Anniversary dinner. Food suggestions?

Ahleckz

Ahleckz

Ahleckz

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I'm cooking a meal for my girlfriend and I next weekend for our anniversary, however I'm not sure what to make!

I'm a decent cook, and wanting to push myself a little bit on this one. I'm after two courses (starter and main) and the only thing that would be off the menu would be duck, rabbit and anything based heavily on mushrooms.

I'm thinking something fish related, maybe langoustine (though they'll have to be deshelled), scallops or a cured salmon for the starter. As for main course, I'm at a bit of a loss. I'll eat anything (bar a lot of mushroom flavour) whereas she isn't keen on eating 'cute' stuff like rabbit/deer/etc.

Wine suggestions would also be nice, less than £10 a bottle please. White + Red! I have an average kitchen, with the usual stuff you'd find so should be able to create most. Obviously sous vide isn't going to happen and I don't have a BBQ. Not too fussed on the price, as it'll be cheaper than going out for dinner!

So, any ideas?
 
Hmmm, one of my fave starters is scallops with either smoked bacon or black pudding, a mint pea puree and a little caper oily type dressing.

Not really that posh though I guess, but ****** lovely.

How about a decent bottle of prosecco? Always a little more special looking, and there are some good ones about ~£10 if on offer :)


Good luck!
 
I tried this out a few years ago for (ex) GF and it went down a treat.

Watercress soup - Slightly time consuming but well worth it and not at all complex.

Salmon en croute with New potatoes and spring greens - not too complex and very tasty.

Perfect with a nice bottle of white wine.
 
Ahleckz said:
I'm cooking a meal for my girlfriend and I next weekend for our anniversary, however I'm not sure what to make!
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What sort of balance are you looking to achieve between spending all evening in the kitchen poring over a hot stove, and spending time with your good lady?

Do you have a large fridge? Will you be able to spend sufficient time to prep in advance? What colour, shape and size are your plates? Are there any ingredients that you would particularly like to include? Does the starter need to be warm? What sort of cuisine(s) are you both most interested in?
 
I don't want to spend ages in the kitchen when she's here, but she can easily stand around with a drink if I need to cook!
Happy to do the prep work in advance, can spend all Saturday morning doing basic veg, and if stuff needs marinaded then that's fine and can do that at any point in the week.
My plates are white, and round.
Nothing I'd particularly like to include, but some sort of fish would be nice. She had never eaten 'proper' fish before she met me, but now loves all sorts of it.
I'd prefer a warm starter.
I like classic French and Japanese cooking. She loves fish, and doesn't like cute animals being eaten.
 
Ahleckz said:
Useful info...
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Thanks for all of that. Most helpful.

If you go down the scallops route, you can pretty much go anywhere with them that suits your fancy - there's a million and one ways to serve them up. However, I seem to get 'stuck' on the pairing of peas and pancetta when I do mine for dinner parties and I tend to work around variations on the same theme.

My current favourite approach is to pair three hand-dived, seared scallops with a pea puree, crispy pancetta 'sand', pancetta foam and micro herbs - looks great, tastes great and all the components can be made in advance, leaving you the simple job of cooking the scallops to perfection on the night whilst simply warming the rest through before plating up.

All of the individual components are relatively easy to make (pea puree is a cinch, pancetta sand is simplicity itself and the foam is just a case of going through the steps) and providing you can get a nice selection of micro herbs or even pea shoots, plating up is very easy too.

All you do is paint a thick line (a clean paintbrush is perfect for this) of the pea puree in a straight line down the plate, approximately one-third of the way in. Then you make three little mounds of the pancetta 'sand' on that line - do the first exactly in the middle of the line and then the other two at equal distance from that, say roughly an inch.

Then it's just a case of gently placing the scallops on each mound of sand, arranging the micro herbs along the line of scallops and then spooning over the foam onto each scallop before serving.

Alternatively you can mix things up a little.

On occasion I'll paint a thick line of light vegetable oil onto the plate and then sprinkle that with the pancetta sand - then you just up-end the plate and let the excess come off, leaving you with a lovely neat line of crispy pancetta pieces.

And as you've swapped the pea puree for the pancetta, this time you want to pipe/spoon a decent dollop of puree into the three spots where the scallops would sit and finish dressing the plate as before.

Alas, that's neither Classic French nor Japanese, but hopefully it gives you some inspiration.
 
Ahleckz said:
Sounds pretty amazing. How do you go about making pancetta sand?
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Easier than it sounds. Although I'm probably about to make it sound needlessly complicated...

First you'll need a pack of sliced pancetta from your local supermarket. Waitrose's Essential range is my preferred choice here, but whatever you can get hold of will work. Just avoid anything that's heavily smoked and look for a good fat:meat ratio on the slices - you want roughly one-third fat to two-thirds meat, if possible.

Then you need to crisp up the slices. The preferred method is to get two baking sheets, line the first one with baking parchment, lay the strips on that, lay another sheet of parchment on top and then the remaining tray. Bake in a hot oven for about 10-minutes (160º-ish) or until crisp.

