I'm talking about the one thing that you make once or twice a year on special occassions when you want to make an impression. Maybe you're hosting a dinner party and their is someone there that you desperately want to impress. Maybe the people you work with are coming over and grilled cheese sandwichs and potato chips just won't cut it. Maybe you just want to kick back and stuff yourself with the best food that you know and fall asleep with a great buzz. For whatever reason... what is your specialty? Mine is a Vietnamese dinner that I picked up partially from a college roommate and partially from a cookbook. It can feed a large number of people pretty easily and has an unusual flavor that most people haven't experienced before (even if they like Vietnamese food already). It is also cool because you can serve it family style as long as everyone is comfortable with that. There are two dishes that you eat with rice. The first is sweet and sour catfish soup. The main ingredients are tamarind, pineapple, tomato, catfish, fish sauce, and celery. The catfish is taken out of the soup when it is finished cooking and put on a plate with fish sauce and jalapeno slices. The soup is then poured into bowls of rice. The other dish is carmalized catfish. The main ingredients are bacon, garlic, dark soy sauce, sugar, green onions, catfish, and fish sauce. Everything is simmered on low heat in a pan to make this red syrupy dish that contrasts with the soup.
I love to cook stuffed Cornish Hens. Side dishes vary and fresh bread from my breadmaker, oh and a nice glass of Chianti, pfpfpfpfffppfpfpf. (a la Hannibal Lecter)
People come from miles around when I cook my barbeque brisket or ribs. I cooked a brisket on Friday that was so tender it was almost impossible to slice. The meat just fell apart. It melted in your mouth. One of the best I've ever cooked (and I've cooked hundreds of briskets).
I really don't have any that I do once or twice a year, and I have several that friends and relatives constantly request: fajitas guacamole chicken soup crawfish boil crawfish bisque fried chicen or chicken fried steak with dark brown gravy black eyed peas pinto beans pot roast greek salad potato salad with homemade olive oil mayo wonton soup tamales Polish sausage (lightly smoked, lots of garlic, all pork) buffalo wings breakfast tacos (easiest thing in the word, but no one makes 'em this way, so everyone thinks they're special) pumpkin waffles pancakes (my mom's recipe) pie crust (again...gotta give credit to mom, but my friends love it) shrimp en brochette gumbo fried fish
I make a mean Roast and also grilled shrimp ka-bobs get requested. I do have one good one though. I have a friend that eats with my wife and I occasionally. He always asks me to make my "famous" stroganoff. He has yet to realize all it is is Hamburger Helper stroganoff mix with a little extra sour cream added. I'm not telling him my secret either
Every time I go to a seafood resturant, I check to see if they have a recipe for shrimp brochette. EASILY my favorite seafood dish. For those that don't know, shrimp brochette is seasoned shrimp (usually a cajun seasoning of some sort) stuffed with cheese, wrapped in bacon, then grilled. Salty, fattening, high in cholesterol...But DAMMIT if it isn't one of the tastiest dishes ever... So, Pole...mind if I come over for dinner?
A-train. As easy as they are to make, they are one thing that you can't just "give a recipe" for. The cooking method is unique. Also, beside the salt, cholesterol, and fat in the recipe, the cooking method is sure to add quite a few carcinogens to the mix. But hey....I may be knocking off ten years of my life, but at least it's the last ten. Too prepare them is simple, simply cut the vein out of the shrimp leaving a slit along it's back. take a sliver of jalepeno (I cut my japs in fourths lengthwise, then I cut each fourth into three slivers) and put it in the slit in the back of the shrimp. Then take a sliver of jack cheese (I cut it to be about a quarter inch by quarter inch by inch and a half) and put it against the jalepeno and the shrimp's back. Then take a piece of cheap (thin) bacon and start at the head (actually, the shrimp should be headless, but you know what I mean) of the shrimp and wrap the whole bundle together ending near the tail. Secure the tag end with a toothpick that goes through body of the shrip. That's the easy part to explain. Cooking them is another thing entirely. It's easy once you get the hang of it, but it's hard to explain. Basically, most of the cheese ends up melting and running out of the package. That will start a greese fire on the coals which flash cooks the bacon (which produces more greese to fuel the fire). The key is to cook them so fast on the outside that you don't overcook the shrimp on the inside. As soon as you have a flare up, make sure you put other shrimp near that area so they'll produce more fuel for the fire. Eventually, you'll have this raging enferno that will cook everything pretty quickly. It can even be hard to stand close to the fire because it's so hot, but you have to. You have to constantly turn the shrimp so they don't burn. They taste awesome, but making them is not for the faint of heart.
Allright....I will. But when I do, you'll go spppptttt! Big whoop. But they're really good. jeez.....as I sit here thinking about this....and all the intricate things I cook....this is going to sound like a mac and cheese story or red baron pizza. Anyway, Take a chub of jimmy dean hot breakfast sausage (or any spicy breakfast sausage that you like) and throw the whole thing in a skillet. Fry it on medium heat and break it up with a spatula. The idea is to break it up into the consistency of taco meat. Cook until well browned. You can spice it up if you like (I like to add cumin and a little cayenne), but it's fine the way it is. Scramble some eggs. Grate some cheddar cheese. get your favorite salsa (I like to make my own, but most of the time, I'm lazy and I just use Pace Picante) Those four items are the only things I serve to put in the tacos. I'm sure other things would taste good, but I got in the habit of just serving those four items. I've been meaning to try some refried beans with them, but I haven't gotten there yet. Okay....so what makes them different. Everyone else would stuff those things into a flour tortilla. I pull out the frying oil and fry up some corn tortilla taco shells. Regular hard corn taco shells. I don't use the ones that come in a box, so that's a bit of work right there, but everything else is really easy. There's something about those ingredients that really lend themselves well to the hard fried corn taco shells. Far, far superior to the soft flour tortillas. Once again, just one man's opinion....but I seem to have a bunch of friends who agree. Oh yeah....I have another thing to add to my specialty list (Falcons Talon reminded me)....cheese enchiladas. My friends always ask for the chicken/tomatilla ones, but my wife and I like the cheese ones the best.
I haven't done them in a while, but I used to have them at least 3 times a week. More like 5 to 7 usually. No matter how dumb it sounds, I will stand by my conviction -- I make the best damned Ramen noodles EVAR! I can do it any one of about 8 different ways, depending on how you like it. The standard Maruchan Ramen - Oriental Flavor is THE BEST. Not the cup ones, but the one that is 7 for a dollar. No one can beat me at these. I even did a presentation in a college speech class on Ramen noodles once.
I make - Nachos (Spread tortilla chips on plate, grate cheese over them, microwave it, add beans, sour cream, salsa, whatever) Breakfast Burritos - (cook some eggs, dice em up, cook some ham, dice it up, grate some cheese put it in a tortilla!)
Vengeance.. it's a great skill... as i start college next year i'll eat them lol.. gotta know how much water to let evaporate out.. when cooking them..
