Well I didn't discover my signature dish until this past summer. My friend Prego Cheryl hooked me up with a case of steaks from Omaha Steaks (www.OmahaSteaks.com). For anyone not familiar with Omaha Steaks, they are the folks that sell high quality meats and a smattering of other food products. Anyhoo I would marinate the steaks in a teriyaki marinade bought from the local supermarket. Throw those puppies on the charcoal grill and cook to a medium rare and serve with tater tots. YUM!!! OK I know not the most imaginative dish out there but I ain't much of a cook. So what's your signature dish?
I make this Chianti spaghetti sauce that takes me most of a day to make. It simmers for about six hours. My mom is an awesome cook, and even she is amazed by it.
i make a mean prime rib for christmas every year... my parents call me up every few months and have me make it for dinner parties they host as well; along with a smattering of side dishes and a dessert or two. it is during those times when i realize that cooking is a blast but i would weigh 400 lbs. if i was an actual chef for a career. i wanna eat everything i make...
Paella. A rice dish with seafood/sausage/chicken/pork/ veggies thrown in. Think of it as a Spanish version of a jambalaya. You can make it with just about anything really. Chorizo or linguiza or kielbasa. Shrimp. Mussels. Clams. Lots of bell peppers. The most important things is the saffron. Get the best one you can afford. A little goes a long way.
One family recipe on my mother's side (4 generations) is my great grandmother's shortbread. Wouldn't be Christmas without it. Another family recipe (3 generations, again Mother's side) is called The Pink Dessert which is strawberry jello whipped with condensed milk (chilled) and put into a graham cracker crumb crust. Nice and light and perfect on a hot night. As I'm veg I don't make this anymore but it holds a special place in my heart as my Mom's Dad was a food chemist and worked on jello flavorings for General Foods. K
My freezer is stocked full of steaks from them as well as chicken, pork chops, bacon, and some other misc beef products. I would reccomend that everyone get a box of something from them at one time or another. Signature dish? Hmmm. Big NY strip steak with (secret) seasonings and a redwine sauce with wild rice and steamed asparagus.
chicken breasts in a balsamic reduction sauce. it sounds like a lot of work, but it is the easiest dam thing you could make.
The meal that I get the most requests for is my venison chili. My favorite meal to cook for myself is jamaican jerk chicken with mango chutney.
I get the most request for my version of Gumbo. I also have a few Italian dishes, Chicken Cacciatore, Stuffed Shells with Meat. My sister is always asking me to make Lumpia and Pansit.
I get called upon to make cookies more often than anything, but jambalaya is what I'd consider my signature dish.
For my vegetarian friends, it's red bell peppers stuffed with goat cheese and basil. For the non-veggies, it's Cornish game hens cooks with lemon, rosemary and garlic. I like to serve roasted vegetables with a reduced balsamic vinegar glaze with them. Sounds hard, but it's easy.
I have a really good recipe with a rub on top of CGH (cornish game hen), and stuffed with some marinated veggies doused in sherry. Easy recipe baked with some seasoned, sliced red potatoes.
I make great soups - big batches, and shared with friends with crusty bread. Same thing with my pot roast - with carrots & potatoes, and NOT greasy! Outdoors, it's my ribs (I make my own sauce), with cornbread. I'd like to be a better cook when it comes to fish. Since I like it semi-burnt, I tend to make it that way.
Linguine with Clam Sauce Salmon Cakes with Ginger Lime Dressing Turkey Meatloaf Grilled Tuna Steak with Dijon/Soy/Ginger reduction
if you ask my friends theyd say my homemade chicken pot pie, home fries with vidalia onion, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies or my turkey burgers with butternut squash chips the one im most proud of is chicken pepperoni - baked chicken on angel hair with a pepperoni red sauce that takes several hours - i could eat that every day my mom makes a chicken alla raviera (creamy cheddar sauce) thats freakin' unreal!! shes also the cookie magician - makes a few gross of about a dozen different cookies every holiday season - off the top of my head: chocolate chip, snickerdoodles, chocolate with peanut butter chips, peanut butter, buckeyes, russian tea, these chocolate covered ritz things, these peanut butter rice krispie dipped in chocolate things & these pecan turtle cookies - im forgettin a few damn im hungry now
When it is our turn to host for the holidays, the most requests are for: Wild Rice Soup REAL Ukrainian Borscht (NOT beet soup, as is the common perception; you've made it right when you've loaded so much beef/pork/chicken & veggies into the pot that a soup spoon will stand up on its' own when placed in the middle) Kulebyaka (kind of a big meat pasty, with seasoned rice, hardboiled eggs & your choice of beef/chicken/pork/fish/wild mushrooms in the middle) Walleye & wild rice with a raspberry-walnut sauce The easiest thing I make that really tastes & appears like you spent a long time on it- fresh rainbow trout, cleaned & gutted but with the head intact; coat the insides of the cavities with a liberal amount of dijon mustard, and then spoon raspberry or blackberry preserves into the cavities. Brush the skin sides very lightly with olive oil, bake.
Not allowed to show up for Christmas Eve feast without Potato Skins. Good stuff there. A couple of kinds of chili, fajitas, focaccia.