Cooking for a special person

sports_brah

sports_brah

sports_brah

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As per the title, I need to prepare a meal for a romantic night in.

The issue I have is that I have limited equipment (listed below). Add to this I'm **** at cooking, and I'm looking at possibly preparing something to slow cook during the day/buy dessert?

What I have is:

-3.5litre slow cooker
-Saucepan with lid
-Frying pan.

Tabletop oven (you know the ones with two hobs on top with a non fan oven/grill underneath).

-Kettle
-Couple knives and forks
-Couple sharpish knives.


I was thinking:

Something slow cooked (maybe curry or stew?), with a homemade cooked apple crumble?

Seems boring, so I was hoping for some inspiration. I'm happy to put in the prep work the night before I pick her up etc, as long as I'm not farting around the kitchen last minute!
 
Lamb shanks for sure.

Find a recipe you like, chuck all the ingredients in the slow cooker and leave for a few hours, some nice creamy mash potato and gravy from the cooking stock and you've got a dead easy but tasty meal.
 
Every appropriate suggestion I can think of requires slightly more kitchen equipment. For example the 1st response to your post is a great suggestion, however do you have anything to mash the potatoes with?? or do you have a collinder/ strainer for that matter?
 
I live in a very large property, and only use this kitchen. I'll take a picture of the main kitchen, as that has a lot more equipment but is at least a couple minutes walk. :p
 
Chicken breasts stuffed with pesto and fresh basil, wrapped in parma ham. Oven bake for 35 minutes. Boil some peeled potatoes until soft, mash with some butter and milk. Serve with some fresh vegetables steamed.
 
check out a slow cooker recipe website and then you can make the main meal and leave it cooking overnight/during the day

crumble is a bit meh imo and almost old granny like.

maybe try doing a pudding you would have had at school?
assuming the other person is in the same age range it's likely they would have had it too.

like most people in the 80's/90's had the amazing flavoured custards, there are even websites dedicated to recipes people would have had at school like the quirky puddings you don't really see any more but everyone remembers fondly

the other person gets the nostalgic you get the win.
 
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What I thought I had.....


What I really have.
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It appears you have a fully functioning small restaurant kitchen. The world (of recipes) is your oyster.
 
Looks not too bad albeit very dirty.

If you're bad at cooking I'd say you should start very simple - make yourself some pasta and a ragu to go with it.

Then do some garlic bread and salad with that, cheeseboard with coffee and brandy for afters.
 
arknor said:
check out a slow cooker recipe website and then you can make the main meal and leave it cooking overnight/during the day

crumble is a bit meh imo and almost old granny like.

maybe try doing a pudding you would have had at school?
assuming the other person is in the same age range it's likely they would have had it too.

like most people in the 80's/90's had the amazing flavoured custards, there are even websites dedicated to recipes people would have had at school like the quirky puddings you don't really see any more but everyone remembers fondly

the other person gets the nostalgic you get the win.
Click to expand...

Never had such custard at school. :(


wesimmo said:
Lamb shanks for sure.

Find a recipe you like, chuck all the ingredients in the slow cooker and leave for a few hours, some nice creamy mash potato and gravy from the cooking stock and you've got a dead easy but tasty meal.
Click to expand...

Never really eaten lamb before, would you have any sample links for the lamb shanks?

Liquid_Entity said:
Chicken breasts stuffed with pesto and fresh basil, wrapped in parma ham. Oven bake for 35 minutes. Boil some peeled potatoes until soft, mash with some butter and milk. Serve with some fresh vegetables steamed.
Click to expand...

This sounds mighty good. Any links to recipes for this you would recommend?




Also, tiramasu. Too tough?
 
pitchfork said:
Looks not too bad albeit very dirty.

If you're bad at cooking I'd say you should start very simple - make yourself some pasta and a ragu to go with it.

Then do some garlic bread and salad with that, cheeseboard with coffee and brandy for afters.
Click to expand...

Pasta + Ragu looks like an easy option, will keep it in reserve! Pot of pasta + Aldi sauce = easy victory!

