No-Fuss Romantic Dinner For Two

Sometimes when you want a special dinner, you can't go wrong with simple things that you can buy ready-made (or nearly ready-made) from the supermarket. That way, you're guaranteed a hassle-free, delicious dinner without having to spend hours in the kitchen, or having to pay restaurant prices for it. This meal came in under £40 total, including wine, and took less than half an hour to prepare.

Menu

Starter: Smoked salmon terrine with warmed pitta breads
Main: Steak and salad
Dessert: Lemon meringue roulade (with dessert wine, because we like to fancy it up now and again)

Firstly take your roulade out of its box and let it defrost at room temperature, unless you've been canny enough to avoid the freezer section of the supermarket.

Next, prepare your steaks - lay them on a plate, and cover with freshly milled salt, pepper, and thinly sliced garlic.

At this point, you can kick back in the garden/living room/pool house (if it's the latter, please invite me over) with an aperatif.

When you start to get a bit hungry, prepare your starter. Slice some white mini pitta breads in half, so that they're really thin, and toast for a couple of minutes until warm. Lay a wodge of smoked salmon terrine on each plate, and pile the pitta breads alongside. Finish the breads with a drizzle of olive oil and a twist of pepper.

After your starter, you can prepare the main course. Tip some bagged salad leaves into a bowl, add some cherry tomatoes, ready-made croutons, and dress with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. You can now do the steaks. Add a generous slice of butter to a hot pan, let it melt, then cook your steaks. I find that a minute-and-a-half on each side cooks the steak to the perfect, nicely reddish, medium state that I love. Don't judge! I know it's girly but it's how I like it.

Mmmmm....STEAK.

When you're ready for dessert, slice up your now nicely defrosted lemon meringue roulade, pop it on a plate, and dust with a sprinkling of that old and slightly dried-up icing sugar from the back of your cupboard. This will trick your brain into thinking it's home-made. Nice work! You made a roulade!

You can even serve up a wee dram of dessert wine alongside it, if:

- You like incredibly sweet, strangely-coloured wine (I REALLY do)

- You own tiny glasses to put it in. We don't (the ones above aren't ours), but have in the past made do with espresso cups. Which add a certain something, I think you'll agree.

If you can be bothered, whip up a pot of coffee and collapse on the sofa to rejoice in how little washing-up there is to be done.

A Sailor's Dinner

Ahoy there me hearties! Guess what we did this weekend? We went on a BOAT. Oh yes!

Whilst sailing, we got treated to a three course meal of locally-sourced, freshly-prepared ingredients - all cooked onboard the boat in a weeny-teeny galley kitchen. It was amazing! To start, I had a little pot of smoked mackerel pate, with a lemon slice and plenty of thick brown bread on the side. I didn't get a picture of this, as we were on a communal table and I didn't want the other diners to think I was strange. I got over that.

Here's B's main course - a huge nest of fresh smoked salmon, boiled potatoes with garlic, and vegetables. I had the pretty much the same, although I had two gigantic slices of local cured ham instead of the salmon. It was delicious - thickly cut, with a delicate sweet flavour. It went really well with the fluffy potatoes and simple vegetables.

And here's the dessert - a loganberry and apple crumble with custard. The apple was thinly sliced, so it held its shape and had some texture to it, which played very nicely against the sweet nubbly loganberries. The top was crunchy with brown sugar and the custard finished it off beautifully.

We finished up with coffee on the deck. The deck! Of the boat! Oh yes!

Breakfast Of Champions

There is nothing like a plateful of eggy bread to kick-start a long, lazy weekend.

Strangely enough, I don't think I've ever had eggy bread before. I'm not sure why - probably because I'm not a morning person and often I can't even cope with pouring out my Alpen. But I have seen the error of my ways, because eggy bread is AMAZING. It tastes kind of like an omelette. Only, crunchier. And yummier. And so filling! I had two slices smothered in honey and I didn't need to eat again for the whole weekend.*

* A lie. As you will come to see.

The Post-Pub Carbs Grab

 

Um. Well, it's pizza. And garlic bread. And some ketchup. Which contains vitamins, right?

The Tired Weekday Dinner Fix

There are days when you come home from work and you just don't have the time or the inclination to hang about in the kitchen. All you want is a good, straightforward meal that will be ready quicker than a takeaway can be delivered. Here is my fix for that tired weekday dinner.

