Your signature dish

[Jerryz]

Hmmm, I do make an amazing grilled cheese. My favorite variation being perfectly melted cheddar (the trick is sodium citrate in the chees), apple, jalapeño, and a little bacon. Now, once someone on eating it claimed it wasn't really a grilled cheese but I consider it one.

the second is I make great soups. All varieties but I do think I make a very good French onion and a very nice oxtail soup.

 

[Trenton]

I didn't think I had a signature dish, but I just got reminded of how on Thursday nights we could be a family of four, or a family of four with a dozen guests. When the kids were in school, you could kind of tell what day of the week it was by what was for supper. Thursdays it was spaghetti with meat sauce or vegan sauce, with chocolate chip cookies.

I kind of miss the days when all the kids would show up fill their plates grab a handful of cookies and head to the "CAVE" AKA the basement. The house could be quite at 5:55 awash with kids at 6pm and all quite again at 6:30 when they left. They were a good bunch of kids, they always put their dirty dishes in the dish washer and often left me a couple cookies. Although I have fond memories of those days it turns out the kids do as well. I had a couple tell me they loved my sauces, cookies and butter soaked bread, it was the highlight of their week. They also said I made the best ever vegan sauce which is funny because I never bothered to taste it, I figured it was okay if the vegans never complained.

They are young adults now, but they will always be our kids. And they still stop by on occasion, I think I have given most of them a DE including the girls who seem more interested in them that the guys.

Lately I have been making pizza in my wood fired oven, still far from perfect, but it is getting there.

I also added a pellet smoker on the weekend.

 

[Rushman2112]

Well, I might have been, *sniff* but not sure now.

And in answer to YetiDave, yes, it was I.

OK, here goes:

Brown seasoned chicken legs in oil and butter.

Remove. Rest and have a beer - the legs rest, you have a beer while working.

Add chopped onions, carrots, celery and garlic. If two legs: one small onion, one large carrot, two ribs of celery and a couple of cloves, then just adjust up if cooking more.

Sweat off for a while, then add a good tablespoon of cornflour, stir all around and add a couple of glasses of red wine: any will do as long as you can drink it. Throw in about a tablespoon of paprika, but adjust for how powerful you like it. Put the chuckychuck back in and add enough chicken stock to cover the lot - I usually use a low sodium, no added MSG powdered version but whatever you can get. Salt and pepper but not too much, as the sauce will reduce.

Now for the brave bit. For two legs' worth of meat and liquid, I put 15 cardamom (it actually says cardamon on the pack I bought in Little India here...) pods in whole, plus another 3 pods' worth of seeds. It sounds a lot, but seriously when I tried it first time, I thought it was a misprint in the recipe and only put a few in: it was OK but nothing like the depth of flavour the writer described. Finally add a couple of sprigs of fresh tarragon.

Cook for about 25 - 30 mins or until the meat is cooked through. Remove the legs and crank up the heat.

Now, here you have a choice.

If going dinner party elegant, sieve out all the veggies and discard, and make a nice velvety sauce with some cold butter whisked in.

If going midweek rustic, keep the veggies, but still add some cold butter.

Once the sauce is how you want it, adjust seasoning, and serve with anything you like but mashed spuds works well, or some nice crusty French baguette.

I forgot to mention, however you serve it, take the carda-wotsit pods out, you are not meant to eat them...

 

[ShaverGN]

I can cook a hard boid egg

 

[Samurai-5]

Steak Au Poivre and Eggs & Champagne