Week 7 - Dishes to impress
- Thread starter Tsushi
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I self-ascribe myself as a better baker than I am a cook, and so usually what I do as a stunner is some kind of dessert! I have experience and enjoy baking from scratch but on a time crunch (which I find I usually am on 
) usually what I do is just jazz up regular box brownies. Typically I add some instant coffee powder, a bit of vanilla extract, and pecan pieces. Sometimes I'll do a tahini swirl or add some cinnamon and nutmeg (especially when I know I'll have guests with nut allergies). It's not something I think of as a showstopper personally, just something to do for when I have guests on short notice, but I have had people be effusive in their praise whenever I jazz up a premade mix. So it's worth giving a shot!
) usually what I do is just jazz up regular box brownies. Typically I add some instant coffee powder, a bit of vanilla extract, and pecan pieces. Sometimes I'll do a tahini swirl or add some cinnamon and nutmeg (especially when I know I'll have guests with nut allergies). It's not something I think of as a showstopper personally, just something to do for when I have guests on short notice, but I have had people be effusive in their praise whenever I jazz up a premade mix. So it's worth giving a shot!
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Never really had to cook for guests, everyone mostly shows up uninvited and the default response is "Do you want tea or coffee."
I do however cook alot of brownies and whenever someone is over I say "You want a brownie? They're fresh out of the oven." people love em and I always say "I have a secret ingredient that gives it an extra kick."
Which honestly, that sounds somewhat sinister now because I just put a little more sugar in than usually.
I do however cook alot of brownies and whenever someone is over I say "You want a brownie? They're fresh out of the oven." people love em and I always say "I have a secret ingredient that gives it an extra kick."
Which honestly, that sounds somewhat sinister now because I just put a little more sugar in than usually.
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Depends on the prep time and who is coming over. I've got a group of friend with a pretty wide range of diets. I've gotten deeper into cooking firmly in the youtube chef era so all my go top are from there.
If I need something quick an easy I favor a one pot pasta from binging with banish. all of these recipes are good but the Chicken fennel pasta is my fave.
basicswithbabish.co
If the person is vegetarian this California veggie sandwich its great. and it can also be converted to a vegan sandwich pretty easily. Its not as quick as the fennel but its worth the wait.
If there's a few people coming over with different taste home made tacos. We got a taco press at its fun group activity with cooking and people can mix and match.
If I need something quick an easy I favor a one pot pasta from binging with banish. all of these recipes are good but the Chicken fennel pasta is my fave.
ONE-POT PASTA — Basics With Babish
This week on Basics, I'm showing you how to make one-pot pasta!
basicswithbabish.co
If the person is vegetarian this California veggie sandwich its great. and it can also be converted to a vegan sandwich pretty easily. Its not as quick as the fennel but its worth the wait.
If there's a few people coming over with different taste home made tacos. We got a taco press at its fun group activity with cooking and people can mix and match.
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I wouldn't say I have a go-to dish, impressing someone is a pretty unique experience and I tend to not have specialities, I just cook the food that I like. There's definitely a lot to going into planning to cook for a guest, you can play it in a few different ways, in my experience (and I do not entertain often but when I do I try for one of these things), I will either:
Spaghetti con le Polpette
My first idea is a large platter of Spaghetti con le Polpette, mainly to play into the appeal of it from Lupin, and come on, who doesn't like pasta. Here's how I would make it my own thing and something really to remember: First off I would cut my own spaghetti, when I'm cooking for others I like to have everything homemade if possible, so I'd break out my pasta roller to make my own spaghetti. Secondly, I would use my own speciality red sauce; I'm actually allergic to tomatoes, so over the years I have developed my own tomato-free alternative sauce made mainly with red bell peppers (See Tofu Parm example below) and everyone tends to tell me how impressed they are by it because it really does taste like tomato sauce. For the meatballs I'd either do pork and chicken, or a meatless meatball, I've made meatless meatballs a few different ways before so I'd experiment with how I did it, and I prefer to eat vegetarian as much as I can.