Fishcakes, Homemade Chips & Green Veg

The only thing that takes any time at all here is the homemade chips. But they are awesome, so you should make them. First put the kettle onto boil, then take two potatoes per person and scrub. Don't worry about peeling them, life's too short. Chop into chip-shaped slices, and put in a pan with your freshly boiled water. Keep them bubbling for about five minutes - that's all you need to make sure they cook through and don't stay raw in the middle.

Drain, and lay the chips onto a decent-sized baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper. Give everything a good shake around, then add your fishcakes onto the tray as well. Whack the whole tray in the oven and cook for as long as your fishcakes say to on their packet. You should try to remember to flip the chips over halfway through the cooking time, but life won't be over if you don't remember.

With your greens, choose the ones that don't need any prep. I topped the beans with a pair of scissors and that was all. You can cook them any way you please - in the microwave, in the oven - but they shouldn't take more than five minutes.

Serve in front of the TV, because that is right and proper on a night like this.

These were our accompaniments.

English Summer Tapas

We've been trying to eat up all the odds and ends from our fridge this week, so that we can clean it out and start afresh after the long weekend. We always seem to be left with bits and bobs that aren't enough to make a full meal, so you have to get a little creative.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present you with Delicious English Summer Tapas.

We had a bundle of asparagus, so we gently boiled that in salted water for around 7 minutes, so that it still had some bite. That got dressed with a zingy sauce that we found in Sophie Grigson, although we had to play around with it because we didn't have some of the ingredients and I was too lazy to go to the shops. We picked a big handful of fresh mint, and another of parsley, from the garden and whizzed them manically in the blender with a teaspoonful of honey, some olive oil, the juice of half a lemon, and a teaspoonful of balsamic vinegar to balance it. The resulting sauce (which splatters tres artistically in the blender) is a vibrant green and is full of beautiful fresh summer flavours.

Alongside the asparagus we served a potato salad, which were simply boiled potatoes dressed with the leftover sauce, and chopped chives and garlic added in.

And there was some chorizo as well. Hmmm. That's not very English. But we had some to finish up in the fridge.

I even set the table in celebration of this meal. With a tablecloth and everything. I hope you're impressed.

Some Thoughts on....Lunch

In a radical break with tradition, I'm posting about lunch today, as dinner tonight is the leftover lasagne from the dinner we made yesterday. It turns out we made enough to feed a small army.

In an attempt to counterbalance the quantity of cheese I'll be consuming later, I had salad for lunch. Salad! I know. It's so boring. Salad doesn't rank very highly in my list of yummy lunchables.

Top Three Week-Day Lunches
1.) A toasted cheese, ham, and tomato panini. Preferably with ketchup or mayonnaise on the side to dip into. The thin bread, the melting cheese, the added hint of danger that you will very likely burn your tongue on boiling squirt of tomato pips.....It takes some beating.

2.) Sushi. I love the little sachets of soy sauce and wasabi, love the prettiness of the sushi rolls. Mostly I like how sophisticated and cosmopolitan I feel when wielding a pair of chopsticks.

3.) A miso soup and avocado & herb salad wrap. This is my go-to lunch if I'm ever near a Pret (hard to believe, but where I currently work is not located near a Pret branch. I know! Drat that tin mine). It feels healthy and filling at the same time. And boy do I love avocado.

So, yeah. Salad - I'm not your biggest fan. But sometimes it has to be eaten, and so I try to make it as varied and interesting as I can. Today's salad featured:

- Salad leaves from a nice mixed packet that came in our veg box this week. Something in it is really, really peppery.

- Cherry tomatoes

- Sliced cucumber

- Sliced celery

- Sliced ham

- Avocado (yessss!)

- LOTS of sunflower and pumpkin seeds

Zzzzzz. I dressed it with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. I nearly fell asleep whilst eating it, but at least I feel virtuous and healthy now. And very ready for a lasagne-fest later. Yay!

Sunday Night Lasagne

We cried over the end of the weekend last night with a dinner that takes a little while to prepare but is totally worth it. Make up a nice red sauce in advance; the longer it simmers, the nicer it will be. You'll need a white sauce as well, and I won't tell you how to make that. If you're a cheffy type, you would frown on our way of making it, which is just to mix heated milk, cornflour, and some grated cheese together until smooth and creamy. If you're not a cheffy type, I probably lost you at cornflour. So let's move on! Slice up any vegetables you have handy - mushrooms are nice, as are peppers, beans, and carrots. Layer your lasagne in this pattern: red sauce, pasta, vegetables, white sauce. Repeat until your dish is dangerously close to overflowing. Dot the top with slices of mozzarella and more grated cheese. Cook for 45 minutes until the top is golden brown and the whole thing is bubbling like there's no tomorrow.

