ISO ideas for a wedding rehearsal buffet

[Dave the Cook]

We've been asked to handle the cooking for our niece's wedding rehearsal dinner. Criteria:

• Buffet-style, for about 25 people
• Most of it needs to be done ahead, with no deep frying a la minute (it will take place in a private home, so we don't want the aromas lingering)
• There will be a significant contingent of vegetarians, so those options need to be serious
• It's taking place near Seattle, and it would be nice (though not essential) to take advantage of local, seasonal (September) offerings
• A coherent theme would be nice
• Bonus points for matching a cocktail to the menu

Go.

[Plantes Vertes]

I love Middle Eastern/Balkan meze. It is meant to be served all at once like a buffet, gets better with time, can be served hot, lukewarm or cold, provides a large number of options for different tastes and includes a significant vegetarian component, and it's also cheap and delicious.

[janeer]

Simple and classic (and local)?  Cold whole poached salmon, parslied lemon sauce of some sort (lemony mayo ok), rice and pea salad (or potatoes vinagrette, or both), deviled eggs, Parker house rolls with strawberry butter, berry shortcake for dessert.

 

Cocktail: Sidecar

 

This menu would appear on any New England table for a special but not too fussy occasion.

[Lisa Shock]

I'm thinking a late summer harvest theme. Drink: Daisy Buchanan (cheat: make it as a punch with white wine instead of champagne)

 

For the vegetarians, I often take a vegetable biryani to Thanksgiving meals for vegetarians.  It's vegan, so everyone will eat it. (don't make the mistake of thinking that the vegetarians will eat dead animals like fish, or even eggs, unless they tell you otherwise) It's good, and meat eaters take home leftovers and ask for the recipe.  I make it with a modified fried rice method:

 

The day before: Cook some Jasmine brown rice (salted water) and refrigerate it. Cooks some garbanzo beans, from dry beans, in water that has salt and cumin in it. Refrigerate when done. Saute carrots in oil with lots of ginger, stopping when they are still a little firm. Keep going with whatever vegetables you have at hand, cook each in a different spice that is compatible with a mild curry but slightly undercook it. On the day of, saute a diced onion and the rice in oil with a little curry paste in it and pour into a chafing dish/hotel pan. (It's supposed to be mildy fragrant with spice.) Heat up each of the vegetables one by one in the same pan/wok and pour into the chafer. When finished, stir to distribute evenly and keep warm. This will keep well covered for hours.

 

Another entree, one that could be made with meat (as well as meatless with beans) and rice, or barley, bulghur, etc. is a medley of stuffed roasted vegetables. The filling can be made days in advance, and softer vegetables (eggplant, bell pepper, zucchini) will roast very quickly so you're mostly just heating them through. You can take this in many directions depending on how you spice it: Middle East, India, French, etc. They can have a sauce (cabbage rolls) or not. (when I do cabbage rolls, I cook red lentils mixed with jasmine or basmati rice and add lemon zest and juice to the water for the vegetarian rolls to give them a bright flavor)

 

Sides could include roasted vegetables, like eG's popular roasted cauliflower, baked potatoes with a toppings bar, roasted root vegetable medley, etc.

 

Make sure to have a great salad. Perhaps a mini salad bar would be in order, with a couple of dressing choices and toppings like sunflower seeds and nuts. The vegetarians will eat the salad, and it can be a fallback for anyone on a special diet.

 

Fresh fruit is also appreciated for those who might have issues with dessert. That said, sorbets are a dessert that most people will eat without arguing over whether or not there are eggs and/or dairy in the shortcake, etc.

[ChrisZ]

We just hosted a lunch party for 50 and it was all antipasto, with a few supermarket roast chickens cut up to fill in the gaps.  Worked great.  

 

I'd suggest a cous cous salad as it's easy, cheap, filling and is as good as the stock you use.  If you have the time to make up a home made vegetable stock beforehand, then you'll get a great tasting salad that provides the carbs for the meal.  Fancier than a potato salad, not as obviously trendy as quinoa.  Not sure how the seasons are working out in your neck of the woods, but I usually cube and roast some butternut squash (pumpkin), throw in some raisons, crusted cashews and diced fetta.  But it all comes down to the stock...

[LizD518]

We just hosted a lunch party for 50 and it was all antipasto, with a few supermarket roast chickens cut up to fill in the gaps.  Worked great.  

 

I'd suggest a cous cous salad as it's easy, cheap, filling and is as good as the stock you use.  If you have the time to make up a home made vegetable stock beforehand, then you'll get a great tasting salad that provides the carbs for the meal.  Fancier than a potato salad, not as obviously trendy as quinoa.  Not sure how the seasons are working out in your neck of the woods, but I usually cube and roast some butternut squash (pumpkin), throw in some raisons, crusted cashews and diced fetta.  But it all comes down to the stock...

 

Where I work we offer a light salad buffet that is similar.  We do a variety of 4-5 salads - one grain, one leafy, one legume, one pasta, etc, plus a soup, bread and desserts.  Sometimes we add grilled chicken breast for groups that want things to be a little more substantial. It is always a hit and most salads, except the leafy one could be done early and benefit from sitting a bit.  Here are some fall menu items:

 

Apple, Cherry & Walnut Salad with Maple Vinaigrette (over mixed greens)

Roasted Corn Salad with Cherry Tomatoes & Oven-Roasted Green Onions (Pasta Salad)

Peppered Pear Salad with Oak Leaf & Stilton

Orzo Salad with Golden Raisins & Pine Nuts (Champagne Vinaigrette, could use faro instead of orzo)

Pumpkin Soup 

Carrot-Ginger Soup

Curried Cauliflower Soup

[Darienne]

Just to add to janeer's suggestion of the cold poached salmon...we once went to a wedding reception and they served a cold poached salmon on a mirror platter surrounded by I can't remember what.  Oh, cucumber standup thingies...but my main point is that the salmon was covered in thin slices of cucumber laid to represent its scales...one of the most beautiful platters I've ever seen.  But then maybe that's not uncommon.  We don't go to a lot of upscale weddings.