Alternatively, lay the pancetta in a frying pan taking care not to overlap the slices. Put that on a low heat and allow the pancetta to gently cook - you'll notice it start to crisp up and darken, which is your cue to turn the slices over. Once you've done both sides, cool the pan down, wipe away the fat and repeat the process until all the slices are crisped up.

With either method, the important thing is to transfer the cooked pancetta onto a few sheets of kitchen towel as soon as it's done, then cover with another sheet of towel and press down gently. The idea here is to get all the fat out of the pancetta so the 'sand' doesn't clump together.

Once all that is done an d you've got as much fat out of the pancetta as you possibly can, allow the slices to cool completely - by which point you should have some very crispy, very dry pancetta. And now you either blitz in a food processor (stick blender attachment size is perfect), chop/crush finely with a knife or use a pestle and mortar to crush the bacon into tiny pieces.

If you're using the 'sand' as garnish, then go down to something approaching the consistency of sea salt flakes. If you're using it to decorate the plate, go down a little finer but reserve some of the larger flakes for sprinkling over the dish afterwards.

And for the main, assuming you want to continue with the fishy theme, I’d go with pan-fried sea bass with savoy cabbage, clams and a fish cream sauce. In which some of the components are shared with the starter, meaning there’s less wastage and less ingredients to buy.

Oh, and do a vanilla panna cotta or something like an Earl Grey tea cream for dessert. It doesn't have to be massive, but it's a lovely way to finish a meal off.
 
Going to go fancy for the starter, and go quite simple with the main in the form of a cracking bit of fillet steak with a red wine jus and caramalised onions. That way, I can make a desert as well which would be nice.

Thanks for the suggestion glitch, I'll take a picture of it plated up to let you critique!
 
I've just realised that I've rattled off a load of ideas and given you a rough idea of how to plate up, but completely neglected to give you any actual recipes for the food itself!

You seem like the sort of bright chap who'd just Google for similar-sounding components and pick what you thought were best, but if you do need specifics at this late hour, let me know?!

Oh, and good luck with the meal. Hope it has the desired effect on your good lady.
 
Hah, what you said was great. It's actually a week today rather than today so got all week to plan the menu and sort out getting the food and booze! We ended up in Oban on Thursday night and she had scallops for the first time, which she really enjoyed so that's good.
 
Right, got some scallops today from the fishmonger (almost head butted a low hanging pigeon in the place!) and some pancetta. Going to give this pancetta foam and sand a trial run and see how it goes. I also bought a celeraic because I'd never seen them in the supermarket before so going to make a puree out of that and see what it's like. Planning on having steak as a main, so might serve the puree with that.

I must say, Morrison's is an excellent supermarket. A new one has opened nearby, and it's a much nicer place to be than my local Tesco or the ASDA I work for.
 
For the foam you'll want to keep a couple of the pancetta slices back in reserve when you make the sand.

I make mine by reducing 250ml of shellfish stock (or just use a fish stock cube mixed with a third more water than usual) to roughly 50ml, which ought to result a slightly thick, almost syrupy consistency. In a separate pan, warm through 250ml of semi-skimmed milk with a couple of slices of pancetta (this will flavour the milk) and then strain the milk into the stock once tht has reduced sufficiently.

Next, add a small knob of butter to the mixture, season well and allow the butter to melt over a low heat while you gently stir the sauce. Whatever you do, don't let it boil - you can't make the foam with boiled milk!

As soon as the butter has melted, taste the sauce to check the seasoning (alter as necessary) and then whisk the sauce to produce the foam. Either use one of those battery-operated cappuccino frothers, a stick/hand blender or a sauce whisk, whatever you have to hand.

And to serve, tip the pan slightly over so the sauce collects at the side; this will allow you to spoon the foam off without disturbing the liquid below. The remaining sauce will keep for a few days in the fridge once cooled and can be easily be 're-frothed' as long as you don't boil it - just warm through gently until hot.
 
Right, here's my menu that I settled on. She should be arriving soon. And I've done all the prep. I've made a fancy recipe card and printed that out, because it's cute. So I'll just copy and paste that so excuse the patheticness of it!

Seared Scallops upon Celeriac Purée, topped with Black Olive Tapenade
Fresh, hand dived, scallops, quickly seared scallops. Paired with a refreshing celeriac purée and topped with an exciting black olive tapenade. Set amongst a pancetta beach.

Mocha Steak with Oyster Mushroom Sauce
Sirloin steak, flavored with coffee and chocolate. Served upon velvet potatoes accompanied with roasted asparagus spears with an oyster mushroom sauce.

Green Tea and Vanilla Panna Cotta
A luxuriously, but pleasantly light, panna cotta exotically twinned with vanilla and green tea. Served with a rich, decadent, chocolate sauce.

Champagne & Strawberries
Probably not served at the table…
 
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