Japanese curry is both easy and a crowd pleaser. I saute whatever veggies I have on hand and just add curry mix and water to it (S&B medium spice is my go to brand). Serve with flatbread or rice. It's very forgiving and customizable to personal taste.
Babish’s Panko Crusted Salmon.
It’s stupid easy & relatively quick. The hardest part for me was the egg white. Had never done it before.
If you’ve never done it before, & break the yolk on the first try… don’t dump the egg, just save it for breakfast. Yes, I dumped the egg.
Link to video, I think it’s the second dish, towards the middle.
Link to recipe is in the video description.
Edit: PipedBot shamed me.Link to recipe if you don’t want to go to YouTube.
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Cinnamon Toast Crunch and a glare. If you have to work on the glare, go watch Clint Eastwood in The Outlaw Josie Wales.
Risotto. I make one with panceta and mushrooms that can't be easier to make. And the principle is to just stir for 20' or so.
Go for some burgers, toast the buns, salt the tomatoes, setup caramelized onions, and use a nice cheese. Homemade buns go the extra mile.
When you do your ground beef, don’t use pre portioned ones or cut slices off the grocery store pack:
Put the amount you need in a bowl (you need 5oz or less per patty), add salt and pepper and minced garlic and kneed it all together by hand. Take little plastic lids from your tupperwares about four or five inches around and use them to form your patties with a concave shape (a divot in the middle).
Use a frying pan and a meat thermometer and pull em at five degrees below your target, flipping once, adding cheese a minute or two after the flip. If you chose a stupid cheese that doesn’t melt, put a little water in your pan and put the lid on till it does.
Pasta aglio, olio, peperoncino.
Literally "pasta with garlic, oil and chili peppers": easy to learn, hard to perfectionate.
One of my favorites and I’m actually making it tonight, with a different take on it than I’ve tried before: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CvsJcUmuDlO/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Dice some good tomatoes into that, add a little basil and sautee until the skin splits from the fruit and you have my go to dish, pasta pomodoro
They're different preparations, even if ingredients might be similar the order you do stuff changes radically the end result.
Cusine is not mathematical addition, it's a chemical reaction
Usually a sausage ragu and Brian Lagerstrom's foccacia. Honestly the foccacia is the real star, I make it for every guest the first time they come over for dinner, even the 2 hour version is delicious. The dough requires a little bit of work but it's straight forward and I've never had a bad result. Main course just needs to be something Italian or Italian adjacent that doesn't need the oven, since I try to have the bread ready a few minutes before serving. Ragu's a staple for us because you really just need five ingredients (pasta, crushed tomatoes, onion, garlic and italian sausage) and it's mostly just sitting around waiting for things to cook, so you have time to talk to your guests.
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That's what I was going to say. Risotto is pretty straightforward and doesn't take much thought (edited to make sense)
Risotto is easy but you do need to add liquid and keep it stirring for pretty much the whole cook time
Wings
We have an air fryer so they come out super crispy without deep frying, and you can use different sauces to finish so that everyone is happy
If I’m not air frying I’m using my Asian wing recipe where the coating has garlic and ginger powder and brown sugar. It burns so you have to bake them, then sauce with a mixture of hoisin, sriracha, mirin. It hits a lot of delicious notes at the same time
This 100%. Shakshuka is a beautiful and versatile dish. I love throwing whatever I can think of into it.
I've made it spicy with kimchi, adobo sauce, any hot sauce (truff is my favorite atm), etc.
I've used whatever cheese is in the fridge that week (Brie, manchego, gouda, etc). it's even better if you pair cream cheese chunks with whatever cheese you use.
Mix up whatever spices you want with it, or make it as simple as possible.
Shakshuka is great with Naan, toast of any kind (olive bread is my fav), hawaiian rolls, etc. Anything you can use to clean the bowl works well, you're going to want to!
Spaghetti aglio e olio. Sounds fancy yet it could not be simpler. Cook spaghetti or linguine or my favourite angel hair pasta. Meanwhile peel and slice garlic. Heat good quality EVOO in a pan and when the pasta is nearly ready toss in the garlic (I also like to add in sliced red chilli). Once garlic starts turning light golden toss in the pasta with a little bit of the pasta water and mix together. Serve sprinkled with shaved parmesan and some finely chopped parsley, oregano, marjoram or any green herb of choice for a little bit of colour (optional). Nice crusty garlic bread on the side and for a couple of bucks and 20 minutes of your time you're sure to impress anyone.
My go-to approach is beef goulash, Austrian style. It's a bit laborious (although the steps are easy), but the dish can (and should) be prepared in advance, then you prepare a simple potato mash as you get ready for the person.
Vegetarian guest? Seitan goulash tastes really good.
Mostly depends on the culture / palate of your guest. What I'd make for for someone who mostly eats takeout is quite different from what I'd make for someone that only eats Ramen and Kraft dinner.
Most likely I'd just make macaroni salad or macaroni casserole though, because everyone likes that.
I asked my mom for the family recipe, to use as an example in case you've never had it.
