What's Your Signature Dish?

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I used to make baked chicken wings for parties that were very popular. The sauce was just Open Pit original BBQ sauce (~ 2 parts) and 1 part each Yeo's Hot and Sweet (2 separate varieties) chili sauce. These days I would season them with salt, szechuan pepper and five-spice powder, and add some sesame oil to the sauce. The flats and drummettes were separated and tips discarded.

I haven't made them in a very long time, couldn't find the Yeo's, so I wouldn't waste what little I had on the rabble. :ROFLMAO: But now I live within a reasonably short drive to 3 Chinese-Korean superstores all within a few-mile section of Rt 40 in Catonsville MD. Last April when I realized that Wei Chuan had discontinued their jarred sauces (Kung Pao [the best!], Hunan, Mongolian BBQ and one other I forget), I hit them all and bought up all I could find. I was able to get empty boxes with dividers from the stockboys as I was shopping, so I didn't get home with a bunch of jars with hairline cracks, a major peeve of mine.

I think that was when I found out the food.com forums had disappeared, I was going to post a headsup so people could get them while they could. I've never been one to make something from scratch if there was a perfectly good commercial version (for intermediate ingredients at least).
 
I've never been one to make something from scratch if there was a perfectly good commercial version (for intermediate ingredients at least).
I'm just the opposite--I prefer to make things from scratch. Maybe it is because I live on a tight budget, but really it is because I have a lot of sensitivities to additives and chemicals.

I have learned that my "signature dish" is my homemade kimchi. Given that I'm of Scandinavian decent, that makes me laugh, but my friends keep asking me if I have a some kimchi to spare! Ha-ha. Blonde and blue-eyed girl makes great kimchi.:LOL:
 
Although a Yankee Pot roast is my favorite main meal to make, I would have to say that Hershey's Chocolate Chocolaty Cake is the favorite of everyone who has had a taste. The recipe can be found on the back of their cocoa can. I prefer to bake over cooking. :angel:
 
I make a mean paella, Taught by an, ahem, Spanish boyfriend when I was young and foolish (Well, I actually was 29 so should have known better but not many women have such a useful outcome of a holiday romance!), For some reason, despite your average Spaniard's male chauvinism, paella is largely a male speciality made in the outdoors, often on the beach. A bit like barbeque-ing, I suppose.

Apart from that, my old-fashioned family trifle recipe has caused serious
rifts in marriages.

I don't have the looks or the figure but I do have the trifle recipe!
 
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I enjoy coming up with deluxe trifle variations and assembling them (always well received).

For example, I vary the base....could be staleish fruit cake slices, gingerbread, perhaps chocolate brownie slices (the conventional trifle sponge bases are too dull for me). Then I match it with complementary alcohol, e.g. for fruitcake it might be brandy/sherry, gingerbread with rum, chocolate with brandy or baileys.

I rarely do a jelly layer so the next layer would be a fresh fruit combination.

The custard may have advocaat in it or be chocolate custard.

The topping - fresh whipped cream or half cream and half creme fraiche, or syllabub.

Decorations: toasted flaked almonds and maraschino cherries or freshly grated coconut and crumbled flake chocolate/chocolate curls
 
I enjoy coming up with deluxe trifle variations and assembling them (always well received).

For example, I vary the base....could be staleish fruit cake slices, gingerbread, perhaps chocolate brownie slices (the conventional trifle sponge bases are too dull for me). Then I match it with complementary alcohol, e.g. for fruitcake it might be brandy/sherry, gingerbread with rum, chocolate with brandy or baileys.

I rarely do a jelly layer so the next layer would be a fresh fruit combination.

The custard may have advocaat in it or be chocolate custard.

The topping - fresh whipped cream or half cream and half creme fraiche, or syllabub.

