Tough group to cook for! help please?

zuroph

Have 4 of us for dinner tonight. One of the girls is lactose intolerant, and also doesnt eat red meat. The other girl is allergic to onions. HELP?!

I was thinking of doing a turkey mince Spag bol, have a nice recipe from Jamie Olivers book, but would it work without the onions? Could i substitute something else? If I just threw mushrooms in instead and crossed my fingers would that work?

olaola

You'll really notice the omission of the onions, they are fairly essential in spag bol.

To make most sauces, you're going to need to use onions! Even if you were to make a bacon/mushroomy sauce. You'd prob need cream and cheese. Would your 'non red meat eater' eat bacon in a sauce?

What about a roast chicken and mash?

zuroph

what about celery in place of the onions perhaps? Im new to this cooking lark. I could prob get away with a small small amount of onions, she only really gets bothered by them in bigger amounts (Im not trying to sneak them past her btw, she's my gf!)
The roast is something they've done a lot for us, I'd love to be able to serve something "different" up to them.

olaola

Doesn't really sound like she's allergic to onions tbh. Chop them up small and tell her they are celery.

zuroph

its not so much an allergy IMO, they just make her throw up, even when she doesnt know they're in there, but i think its more when they're in chunks.

olaola

zuroph wrote: »

its not so much an allergy IMO, they just make her throw up, even when she doesnt know they're in there, but i think its more when they're in chunks.

Whizz them up small if you can't finely dice.

zuroph

asked her what she usually does, and she fries the onions first to get the flavour in, then takes em out. If I did that, I guess I could serve her portion up then stir em in at the end for the others?

olaola

I'm probably not the best person to answer this, I cannot tolerate fussy eaters.
The easiest thing would be to make her a seperate sauce instead of faffing around with some onion hokey pokey.

Seaneh

try cooking a lot of onions (maybe two large onions) in a seperate pot and then strain the luquid into the sauce, make sure you squeeze all the flavour out of them with the back of a wooden spoon or a ladle.

zuroph

ok, what I did;
fried the onions first, into the oil, then took them out. made up the mix (veg, turkey mince etc). then seperated a bit out into a smaller pot, and threw the fried onions back into the larger pot. its all bubbling away at the moment, hopefully it'll be fine.

Keith in cork

zuroph wrote: »

what about celery in place of the onions perhaps? Im new to this cooking lark.

Thats the best solution in terms of taste and cost.


the guy who mentioned roast chicken...... i like your style, rub the skin with olive oil and garlic and stuff some (small amount) of fresh tarragon inside the skin and roast.

Half cook your carrots and maybe some parsnip, take them out and season and pop on the tray with the chicken. Same for roast spuds, half boil, take out, season and put on tray. Maybe some garlic and kale pomme puree (a wetter, creamier mash).

For me there is no better way of having roast chicken. Simple, effortless and very very tasty yet filling too.