The Host Advisory Board includes 23 amazing Hosts from aroun...
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The Host Advisory Board includes 23 amazing Hosts from around the world who represent and advocate for Hosts. This year, we’r...
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Hey everyone,
Sharing a meal is a lovely way of connecting with others. As I’m aware the CC is filled with food lovers such as myself, I was wondering if you have any cool stories to share about eating with guests. 🍕 🍷
Whether you offer a complimentary first day dinner or has had a guest introduce you to a mouthwatering local dish of theirs, it’d be great to hear about your experience sharing meals and recipes with travellers.
Have you ever shared a meal with your guests? Who did the cooking and what did you have?
Thanks,
Liv 🍩
@Liv Yes!, Before Covid, I often eat out with my guest at nearby restaurant. We also share our kitchen for guests to cook and they invite me to join my first mexican food. 🥘 😋
Since many of our guests were long-term exchange students sharing meals was something we did fairly often with most guests. "Officially" we state in our listing description that we don't provide meals, but Henry always tends to cook more than we can eat so sharing with our guest was natural for us. Also, we usually took our long-term guests out to dinner at least once during their stay - and we'd always ask if they were feeling adventurous (to try something new) and try to take them somewhere very local.
I often leave baking for my guests such as banana bread, cinnamon rolls or a small cake if it’s a special occasion and I’ve cleared dietary issues with them. Everyone seems pleased.
W e also had a member of the film community stay with us and his wife (a known actor) was visiting and made us vegan tacos for dinner one night. In exchange I made them vegan molten lava mini chocolate cakes.
Quite often I will share a meal with guests. Having guests on the property with us means we generally have a considerable level of contact. And being a born show-off I do like to share what I have learned in the Kitchen since I have had to take over the roll of cook!
I have two meals that are my 'bread and butter' as it were! The criteria for me is, as well as tasting delicious, the meals needs to be quick and easy to prepare because they are being done in a social environment, and I don't want to be tied to the stove. For that reason I specialize in these two.
1/.....Salmon Wellington.
The reason I pick this dish is I can prepare it in advance, in the morning and stick it in the fridge for the day. When the conversation gets around to food, I fire the oven up, it takes 10 seconds to pull the dish out of the fridge, give it 25 minutes to cook and rejoin the group. 5 minutes before the wellington is done I microwave the condiments I have selected to go with it....and the next second the served dish is on the table and it seems like I have never left the group!
My only criticism of this dish is trying to get the filo pastry to cooperate. Separating the Filo sheets is a devil of a task. On cooking shows it all looks so easy pulling one sheet after another off the pile. But the reality is I have tried everything....pulling the Filo packet out of the freezer the night before.....wrapping the roll of Filo sheets in a wet towel for half an hour before I use, but trying to get those sheets to separate is not working well for me. I have recently tried using puff pastry and it works but lacks that lovely fine texture that Filo has!
Here is the recipe......
Salmon Wellington:
This is a great quite rich meal that is nice for winter time. The recipe called for the use of Filo Pastry but I have too much trouble trying to get the sheets to separate so sometimes I now cheat and use puff pastry, but it is not the same…it’s coarse and cheating! After all this time I am still learning how to handle Filo pastry but it is worth the effort
Ingredients:
6-8 even portions of Atlantic Salmon with the skin off. 10-12 if off-cuts (much cheaper)
6-10 sheets of Filo pastry…..3 of Puff….nah, don’t do it!.
1 chopped leak.
1 cup of chopped Dill.
1 250 Gm tub of spreadable Philli cream cheese.
2 Tablespoons of chopped thyme.
1 egg beaten!
Method:
Chop the leak and sweat off in a frypan. All you need to do is slightly brown it. Put Leak into a mixing bowl and mix in the Philli cheese, the Dill and the Thyme and season to taste.
Put out 6-10 sheets of filo pastry, overlapping them in a 2 x 2 pattern brushing each with melted butter!
Cut the tail section off the salmon and place on the head section to form an even thickness of flesh, and place all pieces in a row on the pastry.
Spread the mixture of cheese, leak and dill over the top of the Salmon and roll the pastry around the salmon and mixture to make a parcel!
Brush the top of the parcel with the beaten egg mix and sprinkle either sesame seed or poppy seed over the top of the parcel. At this point you can cover and refrigerate until you are ready to eat.
Pre heat oven to 180c (fan forced) and place the wellington on an oiled baking tray and bake for 25 minutes. 20 minutes and the salmon will be pink….30 minutes and the salmon will be overdone.
Cut the Wellington into portions as you would a pasty slice and serve with either Asparagus spears and quartered mushrooms fried in butter or Parmesan smashed peas and a few carrot straws.
Bon appetite!
2/....My second quick easy offering is........
Chicken, mushroom, pumpkin, asparagus Risotto:
The beauty of this dish is, it satisfies all tastes. The meat component (the chicken) is fried separately and is added as a condiment to the finished risotto, so it also makes a great vegetarian dish. The other thing is all other steps are microwave so there is no endless slavery at the hotplate stirring the Arborio rice. I guarantee guests will just love this meal......
This recipe serves 3-4:
Ingredients:
1 cup of Pumpkin (Queensland Blue is best)
60 Gms of Butter.
1 Large Onion chopped.
1 ½ cups of Arborio Rice.
½ cup of dry white wine. Nah, bung in a bit more…I now put in 1 cup!
3 cups of Chicken stock.......can use vegetable stock if serving to vegetarians.
2 bunches of Asparagus, or 3 if you like asparagus
¾ to 1 cup of sliced small Mushrooms.
1 cooked chicken breast (cubed) or 1 cup of smoked salmon if you would rather fish than the chicken.
1 small tub of Sour Cream.
2 quartered lemons, add to taste .
Salt and pepper to taste.
Method:
Apart from the fried off cubed chicken, which I do on the cooktop and add a generous sprinkle of ‘Moroccan seasoning’,
All these following steps are done in the microwave.
1/. Microwave Pumpkin for 4 minutes on high, and set aside.
2/. Heat butter in large casserole or microwave safe covered bowl on high for 1 minute.
3/. Cover for all steps!
4/. Add onion – 2 minutes.
5/. Stir in rice – 1 minute.
6/. Add wine and stir– 1 minute
7/. Add stock and stir – 20 minutes
8/. Add vegetables and fold in – 5 minutes
9/. Stir through Chicken / salmon and top each serving with a desert spoon of sour cream, lemon and pepper.
If you like these recipes I do have a couple of others I can bring to this thread.
Cheers.........Rob
