ottawa foodies

As I was preparing these yesterday it occurred to me that this "Luscious Almond Braid" is the one thing I am asked to make most often. It got me to wondering what are your most requested items?

My turkey stuffing and my twice-baked potatoes are constantly requested recipes; both were handed down from my Mom. They are both special occasion recipes though...too much butter to make on a regular basis! These crisp days we've been having are making me look forward to Thanksgiving!

In our house it is cheese based a lot. My cheese crackers (I never seem to make enough), my "cheesy pasta" and my potato casserole which is also made with cream cheese. I only make the casserole for holiday occasions as it is quite rich. Thanksgiving is coming up and I know it will be the dish I bring.

*drool* I can understand why those are your most requested! I want to nom an entire one right now, then learn to bake it.

My most requested item is hazelnut biscotti (chocolate dipped and plain).

Foodntravel: Your almond braid looks absolutely fabulous!!!!

I bake cinnamon rolls quite often. It is such a treat for lazy weekend mornig with a cup of coffee. My cinnamon rolls are very soft, not too sweet, and I add some raisins.
Pic from this morning. I got up at 5 a.m. today to bake this. I am glad I did.
It's so yummy.

Most of the cooking I do is Thai, and I've been making it for about ten years now. I just love it! It makes eating into such a complete sensory experience: not only is the food pretty (without too much effort on presentation: the brightly colourful ingredients - often very contrasting - are gorgeous and it's hard to feel down when looking at them), but the smells are heavenly, and many of the dishes are designed to stimulate as many of your taste buds as possible.

Here are the two dishes I'm especially known for:

1. My panaeng curry. It's my own recipe that I've worked on for a couple years, and I make the curry paste from scratch. I've had one friend tell me that it's the best thing anyone's ever cooked for him, and a girl friend of mine jokingly propose marriage to me after tasting it. Here's the recipe, if anyone's interested:

www.chow.com/recipes/27627

2. My Thai-style fried rice with roast duck, lychees, and deep fried shallots. All my friends and family talk about this dish. I'm convinced that the secret is coconut sugar, which imparts this amazing taste to everything. I haven't actually written out the recipe yet, but here's a photo for anyone who might be interested:

www.epfarms.org

Actually, why didn't I just use the pic feature here? Here's my fried rice as above!

And here's my panaeng curry!

growin up it was chicken a la king. my LORD! I couldn`t get enough of that good stuff!.

Nowadays, I just long for some good ol ghanaian food like peanut soup or palm nut soup and omo tuo(rice balls) or fufu. Haven`t been able to find any as good as my aunt`s though :(

in terms of desserts, i love me some oreo cheesecake and triple fruit parfait on angelfood cake. yum!

I'm never really requested to do anything, but it seems my desserts are usually hits - either the old sponge chocolate cake recipe (no eggs, no milk) or my pies (cranberry, and now seems pineapple-rhubarb may be added). There are worse things to be liked for. :)

Vorpal, that curry looks amazing.

I sometimes get a request for tonkatsu w/ Japanese curry sauce. Also commonly requested/recommended are roasted sweet potato wedges.

Chimichimi: Tonkatsu+Curry Sauce= Katsu Curry!! What a wonderful combination it is. I am so hungry now. Please cook it for me!!! :)

Shag-a-delic: I believe it was "what do people ask you to make most often".

Though your answer could be good for another topic.

lately it is icing (with cupcakes). people ask me not to clean the bowl so they can lick it clean. my current rotation is plain white cupcake with a teeny hint of lemon and a rosewater butter cream icing, the other is a chai cupcake (made with my homemade chai) and a honey creamcheese icing. people often ask just for the icing for their own cakes though.

For me, it's definitely cookies. I'm trying to improve my repetoire of baking, but friends got me a cookbook of 500 cookies for my birthday, claiming it was a "selfish gift" to give. I also got cookie sheets as a wedding gift, even though we have four or five. (They couldn't have gotten us a convection oven, could they ;))

My salad dressings are also a big hit.

Not a dish per se, but I often get asked to make my hot pot sauce!

okay Hip, I need that icing recipe! My icing sucks - my buttercream just tastes like sweet whipped butter (gross) and my icing sugar + whatever is way too sweet.

For me, it's my chocolate chip cookies or my pretzels. People at work constantly pester me for both (I should make pretzels this weekend for them, actually...).

pam, i don't think i do anything too special when i make icing/frosting/..., but i do make it slowly. i use room temp butter and whip it. i add cream cheese (if using) and mix really, really well. i add my flavourings before sugar and i always sift the icing sugar (i just use a metal strainer) and start with 1/2 the amount of sugar called for. just add slowly, mixing it in as you go. i do about 1/2cup at a time. it sounds more time consuming than it is. once you have done it a few times you can whip off a batch in minutes.

i always only make 1/2 the recipe called for, and i have frozen leftover icing for those just-in-case times (insane sugary cravings... naked cakes... jazz up plain cookies and pass them off as 'almost' my own...)