cheese and fruit platter. Dishes with slices look very beautiful, especially if you don’t just put meat and sausages on the dish, but combine them with other products, such as olives, wrap them in rolls, and string them on skewers.

The cheese plate looks very advantageous: several types of cheese are sliced in a variety of ways: hard cheese is cut into plates or triangles, and soft cheeses into cubes.

Along with the cheese, it is customary to place grapes, honey and nuts on the dish: these products are in perfect harmony with each other.

Cold appetizers for the holiday table in the form of rolls are not only nutritious, but also very beautiful dishes, which diversify and make original menu any feast. You can make such rolls from almost any product: pita bread, cheese, fish, zucchini, pieces of meat or ham, as well as wrap all kinds of fillings in pancakes, omelettes and crab sticks.

The most popular rolls at buffets are:

cheese rolls with meat or mushroom filling;
ham rolls with “Jewish” salad and herbs;
rolled lavash or puff pastry (meat, red fish, caviar, processed cheese with salmon or mushrooms are suitable fillings);

zucchini or cucumber rolls filled with spreadable cream cheese;

herring rolls with chopped gherkins or Korean carrots as filling. This option for serving herring looks much more original and festive than a banal fillet cut into pieces, and is eaten by guests in a matter of minutes.

A very unusual dish is a cheese roll with chicken and mushrooms. To make it you need:

boil chicken fillet and one chicken egg;
chop and fry mushrooms;
chop all the ingredients, mix them and season with mayonnaise, adding a little herbs;
grate 500-700 grams hard cheese, put it in the microwave or oven for a couple of minutes: the cheese should melt and acquire a viscous, pasty consistency;
lay it on the table cling film or baking parchment and “pour” the cheese onto it, smoothing the edges with a spoon;
After waiting for the cheese to dry a little, spread the filling evenly on it;\
roll the cheese into a tight roll;
wrap it in cling film and place in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours;
beautifully cut into slices and serve.

Lavash or omelette rolls are made in the same way. You can wrap any products in them that are in harmony with each other to taste.

Don't forget about fruit slices: fruits and berries must decorate the buffet table, and they can be served in an original and elegant way:

Sandwiches and canapés

The simplest snack at a buffet table is sandwiches. You can prepare countless quantities of them and they will all be completely and irrevocably eaten, the main thing is to serve them beautifully and effectively, using a variety of products for cooking. It is convenient to use different breads as a basis for them:

white toast - for club sandwiches, sandwiches with caviar, red and white fish;

black - for sandwiches with herring, bacon and pickles;

crackers - used to serve canapés: on unsweetened ones, cheese with olives and herbs are served, on sweet ones - custard with berries.

Potato pancakes are suitable as a base for sandwiches: any salted fish goes well with them. Even from simple products such as black bread, lettuce, cream cheese, small tomatoes and olives can make very impressive and appetizing sandwiches.

Take note of a few more extraordinary ways to prepare canapés.

Appetizers on skewers and tartlets

The simplest, but no less tasty, are cold appetizers served in tartlets. You can bake them yourself, or you can buy them ready-made at any store. These small baskets can be filled with any salad, decorated with a sprig of parsley or a few eggs, and the original, delicious snack ready.

The following combinations are great as fillings for tartlets:

processed cheese and seafood;
liver, carrots and pickled cucumbers;
chicken, prunes and fresh cucumber;
cheese with garlic and olives;
smoked meat or chicken and pickled mushrooms.

The same snacks can be served in another way by placing them on large potato chips the same size or as an option on unsweetened crackers.

The most popular food for a buffet table is appetizers on skewers, as they are very convenient to eat and very easy to prepare.

You can put any food that goes well together on the skewers. On them you can string cubes of meat, thin slices of ham and cheese, miniature pickled mushrooms and gherkins, cheese with grapes, as well as various seafood - mussels, shrimp and others.

This appetizer is very original and tasty. "Taste of Italy", and it is very easy to prepare. For this you will need:

200 g mozzarella in small balls;
2 sprigs of cherry tomatoes;
a bunch of green basil;
a handful of dried basil.

Remove the mozzarella from the brine, dry it and roll it in dried herbs. Thread a tomato, a green basil leaf and a ball of mozzarella onto a skewer.

Stuffed dishes at a buffet table

A great option cold snack are stuffed dishes, because many products can be stuffed, the contents of which can be taken out and filled with something tasty, resulting in a snack with a harmonious, exquisite taste. Great option cold holiday snack will become:

eggs, stuffed canned salmon and decorated with red caviar;

crab salad-filled tomatoes;
halves of sweet bell pepper with the core removed, filled with any salad.