Serve a nice green salad with it - I love swirling my lettuce around in the leftover sauce, which sounds disgusting but I promise you is a delicious combination. Our salad featured eeny-teeny radishes from the garden, which have been sacrificed to make way for their fatter brothers and sisters. Sorry, teeny radishes! You never reached your full potential. You were yummy though.

If you are so inclined, have a nice glass of wine as well. We did. In the corner of this picture, you can see The Cat looking disapproving at our alcohol intake.

Birthday Barbeque

My brother is lucky enough to have his birthday in late May, which is (usually) prime barbeque weather. I am jealous of this.

We headed over to his house today to sit in his garden, drink beer, and eat more grilled meat than you ever thought possible. His wife had taken care of all the accompaniments, so there were four different kinds of salads and various breads as well. See evidence above - there's pasta salad, couscous, potato salad, coleslaw, baguette, and a homemade mini-burger on that plate. Oooh yeah.

B particularly enjoyed the carnivore environment. After declaring himself uncomfortably full after a mammoth cheeseburger in a pitta bread, he nevertheless manned up and demolished a pork chop as well.



Here's my brother's totally amazing birthday cake, homemade by his lovely wife. It was a Swiss roll base, covered in chocolate fingers, and accessorised with chocolate-dipped strawberries and blueberries on top. Have you ever seen anything more delicious-looking?

The detox starts tomorrow.

Friday Night's All Right....

Friday, hurray! I was out celebrating the end of the week in Camden with a few friends and some music at the Grand Union. We had planned to have burgers there after the gig, but they closed the kitchen before we could order (it was 9pm. On a Friday night. Really now?) But the evening was saved from serious annoyance and hunger pangs by the Kentish Canteen, which we chanced upon on the way back to the tube.

We got our burgers after all! Here is mine, in all its cheesy, bacon-y goodness, right before I snaffled it down in about three bites. It was delicious. The coleslaw was homemade, the burger was lovely and pink, and there was a little bit of beetroot on the top which made a nice little relish.

After the burgers, there was dessert. Of course.  




Here is my beautiful friend J, proudly exhibiting the lavender creme brulee she'd had her heart set on from the moment we stepped into the restaurant and saw it written up on the specials board. I don't remember her verdict, but I'm pretty sure it was positive. There wasn't much left.

Happy weekends, everyone. 

Mojitos and Mexican(ish) Wraps

Hello, mojito!

B makes an amazing mojito, which features home-grown mint and double shots of rum. I would ask him to share the recipe, but since even I don't know it, I don't like your chances.

As it's Thursday evening, and that makes it technically the weekend, we decided to celebrate with one of our favourite meals. There's a lot of different components in this meal, but none of them take long to put together, so it really is a quick and simple meal masquerading as something more special.

Above you see:

- Tortilla wraps. You only have to whizz them in the microwave and they're done.

- Shredded lettuce. Take out of the bag and shake into a bowl.

- Grated cheese. Any old cheese you have kicking about in the fridge.

- Stir-fried vegetables. We stirfried peppers, kohlrabi (again. I know! It's hard to think what to do with that thing. It seems to always be in our veg box at the minute), spring greens, carrots and onions with some shop-bought spice mix.

- Guacamole. You can buy this, of course, or you could make it this super-simple way which takes ten minutes tops:


Super Simple Guacamole
One big, or two small, very ripe avocadoes
A handful cherry tomatoes, chopped small
Pinch chili flakes/smoked paprika
One lime

Chop the flesh of the avocado(es) into a bowl. Add the tomatoes, then squeeze all the juice of the lime into the bowl as well. Add the chili flakes, or smoked paprika if you prefer. Mix and mash together - you can be as brutal as you like, it will be all the more delicious for it. You can fancy this up by adding chopped coriander, spring onions, garlic...really anything you like, but I've got to admit I like the simple version.

And there you have it! Load everything onto a tray, and your dinner is served.

Tomorrow's Friday! YAY! I'm going out for burgers and beer. See you on the flip side!

