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I have no one visiting me
Spaghetti. Boiling water is the most advanced cooking thing I care to learn.
Either steak or salmon but depends on the guest like others have mentioned. I usually also enjoy putting my own spin on the recipe, like adding a spice or making it more citrusy etc
As a one size fits all kinda thing: sourdough bread, that takes me like 24 hours from start to finish, with incubating over night in the fridge.
Other than that, it depends. We already cook good for ourselves regularly, no need to wait for there to be guests. So we cook just regular food, whatever we think our guests might enjoy.
That primarily depends on the guest. There is no one size fits all dish.
What i can do to impress is that I ask the guest to name three ingredients, and I cook something using those.
It’s not the dish that impresses, but the preparation.
One year, my family and I were at my middle brother’s house for a summer time visit. He had a party and grilled chicken. My brother never really learned how to cook and it showed. People barely touched it and there was a ton of it left over.
Fast forward another year and he wants to do the same thing. I offer to cook so he can attend to other more important party affairs. The only thing I did differently was I started with fresh good quality chicken and not mass frozen bagged stuff from Tyson. I also brought my instant read thermometer. Otherwise it was just salt and pepper on the chicken, although I used a ton more than he did.
Same number of people, same amount of chicken… There were NO left overs. I also made my cubed potatoes, those were gone too.
It was all technique. I used virtually the same ingredients he had the year prior.
i buy milk, flour and vitamins and boil them down to little energy balls
It depends on who is coming over, I more usually impress with cocktails & make food to satisfy people not impress them. Gumbo, I have had people say best they ever tasted. Lamb for my mother-in-law, slow cooked 4 hours in the oven with fennel and apricots and harissa. Sourdough baguette one year at Thanksgiving, those were chowed down on. Vegan kid is impressed when I nail a dessert for her. I do grow some of what we eat, feel like that is sort of impressive I guess.
But cocktails is where I get the most compliments - I made the
https://imbibemagazine.com/recipe/friend-zone-a-zero-proof-strawberry-drink/
With some really nice spiced strawberry fermented soda I made, with the goop from the strawberry syrup like she uses in the recipe, but also the tops and leaves. It doesn’t even have alcohol, my heavy drinking ex brother outlaw could not understand how it could be so good. “What’s in this?” “Tepache de fresa” “No, I mean what is the booze?” “None.” “See, THAT is why you are the best. How is this so good?”
You have to know your audience to have it be well received. There’s no one dish that is going to universally be magic.
If you are cooking for me, gumbo or a soup with an amazing broth. Or a really good sandwich. I love a good sandwich.
I can cook for myself alright, but I don’t impress people with my culinary skills. I’m not a fan of cooking.
When I need to save face because there are guests, (rarely happens but it does) I do pan fried salmon and steamed vegetables. It’s very difficult to get it wrong. It’s easy to season. Looks presentable. I learned to cook the salmon from a short Gordon Ramsay video that you can find on YouTube. Practically foolproof
Albany style steamed hams usually do well
Oh, I love having those with the Aurora Borealis.
Spanikopita
It depends on if I like the guest or secretly wish they were dead. if it’s the former I order takeout. if it’s the latter… I cook.
now baking on the other hand… I always bake from scratch. and never give my cookies to people I hate.
Lasagna. It takes a while to do the Bolognese so everyone gets impressed but the dish is so easy to actually make. Plus it’s delicious
I just made it for the first time this week, plus dairy free. After giving my daughter maybes when she’d ask because I thought it would be harder.
I used premade pasta and sauce though, which made it even easier. Browned some ground meat, set it aside to saute some celery, onions, and carrots for a bit, then re-added the meat, then the sauce, simmered for a bit, then built the lasagna layers. Normally I’m not a fan of that dairy free cheese, but it turned out pretty good overall.
Mine’s been basically dairy free for a while. My wife is allergic to cow dairy so I use a bechamel made with oat milk. I do sprinkle in some pecorino but I bet I could get the exact same salty umami notes with msg or something.
Glad you finally embraced the lasagna. Keep layering
Best part is tonight we can have leftovers. As much as I love cooking, I also love not cooking.
But I just remembered I took some stewing beef out of the freezer the other day, so I should probably use that.
I legitimately think the best lasagna is leftover lasagna. Throw in in the oven for a little while, maybe under the broiler for a bit, and I think it’s better than fresh.
According to my husband, anything with garlic, onion, and sautéed those both in butter smells very fancy.
If I had time to plan though, I’d make ravioli and freeze them and make sauce when they came over.
Shakshuka, Japanese curry, misir wot (ethiopian spicy red lentils). to name a few
