Five-Step Recipe to Feed a Crowd

I love to entertain and one way of doing so (actually, the only way I know how) is by cooking for a crowd.  I'm not really sure where this passion for food came from.  As a child, I always loved watching my mom cook and I always wanted to help.  But I believe I found "the calling" in 2007.  Single in Hamilton (let's face it, not the most exciting place) and on my own for the first time, I discovered the Food Channel.  I remember spending a lot of time in front of the TV, learning about techniques, food, tools and much more.

But one night (a Thursday to be exact), after watching a show where the chef made fried chicken, I went to the grocery store and bought all the ingredients required for the recipe. I marinaded the chicken all day Friday and cooked it that night. It was sooo good that I surprised myself!  After that, I thought I could do anything. I started a binder with all the recipes from cooking shows that I had tried.  It didn't take me long to realize that I really should be sharing this with others, so that is when I started hosting dinner parties.

Over the years, I have been perfecting my "craft" and here are my not-so-secret tips on making sure you can feed a crowd and have a good time doing it, too!

First, make sure you have a trial run before making a recipe for guests. Of course, there is a risk that your meal wouldn't turn out the way you would like. But beyond that, there is nothing worse then being glued to your recipe book when you should be enjoying the company of your guests.  Also, find out if your guests have any allergies.

Second, make sure you do as much of the prep work before your guests arrive (cooking, setting the table, etc.).  And this may sound obvious, but double-check your ingredient list so you don't have to run out to the store in the middle of your soirée.  Doing this will alleviate some of the pressure of cooking and entertaining at the same time.

Third, make sure you have room for everyone, especially if it's a sit-down dinner.  Also, find out whether your guests plan to bring their kids (or a date).  It would be unfortunate to have some guests sitting at a separate table in a corner or having to shuffle everything around so a child can sit near his or her parents.

Fourth, make sure you have enough place settings for everyone.  Paper plates and plastic forks may work for picnics, but they won't impress the in-laws. Ideally, you would want to have enough of everything to get you through the entire evening without having to wash anything between services.  In practice, that may not be possible, but try to minimize this.  Any time you spend in the kitchen is time you're not spending with your guests.

Fifth and most important, enjoy yourself!  Don't fret over details and if you forget something, don't tell anyone. Chances are they won't even notice because they're busy having a great time.

So there you have it. My five-step recipe for a guaranteed successful dinner party!  Now go, enjoy some great food (yours) with the people you love.

Quick fix for week nigths

As I mentioned in my first post, I love Italian food.  However, some dishes need to cook for hours before the flavours develop fully.  There's nothing like a good pasta dish, but I don't always have the time to let it simmer for an hour or more!  Well, I came up with a twist on an classic pasta sauce with sausage for your week nights. It will only take you 20 minutes to make and it tastes great.

You will need:
1 box (454g) of penne or any other short pasta
4 Italian sausages (hot or not depending on your taste), sliced on an angle
Dried chili peppers (depending on how hot you want it!)
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped in large pieces
1 Red pepper, cut in large pieces
1 Orange peppers cut in large pieces
1 small can of tomato paste
1 can of chicken stock (I prefer the low sodium kind)
1 big handful of arugula
Parmigiano cheese to taste
Salt & Pepper to taste

You can add all the veggies you want!

First, cook the pasta according to the instructions on the box, but drain the pasta just shy of being al dente and keep about 1/2 cup of the pasta water for later.

Second, in a big pan, cook the sausages.  When almost cooked, add all the vegetables and sauté for about 5 minutes.  The list of vegetables above is just a suggestion, you can add anything else you think might be interesting (or whatever is in your refrigerator).  I sometimes add asparagus, mushrooms, broccoli and even cauliflower. Add the tomato paste, chicken stock, salt and pepper and stir well.  Let simmer for about 5 to 7 minutes.

Add the arugula and Parmagiano cheese and stir one last time before serving in pasta bowls.

And there you have it! Simple and tasty.  It's a recipe with a big punch of flavour and I'm sure it will become one of your favourites too!

Enjoy and buon appetito!

Tunisian Feast!

Over the weekend I decided to host a Tunisian Dinner with some of our closest friends. It has been a while since I cooked this type of meal and it was a real success (if I do say so myself). As some of you know, my dad is Tunisian and Tunisian food and culture have always played a big role in my life.  One of the cultural traits is that when you have people over,  you make sure you have more food than you need! So following our gathering Saturday night, here are some of my favorite Tunisian dishes that I want to share with you. Don’t be intimidated by some of the spices. Finding some of them may require a trip to your nearest Middle Eastern supermarket/store, but the trip there will be worth your while.

First, I made Michouia Salad, homemade Humus, Brick à l’oeuf, coucous and I bought some baklava for dessert. We had 11 adults and one three-year-old. Really the trick to feeding this size group is to have (mostly) everything ready ahead of time. I started preparing my vegetables and made sure that my appetizers were ready to serve. Doing this will save you some time because let’s face it, the bulk of the labour when cooking, is the prep-work. Once that is taken care of, everything goes smoothly!