An original and elegant appetizer that will decorate any table is “Fly Agaric”. To prepare it you will need:

several cherry tomatoes, cut in half;
200 g ham;
2 boiled eggs;
100 g cheese;
1 large cucumber;
3 tablespoons of mayonnaise or sour cream.

Steps for preparing the snack:

V separate dish mix diced ham, grated cheese and eggs;
season the salad with sauce;
cut the cucumber into medium-sized rings;
We collect fly agaric mushrooms: first we place cucumber rings on a flat dish, on them we put balls that we “roll” from the ham and cheese salad, and on the balls we place halves of tomatoes - the caps of our mushrooms.

In order for the appetizer to acquire a finished, believable look, you need to put mayonnaise dots on the caps of the fly agarics.

Mini pastries: what to serve at a buffet?

Baked goods are very welcome at the buffet table, but all of them should be in mini format: if they are pies, then miniature ones, if they are pies, then they should be cut into tiny portions. Eclairs with cheese and liver stuffing and small ones puff pastries, which can be stuffed with any salads.

At a buffet table, it is customary to serve pancakes stuffed with everything you like, in several serving options:

roll the pancake greased with filling into a roll, cut into small pieces, decorate with herbs and caviar;
roll up the filled pancake into a neat envelope;
Place the minced meat in the middle of the pancake, gather the edges to form a bag, and connect the ends with a feather of green onion.

Today, muffins are very popular at buffet tables - miniature cupcakes with or without filling. This snack successfully replaces even a cake, because you can serve several options for muffins and guests will try them all.

Hot dishes for buffet

Although the format of such a holiday as a buffet does not imply heating food, hot food is required at such an event. The following would be ideal as hot dishes:

kebabs on bamboo sticks made from chicken or pork;

mini-kebabs of mussels, shrimp or chicken hearts;
chicken or seafood julienne in portioned bowls or tartlets;

meat rolls with various fillings(mushrooms, ham, cheese, bacon);
As a side dish at a buffet table, you can serve boiled new potatoes, sprinkled with herbs and strung on skewers.

Fondue is perfect for a buffet table: hard or processed cheese is heated in a sauce container and brought to a liquid consistency, to which you can add herbs and spices. Anything can be dipped into this sauce: small sausages, cubes of sausage and cheese, croutons, miniature potatoes, pastries.

Recipes for “fashionable” appetizers for buffets: modern ways of serving dishes

Over time, not only new recipes for buffet dishes become popular, but also the ways of serving them are improved.

Snacks in transparent glasses : a very fashionable type of treat for even the most sophisticated buffets. You can put everything in a glass: from thick sauces(guacamole, sour cream, to which garlic and dill are added, eggplant pulp, mashed with herbs, garlic and cheese in puree, until the soups have a creamy consistency).

In these glasses you can dip skewers with lightly salted herring, boiled or baked meat, ham, croutons with vegetables.

Surprise your guests original presentation simple foods, prepare a snack "Chinese chopsticks". To prepare it, you will need a package of regular straws and 300 g of lightly salted red salmon. The fish is cut into the thinnest slices and overlapped onto each straw. If necessary, the base of the straw can be tied with a feather of green onion.

You can serve thinly sliced ham and salami in the same way, and use straws instead of cheese sticks. These sticks are served by placing them in glasses.

Club sandwiches – unusual sandwiches from familiar products. They are prepared from toast bread and any ingredients (ham, meat, fresh cucumbers, processed cheese and others). It is noteworthy that such a sandwich is “multi-story”, covered with bread on top, and cut into several small triangles. Sometimes tiny buns are used to prepare them.

And, of course, rolls are an incredibly popular snack that has simply become a trend at modern buffets.

Buffet table design options

To make your buffet unforgettable, you need to be creative not only in preparing dishes, but also in decorating the festive table. So, we offer you some tips to help you create an unusual, original holiday:

to save space on festive table and in order to create the effect of abundance, use special multi-tiered dishes, that is, place snacks in tiers so that they are easy to take;

For a buffet table, white or light linen tablecloths decorated with lace or classic cotton tablecloths with or without delicate embroidery are relevant: such a tablecloth is the easiest to choose tableware for, and besides, it will suit any format of celebration;
Actively use glasses and shot glasses for table setting: not only for drinks, but also for snacks, in particular salads and desserts. Glasses can successfully replace plates and salad bowls, and it looks very impressive;

Serve dishes in special ceramic spoons. This technique is used at the most sophisticated buffets; “snacks” are usually served in such spoons - beautifully decorated balls rolled from a variety of salads.

