What is your easy to prepare go to meal to cook when you want to impress someone? - eviltoast
  • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • HonkyTonkWoman@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • camelCaseGuy@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

    Ingredients (serves for 2)

    • Risotto type rice (Arborio, Carnerolli or similar) 150 gr
    • Chicken broth (homemade, if store bought then liquid, never in cubes) 1 lt
    • Onion 1 medium
    • Panceta 200 gr
    • Mushrooms (fresh) 200 gr
    • Olive oil
    • White wine
    • Parmesan cheese (grated or in very small chunks) 50gr
    • Butter 20 gr

    Prep

    1. In a pot, put the broth to heat. It’s not required for it to boil just to be hot.
    2. Chop the onion in very small cubes, as small as the rice grain if possible (so when you are eating it, you don’t feel it)
    3. Chop the panceta in cubes (no bigger than your thumb)
    4. In a big pot, at mid heat, put the panceta to brown and defat
    5. Once the panceta is brown and you have a good fat source at the bottom, remove and reserve the panceta
    6. Put the onion in the pot and use the same fat from the panceta to sauté it. If you need more, you can use olive oil.
    7. Once the onion is almost translucent, put the rice and pearl the rice. From now on, you should always be mixing the rice with a big wooden spoon or similar. Never stop stirring. This will make the rice to let all the starch go, which will make your risotto creamy.
    8. Once the rice is pearled, pour some wine to deglase and keep stirring.
    9. Once the wine has evaporated and you hear the crackling, pour some broth until the rice is submerged, keep stirring.
    10. Once your broth is evaporated and you start hearing the crackling again, put the panceta, the mushrooms and pour some more broth. Keep stirring.
    11. When you see that you are low on broth and hear that the rice is crackling, check on the rice for the cooking point. It should be al dente, meaning that you should be able to bite it and feel some resistance, but it should be very edible. If you still feel it too hard, pour more broth and keep stirring.
    12. When your rice is done, take the pot away from the fire, and put the parmesan cheese with the butter. Stir and mix until it’s uniform and creamy.
    13. Serve hot in small bowls or similar plates
    14. Decorate with olive oil, fresh grinded pepper and parsley.
  • TOModera@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Go for some burgers, toast the buns, salt the tomatoes, setup caramelized onions, and use a nice cheese. Homemade buns go the extra mile.

    • bloodfart@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      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.

  • Taako_Tuesday@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • pH3ra@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Pasta aglio, olio, peperoncino.
    Literally “pasta with garlic, oil and chili peppers”: easy to learn, hard to perfectionate.

  • Ornivar@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    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

    • Rozz@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 year ago

      That’s what I was going to say. Risotto is pretty straightforward and doesn’t take much thought (edited to make sense)

    • ickis@midwest.social
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      1 year ago

      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!

  • UnknownQuantity@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • Wanderer@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • Lvxferre@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • SethranKada@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • lowcarbbq@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Pulled pork. It takes a long time to smoke, but requires minimal effort and hard to screw up.

    • finestnothing@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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

      • Mog_fanatic@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Came here to say this. I don’t think it could get easier than pulled pork. And it’s insanely delicious.