I have a pasta maker attachment for my stand mixer, and it makes it surprisingly easy to make fresh pasta. So I’ll knead together some semolina, egg, and warm water until I get a nice dough (using the stand mixer, of course), then feed it through the pasta maker attachment to make fettuccine. Boil and make a simple sauce with browned butter, pasta water, a splash of heavy cream, a spoonful of whole grain mustard, a spoonful of garlic paste, then topped with some freshly grated pecorino and a drizzle of olive oil.
Sounds fancy, and it does take a bit more time to make the pasta from scratch, but it’s not hard at all and it’s ludicrously delicious. Plus, 99% of people are impressed by even the idea of fresh pasta.
If I’m going for “easy” as in “fast”, too, I’ll use a package of storebought gnocchi and chop in a zucchini instead.
Penne a la vodka and apple almond crunch salad
After many failed attempts I can now semi-consistently roll a proper burrito
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
Good one. For some reason Alfredo sauce always sends me into a nuclear fart frenzy
Might be lactose intolerance. Try taking some lactase enzymes prior to eating next time you have it and see if it helps.
Thanks bud!
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
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.
Totally, never buy the pre portioned ones. Always make them from scratch.
Korma based on Patak’s Korma paste. Onions (1-2 depending on size), chopped Chicken breast (1000g), Korma paste. Let it brown a bit. Put in coconut milk (800ml), let it simmer for 20-30 min. Put in Korma paste to taste. Now put in cream (200-250ml) and put in more Korma paste to taste. Serve with rice.
Things to watch out for:
- The korma paste needs to be cooked for a minute or so before it tastes good. Putting some in after cooking will taste terrible.
- The cream should be cooked as short as possible or it will coagulate. That won’t affect the taste, but it will affect looks and texture. So it should be seasoned as close to correct as possible before you put in the cream.
If you have more time and want to impress more: Juicy Lucy Burgers.
For the patty you need ground meat (1000g), finely chopped onions (2-3 depending on size), salt, pepper and worcestershire sauce (2-4 tea spoons).
You then spread the meat really thin on a glass cutting board (or other really smooth surface, worst case aluminium foil works too). Slice some cheese really thin and place it on the meat. Put another thin layer of meat on top of the cheese and “seal” the cheese into the meat, so that it’s completely covered on all sides. Lift the meat from the board using a big knife and fry it in a pan.
Serve in a brioche bun with toppings of your choice.
Regarding the cheese: since the cheese will be getting much more heat than cheese usually does on a burger, don’t use the usual processed soft cheese,but instead real cheese like Gauda (if you want it mild), Emmentaler, or if you want something really special, some harder kind of blue cheese (I am using Österkron, but I am sure it’s not internationally avaliable).
Juicy Lucy
Found the Minnesotan
Actually, I am from Austria in Europe. I just saw that recipe online and the results are amazing.
I usually just go for lasagna, either classical or a vegetable lasagna. I wouldn’t say it’s terribly impressive, but most people like it. And it has the huge advantage of being able to be prepared in advance, so I save myself the trouble of getting extremely stressed over finishing the meal in time but not to early. The béchamel sauce might take a few times to get right but after that it’s not hard to prepare.
Get a lamb tagine recipe down, and work out all the trimmings, it’s pretty easy, and it makes a proper spread with pretty minimal effort. The tagine is the only real cooking, and it’s pretty relaxed. Then do a decent couscous (or CPU’s void as autocorrect would have it), with lots of stock, butter, and zatar, get some decent flat breads, and then bung out a whole load of mezze bits like humous/olives/stuffed bell peppers etc. It looks like loads of effort, but it’s actually cruisy, and it tastes fantastic
Cinnamon Toast Crunch and a glare. If you have to work on the glare, go watch Clint Eastwood in The Outlaw Josie Wales.
Finally, something at my level.
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I’d hire you as my personal chef
All my savoury stuff tends to fall flat. But I am pretty good at baking. I made a bakewell tart recently and it was killer. Also bread. I make some pretty mean breads. Also, whilst I haven’t done it in a while, I used to make cheese, specifically soft rind cheeses like camembert. Not east to prepare, takes about 8 weeks, but very impressive.
One more, homemade pasta. Whilst I don’t really think homemade pasta tastes any better than store bought, people do find it impressive. And a pasta roller is pretty cheap.
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.
Depends on the person you’re trying to impress. If the person is Caucasian then make something bland otherwise add some spices.
Don’t do this, please. Even if you’re mocking Caucasians, this sort of association between race and behaviour/culture is one of the pillars of racism. You’re also being non-contributive.
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.
These are super simple, take under 20 minutes, and people love them.
For a dinner: Baked salmon with lemon, butter, garlic and dill. Saute some spinach on the side. For a lunch: Sandwich. Crusty baguette, a soft cheese of some sort, slices of green apples. Maybe a cured meat like prosciutto if you are feeling that. Takes no time at all to make but feels fancy. For a breakfast: Oatmeal with guava paste. It turns pink which is fun, then toast some slivered almonds in a bit of butter and server them hot on top.
