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Cook For Extra Guests
If you find yourself with an extra mouth to feed and it is too late to go shopping, think quickly and add extras to what you are already cooking. Bulk out casseroles with canned or frozen vegetables, offer bread with each course, and serve fresh fruits as well as dessert.
Cook For Extra Guests: Adding Toppings
- Topping with cheese: To extend a vegetable dish, cover it with a cheese sauce and flaked almonds, then grill it.
- Shaping a dough topping: Roll out biscuit dough and cut it into shapes with a cookie cutter. Arrange the dough shapes over a casserole filling and bake in a hot oven for 12-15 minutes.
- Adding stock: Increase the volume of soup by adding a flavorful stock or a glass of dry white wine. Heat it until boiling, then stir in cream or milk to taste before serving.
- Adding beans: To bulk out cooked rice, stir in a can of drained kidney beans or chickpeas and a few chopped herbs.
- Stirring in oats: Add a handful of oatmeal and a can of chopped tomatoes to extend the bolognese sauce.
- Serving an appetizer: To make a quick and easy appetizer to accompany the main meal, serve a tomato and onion salad with crusty bread.
- Serving Accompaniments: Serve stuffing or complementary sauces to extend roast meats.
- Layering with cream: If you have made a pudding or mousse that is not sufficient, increase the number of portions by layering the fruit with whipped cream in tall glasses.
Cook for Extra Guests: Enhancing Basic Dishes
If you are faced with the task of turning an everyday family meal into something more exciting for visitors, create a sense of occasion by combining ingredients in unusual ways. Pepping up casseroles with crispy, herbed croutons, or spooning desserts into pretty glasses instead of plain bowls, are great ways to add some flair to your meals.
Cook for Extra Guests: Serving Soups
Combining colors: You can make canned soups special by lightly swirling two contrasting colors together. Cream soups work best, and good partners are tomato with asparagus or celery with green peas.
Cook for Extra Guests: Embellishing Desserts
Layering ingredients: Sprinkle canned fruit with sherry or brandy and serve it with a store-bought dessert such as lemon mousse. Alternate layers of each with crumbled cookies, and spoon them into attractive glasses.
Cook for Extra Guests: Tips for Cream
Flavoring UHT cream masks the distinctive flavor of UHT milk or cream by whipping in a few drops of vanilla extract or rosewater before adding it to a dessert.
Tip: For much more information on “How to Cook for Extra Guests”, which we have discussed in general here, please click on the “tags” below.