Any type of hot pot/nabe (Shabu Shabu, Mizutaki, Sukiyaki, etc.)
Hot pots are great for when you have a group of people, they're really good event foods, gather a group of friends and a bunch of ingredients, and really every can get something they like in a hot pot. Really fun and a cool spectacle.
Don't go all out, do something simple and cook from the heart, use what you have. (These are all my photos)
The easiest way to impress someone with your cooking is to just cook what you love, and sharing good food with the people around you, because as long as the food is good, and the company is good, that's all you need for a truly memorable night.
From top, left to right: Japanese Chicken Curry, Shrimp Pilaf, Rainbow Trout with a shallot and apple wine sauce and broccolini, Chicken Ramen
From bottom, left to right: Slow cooked chicken thighs with root vegetables over pommes puree, Chicken Teriyaki with a side salad, Borscht, Hiyashi Chuka, Tofu Parmesan.
- Play into their interests in either food or media, such as making a dish from a cuisine that they like, or a show that they like
- Put in a lot of extra effort, because when you can demonstrate labour people are more appreciative of the work you did for them.
- Interesting them with something odd or unique, Something from historical cooking is fun, a foreign dish they may be unaware of and seems new to them, or something with an ingredient that is either odd or unthought of
- Or Playing into the spectacle of a dish, something that you really can only enjoy in a group or in other people's company, something big or hands-on that includes the guest in on the fun of the dish outside of its taste. The experience of the dish, the event of it.
Spaghetti con le Polpette
My first idea is a large platter of Spaghetti con le Polpette, mainly to play into the appeal of it from Lupin, and come on, who doesn't like pasta. Here's how I would make it my own thing and something really to remember: First off I would cut my own spaghetti, when I'm cooking for others I like to have everything homemade if possible, so I'd break out my pasta roller to make my own spaghetti. Secondly, I would use my own speciality red sauce; I'm actually allergic to tomatoes, so over the years I have developed my own tomato-free alternative sauce made mainly with red bell peppers (See Tofu Parm example below) and everyone tends to tell me how impressed they are by it because it really does taste like tomato sauce. For the meatballs I'd either do pork and chicken, or a meatless meatball, I've made meatless meatballs a few different ways before so I'd experiment with how I did it, and I prefer to eat vegetarian as much as I can.
Any type of hot pot/nabe (Shabu Shabu, Mizutaki, Sukiyaki, etc.)
Hot pots are great for when you have a group of people, they're really good event foods, gather a group of friends and a bunch of ingredients, and really every can get something they like in a hot pot. Really fun and a cool spectacle.
Don't go all out, do something simple and cook from the heart, use what you have. (These are all my photos)
The easiest way to impress someone with your cooking is to just cook what you love, and sharing good food with the people around you, because as long as the food is good, and the company is good, that's all you need for a truly memorable night.
From top, left to right: Japanese Chicken Curry, Shrimp Pilaf, Rainbow Trout with a shallot and apple wine sauce and broccolini, Chicken Ramen
From bottom, left to right: Slow cooked chicken thighs with root vegetables over pommes puree, Chicken Teriyaki with a side salad, Borscht, Hiyashi Chuka, Tofu Parmesan.
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I'm a terrible cook, but I do have a few dishes that I can cook well enough to impress company. If it's a bunch of people, I'm probably going to make Pizza Noodle Bake. It's a recipe that I inherited from my aunt.
Ingredients:
Ingredients:
- 8 by 8 inch pan
- 2 cups wide noodles
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1/4 cup diced onions
- One 15 ounce can of tomato sauce (I can only find these in 8 ounce cans, two of those are also fine).
- 1 cup of water
- 4 slices of Mozzarella cheese (this is an old recipe so it uses slices. I've found that one regular size bag of mozzarella does the trick).
