There’s a BBQ at a friend’s tomorrow. We’ve all been asked to bring a dish or booze. I’ve some reasons for wanting to be both nice and impressive and I’m usually a decent cook but my mind is going blank. Can Dopers please come to the rescue?
Basically, I want to make something myself so that would probably rule out drink. I don’t want it to be Italian as I live in Italy and the others would probably do a better job than I would. However, I can’t get hold of too many “ethnic” ingredients and spices here either.
It should be a cold dish and could be a side but also a dessert or cookies or similar. I have an afternoon and evening to shop and cook or bake.
If you don’t mind putting a little work into it - nothing complicated, just some time - this recipe has blown away every person at every function I have brought it to. I put at about 4x more lemon in it than the recipe calls for, and spoon melted honey over the top when done. Use a full fat Greek style yogurt. Other than that, follow the recipe as is and I promise you, you will be a hero.
Okay, sold. It’s miserable and raining and I have the afternoon off so why not. I’m not actually good at cake, but should it fail I still have the time to run and get some very fancy wine instead. It looks delicious.
Building on ministryman’s suggestion a marinaded tomato/onion dish, my crowd-pleasing stand-by is a platter of thick cut slices of tomato, topped with chopped basil, crumbled feta, paper-thin slices of onion, cracked pepper and balsamic. Ridiculously simple.
If it’s an actual BBQ (as in smoked meats, rather than grilled meats), a really good coleslaw. Vinegar-based, not cream-based, heavy on the cabbage.
Will probably use this as a stand-by, should cakes collapse on me. Periously Italian in this version, but I can easily and cheaply get very nice quality ingredients to do this.
I’ve seen it. kayaker didn’t preview check the post and made a minor error with the formatting. How is this a problem with the quoting function? As a counter example, see post 13.
If you have really good tomatoes, I like to take a step up from tomatoes & mozz aka caprese salad, and make a panzanella salad. Which is basically the same thing, except with cubes of bread to soak up the juices that normally go to waste on the bottom of the plate!
Take some nice italian-style or semolina bread (its ok if its a bit dry) cut into 1" cubes (about 2 cups worth) and brown them a bit in 2 TBSP olive oil over medium heat. Put on paper towel to drain and sprinkle with salt & black pepper.
Cube up as much tomato & fresh mozzarella cheese as you like. Slice a bunch of fresh basil into “chiffonade” meaning narrow strips 1/4" or less wide.
Put everything in a bowl with 2 TBSP balsamic vinegar and a splash of olive oil. Stir up, add more salt/pepper to taste, and let sit at least a half hour before serving, turning so the bread soaks up the tomato juices.
