Impressive, easy meal to wow in-laws

[Adventurine]

I need some ideas for an impressive but easy meal to really dazzle my in laws.

FIL is a monster when it comes to appraising dishes. He's like a freelance, voluntary restaurant critic that nobody ever asked for.

No, I cannot avoid this. Yes, I must impress. The dish must be flavourful. I'm not a novice cook, I'm quite good at it, but I want something new to serve.

Any ideas? Please link or share recipes

Why are people asking what the father-in-law likes to eat? What about the others who'll be present?

What's his own cooking like?

Chicken nuggets
Chips
Ketchup

All homemade of course.

Serve it on bone China with silk napkins.

Boeuf bourguignon is easy peasy and that is easily prepared in advance and then heated up, meaning less time in the kitchen. I also make a very nice dish with pork fillet, with a small amount of finely diced onion and peppers, cooked on the hob in cider or white wine depending on what I have available, then a sauce made by stirring in garlic and herb boursin. Serve either dish with buttered new potatoes, skin on, and veg of your choice - usually string beans in this house. More difficult if vegetarian or vegan.... I'm not that au fait with vegetarian dishes unfortunately so I would probably do either a beautiful vegetable tart (which could be either vegetarian or vegan) or twice baked souffles (obviously not vegan).

Oh, one tip you can always use to impress someone is use the best ingredients you can afford, ime.

I bought a flat top from amazon.
I bought some v thick steaks from the butchers, put in freezer and then slice very thin against the grain and layer on plate, also do the same with pork belly.
Put out on table and add some sauces like soy etc i also found some korean sauces to add to the table, coat some raw prawns in korean red pepper paste soy and honey, add some raw veggies and people can cook their own.

Serve with rice/noodles. Its minimal effort (just prep really ) and people can do what they want with the sauce

Why are you volunteering to cook for your in laws? Why can't your DH do it? It's not your job. I would definitely suggest this ti your partner.

Fuck that. Make a custard pie and shove it in his face.

Have you got time and a big cast iron lidded casserole? I supervised my kids making Julia Child's boeuf bourgignon recently and it was spectacular.

Or Nigella's butterflied leg of lamb with garlic roast potatoes (not the balsamic/bay leaves one - the marinated in mint & garlic one). You need a butcher though.

I use pre packaged mussels from Tesco to make this Jamie Oliver recipe. It’s super easy but looks and tastes impressive.

Pesto mussels

otherwise I second all the beef bourginon comments, easy, especially if you have a slow cooker and can be made ahead of time to take the stress out of cooking

This slow cooker lamb tagine is absolutely awesome. I cooked it for some foodie friends and they were very impressed.

pin.it/Fn8YpLw

www.mob.co.uk/recipes/healthy-chicken-gyros-with-fresh-tzatziki

This one is flavoursome. So easy to do. Can serve it and they make their own pitta along with the homemade dips and salsa it can look quite impressive!

I'd stick to what you know. He can eat it or leave it.

OP I do suspect you can’t win from your description of him. I can just hear him damning with faint praise every delicious dish put in front of him.

A wonderful boeuf bourgignon: “Delicious! And so simple of course anyone can make it”

An array of subtly spiced curries: “Of course to have food like this at its best you have to be in the country. I remember when I was in Delhi in 1964…”

Black rice with fennel: “Adventurous! But does the flavour of the fennel really come through…”. Etc

Would it be heartless to ask what you are making and set up a Bingo

M&S or Waitrose ready meals, bung in, wallah bet you get compliments.

Make something that you love and doesn't take much effort.

He's only going to complain about it anyhow, so you might as well get a decent meal out of it first.

Fyi the potatoes were declared ‘ delicious’. So just get new potatoes, wash, cook whole until cooked. Lob some butter and fresh mint at them. Tada. Michelin star.

I used to make food like some of the ideas mentioned here but somehow my mojo. This thread is very inspiring though, I feel like cooking!

My go to is coq au vin. It's really easy, full of flavour, and won't break the bank.

If he critiques at all do ask

so what’s your meal to impress me then? I shall look forward to my invite

😂
I always think the picture on the box looks way better than the cooked product.

My family are like this. They think they are being helpful, and for them it's the way they show enjoyment but to everyone who is not them (myself included) it sounds like criticism 🙄. I just make what I like. There is no point trying to cook for them.

Anything from the slimming eats website. All free recipes, we live off them now.

I can highly recommend the chicken fajita pasta, salt & pepper chicken and Mongolian beef. All really easy to make as well

He would be getting fish fingers/nuggets chips and beans from me.

Look up tamingtwins- loads of flavour. Easy to do. Light in the washing up !

A thing I have learned is that some people really like to complain. It gives them meaning. I would cook something that your other guests would enjoy (as a PP said, especially your MiL who's probably had this for years) without knocking myself out, and be happy in the knowledge that he can moan away, and you will have given him that gift.
Tl;dr: it isn't worth trying to get validation from him, it isn't coming, so just please yourself and your other guests