Michouia Salad
I started with the Michouia Salad. For this you need:

4 Cubanel peppers
4 Hongarian peppers (very hot)
5 Roma tomatoes
One large clove of garlic, finely cut

1 tsp of tabel
1 tsp of karwiya (caraway)
You can add more or less of the spices, it's not an exact science!


Place the tomatoes and all the peppers on a baking sheet, add some olive oil, salt and pepper and put them in a 375F oven. Let the vegetables roast for about 30 minutes. Once the skin is brown/black, remove from the oven. Transfer the vegetables into a bowl with a lid and let rest for 15 min.

Remove the skin of the peppers and tomatoes, then cut everything very finely on a cutting board. It will look very mushy but this is what we want! Add the garlic and spices and let your seasoned veggies cool in the fridge. For presentation, add some cut up hard-boiled eggs.

Homemade Humus
Next came the tasty homemade humus:
1 can of chick peas (796ml), rinsed and drained
2 cloves of garlic
1½ tbsp of tahini
Juice of one lemon
¼ tsp of cayenne pepper
1/3 cup of good olive oil
½ cup of water
Salt & pepper to taste

First, boil the water and garlic together. This will soften the garlic and give some flavour to the water.
Put the chick peas, lemon juice, tahini and cayenne pepper in a blender. Add the softened garlic, ¼ cup of the boiled water and the oil. You can add more water depending on the consistency you want. Serve with pitas or vegetables.

Brik à l’oeuf
Brik is one of my favorite Tunisian dishes. Very simple, it is an egg cracked in the middle of a pastry. The original Tunisian recipe calls for tuna (canned) and capers as well, but I prefer it with just the egg! Fold the pastry in half over the egg and cook in olive oil until the pastry is golden and crispy. Once the bottom starts browning (about one minute), flip once. Oh so good!

Picture of the package

Tunisian Couscous
This is a traditional meal that reminds me of my Grandmother in Tunisia. The house gets filled with these wonderful aromas and it’s just delightful! It is traditionally made with lamb, but I used beef blade.

This is what you need:
1 box of Medium size couscous
1 kg beef blade
5 carrots, cut in quarters (length-wise)
5 potatoes, cut in quarters
Half of a green cabbage, cut in quarters
2 big cans of crushed tomatoes
1 small can of tomato paste
1 big Spanish onion chopped
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
Spices: about 1½ tbsp each, tabel and karwiya (Caraway)
Water
Salt & pepper

Cut the meat in chunks and discard the bone. Sauté the onion and garlic with the beef for 5 to 7 minutes. Add crushed tomatoes, spices, salt and pepper. Let it simmer for 10 minutes, stirring from time to time.

Add the carrots and cabbage. Thin the sauce with a little bit of water. Let it cook for 10 to 15 minutes until the carrots start to get soft. Add the potatoes and continue to cook until they are soft.

Ask any Tunisian and they will tell you that the only way to cook couscous is to steam it. Boiling it is sacrilege. When making a couscous, we use a couscoussier. Basically, the sauce cooks in the lower pot and the steam from the sauce cooks the couscous. But don't worry, there is no need to run out and buy a couscoussier. Any steamer will work!

Place the couscous in the steamer. Run water through the couscous until you can form a ball that breaks easily (to humidify it). Put the steamer on top of the water/sauce and let it steam for 10 min. Remove the steamer and repeat the first step. Let it cook for another 10 to 15 minutes. Once the couscous is ready, it will be softened but still firm. It will have doubled in size.

Once it’s done, add about 2 cups of the sauce to the couscous and stir. This will turn the couscous red. Let it rest for 10 minutes. Add all the vegetables and remaining sauce on top of the couscous, then serve.

I can guarantee that if you make any (or all) of these recipes, your friends will be very impressed with your cooking skills! So let’s get cooking! And try something new, something different!

Calling all foodies!

So everyone who knows me, knows how much I love food.  Not just eating it, but preparing it and experiencing new flavours.  For the past few years, I have really enjoyed discovering new ingredients, recipes and kitchen gadgets.  I'm not afraid to create a six-course dinner for 15 people, a "new meal" with left-overs, but I am just as happy cooking simple meal at home with my husband.  This blog is where I plan to share my tricks, my recipes, my friends' recipes and those of my favourite chefs, my monumental flops and my great culinary discoveries!

Some of you may wonder why I decided to call my blog Sandra's Fix... It started with a friend of mine.  Every time she and her husband would invite us over for a meal, she would welcome me at the door, holding a "work-in-progress" recipe, and say "Sandra, fix this".  It became a running gag between us and inspired Sandra's Fix.

This same friend is as much a foody as I am, if not more. She loves food soooooo much that she calls her husband "delicious one".  As sweet as this might sound, it has somewhat ruined the word "delicious" for me. Therefore, I won't be using it to describe food on this blog. I may use "delizioso"  (I love Italian food, by the way) or whatever other synonym inspires me in the moment.

I hope you'll enjoy this blog as much as I love food and I welcome your comments and suggestions any time!

Bon appétit!