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Easy Dinner Party Recipes

Wine and dine your family and friends in style with these dinner party ideas, including easy dinner party recipes and their ideal wine pairings – best enjoyed for any occasion and any time of year!

Australians love nothing more than playing host and sharing our table with good company. It’s a big part of our relaxed, easy-going nature and the great food and wine culture we’ve cultivated over the decades.

Yet despite this, who hasn’t thought, “What to cook for a dinner party?”. The secret to entertaining ultimately lies in keeping things simple.

Sure, you can go all out and plan an eight-course degustation menu, or a wine tasting party in your home, but when time is short and you just want to short-cut to the good times, these easy recipes will upgrade your entertaining game in no time at all!

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CANAPÉ DINNER PARTY RECIPES

PRAWN TOSTADAS WITH CHIPOTLE MAYO

Imagine the sweetness of prawns with just a gentle kick of spice, and you’ll immediately understand why this Prawn tostadas with chipotle mayo recipe makes a great canapé. When pairing with wine, look for a light-bodied and fresh white wine such as Semillon or Sparkling White, to ensure it won’t clash with the heat of the mayonnaise.

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ANALIESE GREGORY'S GRILLED SCALLOPS WITH SEAWEED BUTTER

Analiese Gregory Scallops Hero Image

Pair this delicate yet flavoursome Grilled scallops with seaweed butter with a wine with similar attributes, like a dry Sparkling White. Bursting with the fresh flavours of the sea and taking just 15 minutes to prepare and 5 minutes to cook, this scallop recipe will become an easy dinner party food favourite.

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LUKE AND SAM BOURKE'S FRESH OYSTERS WITH FINGER LIMES

Luke and Same Bourke's fresh oysters with finger limes and horseradish cream recipe

Luke and Same Bourke's fresh oysters with finger limes and horseradish cream recipe is a classic match with a young Riesling or a Sparkling White. While this canapé is easy to prepare, the gorgeous flavours and visual appearance are guaranteed to impress your guests. 

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DAN HONGS PRAWN TOAST WITH YUZU MAYONNAISE, CORIANDER AND MINT

Dan Hong's Prawn Toast

This Prawn toast recipe is complemented by Dan Hong's Kingfish Ceviche with Vietnamese Flavours. Choose your favourite dry Sparkling white or a young and zippy Riesling with the prawn toast for the perfect wine match. Their elevated acidity will balance the oil on the palate.

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ENTREÉ DINNER PARTY RECIPES

Roasted Sweet Potato Hummus

Lyndey Milan's roasted sweet potato hummus

The Roasted sweet potato hummus recipe offers a real mouthful of flavour, bolstered with garlic and spice. An excellent dip to serve with asparagus, olives, prosciutto and a white cheese when enjoying a simply-prepared charcuterie or sharing plate! When choosing a wine, opt for a subtly dry Rosé with a backbone of nervy acidity.

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Stuffed Figs Wrapped In Bastourma

Lyndey Milans Stuffed Figs Wrapped In Bastourma on a plate

Stuffed figs wrapped in bastourma is sweet and savoury which calls for a lighter-bodied red wine with a red fruit core and a gentle, savoury nature – making Pinot NoirGrenache and a lighter-style Sangiovese all great choices.

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Vegetable Pakoras With Yoghurt Dipping Sauce

Lyndey Milans Vegetable Pakoras With Yoghurt Dipping Recipe

The fried batter crunch of this popular Indian vegetable pakoras recipe needs a wine that has enough acidity to cut through the pakora’s outer shell and harmonise with the herbaceous green vegetables inside – and we think a Sauvignon Blanc fits the bill perfectly!

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MINDY WOODS' CRUMBED SALTBUSH FISH SANDO WITH TARTAR SAUCE

Mindy Woods crumbed saltbush fish sando with native tartar sauce served on wooden board

Indulge your guest’s inner child (who hasn’t enjoyed a fish finger sandwich?) with this delicious and easy-to-prepare Crumbed saltbush fish sando with tartar sauce. A rich and flavoursome modern Australian Chardonnay is a great choice with this flavour-packed sandwich by Mindy Woods

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MAIN DINNER PARTY RECIPES

LYNDEY MILAN'S JAPANESE PANCAKES OSAKA-STYLE

Lyndey Milans Japanese pancakes

Lyndey Milan's Japanese pancakes are delicate yet complex, so your wine choice will need to be subtle and layered. A Riesling or Marsanne is the ideal pairing.