We invite you to consider other options original design dishes on the buffet table:

For more details on how to decorate buffet dishes, watch our video:

In certain situations there is nothing to celebrate significant events better than a buffet. Your guests will arrange their own food and drinks, serve themselves, and the host of the party will be free to accept congratulations and communicate with his friends in a relaxed and easy atmosphere.

Holidays of this format have gained popularity and spread for quite some time. Can there be a buffet at work? the best option holding an event with colleagues. In our article we will look at successful food options and some tricks that will help you organize the best holiday.

When is a buffet appropriate?

It is not always possible to have a feast everywhere. Usually the main argument in favor of a buffet table is the lack of “ seats" Not every room can accommodate a full table with a tablecloth and chairs. You can organize a buffet at work for a birthday if your office is not spacious enough to comfortably accommodate your colleagues.

And such an organization of the holiday is also liked by those who like to dance and have fun. Guests can freely communicate with each other and walk around the room, holding glasses and plates in their hands.

What not to submit

If you are organizing a buffet at work at lunchtime, alcohol is simply unacceptable. Even serving light wine will put your guests in an awkward position.

There are a number of dishes that are not usually served at a buffet table. These include the following:

ice cream;
fish that has bones;
salads in common salad bowls;
soups, roasts, stews.

Any other dishes that are inconvenient to put on a plate and eat while standing are not suitable for the menu. If it is customary to eat a dish with a fork and knife, it is also better to leave it for another occasion.

What to cook for the buffet? Let's take a closer look at popular treats.

Sandwiches, canapés

It is believed that these are the best and most convenient recipes for a buffet table. The main condition is that the sandwiches should be small. You can buy a French baguette to make them.

Canapes - delicious and spectacular appetizer, which can become a real table decoration. Use different varieties bread, and ham and smoked sausages, various varieties cheeses, small cucumbers and cherry tomatoes, olives and pickled mushrooms. They eat canapés while holding them by the skewer.

Vol-au-vents, tartlets, profiteroles

The word "buffet" has French roots and literally translates as "fork". Keep this in mind when deciding what appetizers to prepare for your work buffet.

It is inexpensive to purchase ready-made vol-au-vents or baskets. Today, similar products are available in any supermarket. All you have to do is stuff them. You can make the base yourself, from puff pastry or choux pastry. Pates, soufflés, seafood, boiled meat with sauce are used as fillings.

Meat and cheese plates

Long-standing Russian table traditions require the presence of a plate of sliced food at almost any holiday. You can serve this appetizer at a buffet at work.

If you want pieces of sausage, ham and jerky they looked exquisite and were convenient to eat, don’t rely on a knife. Buy finished product laser cutting.

But the cheese does not have to be cut thinly. It will break, and it won't be that convenient to eat. It is better to cut the cheese into cubes. The more varieties there are, the better. The cheese is usually served with nuts, grapes and honey.

Dessert

It’s impossible to imagine a buffet at work for a birthday without sweets. If you decide to apply traditional cake, think in advance whether it will be convenient to cut it, put it on plates and eat it.

An excellent dessert option for a buffet menu is cups of jelly. Small cakes would also be appropriate. Be sure to pay attention to the fashionable today mousse desserts in velor or magnificent mirror glaze. They look elegant and modern.

A good idea for a themed buffet would be cupcakes decorated in the same style.

Chocolates at the buffet table are served without wrappers. It is acceptable to serve sweets in an open box, but it is better to transfer them to special multi-tiered plates in advance.

Fruits

Is a whole pineapple or a basket of oranges appropriate for a buffet table? The answer is obvious. Large fruits are cut into small pieces. Watermelon and melon can be served together with the rind, cut into small triangular slices. But it’s more convenient to make balls using a special spherical spoon. Berries can be served in small glasses.

Do you need bread?

This question is quite ambiguous. A basket with pieces of bread is unlikely to look natural at an elegant buffet table. But some people simply cannot live without it.

But shu buns, toast and diet bread may be quite appropriate. Can be laid different types bread on a common plate.

Fashionable recipes for a buffet table

Today, along with the classic ones, there are also many unusual recipes. If you are planning to host a buffet at work, pay attention to these new items.

Snacks look impressive in ordinary vodka glasses. This is how you can serve salads. You can also serve sauces for fresh vegetables or nachos.

Sushi is also popular today. Of course, you need to take care of the chopsticks. Served with rolls soy sauce, wasabi and pickled ginger in small bowls.

