We're coming to dinner, what's cookin?

[Motokid]

One week from today 5 people from this forum will be appearing at your door with a healthy appetite. Two of the people you identify with on a regular basis, two are people you spar with frequently and one is a moderator. At least two live in a different country than you.

Your job is to prepare a home cooked meal to feed these people. Of coarse you’ll aim to impress since the rest of the forum will surely hear about the festivities soon after the fact. You’ll pull out all the stops and go for the gold. What will your menu consist of?

What’s your most impressive culinary concoction?

Mine is sweet & sour chicken stir fry prepared in a wok with carrots, celery, fresh mushrooms, water chestnuts, broccoli, baby corn, garlic and chicken. The carrots and celery are cut to matchstick sizes. The chicken, boneless chicken breast cut into small bite sized pieces, is marinated in a special solution of orange juice, garlic, sesame seed oil, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, and a special hot & spicy oil for bite. Everything is cooked in a wok and then the sweet and sour sauce is added at the very end of the cooking process. You would have a choice of having this over a bed of rice, or over oriental noodles that have been laced with a touch of sesame seed oil.

For desert, if you still have room for it, I’d serve my mothers famous southern pound cake. A subtly rich, and buttery yellow cake that needs no icing, but could be garnished with either fresh strawberries or a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. The cake, still being warm out of the over, would cause the ice-cream to melt just a bit and leave you a very nice vanilla "sauce" to eat your cake with. Fresh brewed coffee to help settle the meal would be provided as well.

 

[Halo]

Hey, that menu impresses me (just hold the celery and garlic, thanks). I'll be round straight away!

 

[novella]

You asked . . .

Gotta warn you, I cook more than anyone I know. Literally three meals a day, from scratch. Comes from living in the boonies and hating processed food (except for Cheetos).



You can have my summertime Greek menu or my cold weather French menu:

Greek/summer

Spanikopita, homemade (spinach, feta, leek filling in phyllo pastry crust.
Marinated Kalamata olives and peperoncini
Greek charcoal-grilled skewers of lamb, marinated in lemon, garlic, herbs, olive oil.
Greek roast potatoes.
Grilled skewers of shrimp, marinated in turmeric, lemon, and ginger root.
Homemade pita breads
Dolmades (brined grape leaves, rinsed, stuffed with rice, onion, parsley, garlic, lemon, toasted pine nuts)
Tzatziki (yogurt, cucumber, garlic dip-homemade)
Hummus, homemade

Fresh fruit
or
Scratch blackberry pie, with local berries and homemade lattice butter crust.


French/cold weather

Warm goat cheese (chevre) and potato timbale (stacked baked cake-like thingy) with drizzle of homemade dijon vinaigrette and a few greens.

Cassoulet, made with flageolet dried beans, French garlic sausage, roast duck meat or confit, and any one of lamb, pork, or spicy sausage. Flavored with bouquet garni, garlic, and goose fat from Christmas goose. This cooks for a day in various stages.

Good Margaux, such as Ch. Priere Lichine.

Pink grapefruit sabayon brulee, my own recipe. Sections of pink grapefruit, seeded, arrayed in a pinwheel in a shallow baking dish, napped with a thick sabayon (sweet egg-custard sauce flavored with Madeira or sherry), broiled until the top is just golden.

I serve that with Sauternes or Muscadet. It’s heavenly, if you like sweet-tart tastes.

 

[dele]

Novella, I'm coming over just so you can teach me how to do that!!

 

[novella]

Practice, grasshopper.

In my kitchen, I'm like a mechanic in his shop. Move my spatula or best knife and I feel like a chasm of despair and confusion has opened up. It's my personal landscape. I'm not one of those social cooks who likes people in the kitchen. I'm a heads down, get in flow type cook, completely nonverbal. It's like meditation for me.


The large knife here is my favorite knife. The handle is a little narrow, but it's light and well balanced. Don't move it! You'll get in trouble.

 

[jenn]

well i would go for a sunday dinner. roast chicken with lemon, garlic, and rosemary. dark gravy, mashed potatoes with butter, honey glazed carrots, sauteed red, yellow and green bell peppers with olive oil and rosemary. served with either yellowtail merlot and or a nice valpollicella(sp?). for dessert, i would serve breadpudding with a rum hard sauce and real whipped cream, and coffee of course.

 

[bobbyburns]

I've got spaghetti in ziploc bags.