Garlic bread I might give a miss, as I'd like to give her a few kisses afterwards. :p

Cheeseboard with coffee + brandy sounds good, but I'm all out of brandy and can't be buying a new bottle of VSOP! :D
 
Pot of pasta + Aldi sauce = easy victory!
Click to expand...

No man, I'm talking make your own pasta with eggs and flour (or at the very least buy from a good deli). Then slow cook a ragu with plenty of italian sausage and steak, lots of sweet onions and good quality tomatoes.

Something like -

Brown your meat harshly in a frying pan - a pack of good spicy italian sausage would be good and a nice cheap cut of stewing steak diced up. I chuck in offal and all sorts.

At the same time cook off a couple of onions very very slowly in plenty of olive oil (5-6 tbsp), add a dash of honey or sugar to start the natural caramelisation and if you see it catching on the pan, heat right down and add a pinch of salt. Then turn heat to med/ medium-high and add the browned meat, half a head of garlic (or less if it's very strong, garlic varies) grated finely, a tablespoon of parsley, half a tablespoon oregano, a little dried chilli and nearly a whole tube of good quality tomato paste (cheap paste is bitter, avoid). Then stir and cook for 5 or so minutes to bring out the flavours and make the magic happens. Next add a glass of white wine, or even some dark beer if you choose (I often use beer in ragus) and cook for 5 more minutes to burn off the alcohol and enrichen.
Then 2 tins of unchopped pomodorino tomatos and break them against the side of the pan - don't use chopped, unchopped are better.

Bung it in the slow cooker and cook for about a million years, or until dinner time, taste and season just before serving - salt and pepper are important to a good ragu but only at the end of cooking.

Serving you'll just have to boil the pasta for a few minutes in very salty water and then toss together (don't serve separate, toss the pasta, it'll absorb the sauce like a sponge)..

Both are things just about anyone can do, italian food is incredibly simple - with a bit of care and love you can achieve wondrous feats.

If you don't fancy garlic bread, consider lavender bread - a nice alternative. Or just a nice crusty loaf.

Bag of green salad with a little seasoning, oil and vinegar. She'll be so ready.

As far as the brandy goes, cough up tightarse :D
 
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Right....now that you've uploaded what seems to be pictures of a restaurant kitchen I can give you my recommendations lol. :p

Pan seared duck breast with sweet potato mash and buttered long stem broccoli and asparagus. Either make a fruity red wine jus to go over it or if thats overcomplicating it a bit just buy a pre made sauce and heat it up (a drizzle of typical Chinese hoisin sauce actually works really nicely).

Chicken, prawn and chorizo jambalaya

Chicken, bacon and mushroom lasagne.

If any of those appeal to you let me know and I'll post up a bit of guidance of what I typically do. :)
 
pitchfork said:
No man, I'm talking make your own pasta with eggs and flour (or at the very least buy from a good deli). Then slow cook a ragu with plenty of italian sausage and steak, lots of sweet onions and good quality tomatoes.

Something like -

Brown your meat harshly in a frying pan - a pack of good spicy italian sausage would be good and a nice cheap cut of stewing steak diced up. I chuck in offal and all sorts.

At the same time cook off a couple of onions very very slowly in plenty of olive oil (5-6 tbsp), add a dash of honey or sugar to start the natural caramelisation and if you see it catching on the pan, heat right down and add a pinch of salt. Then turn heat to med/ medium-high and add the browned meat, half a head of garlic (or less if it's very strong, garlic varies) grated finely, a tablespoon of parsley, half a tablespoon oregano, a little dried chilli and nearly a whole tube of good quality tomato paste (cheap paste is bitter, avoid). Then stir and cook for 5 or so minutes to bring out the flavours and make the magic happens. Next add a glass of white wine, or even some dark beer if you choose (I often use beer in ragus) and cook for 5 more minutes to burn off the alcohol and enrichen.
Then 2 tins of unchopped pomodorino tomatos and break them against the side of the pan - don't use chopped, unchopped are better.

