...Three Go-To Meals...
Nothing says The Holidays like sitting around the table sharing food with family and friends, so I want to share three meals with you that are easy and delicious. Entertaining can be stressful, but it doesn't have to be if you keep things simple and prepare whatever you can ahead of time. One rule of thumb that I always follow is to wait until I'm finished all of my chopping, sauteing and broiling to have a glass of wine...or at least I only have one glass of wine until the risky stuff is done. Sadly, I learned that the hard way one Christmas when I ended up with a lovely meal on the table but also three bandaged fingers (to my credit, I was also using a new set of knives for the first time). Remember, something burnt or too runny isn't going to ruin Christmas, but a trip to the emergency room just may.
Brunch
The first meal is a Spanish-style potato omelette, otherwise know in Spain as "Tortilla". I lived in Spain for 5 months and enjoyed this dish more than once in tapas bars on a slice of bread, but it's hearty enough to be used as a main course as well, especially for a late breakfast or brunch get-together. My version is not strictly traditional, but it is delicioso!
Spanish-Style Potato Omelette
2-3 Tablespoons canola oil
3 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/8 inch thick pieces
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon garlic salt
6-8 eggs
3 Tablespoons milk or cream
red pepper flakes
salt and pepper
Best done in a large non-stick pan.
Heat canola oil to a medium heat and cook potatoes, although you don't want them to brown. When the potatoes seem about half-way done, add onions and continue to cook. When almost done, throw in the garlic and season with garlic salt and continue to heat until the potatoes are cooked through.
Meanwhile, in a bowl beat the eggs and then beat in cream. Add red pepper flakes (or any other seasoning you'd like; you could even throw some cubed cheese in here!) and salt and pepper to taste. Take the potatoes and pour them into the egg mixture. You can prepare this a few hours ahead and leave the mixture in the fridge (you may want to under-cook the potatoes just a little).
From here, pour the potato/egg mixture into a pan on high heat and then turn the temperature down to medium-low. Put a lid on the pan and cook until the top is starting to firm up. Then it's time to flip. Take a plate that is as big as the tortilla and set it upside down on the tortilla. Holding onto the plate, flip the frying pan so that the tortilla sits on the plate, cooked side up. Put the pan back on the burner and carefully slide the tortilla back in. Continue to cook for a few minutes longer to let the other side brown and serve with a salad and some other light side to counter the dense omelet. I've got mine with a mixed green salad and balsamic vinaigrette and some carrot sticks.
Lunch
Having people over for lunch can be daunting because it's not always easy to know what to serve. Here in North America, we tend to eat our biggest meal in the evening, so you don't want to serve anything too heavy around noon. A nice, flavourful chicken dish makes a great lunch that won't leave your guests feeling lethargic all afternoon. This dish was a favourite growing up, and my mom got it from the More-with-Less Cookbook put out by the Mennonite Central Committee. The book's tag line reads: "suggestions by Mennonites on how to eat better and consume less of the world's limited food resources", and it's full of great, worldly recipes like this one. I've tweaked it a bit, so the recipe shown here isn't exactly the same as the one in the book, but it's the same idea.
Honey-Baked Chicken
4 chicken breasts
1/3 cup melted butter
1/3 cup honey
2 Tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon soya sauce
1 teaspoon curry powder
Arrange chicken in a baking pan. Mix the remaining ingredients and pour on the chicken. You can do this a few hours ahead of time and let marinate in the fridge. Then, bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about an hour, basting every 15 minutes.
You can use most any kind of mustard for this dish, although I think Dijon is best. I've used grainy mustard before and it has turned out nicely as well. When I was a kid my mom used to make this dish with normal hotdog mustard, which works fine too, although it gives the sauce a strange neon yellow glow. I served the chicken with basmati rice and a mixed green salad with a toasted sesame vinaigrette. Even though there are just two of us here, I like to make this dish with all four chicken breasts because it's great warmed up the next day. I usually make extra sauce too because I love to soak my rice in the tangy yellow liquid.
Dinner
Around here, a special dinner usually means meat, potatoes and caesar salad. It's both of our favourite. To make this particular meal special, I picked out rib-eyes (I actually wanted lamb, but this being The North, I was shut down at both grocers). I generally marinate steak before grilling, but decided to do things differently this time. The rib-eye cut is so well marbled that the flavour doesn't need much help, and I decided to try pan-searing my steak for the first time. When entertaining, I usually don't go too far out of my comfort zone, but a little variation never hurts.
Pan-Seared Steak with Rosemary-Red Wine Sauce
As this was my first time pan-searing, I used a recipe from Family Circle Magazine, found on the Food Network website. Unfortunately the sauce didn't quite make it, as I didn't let the pan cool down enough after searing the meat and my onions burnt. Luckily, the rib-eye was so juicy, tender and flavourful on its own that it really didn't matter. I used some of the fresh rosemary on the vegetables that I roasted (along with olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic), so I still got to enjoy that beautiful flavour as part of the meal.
So there you have it. I can't say that the meals are fool-proof, because in my experience in the kitchen things can go wrong no matter how many times you've done them before. But with experience comes familiarity and the more you cook, the more confident you become. The more confident you are, the better you can handle when things don't go as planned. Are we still talking about cooking? Or life? In life, as well as the kitchen, hard work earns just desserts; but you'll have to wait for another post for the sweet stuff!
Enjoy the festive season of food, family, friends and fun!
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