Dinner party delights

As one of the Founding Fathers used to say: "By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." Well, you know what, Mr Benjamin Franklin, this is as true of cooking for a dinner party as it is for, say, politics or Wars of Independence, home decorating or even heading into the wilds of Connemara on a camping trip with children (you brave people).

Let’s face it, though, it’s worth it. When guests arrive, who doesn’t want to be able to emerge from the kitchen looking fresh-faced and a touch smug, knowing that 90 per cent of the work has been done and you’re free to relax before you sit down to eat.

It’s a bit of a preemptive strike. There’s something great about knowing that all that lies between you and a successful evening is about 10 minutes of fiddling about putting the final touches to the delicious food you’ve prepared . . . wait for it . . . the day before. Yes, that’s right. The day before.

There are many dishes that are best made ahead of time not just because it frees you up time-wise, but also because they taste even better that way.

Stews, curries, anything marinated, they’re all much tastier for being left a while so the flavours can marry and acquire real depth, along with tenderising meat. The flesh absorbs the flavours so the end result offers much more of that taste bomb you want.

And that’s what this week’s recipes are all about – giving you time, and giving your guests food that has just the right degree of polish for a dinner party, without being too formal either.

For the main course, I chose duck. I don’t cook it often, but if done right, it’s a winner, offering the perfect introduction to game.

In this recipe this balance is mainly down to that wonderful skin, which gets a real once over by being fried and rendered down till beautifully golden and then served with a walnut pesto that is a soft foil for that crisp outside and melt-in-your-mouth meat within.

And speaking of melt-in-your-mouth, we now move to the subject of dessert, or pudding as my grandmother, Hillie, was fond of calling it.

Few desserts gain as much from being made ahead as tiramisu, that classic Italian dessert of lady finger biscuits marinated in coffee and then layered with a light-as-a-feather combination of mascarpone and stiff egg whites.

I did experiment with making the biscuits myself, but it took time and they were kind of awful, if I’m honest.

And anyway, isn’t the point of this column to look at recipes that save on time? So, I just bought them instead, and you know what, they were delicious.