Decorations: toasted flaked almonds and maraschino cherries or freshly grated coconut and crumbled flake chocolate/chocolate curls
Copious amounts of sherry on the sponge makes it more exciting. (For some reason Emva Cream is our "sherry" of choice for trifle. I wouldn't drink it but it's great in trifle) I also put amaretti biscuits or macaroons in with the sponge cakes if I use the shop-bought ones. Then the fruit - usually peaches and raspberries. I do the jelly layer and if the fruit was tinned I use the juice in the jelly. I don't pour the jelly onto the base layers before it's set. I let it set firmly first then chop it up and layer it on top of the cake. Then cold custard, (we like ours set - dreadful confession - I use Bird's custard powder!) with lots of rum in it and whipped cream on top. Definitely almonds and cherries on top. Takes a couple of days from start to finish, with refrigeration of each layer but worth it!

I've also "invented" a "Caribbean" trifle - McVities Ginger cake soaked in rum, scattered with coconut and then mango and/or pineapple (tinned or fresh but if it's tinned the juice can go in the jelly and make it more exotic), then jelly. Rowntrees used to do a tropical fruit jelly but I haven't seen it for years so use what's available - Orange or pineapple tones nicely with the ginger cake. And, of course, more rum in the custard. Decorate the top with toasted coconut and glace pineapple. Not the trifle variety you'd want every day but I first made it when we were doing a Caribbean-themed meal. (NB hold the limbo dancing BEFORE the food!).

I once made a coffee and orange trifle but it wasn't a great success. Would probably be better as the sort of "tipsy cake"-style trifle you see on television with no jelly or fruit
 
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Copious amounts of sherry on the sponge makes it more exciting. (For some reason Emva Cream is our "sherry" of choice for trifle. I wouldn't drink it but it's great in trifle) I also put amaretti biscuits or macaroons in with the sponge cakes if I use the shop-bought ones. Then the fruit - usually peaches and raspberries. I do the jelly layer and if the fruit was tinned I use the juice in the jelly. I don't pour the jelly onto the base layers before it's set. I let it set firmly first then chop it up and layer it on top of the cake. Then cold custard, (we like ours set - dreadful confession - I use Bird's custard powder!) with lots of rum in it and whipped cream on top. Definitely almonds and cherries on top. Takes a couple of days from start to finish, with refrigeration of each layer but worth it!

I've also "invented" a "Caribbean" trifle - McVities Ginger cake soaked in rum, scattered with coconut and then mango and/or pineapple (tinned or fresh but if it's tinned the juice can go in the jelly and make it more exotic), then jelly. Rowntrees used to do a tropical fruit jelly but I haven't seen it for years so use what's available - Orange or pineapple tones nicely with the ginger cake. And, of course, more rum in the custard. Decorate the top with toasted coconut and glace pineapple. Not the trifle variety you'd want every day but I first made it when we were doing a Caribbean-themed meal. (NB hold the limbo dancing BEFORE the food!).

I once made a coffee and orange trifle but it wasn't a great success. Would probably be better as the sort of "tipsy cake"-style trifle you see on television with no jelly or fruit
Interesting! :)

Oh yes, I have been known to decorate the cream topping with little ratafias (similar to amaretti biscuits).

Well, my confession is I don't even make the custard but by the chilled, good quality vanilla custard. :ohmy: :D

Perhaps I will try adding jelly....I dislike the tasteless cubes that are normally purchased for this. Am thinking of trying one made with red grape juice (and gelatine) or perhaps pineapple juice. Whilst I know that pineapples don't readily set, the pineapple juice in cartons has been treated so kills the enzyme that would interfere with the setting process.


 
I have three go-to recipes, depending on the dinner.

1) Spaghetti sauce. It's the "Family recipe" with a few tweaks. I make a vat of it once or twice during winter, and have been know to take a couple quarts of it to OH when we visit the kids.

2) Scallops seared with bacon and Brussels sprouts. Always a winner if I'm trying to impress, even if it's for just the two of us.

3) Chicken Marsala. Quick, easy, and saved me once when Himself went to light the grill - and got only a *poof* before the propane was gone. :ohmy: Since we had company, I scrambled and pulled out the Marsala ingredients. They couldn't believe I came up with a "Plan B" so fast.