A good idea for a buffet table would be sesame seeds wrapped in bacon. They can be served on a flat dish or in tall glasses.

Buffet tableware

Organizing a buffet at work is a troublesome task. It might be worth opting for disposable tableware. Of course she must be good quality and all in the same style.

To avoid unpleasant situations, make sure that there are 2-3 times more dishes than there are guests. It is unlikely that there will be an opportunity to rinse plates after appetizers.

At the buffet table, desserts are served with special forks, which differ from ordinary dessert forks. These forks have 3 tines, one of which is thicker than the others and has a sharp edge. This device is convenient for cutting pieces. Table knives are not needed at a buffet table, since it is still impossible to use them while holding a plate in one hand and a fork in the other.

To save space on the table, special multi-tiered dishes were invented. This presentation looks elegant and festive.

We hope ours simple tips will help you organize a wonderful holiday for your colleagues.

Table "a la buffet" ...New Year's ideas for the festive table

If your home during the New Year turns into an “assemblage point” for large quantity friends who, as a rule, knowing your hospitality, will bring their other friends with them, and inform you about this the day before the holiday, then the best solution for your New Year's party will be buffet table- it is set up for receptions with big amount guests.

The reception a la buffet was originally invented in France. This method of organization ceremonial table there are a number of advantages. A buffet is a way to receive guests, which eliminates the need to purchase additional pieces of furniture, since the main purpose of the reception is communication, not a feast.

In most cases, a buffet is associated with the need to organize a reception of guests in a short time. The name itself can be literally translated from French as “on a fork,” which characterizes the entire process of eating.

The advantages of a buffet table are that the number of guests is not related to the amount of furniture available in the house. An additional advantage for the hostess is that she does not need to worry about the presentation of dishes, the degree of their warmth and the fullness of the guests' plates.

Guests move freely around the room, gather according to interest groups, communicate freely, choosing those snacks on the table that are more to their taste. Snacks should be quite varied: variety is the key to a good buffet!

Several useful recipes

At buffets, up to three dishes are always offered. Eg, side dishes: boiled potatoes with parsley, dill and onion, vegetables, rice with saffron; meat and fish dishes : kebabs, red fish steaks, chicken breast in sauce. As for salads, tartlets, puff sandwiches and canapés, you can prepare countless of them.

Don't forget about the cheese platter. Cheese- high in calories and very delicious product. And now there are so many types of cheese on sale that you can easily lay out several plates of hard and soft varieties. Plus please your vegetarian guests. The cheese is cut into pieces of 25-40 grams. The varieties are placed not too close to each other in a clockwise direction, for example: first a spicy blue cheese, then soft cheese with a penicillin-type camembert-type crust, then hard, mild, and sliced, spicy. A classic addition to cheese is grapes. Pears and melon slices are combined with cheese.

The housewife should also not forget about pickled cucumbers, tomatoes, corn on the cob, champignons, bell pepper, cauliflower, as well as olives and spiced herring.

Snacks, several types of sliced bread, and salads are placed closer to the edge. The second tier in the back is for sweet dishes, pastries, and fruits. Each dish with food should have an appropriate device with which you can put a portion on your plate.

Buffet serving depends, among other things, on the position of the table: if you can approach it from all sides, then serve buffet table need in a circle.

Spices are traditional - salt and pepper. If dishes require sauces, they are placed next to the corresponding dishes.

When served, non-alcoholic drinks are poured into glasses or served in jugs. Alcoholic drinks are placed in open bottles in groups at different ends of the table, next to the glasses. For used dishes, an additional, small one is placed next to the main table, on which guests will put the empty dishes.

There are no restrictions on the buffet menu. The only requirement concerns the convenience of the dishes. For the most part, these are a variety of snacks that are easy to put on a plate and eat.

Since the same utensils are used when setting the table as during a regular feast, the dishes can be varied. The only requirement concerns that the dishes for the buffet must be served already cut and divided into portions - they must be in such a form that it is as convenient as possible for guests to put them on an individual plate and help themselves, as they say, “on the go.” If it is fish, then in the form of fillets, if it is chicken pieces, then without bones.

Vol-au-vents - snack bars (baskets) made from purchased puff pastry

Tartlets

Tartlets are small cups of dough prepared according to a specific recipe, which are filled with various fillings - meat, fish, mushroom, vegetable. Some recipes call for adding sauce to filled tartlets and then leaving them in the oven for a while to thicken the sauce. Ideal for tartlets shortbread dough with the addition of an egg or yolk.

