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.

Shakshuka. One of the tastiest foods ever.

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

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.

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.

Pasta aglio, olio, peperoncino.
Literally “pasta with garlic, oil and chili peppers”: easy to learn, hard to perfectionate.

Pork chops in garlic-butter sauce with mushrooms. I usually serve them with mashed potatoes and steamed fresh green beans. If you don’t do pork, you can do the exact same thing with chicken breasts.

3-4 thick-cut pork chops, preferably bone-in

1 cup mushrooms, cleaned and sliced

4 tablespoons butter

2-4 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon fresh oregano, OR 1 teaspoon dried

1 tablespoon fresh thyme, OR 1 teaspoon dried

1/2 cup flour

3/4 cup milk

2 cups chicken broth

Salt and pepper to taste

Pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.

2. In a large oven-proof skillet, combine the butter, garlic, herbs, and mushrooms over medium-high heat.

3. When the butter has melted, push everything to the sides and add the pork chops. Sear until golden on both sides.

4. Spread the mushrooms evenly over everything, and put skillet in the oven. Bake for around 35 minutes, or until the pork chops are at 150-160 F.

5. Remove from oven and set the pork chops aside to rest. Tent foil over them to keep them warm. You can remove the mushrooms too if you want, but don’t take away too much of the fat in the pan. You need whatever is in there for the gravy.

6. Put the skillet over low heat and whisk the flour into the fat in the pan. No lumps! Cook for 1-2 minutes to cook the flour and keep whisking. Whisk in the milk and chicken broth and cook until gravy is thick. Keep whisking the entire time. Flavor with salt and pepper to taste. If you want, you can add a pinch (1/8 teaspoon-ish) of red pepper flakes. It balances out the richness of the butter. You can also just put hot sauce on table, if you have spice-averse guests.

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

These are super simple, take under 20 minutes, and people love them.

For a dinner: Baked salmon with lemon, butter, garlic and dill. Saute some spinach on the side. For a lunch: Sandwich. Crusty baguette, a soft cheese of some sort, slices of green apples. Maybe a cured meat like prosciutto if you are feeling that. Takes no time at all to make but feels fancy. For a breakfast: Oatmeal with guava paste. It turns pink which is fun, then toast some slivered almonds in a bit of butter and server them hot on top.

Pho. Vietnamese chicken noodle soup. It’s my favourite meal in the world. Healthy, cheap and incredibly easy to make.

Buy pho powder/ tablets. Put in water.

Add onions, chillis and a bit of lime.

Cook rice noodles.

You are done. It also freezes well. For all you lazy bastards out there. Try it once! You will add it to your weekly shopping list.

I usually just go for lasagna, either classical or a vegetable lasagna. I wouldn’t say it’s terribly impressive, but most people like it. And it has the huge advantage of being able to be prepared in advance, so I save myself the trouble of getting extremely stressed over finishing the meal in time but not to early. The béchamel sauce might take a few times to get right but after that it’s not hard to prepare.

Grilled cheese. They turn out surprisingly good using a cast iron pan

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.