And a bonus 4). If we are asked to bring a side dish to a dinner, I almost always take a casserole dish filled with Brussels sprouts, bacon, mushrooms (plus rosemary and garlic powder). The mushrooms are sauteed in the bacon fat, and the lightly steamed sprouts are seared in it too, a bit at the end. The hostess is surprised that people who say they don't like Brussels sprouts always reach for more after trying just "one small bite". Then again, bacon makes everything better :yum:
 
When I was a teen and learning to cook, my signature dish was anything I didn't burn.

Today, I guess it's my unusual spaghetti or my chicken soup that's so thick DH calls it "chicken stew."
 
Sausage Bread

People rave about several dishes I make. Here are a few. I could never choose one.

Macaroni Salad with tomato rose garnish

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Mini Spinach Pies

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Cheese and Potato Blintz

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Sausage Bread

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Do you have a recipe posted for your sausage bread? My family would love it! :)
 
I have two dishes also. Lamb or Beef Stew with barley and a Yankee Pot Roast. I do have other dishes I am asked to make for family. Pies, cheesecake and other deserts. I am the family desert maker. My daughter makes anything Italian. (Not my favorite cuisine.) Pirate and Spike like to make curry dishes. Something they both learned from their father. :angel:
 
Cassoulet
Coq a Vin using a real 'old rooster'. Easily had around here for free. Just Goggle 'Used Victoria' and there are always people wanting to find an old rooster (pet) a 'new home'.
I never tell them where the rooster is going to end up. LOL
 
I enjoyed reading this thread - especially the closely guarded secret of the foie gras whatevers.... I often giggle when I read things like "I make the best xxx in the WORLD" ... it's all subjective, isn't it? I mean seriously, you *could* make the best paella in the world, but I think seafood is disgusting, so.... see? It's just a matter of one person's opinion. And that's the sad part, because we pour our hearts and souls into cooking and we really do hang our fragile egos on our sleeves.. and along comes KDJ who hates fish and my sense of worth is shot to ****.

So I don't go by these proclamations or signature dishes as a means to validate who I am or what I do... but I do look at the results. A gathering of people, enriched by each other and their gifts..their selfless contributions... giving the gift of their creativity... and how food forges relationships. Not food as a means of survival, but food as a means to learn about ourselves and each other.
 
I enjoyed reading this thread - especially the closely guarded secret of the foie gras whatevers.... I often giggle when I read things like "I make the best xxx in the WORLD" ... it's all subjective, isn't it? I mean seriously, you *could* make the best paella in the world, but I think seafood is disgusting, so.... see? It's just a matter of one person's opinion. And that's the sad part, because we pour our hearts and souls into cooking and we really do hang o

ur fragile egos on our sleeves.. and along comes KDJ who hates fish and my sense of worth is shot to ****.

So I don't go by these proclamations or signature dishes as a means to validate who I am or what I do... but I do look at the results. A gathering of people, enriched by each other and their gifts..their selfless contributions... giving the gift of their creativity... and how food forges relationships. Not food as a means of survival, but food as a means to learn about ourselves and each other.
You are like a breath of fresh air in what can become a stuffy atmosphere! I especially like you being outspoken and daring to call it how you see it (I can be too!)

However, if I have got it right (going by the OP), then I think the definition of a signature dish here just denotes something we uphold as a dish we do well rather than saying "I am a well made lasagna!" We can all make lots of dishes well and so it is just a way of saying, so far, this is what I excel at.

Er...just in case I am wrong here
hides.gif
 
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But am I alone in going on "kicks?" I mean, today I made meat pies. I make them every so often, but maybe today I'll think, "hmm, I can do this better, I wonder how it would be if I caramelized the onions, threw in a pinch of kofte spice, and added some goat cheese?" (Actually that sounds pretty darn good!) And then I'll work them and work them for a few weeks, until I'm satisfied - then I move on to the next thing. Over a few decades it's hard to nail down that one thing... it's more like the one thing I've done recently.

But if you're going to push, well then fine. I'm in. I make a killer quiche..unless you don't like eggs, in which case you'll hate it. :)
 
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