 

[novella]

well i would go for a sunday dinner. roast chicken with lemon, garlic, and rosemary. dark gravy, mashed potatoes with butter, honey glazed carrots, sauteed red, yellow and green bell peppers with olive oil and rosemary. served with either yellowtail merlot and or a nice valpollicella(sp?). for dessert, i would serve breadpudding with a rum hard sauce and real whipped cream, and coffee of course.

That sounds mighty tasty, jenn. In the Northern climates, cozy food keeps you going through the long dark winters, no?

 

[novella]

I've got spaghetti in ziploc bags.

What, no sausage? No balls of meat?

Where's warm_enema when you need him?

 

[bobbyburns]

I've got bags of beans to sit on while you eat it.

 

[novella]

That's not for me. That's for you. Your mommy made it. Have a glass of milk, dexter.

 

[Geenh]

I tend to host Japanese style dinner parties as I adore Japanese food! It's so time consuming and detailed but sooo delicious.

I wouldn't attempt teppanyaki because that would be a shambles and I'd be too humiliated to show my face around any good Japanese restaurant!

 

[Hollis]

I'm a southern girl. It'd be herb-marinated steak (garlic, celery salt, oregano, salt, pepper, lemon juice), baked potatoes as big as your head, biscuits, green bean casserole, and a homemade cherry pie for dessert (with a homemade piecrust of course)! Maybe a fruit salad too...or else my special green salad, which has pistachio pudding mix, cool whip, mandarin oranges, and crushed pineapple. It sounds strange, but is wonderful!

And Kenya Black Iced Tea...

I could try something weird and new, but why not stick with what I know?

 

[Motokid]

novella,

holy crap in a can....I can't even pronounce half of what you're gonna cook.
Never heard of most of it, but I'm sure it would be a treat to try so much new stuff.

Where does one find the time to cook three times a day from scratch, write 6,000 words a day, take care of a house, child and all that?????

Ever thought of writting a book on time management?

If I was gonna do a simple outdoor on the deck kinda dinner I'd make my personal/signature beer batter deep-fried chicken, along with beer batter deep fried onion rings, cantalope and watermelon with a multi layered chocolate desert that is made with chocolate pudding, whip cream, crumbled up brownie, and broken up bits of toffee all layered together in a clear bowl so you can see the layers. Ummmmm....

 

[sanyuja]

Hey moto... how about

rice, and dal with tadka or rice-rasam or rice-sambhar!
chapati with deep fried ladyfingers/baby potatoes with gravy (called dum aloo here)
puran poli and rasai to go with it OR
just plain curd rice and mango pickle???

When are you dropping in?

 

[novella]

novella,

holy crap in a can....I can't even pronounce half of what you're gonna cook.
Never heard of most of it, but I'm sure it would be a treat to try so much new stuff.

Where does one find the time to cook three times a day from scratch, write 6,000 words a day, take care of a house, child and all that?????

Ever thought of writting a book on time management?

....

Thanks for the compliment, but I think a lot of people do similar.

Most days it's regular breakfast, panini or soup for lunch (15-20 mins) and dinner. Last night we has Thai red snapper curry, rice, and onion sambal, 30 mins. Really not a big deal.

And most days I'm happy with 1000 words! And sometimes it's hard to get there.

And I'm not a good housekeeper. Dust elephants. Dog toys. Get the picture?

Plus, my hub works at home and we share tasks. And I like to cook.

I bet sanyuja makes good curries!

 

[Motokid]

"but I think a lot of people do similar."

Ummm...no.
My bet is that you are quite unique. Certainly in the US.

I'd bet there are more people who can run a full length marathon than cook the way you do.

I grovel in your shadow my lady......

 

[sanyuja]

I bet sanyuja makes good curries!

Yes I do

 

[direstraits]

Hey moto... how about

rice, and dal with tadka or rice-rasam or rice-sambhar!
chapati with deep fried ladyfingers/baby potatoes with gravy (called dum aloo here)
puran poli and rasai to go with it OR
just plain curd rice and mango pickle???

When are you dropping in?

Is only Moto invited? I love Indian food. My wife loves the rice-rasam, and I love all the curry (chicken, mutton) to go with the rice. Yum. Any papadums to go with that?

ds

 

[jenn]

That sounds mighty tasty, jenn. In the Northern climates, cozy food keeps you going through the long dark winters, no?

oh yes. it is true. we have all put on our winter pounds eating steak and guinness pie, chowder with baking soda biscuits, poutine, stew, basically anything with a potato. perogies.......ymmmmmmm.

but yesterday it was 5 degrees and sunny all day and i got a burn on my face so now i am hankering for bbq and salads.