Bung it in the slow cooker and cook for about a million years, or until dinner time, taste and season just before serving - salt and pepper are important to a good ragu but only at the end of cooking.

Serving you'll just have to boil the pasta for a few minutes in very salty water and then toss together (don't serve separate, toss the pasta, it'll absorb the sauce like a sponge)..

Both are things just about anyone can do, italian food is incredibly simple - with a bit of care and love you can achieve wondrous feats.

If you don't fancy garlic bread, consider lavender bread - a nice alternative. Or just a nice crusty loaf.

Bag of green salad with a little seasoning, oil and vinegar. She'll be so ready.

As far as the brandy goes, cough up tightarse :D
Click to expand...

Wow, you've got ME drooling! Sounds like an excellent plan! I think I'll go for this! So for the ingredients I need:

Italian sausage (can I get away with a chorizo stick as I have no idea what italian sausage is.)
Stewing steak (any is okay?)
Onions (you say sweet onions, are they not all the same?)
Honey
Salt
Garlic
parsley (fresh?)
Oregano
dried chilli (the same as chilli powder or actual chillis?)
Tomato paste
White wine/beer (any wine will do, I don't usually drink white)
Pomodorino Tomatoes (first I've heard of them!)


In regards making pasta, seems quite difficult to do (well at least for the first time, and I don't have scope to be botching up!), so I might buy some. Any recommendations on what to look for?

Lavender bread sounds tasty.

I'm thinking maybe a tiramasu for afters, I stayed with an Italian guy once who made the best tiramasu I've EVER had. Lost the recipe but I'm sure the internet will help!

Brandy can be source I guess...It's like 40+ euros a bottle over here though...I made the mistake of trying Lidl brandy last week. EURGH.



Mrs Seabiscuit said:
ew that kitchen looks like it needs a good scrub.
Click to expand...

It's been scrubbed by someone else, the pictures are just not very flattering with my POS phone.
 
Oh and I'll be leaving at around 0630 to pick her up, so I'd need to prepare the sauce before I go off to see her (Maybe eating at 8pm that night?). Will it last that long in the slow cooker?
 
sports_brah said:
Wow, you've got ME drooling! Sounds like an excellent plan! I think I'll go for this! So for the ingredients I need:

Italian sausage (can I get away with a chorizo stick as I have no idea what italian sausage is.) Yeah Chorizo will work nicely, you can stick anything in.
Stewing steak (any is okay?) Cheaper the better
Onions (you say sweet onions, are they not all the same?)Aim for fresh, fresh onions are sweeter, but basically yeah, any onions
Honey
Salt
Garlic
parsley (fresh?) Dried
Oregano
dried chilli (the same as chilli powder or actual chillis?) They're like dried chilli flakes
Tomato paste
White wine/beer (any wine will do, I don't usually drink white)
Pomodorino Tomatoes (first I've heard of them!) You can pick up tins in lidl for cheap, they're very sweet, awesome


In regards making pasta, seems quite difficult to do (well at least for the first time, and I don't have scope to be botching up!), so I might buy some. Any recommendations on what to look for? Fair enough, it is a lot of work even for a skilled chef. Look for pasta that's a really deep yellow, deeper yellow = better eggs = better pasta

Lavender bread sounds tasty. Yep, basically just a little lavender and some oil + a crusty loaf and heat in the oven

I'm thinking maybe a tiramasu for afters, I stayed with an Italian guy once who made the best tiramasu I've EVER had. Lost the recipe but I'm sure the internet will help! Tiramisu is pretty idiot proof, crack on

Brandy can be source I guess...It's like 40+ euros a bottle over here though...I made the mistake of trying Lidl brandy last week. EURGH.
Ahh fair play, stick with the coffee then
Click to expand...

And yes, the longer you cook the sauce the better - I'd ideally say put it on to cook in the slow cooker in the morning, or at lunchtime. You'll want to cook it for minimum 3 hours.
 
Only on OcUK can we go from having the cooking utensils most of us would be ashamed to admit to owning to having access to basically a restaurant kitchen in a couple of posts :D
 
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