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NEIL PERRY’S BARBEQUED SARDINES WITH SPICY MINT AND CUCUMBER SALSA 

Neil Perry's Barbequed Sardines

Neil Perry shares his Barbequed sardines with spicy mint and cucumber salsa recipe for a fresh seafood dish that you can easily cook on the barbeque. Pair this dish with a glass of Vermentino, Fiano, or Arneis for the best-tasting results!

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Chorizo Mushrooms

Chorizo Mushrooms Recipe

This Chorizo mushrooms recipe gives this dish an Iberian feel. Grenache, one of the classic Iberian red varieties, is a natural partner to chorizo and has enough savouriness to pair beautifully with the mushrooms.

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DAVE PYNT'S PAKISTANI LAMB CHOPS

Dave Pynt's Pakistani lamb chops recipe

A softly spiced Merlot or Shiraz is a lock for this cracker Pakistani lamb chops dish by Dave Pynt. All the hard work is done for you as the lamb chops marinate in flavour-packed herbs and spices for 24 hours. Simply cook them on a hot grill for 5 to 10 minutes for a meal your guests are guaranteed to remember.

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DINNER PARTY SWEETS

Fruit Salad With Thyme-Vanilla Sugar And Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Ed Halmagyi’s fruit salad with thyme-vanilla sugar and extra virgin olive oil

Bursting with a spectrum of bright and fresh flavours and just a tickle of sweetness, this fruit salad with thyme-vanilla sugar dessert finds its ideal match in a delicious Moscato, which almost mirrors the flavour character of the fruit salad.

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RICK STEIN'S GREEK PEACH PIE

Rick Stein's Greek Peach Pie

Made using store-bought filo pastry, peaches, honey and yoghurt to serve, this easy-to-prepare Peach pie dessert is simply stunning paired with a dessert wine like Botrytis Semillon.

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TRISTAN REBBETTES APPLE TARTE TATIN

Tristan Rebbettes apple tarte tatin recipe

Comforting and homely, Tristen Rebbette’s apple tarte tatin recipe is perfect for the cooler weather of Autumn. Simple to prepare yet utterly delicious, it uses store-bought puff pastry and whatever apples are in season. A magical match served with a Moscato or a cane-cut Marsanne.

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Chocolate And Raspberry Brownies

Lyndey Milan’s  Chocolate and raspberry brownies

If you love red wine, this dessert pairs beautifully with a full-bodied Shiraz. An even better pairing, however, is with a liqueur Muscat, which has all the flavour intensity and sweetness you’d expect, counterbalancing the power of the chocolate in this sublimely delicious Chocolate and raspberry recipe.

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DINNER PARTY FOOD THEMES

MEXICAN DINNER PARTY

Mexican dinner party

With such an exciting range of colours, flavours and textures, Mexican dishes are a fun and crowd-pleasing choice for any laid-back dinner party. As with any food and wine matches, there are no absolute hard-and-fast rules. For Mexican and wine made easy, check out our Mexican Food and Wine Pairing Guide.

 

ITALIAN DINNER PARTY

Italian dinner party

Italian food is an Australian favourite, and with its vast variety and scale, the food and wine-pairing options are endless. Prepare for your next Italian dinner party with our Italian Food and Wine Pairing Guide.

 

TIPS ON HOW TO PLAN A PARTY  

When entertaining, it probably goes without saying that you’ll likely serve more wine than you would over the course of a typical dinner. You might wish to serve a different wine to best match each course of food you’re serving, for instance.

If that’s the case, give some thought to the order in which you serve your wines. Often, there’ll be two types of wine at the table – perhaps a white wine with the entrée and a red wine ready for the first course.

A typical wine serving progression might look like this:

- Serve white wine before red

- Serve lighter-styled wines before more full-bodied expressions

- Serve dry wine before serving sweet wines

- Serve wines with simpler palates before serving richly flavoured and complex styles

Naturally, this is just a guideline. You can feel comfortable, for instance, serving a very light red wine like Gamay or some Zinfandel before a rich, full-bodied Chardonnay. It’s simply about aiming for contrasts, while ensuring wherever possible that the wines are aligned with the foods you’re serving, and that no one style dominates the other.


Planning a party, whether an intimate dinner for six or a big celebration for 60, can be daunting. But it doesn’t need to be. From theme and invitation ideas to what wines and glasses you’ll need, we’ve got your party planning questions covered. Head to our tips on How to Plan a Party and get your own party started.  

Food
Published on
6 Jun 2024

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