15/9 - 10 years and counting - last minute 3 course meal
Well the 15 September marks a strange anniversary for us, it's the day in 2001 that we got married and it's really brilliant that we have made it to 10 years of married life, but I do always feel a little cheated that if we had been slightly more conventional and not "thought about things" for so long, then we could be celebrating 20 years and I always feel I need to add "..but we've been together for 21 years" as if 10 years of married life isn't an achievement in itself - which it is!
Anyway, we didn't have any celebration planned in fact I don't think I've ever been so disorganised. Last year it was our 20 years together so we had a lovely Spa Experience at Center Parcs, dinner at Strada and a stay in a lovely hotel in Retford. This year, driving home it suddenly struck me it wasn't really good enough that we were doing nothing, so I swooped into Morrison's to do the only thing I knew I could organise and do well in a short space of time...get the ingredients for a nice meal. I got to school to pick Lauren up only by the skin of my teeth and then it was action stations.
I bought a bottle of Berberena Reserva Rioja on offer from Morrison's from £10.79 to just £5. We've had it before, it's a lovely, very drinkable deep red Rioja which went down a treat with our meal. So knowing I'd got to take Lauren dancing, I set the table, opened the wine and left it to rest and filled a vase with red roses and gypsophila, prepared 2 field mushrooms, set some tomatoes roasting, cut some chips, soaked some onion rings in milk, set some garlic roasting, marinaded the steak in olive oil, pepper and garlic and off I went.
When I finally got back this is what we had...
Starter
Peppers de Padron - the small Spanish green peppers from the Padron region, fried in an inch of olive oil and served with plenty of sea salt.
Main
Grilled rib-eye steak - marinaded in olive oil and garlic, seasoned with black pepper. Morrison's steak is always nice quality and really tasty. I served them medium rare and they were melt in your mouth soft.
Grilled field mushrooms - with a drizzle of olive oil, seasoned with salt and black pepper, grilled till tender, a lovely accompaniment to steak.
Slow roasted cherry tomatoes - roasted in one of the new M&S sauces "Terribly Clever - Smoked paprika, chipotle chilli & Lime Starter paste for roasting tomatoes", it had a lovely deep flavour, rich paprika, slight smoke and a little heat. I stirred in some chopped olives and topped the steak with the sticky deep red mixture.
Hand made chips - cut potatoes and soak in water until your fat is hot. Dry the potatoes really well (with a clean tea towel) and place carefully in the hot oil. (Never fill your pan more than a third full of oil and don't add too many chips at once, lower and raise your basket until the oil stops bubbling up). Cook the chips on a medium heat, so that they cook but don't brown, this is called blanching. When they are soft all the way through, remove them from the oil. Heat the oil to a higher temperature (throw in a small piece of bread and see how long it takes to cook to gauge the temperature) and recook the chips. This time they should go crisp and brown quickly. The rule as ever is to have a damp tea towel at the ready and never leave hot oil unattended.
Hand made onion rings - slice up an onion (or two) into rings, separate them all out. Put them in a bowl of milk and leave them to soak for at least 20 minutes. Drain and toss on a plate of flour and then fry for about 5 minutes until golden. Drain on kitchen roll before serving.
Salad - of pea shoots, romano red peppers and chopped cucumber
Garlic Bread - I used a Morrison's cheesy ciabatta individual roll. I roasted some garlic when I cooked the tomatoes. I pounded the roasted garlic in a pestle and mortar with some butter, spread it on the opened out roll and baked it in foil in the oven for 10 minutes.
Dessert
A Morrison's Strawberry Tart if I'd had time, I would have made some individual strawberry tarts, but I didn't. It was nothing like the delicious versions you get in French supermarkets but it rounded off the meal!
Anyway, we didn't have any celebration planned in fact I don't think I've ever been so disorganised. Last year it was our 20 years together so we had a lovely Spa Experience at Center Parcs, dinner at Strada and a stay in a lovely hotel in Retford. This year, driving home it suddenly struck me it wasn't really good enough that we were doing nothing, so I swooped into Morrison's to do the only thing I knew I could organise and do well in a short space of time...get the ingredients for a nice meal. I got to school to pick Lauren up only by the skin of my teeth and then it was action stations.
I bought a bottle of Berberena Reserva Rioja on offer from Morrison's from £10.79 to just £5. We've had it before, it's a lovely, very drinkable deep red Rioja which went down a treat with our meal. So knowing I'd got to take Lauren dancing, I set the table, opened the wine and left it to rest and filled a vase with red roses and gypsophila, prepared 2 field mushrooms, set some tomatoes roasting, cut some chips, soaked some onion rings in milk, set some garlic roasting, marinaded the steak in olive oil, pepper and garlic and off I went.When I finally got back this is what we had...
Starter
Peppers de Padron - the small Spanish green peppers from the Padron region, fried in an inch of olive oil and served with plenty of sea salt.
Main
Grilled rib-eye steak - marinaded in olive oil and garlic, seasoned with black pepper. Morrison's steak is always nice quality and really tasty. I served them medium rare and they were melt in your mouth soft.
Grilled field mushrooms - with a drizzle of olive oil, seasoned with salt and black pepper, grilled till tender, a lovely accompaniment to steak.
Slow roasted cherry tomatoes - roasted in one of the new M&S sauces "Terribly Clever - Smoked paprika, chipotle chilli & Lime Starter paste for roasting tomatoes", it had a lovely deep flavour, rich paprika, slight smoke and a little heat. I stirred in some chopped olives and topped the steak with the sticky deep red mixture.
Hand made chips - cut potatoes and soak in water until your fat is hot. Dry the potatoes really well (with a clean tea towel) and place carefully in the hot oil. (Never fill your pan more than a third full of oil and don't add too many chips at once, lower and raise your basket until the oil stops bubbling up). Cook the chips on a medium heat, so that they cook but don't brown, this is called blanching. When they are soft all the way through, remove them from the oil. Heat the oil to a higher temperature (throw in a small piece of bread and see how long it takes to cook to gauge the temperature) and recook the chips. This time they should go crisp and brown quickly. The rule as ever is to have a damp tea towel at the ready and never leave hot oil unattended.Hand made onion rings - slice up an onion (or two) into rings, separate them all out. Put them in a bowl of milk and leave them to soak for at least 20 minutes. Drain and toss on a plate of flour and then fry for about 5 minutes until golden. Drain on kitchen roll before serving.
Salad - of pea shoots, romano red peppers and chopped cucumber
Garlic Bread - I used a Morrison's cheesy ciabatta individual roll. I roasted some garlic when I cooked the tomatoes. I pounded the roasted garlic in a pestle and mortar with some butter, spread it on the opened out roll and baked it in foil in the oven for 10 minutes.
Dessert
A Morrison's Strawberry Tart if I'd had time, I would have made some individual strawberry tarts, but I didn't. It was nothing like the delicious versions you get in French supermarkets but it rounded off the meal!
It all sounded delicious,glad you had a good time, keep up the good work.
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