EatDrinkPlay: Don’t leave your potluck to chance. Get tips planning your party from Ali Rosen, New York’s potluck guru.
Planning a block party or a tailgate bash? Guru Ali Rosen has tips for a perfect potluck
Potlucks make life easier, whether you’re planning a neighborhood party, a tailgate bash or any communal gathering. Everyone brings a dish to share. What could go wrong?
Besides 12 desserts and no main course, we mean. Also unpleasantly tepid hot food, soggy salads and a cake or steak that must be sliced with a plastic fork because no one thought to bring a knife. And a lineup of mystery casseroles that have your vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, paleo and keto-following friends eyeballing the crudite platter as a possible entree.
Don’t let the name fool you, says Ali Rosen. Potlucks go better when you don’t leave everything to chance.
Rosen is the New York City-based creator and host of the Emmynominated TV series and website “Potluck with Ali Rosen,” with a new cookbook out dubbed “Bring It! Tried and True Recipes for Potlucks and Casual Entertaining” (Running Press, $25). Rosen has an entire repertoire of great make-ahead, tasty-at-room-temperature dishes, from her snap pea salad with Parmesan and bacon to tahini lamb and rice. And the book offers up tips on how to transport each dish and freshen it up with garnishes on the spot.
Naturally, we had questions, and she was happy to dish — on potluck pitfalls, easy tricks and sensational, but simple recipes.
Q
What’s the key to a hassle-free potluck?
A
Keeping things hot is the No. 1 stressor. You’re setting yourself up for failure. Potlucks are made to have people grazing, taking seconds, arriving at different times. Try to do things at room temperature — even the meat and the fish, cold or room temperature. If you want to do something that’s heated, make sure you coordinate heat sources; another big problem people have is when everyone shows up with a dish that has to be heated at a different temperature and there’s only one oven.
Q
How do you avoid the 12 desserts, no entree issue?
A
Oh god, we have 17 vegetable dishes and nobody wanted to make a main! Encourage people to take a category and stick with it. Make sure that everybody is communicating. There are Google docs or Doodle where you can do that.
Q
What about other potluck fails, like soggy salads?
A
People get so stressed out about trying to do stuff last minute. Use recipes you can make a day ahead, especially if you’re the host, (but) try not to dress or sauce things until you arrive. A salad that’s soggy is sad!
Understand where the potluck is. If you’re doing a picnic outside, don’t bring a dish that requires a lot of cutting. Some things that are great dishes don’t work with plastic cutlery. Trying to cut a steak with plastic cutlery is my greatest pet peeve! If you’re going to serve a steak dish, cut it into bite-size pieces before you arrive.
Q
There are so many people with dietary issues …
A
It’s a really big issue at potlucks! You can say, please let me know if you have any dietary restrictions. But you want to make sure you have a few hearty vegetable dishes that don’t have cheese. If you have at least two of those hearty dishes — vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free — you’ve covered every base. Back-pocket recipes that are really flavorful and vegetable-based are important to have in your repertoire. A quinoa dish with vegetables or a cauliflower salad, those types of dishes are friendly for all diets.
Q
Say we’re planning a fall party or a post-pumpkin picking potluck. What should we make from your book?
A
There’s a vinegar-tarragon chicken that’s so good for cold weather. You can sop up the sauce with crunchy bread. It’s a good one-pot thing. I love the ginger beef — it’s one of my favorite recipes in the book. You can serve it at room temperature and the sauce is bright and light. There’s a cauliflower salad with lime and turmeric. It’s one of those dishes that works for everyone. The turmeric makes it yellow and the arugula makes it colorful. For a fall party, definitely the goat-cheese pumpkin pie.