Cook some macaroni noodles and then cool it under running water. Cube cheese, ham, pickles. Hard boil a couple of eggs. I like them smashed to a paste and mixed in with the salad, but my family just has them as a side dish. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl with Miracle whip and seasoning salt.
If you want, you can make it a casserole by skipping the pickles + eggs, adding a cup of shredded cheese, and mixing it all together with a can of condensed tomatoe soup. Then bake it in a casserole dish until all the cheese melts.
Pho. Vietnamese chicken noodle soup. It's my favourite meal in the world. Healthy, cheap and incredibly easy to make.
Buy pho powder/ tablets. Put in water.
Add onions, chillis and a bit of lime.
Cook rice noodles.
You are done. It also freezes well. For all you lazy bastards out there. Try it once! You will add it to your weekly shopping list.
Pork chops in garlic-butter sauce with mushrooms. I usually serve them with mashed potatoes and steamed fresh green beans. If you don't do pork, you can do the exact same thing with chicken breasts.
3-4 thick-cut pork chops, preferably bone-in
1 cup mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
4 tablespoons butter
2-4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon fresh oregano, OR 1 teaspoon dried
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, OR 1 teaspoon dried
1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup milk
2 cups chicken broth
Salt and pepper to taste
Pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 F.
In a large oven-proof skillet, combine the butter, garlic, herbs, and mushrooms over medium-high heat.
When the butter has melted, push everything to the sides and add the pork chops. Sear until golden on both sides.
Spread the mushrooms evenly over everything, and put skillet in the oven. Bake for around 35 minutes, or until the pork chops are at 150-160 F.
Remove from oven and set the pork chops aside to rest. Tent foil over them to keep them warm. You can remove the mushrooms too if you want, but don't take away too much of the fat in the pan. You need whatever is in there for the gravy.
Put the skillet over low heat and whisk the flour into the fat in the pan. No lumps! Cook for 1-2 minutes to cook the flour and keep whisking. Whisk in the milk and chicken broth and cook until gravy is thick. Keep whisking the entire time. Flavor with salt and pepper to taste. If you want, you can add a pinch (1/8 teaspoon-ish) of red pepper flakes. It balances out the richness of the butter. You can also just put hot sauce on table, if you have spice-averse guests.
Pulled pork. It takes a long time to smoke, but requires minimal effort and hard to screw up.
If you don't have a smoker or bbq, a slow cooker or pressure cooker work great too!
1 chopped yellow onion, thrown in slow cooker/pressure cooker
3-4 lbs pork shoulder. Rub all over with paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. Quickly sear it on all sides, then throw it in the slow cooker/pressure cooker.
Add 12 oz of Pepsi or coke
Pressure cook on high pressure for 1 hour + 15 min to release pressure, or (my preferred method) slow cook for 6-8 hours.
Open it up, drain most of the liquid, shred in the pot with forks (it can honestly be done with a single fork), add bbq sauce to taste
Came here to say this. I don't think it could get easier than pulled pork. And it's insanely delicious.
Hoisin chicken. Adapted from a recipe I've not been able to find. Super easy, very few ingredients, ingredients are generally easy to find, and it's super quick to make. Doesn't make a huge mess, either. Goes well with simple rice and veg.
Ingredients:
Instructions:
Note: you may need to work in smaller batches. Don't crowd the pan.
Repeat in batches for all remaining chicken.
Edit to add: apologize for no measurements. As a humble home food-maker (as if I'd call myself a home chef!) I truly have no clue how much I use of much of anything. Sorry, I tried. Cook as you like it. Like extra garlic? Add more. Don't like garlic? Add only a little, or none. Hypertension? Don't add salt. Not a part of the 21st-century hypertension epidemic? Add salt to your liking.
Pan-seared sea scallops.
The key here is to get good scallops which were flash frozen, NOT stored in liquid.
All you need is a good skillet, a hot flame, and several tablespoons of good quality butter.
Watch a bunch of videos for various techniques. My preferred method is just basting them in butter.
Don't crowd the pan. Don't burn the butter. Don't overcook the scallops.
Master this dish and you will always have a last-minute gourmet option.
Serve with a mixed-green salad, grits, white wine.
Perfect for date night because it is classy, satisfying, decadent, but also light, and won't stain your clothes if it you happen to have a slip.
Note: the quality of this dish 100% depends on the quality of the scallops.
Sometimes, even when you pay top dollar, you can get a batch that are really bland.
Good news is that generally you can get great frozen ones from Costco, and keep them in your freezer, ready to go.
If you have time, and a lot is riding on the meal, do a test scallop in advance to make sure it's delicious. If it isn't find a new plan.
Sea scallops with Israeli couscous is a spot on pairing. They can both absorb the same buttery garlicky goodness you decide to use. It’s so yummy.
Fettuccine with Alfredo sauce, chicken breast, and broccoli. It's simple and delicious, while pairing excellently with an appetizer salad too. Bonus points if garlic bread is included
#food/dessert
[!summary] 👪 Serves: 6 people Difficulty: Average Time: 20 Minutes Additional Info: No Oven
Never put gelatine in a saucepan on the heat. For more flavour you can put a little Baileys on top