I have found that there are different skills you need to learn if you’re going to make food for 1-2 people vs 4 people or 6+. You’ll find that you can’t simply scale up every recipe you have and that some recipes would require a commercial kitchen to achieve for larger groups. The best you can do is know your kitchen and equipment and its limitations. For example, if I make crab cakes, I need a pan to fry them up in. My pan only fits 4 cakes and you need 2 per person. So what is the solution if I’m cooking for 4 people? You can add another pan if you have one and have another burner open or you can set the oven to a low temp to keep the first batch warm while you cook the second batch. Some items I will cook in the oven instead on the stove if I’m cooking for more people, but then you need to make sure you’re not using the oven for something else. Aside from that, lots of things scale up well. I’m actually living temporarily with my parents and will scale up certain dishes simply by doubling the amount. If I make pesto with chicken, I have a large cast iron pan that I cram 4 chicken breast halves into and then add pasta to a pot in twice the quantity. Then of course there are large scale meals. I’m taking 6+. I usually try to utilize an outdoor grill in this case and make lots of sides ahead of time that can be served cold or warmed up. I hosted Thanksgiving once and I had to make a planner for the meal to make sure I had all the pots and pans I needed at the right time. Don’t know how people do that every year, but it was fun to do once and I learned a lot. I had to cut dishes out because I only had so much oven space or burners or dishes to put them in. In the end, you’ll learn with practice.
I’ve been vegetarian for 22 years or so now, and the recent uptick in vegan food reminds me of the early years of being vegetarian. When I first started there were very few options to eat out where I lived (more rural area didn’t help) and not even a lot of good grocery options. Eventually places started offering in house attempts at vegetarian mains, which led to wildly variable quality, and eventually we saw some standardization across restaurants. It’s rare now to get a vegetarian dish at a restaurant that is terrible.
The article mentions mass market vegan butter being pursued, which makes me hopeful that restaurants will start introducing more vegan meals, and upping their game on that front. The more options for people the better, and as much as the article romanticizes the boutique shops with their in house versions, that isn’t achievable for most restaurants who would otherwise tuck one or two options into their menu.
Over the past five or so years, I’ve watched the vegetarian frozen food section at my supermarket expand from one little freezer door with some Annies meals and Bocca burgers to five or six sections carrying even generic store-brand vegetarian and vegan meals. I don’t often buy prepared food but I like walking by to see what they have. Same with milk options - it went from a shelf with either soy or almond to a full section of different nut milks and flavors.
Some of the wildest changes to me have been at festivals and events. It used to be that you got french fries or onion rings or popcorn and that was about it. Then they started making efforts, as misguided as they could be, like just slapping steamed veggies on a sub roll and calling it done, or serving pasta and plain tomato sauce. Now I go to festivals and there’s usually at least one really good vegetarian option at every stand, if not an entire stand serving just vegan and vegetarian options. I look forward to seeing what unique choices there will be rather than trying to eat ahead of time so I don’t have to worry about it.
It depends if you can get it where you are, but Flora plant butter is really good, I’ve used it for cooking and just as a spread and seems to work well.
If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, I think something hearty like a braise would go nicely with the weather. I recently braided some short ribs in stout and some homemade beef stock and it turned out wonderfully. I had it with some simple roasted veg with balsamic condiment drizzled over and mashed potatoes, so that the reduced braising liquid could do double duty as a sort of gravy. If you’re in the Southern Hemisphere though, I think a fancy salad would be a good way to beat the heat.
Peking Duck with plum sauce and gua bao is a supremely decadent meal that I love as a treat for just this kind of occasion. Anything with duck and fruit, really. Duck l’Orange, Gaeng Phed Ped Yang (Curried Roast Duck with Pineapples and Tomatoes), Roast Duck with Cherries, I could go on.
I think Peking Duck usually takes the cake as far as special meals go, though, and it’s fun to make with it’s unique technique for separating the skin from the bird and roasting upright for maximum crispy goodness. Gaeng Phed Ped Yang is probably second on the list for me, but the fluffy, soft, wonderful gua bao (which are deceptively easy to make) takes it over the top for me.
Also, you can reserve the bones and fat from any of the recipes for a killer stock and the fat is great to use in any application you’d use schmaltz.
TBH the solution is to salt the pesto less and salt your toppings more, probably by just adding finishing salt after cooking the pizza. Also consider using a nonfresh mozzarella, which generally has more flavor. While the creaminess of fresh is nice, I find it to be way too bland most of the time.
This problem is the exact reason why I stick to pepperoni and banana peppers. They are inherently flavorful and salty.
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