- Salt, pepper, garlic powder, and oregano per preference (I sub out the oregano for Italian Seasoning)
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Yeah it’s a SHOCK how amazing the addition of a little instant expresso mix makes brownies AMAZING. I have an amazing from scrach brownie recipe from King Arthur Flour that uses the instant coffee mix lol I only do it sometimes, because it’s a bit annoying to mix the sugar into the melted butter, but the end result is incredible!I self-ascribe myself as a better baker than I am a cook, and so usually what I do as a stunner is some kind of dessert! I have experience and enjoy baking from scratch but on a time crunch (which I find I usually am on
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Simple casserole dish type stuff like this is great for company because you can make a nice big portion and feed a lot of people haha sounds great! Thanks for sharing
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Honestly any coffee stuff in chocolate works great. I love a chocolate cake with a cup of coffee subbed for water is great. And this coming from someone who doesn't particately like or drink coffee. It only enhances the chocolate flavor in almost any context.
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Same here, I don’t like coffee, I’m a tea guy, but the way it accents the sweetness and bitterness makes it taste so good!
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Then you might be interested in the fact that like how coffee accents chocolate desserts well, tea in a vanilla dessert or paired with a vanilla dessert works just as well, and really brings out the quality of the dessert. I love making earl grey ice cream or a nice black tea chiffon in the fall, it's a really cozy pairing.
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This was such a hard question to answer because I'm always cooking! I've worked in restaurants and diners since I was a teen and having to pick one dish is so tough! I don't necessarily have a "go to" but I have a few favourites I like to pull out:
Air fried whole chicken with roasted veggies
Salt and season the chicken (I usually use rosemary), sprinkle oil on it and pop it in the air fryer for 40 minutes at 360 degrees. Flip it halfway through and season the other side. Meanwhile, cut 4-5 potatoes, 3 sweet potatoes, 4 beets, 1 large yellow onion, and 2 carrots into 1inch pieces. Put those on a pan and season with salt, pepper, rosemary, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Put those in the oven at 400 degrees for 40 minutes. The veggies are super easy to switch out if you don't have them all on hand, and they go really well on a bed of quinoa if you have it.
Arroz con Pollo
Using a large rice cooker, turn it on and saute two chicken thighs for about 15 minutes flipping halfway. At the halfway mark add in diced yellow onion. At the 10 minute mark add in 1 bell pepper, 1 tbsp of chili powder, 1 tbsp of tumeric, 1 tbsp of cumin, 2 tbsp of chopped garlic, and a bayleaf. Let those roast for about 3 minutes. Add in 1 can of diced tomatoes, and let that cook for another two minutes. When the timer is up, add in 2 cups of rinsed rice, and equal amounts of chicken broth. Stir well. Turn on the cook rice option (mine takes about 30 minutes). When the timer is up pull out the chicken thighs, then fluff the rice. I like to put the chicken on top of the rice when I plate it.
Air fried whole chicken with roasted veggies
Salt and season the chicken (I usually use rosemary), sprinkle oil on it and pop it in the air fryer for 40 minutes at 360 degrees. Flip it halfway through and season the other side. Meanwhile, cut 4-5 potatoes, 3 sweet potatoes, 4 beets, 1 large yellow onion, and 2 carrots into 1inch pieces. Put those on a pan and season with salt, pepper, rosemary, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Put those in the oven at 400 degrees for 40 minutes. The veggies are super easy to switch out if you don't have them all on hand, and they go really well on a bed of quinoa if you have it.
Arroz con Pollo
Using a large rice cooker, turn it on and saute two chicken thighs for about 15 minutes flipping halfway. At the halfway mark add in diced yellow onion. At the 10 minute mark add in 1 bell pepper, 1 tbsp of chili powder, 1 tbsp of tumeric, 1 tbsp of cumin, 2 tbsp of chopped garlic, and a bayleaf. Let those roast for about 3 minutes. Add in 1 can of diced tomatoes, and let that cook for another two minutes. When the timer is up, add in 2 cups of rinsed rice, and equal amounts of chicken broth. Stir well. Turn on the cook rice option (mine takes about 30 minutes). When the timer is up pull out the chicken thighs, then fluff the rice. I like to put the chicken on top of the rice when I plate it.