Regardless of whether you like to cook or not, chances are you don’t have any trouble enjoying gourmet meals. Who wouldn’t? However, if you enjoy cooking, you may believe that gourmet recipes are beyond your scope. If you don’t enjoy cooking, the gourmet dishes you enjoy are not served at home. You may be shocked to learn that you can prepare gourmet recipes and get lots of applause on your home-cooked gourmet dish. If you don’t believe me, read on for eight such dishes, easy to fix and fit for the upscale palate.
When you go to a fine restaurant, you might term almost every item on the menu as a gourmet selection. When you think ‘gourmet’, complicated sauces and the finest and most perfectly combined ingredients may fit your definition. This is a reasonable expectation.
What many diners don’t realize is that although you may not be a professional saucier, you can create a reasonable facsimile of this wonder dish at home. You do need a little help from your bottled sauces and marinades from the market, but your dish will certainly pass muster with friends and family. Such sauces are pricey, as food goes, but they can flavor food like you wouldn’t believe.
Another secret to success with gourmet recipes is the freshness and overall quality of the ingredients. Gourmet cooks are notoriously fussy on this point. This factor does make all the difference.
Our first gourmet recipe uses just three ingredients. Chicken in peanut sauce is delightful and easy. Slice two boneless chicken breasts into 1 ? inch slices. Saute the chicken at 425? for just a few minutes, turning frequently, until there’s no pink meat. Turn the chicken into a bowl and add a few tablespoons of bottled Thai-style peanut sauce. Mix until well-coated. Serve over hot rice. Drizzle warm peanut sauce over the dish. Variations include substituting bottled lemon-pepper sauce or sweet and sour sauce for the peanut sauce.
Fish is a natural for an easy, spectacular gourmet recipe. Using six ounces of fish per serving, microwave according to your butcher’s instructions, turning once. Top with bottled salsa or chutney. Alternatively, season some bottled white sauce with capers and white pepper. Top each serving, on its plate, with a couple of tablespoons of sauce. Salmon and hollandaise are a match made in heaven.
Portobello mushrooms, stuffed with crab meat and cheese is a show stopper of a dish. Pick carefully through your crab meat for cartilage. Allow about 3 ounces per serving. For each serving, use about 1/3 to ? cup diced Havarti dill cheese and ? cup of plain bread crumbs. Mix it all in a bowl, then divide among the stemmed whole mushrooms. Broil just until the cheese is melted and lightly browned. Top each with a sprig of fresh tarragon and serve.
So there are eight gourmet recipes you can make in no time!