Roasted Vegetables With Chorizo & Cheese

Before....

After...

It seems like all my posts so far have focused on quick and easy suppers, so here's one to balance it out. This isn't at all difficult, but it is a bit labour-intensive (there's LOTS of chopping). However, it's fantastic if, like us, you are middle-class city yuppies who have a weekly veg box delivery, since it gives you the opportunity to use up all those random, tired-looking odds and ends that are lurking in the back of your fridge.

Roasted Vegetables With Chorizo & Cheese

Gather together all your strange bits of veg that have been left over from other meals, and which are starting to wilt at the edges. Last night, we had potatoes, carrots, kohlrabi, spring greens, and kohlrabi tops (not sure if they have a proper name. Sorry, kohlrabi tops!) Peel and chop as needed. You will need to parboil the potatoes, and it's a good idea to give the carrots and kohlrabi a couple of minutes too, just to soften them up. Then spread them all out on a baking tray, cover in a good dousing of olive oil, plus salt, pepper, chili flakes, and dried herbs. Add some chopped chorizo and give it all a good forty minutes in a low oven. When it's all looking crispy and delicious, add the greens, and pop back in the oven for about fifteen minutes. Above you can see the finished result all smoky and sizzling, just coming out of the oven. Ten seconds later it was covered in cheese and thirty seconds later I was inhaling it whilst indulging in repeats of The West Wing. What? I'm not ashamed.

Simple Salmon Stir-Fry

Last night I was working late (I know - again! It's a hard life down that tin mine) so this delicious and speedy dinner is courtesy of B. We had some salmon fillets in the freezer, so overnight we let them defrost/marinate in the fridge, smothered with a spoonful of tamarind paste, a blob of honey, and a dash of soy sauce. Then it was just a question of wokking it up with some onions, garlic, carrots, and the rest of the spring greens that were hanging around in the fridge. B soaked the noodles in some boiling water and then added them into the pan at the last minute. It was ready and waiting the second I stepped in the door.
To finish off the meal we had watermelon again, since that sucker is as big as a bowling ball and is going to last us all week. It's really delicious though. Isn't watermelon exactly what you imagine summer to taste like?

Speedy Omelette And Salad

Evening! We're back from the cinema and it's time for a speedy supper so as not to cut into our important Glee-watching activities. Here is the answer: a delicious potato, spring greens and ham omelette, plus a salad it took literally seconds to arrange artfully in a bowl. Noice!

Quick Omelette

Take two potatoes per person and cut into small dice. Parboil for about 5-10 minutes until almost soft. Whilst they're bubbling away, chop up a couple of cloves of garlic and fry until soft. Add a couple of handfuls of chopped-up spring greens to the pan. Drain your potatoes and add them to the pan. Let them sizzle away happily while you whisk up 2 eggs per person, a dash of milk, and some salt and pepper in a bowl. Gloop that into the pan and let it cook for a couple of minutes. Add some strips of ham (we re-visited the Bayonne ham from yesterday, since we had it in the fridge; bacon would be good here too), some grated cheese, andd whack the whole thing under the grill for a couple of minutes until the cheese is melty and you can't wait any longer. Woop!

We finished with some slices of watermelon, because we're fancy that way.

Double Mushroom Pizza and Home-Grown Salad

Good morning! Welcome to The Daily Yum, my blog chronicling the highs, lows and the wine involved in 365 days of dinners.

Last night I was working late, so B was in charge of dinner. He made a super-thin pizza base using wholemeal seed & grain flour, and a tomato sauce from scratch with rosemary and chopped mushrooms in it. The topping featured more sliced mushrooms (hence the double-mushroom name), torn mozzarella, strips of smoked bayonne ham, and lots of black pepper. Fifteen minutes in a hot oven and voila! The smokiness of the ham and the earthiness of the mushrooms really worked well together. You could easily make this vegetarian by leaving out the ham, but it does add a nice oomph to it. On the side we had a salad made from the first leaves from our kitchen garden...little bits of rocket, lamb's lettuce, and radish seedlings, which B dressed with lemon juice and olive oil.

Exhausted by the amazingness of this meal, pudding was a couple of satsumas and a biscuit (because no meal is complete without something sweet, and really, a satsuma just can't cut it).

Tonight is cinema night, so I'll be making something speedy and simple to have after the film. Stay tuned! I bet you literally cannot wait.