Favourite Meal - Can Do & Wanna Do?

PlymouthMaid

Home made pizza is definitely my signature dish and family feel shortchanged if they are invited and get anything else. I am a bit pants at Chinese so don't bother.

meritaten

I can do a cracking 'Chinese Chicken and Mushroom'. tastes the same as my local takeaway. but I can serve four for the same price as one serving from them.

Recipe
a little oil to fry
a few dried Chinese mushrooms soaked in boiling water for 10 minutes
some boneless chicken thighs (four will serve four people) cut into chunks
one chopped onion
a few mushrooms (the big flat ones are good or button mushrooms)chopped into big pieces.
couple of cloves of garlic chopped or crushed.
grated fresh ginger - about an inch
dry sherry
water or chicken stock plus the water from the soaked mushrooms.
cornflour and water combined to make a thick syrup
stir fry the onion garlic and ginger in about a tablespoon of the oil for a minute or so, add the chopped chicken thighs and stir fry until they are browned nicely. add the mushrooms.
when the mushrooms brown add the sherry and the water or chicken stock to cover the chicken and mushrooms. put a lid on and simmer for ten minutes - check the chicken is cooked through and the liquid remains to almost cover the chicken and veg. add the cornflour and water and bring back to boil and thicken the sauce. serve.
you can add soy sauce if you want. at any stage. I prefer to add it at the end of cooking in case the chicken stock is salty enough.

raphanius

i have totally cracked indian food...so much so that my after many a chat with my local indian restaurateur (i work a few doors away and we chat often about my cooking) when i do have a takeaway he serves me the most outstanding dishes he can come up with keeping me on my toes and looking for ways to better my indian cooking.

my chinese cooking is ok but not outstanding...my best dish is singapore noodles. not very ambitious.

DS prefers my homemade pizzas to the takeaway and my lasagne is to die for but i can't take the credit for that...i had help from a friend who taught me his recipe. its not cheap to make though, lots of expensive ingredients and an insane quantity of cheeses!

i would love to master thai food but haven't eaten enough of it out to compare.

JIL

I can do a really good chowmein.
I would love to do a biriani like the ones served in the local Indian restaurants. I have tried jars, packet mixes, my own spice mix, different methods of cooking but cannot get it right.

Leodis1970_2

Hehehe - thanks everyone ... great to hear that I'm not the only only one bonkers enough to get obsessed with "cracking" dishes!

Working on something at the moment (nothing that will cost anyone anything and of course I wouldn't promote it on here anyway) that I think many will find useful. Your replies have confirmed what I thought and hoped but didn't really know for sure

Leo

pablakeman

My sig dish would probably be a fish pie, but being a student in a long-distance relationship I am only normally cooking for myself! Can I call it my sig dish? I make a lot of bolognaese too, and love cottage pie/shepherds pie. I also make a pretty good omelette I like to think.

I want to crack paella but have only really tried it once to be honest! My girlfriend loves Spanish food after our visit to Barcelona (to be honest, she loves pretty much any food as long as there isn't a vegetable in sight!!) so I would love to make really great tapas and paella to please her. Apart from this, I just want to improve generally with my cooking and be able to make 1 or 2 tip-top meals!

As I cook mainly for me and am not fussy, I tend to look at how healthy a meal is rather than how good it tastes.

sillyvixen

not a takeaway or restraunt meal, but recently i was served a m&s meal at someones house (its from the vegetarian range and is a mushroom and onions in a gravy sauce topped with mash) it was so nice, i sneaked the cardboard sleeve into my bag to recreate the dish at home, i managed to create 4 servings for less than the cost of the ready meal it was lovely.

Lizling

Totally cracked - Chinese veg dish with a sort of chilli/soy/ginger sauce. Still to try that one out on guests though. Also Wagamama's vegetables and noodles in chilli lime soup, but I took that straight from their recipe book so I'm not sure that counts!

Still to crack - Indian. My dal's there sometimes, but it's not consistent yet. I can't replicate a really good saag paneer either, but neither can most of the restaurants. I'm hoping for some recipes from a Pakistani chef who's a friend of a friend, so maybe that'll help. Also, flatbreads in general. They should be so simple but I just can't get them quite right for some reason.

Oh, and phad thai. I forgot that one. I can make it, but not a patch on the perfect one I had once that I still dream about

gizwal

I make the Masterchef meatballs in tomato sauce- really nice! And also cauliflower cheese , with extra cheese , bacon , leeks , red pepper and more cheese -this is a firm favourite in our house.

Don`t like cooking with fresh fish or prawns , think I`m afraid of poisoning everyone!

MandM90

sillyvixen wrote: »

not a takeaway or restraunt meal, but recently i was served a m&s meal at someones house (its from the vegetarian range and is a mushroom and onions in a gravy sauce topped with mash) it was so nice, i sneaked the cardboard sleeve into my bag to recreate the dish at home, i managed to create 4 servings for less than the cost of the ready meal it was lovely.

I would love you forever if you could supply us with the recipe