Tartlets with caviar. Tasty, beautiful, fast.

A recipe for an unsurpassed evening dessert - glamorous tartlets made from caviar, rice, avocado and cream cheese.

Products:

Rice - preferably milk or sushi rice
Ripe avocado
Salmon caviar
Cream cheese

Salt
Pepper
Lemon juice

Preparation:

Boil the rice and cool it. Peel the avocado, remove the pit, mash the pulp with a fork, season with salt, pepper, add a little lemon juice to preserve color.

With wet hands, form rice balls and press them. On top, in the next layer, place the avocado mass, then a layer of cheese mass so that the dish looks like layer cakes. Place the last layer of red caviar.

If possible, the layers should be equal in volume. The size can be any. Small cakes can be eaten as canapes, large ones - with a fork and knife. You can decorate with greenery.

In principle, dough baskets can be filled with any salads. The only requirement is that salads should not be too liquid so that the dough does not get soggy. For this reason vegetable salads, which give juice, are not put in tartlets.

You can make a salad from boiled shrimp, green peas and fresh cucumber with mayonnaise dressing. The salad is sprinkled with grated cheese on top and decorated with sprigs of parsley or dill.

Another option is fresh pineapple salad with fillet smoked chicken, seedless grapes and grated cheese. You can use not only mayonnaise as a dressing, but also sweet yogurt. Depending on the sauce chosen, the taste of the salad will be different.

Canapes

Of the snacks, canapés are the easiest to prepare and the most effective. They are prepared in the same way: the loaf or black bread is peeled and cut lengthwise into strips approximately 5-6 mm thick, then the bread is cut into small pieces (the pieces can be round, square, rectangular, triangular, etc.) . Then each piece of bread is greased with a thin layer of butter or mayonnaise (with the exception of canapés prepared with fatty foods), a leaf of lettuce is placed, garnished and decorated to taste.

Canapes with bacon and tomatoes

biscuits - 1 piece
bacon - 20g.
tomato - 1 pc.
sauce to taste
green onions

Cooking method:

For the filling: cut the bacon and tomato into small pieces, mix with sauce.
Cut the pancake into three parts. Place the filling in the center of one of the parts, gather the edges and secure green onions. The canapes are ready.

Lavash roll

A thin layer of lavash is smeared with mayonnaise, string cheese is laid on top of it on one edge and Korean carrots. The roll is wrapped tightly and cut crosswise into portioned roll pieces of the desired size. The filling can be varied - rolls with smoked fish and fresh cucumbers or with ham and mushrooms.

You will need:
Avocado
Tomato
Fresh cucumbers
Bell pepper
Lavash or thin pancakes
Curd cream or cheese
Lettuce leaves
Salt spices

Salmon roll

To prepare it, you need wide thin layers of salmon, which are rolled into a cone and laid out on a dish with the wide part facing up. A small piece of butter and a slice of lemon are placed inside each cone. To make it easier to cut the butter, it must first be cooled in the freezer.

Avocado mousse with caviar

1 avocado
- 1 egg /* chicken, a couple of quail eggs, hard-boiled */
- 1 tbsp. l. sour cream
- dill
- salt and pepper to taste, I added a fair amount of both, avocado somehow really absorbs all the spices
- caviar

Grind the avocado and egg in a blender. Mix, add sour cream, salt, pepper and finely chopped dill, grind until smooth.

Dry the pieces of bread until golden brown in a frying pan without oil. On bread - mousse, on top with caviar.

Trout rolls

It's actually very simple.
Salted fish, cottage cheese Season with pepper and serve on cucumber slices. You can use cream cheese instead of curd cheese, and you can add a little more blue cheese into the filling, and sprinkle with lemon before serving. In general, there is room for imagination.
Simple, but very, very tasty.

Curd mousse with red fish and caviar

200 g low-fat cottage cheese
- 5 g gelatin
- 60 ml milk or cream
- 100 g salted red fish
- 0.5 tsp each salt and sugar
- a pinch of black pepper
- dill
- caviar

Soak gelatin in milk, after swelling, heat in the microwave or on the stove, dissolve.
Beat the cottage cheese, adding salt, sugar, pepper and finely chopped dill.
Carefully combine cottage cheese with gelatin. Stir in finely chopped fish and caviar (I didn’t add caviar to the mousse, I just decorated it on top).
Expand curd mass according to molds. I posted it in Silicone forms for cupcakes, everything came out of them perfectly afterwards. Place in the refrigerator for several hours to harden.