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.

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.

Cinnamon Toast Crunch and a glare. If you have to work on the glare, go watch Clint Eastwood in The Outlaw Josie Wales.

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.

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

Risotto is not too hard and looks fancy

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Hoisin chicken. Adapted from a recipe I’ve not been able to find. Super easy, very few ingredients, ingredients are generally easy to find, and it’s super quick to make. Doesn’t make a huge mess, either. Goes well with simple rice and veg.

Ingredients:

• Chicken of choice (thigh is best, can substitute breast though haven’t tried), diced into small chunks (three quarter- to one-inch)
• Hoisin sauce
• Garlic, minced finely
• Ginger, minced finely (I’m usually lazy and use prepared ginger paste from the store)
• Red pepper flakes (optional)
• Salt, to taste (I omit, as I find the hoisin sauce plenty salty)
• Pepper, to taste (I recommend white pepper, though black pepper can be used)
• Neutral oil, like vegetable

Instructions:

Note: you may need to work in smaller batches. Don’t crowd the pan.

1. At med-high to high heat, quickly cook the chicken in the pan using a bit of oil. Cook until nearly cooked through, but just barely under. Season while cooking with salt and pepper to taste.
   • Note: I like to add the red pepper flakes halfway through cooking the chicken to hydrate the flakes in the oil/juices, which helps bring out some extra flavour from the flakes, seasoning the chicken itself. This makes it a bit spicier though.
2. Push the chicken to the edges of the pan.
3. Put approx. 1 tsp (or to taste) each of garlic and ginger into the centre of the pan and very quickly saute until golden. Do not let them go over golden.
4. Pour in just enough hoisin to coat the chicken. Pour straight into the ginger and garlic, and mix well to form a sauce. Stir quickly for a few seconds, you’ll find the sauce thickens slightly at the high heat.
   • Note: if you didn’t add the red pepper flakes earlier to the chicken, you can add it now.
5. Toss the chicken into the sauce. You should have a light, but thorough, coating.

Repeat in batches for all remaining chicken.

Edit to add: apologize for no measurements. As a humble home food-maker (as if I’d call myself a home chef!) I truly have no clue how much I use of much of anything. Sorry, I tried. Cook as you like it. Like extra garlic? Add more. Don’t like garlic? Add only a little, or none. Hypertension? Don’t add salt. Not a part of the 21st-century hypertension epidemic? Add salt to your liking.

Corn beef hash.