Three Dinners in One

Saturday night: Barbeque Pork Ribs and Salad.

As I have chosen the 'quiet life' (for the moment anyway), the highlight of any particular night is dinner (and Come Dine With Me, reading Game Of Thrones et al). I had my Sainsburys delivery due for Sunday, but had to pop out to get something yum for Saturday Night In.

As I waited for the ready made ribs to cook in the oven I prepared my starter: the very retro, prawn cocktail. I LOVE prawn cocktails! I get quite narky when I see celebrity chefs bemused at people presenting prawn cocktails as a starter. Yes, it's simple, yes it's easy, but it WORKS!

My cocktail or Marie Rose sauce, I have been making since I can remember: full egg mayo, tomato sauce, Tobasco, lemon juice, salt, pepper. Today I also added spring onions and flat leaf parsley for a bit of extra zing.

The prawns were pre-packaged from the supermarket freezer. But as I have found (and mentioned before) I'm yet to find a good prawn over here- these ones actually turned out not too bad. I was surprised that on the packaging they didn't mention the country of origin, and I looked really hard.

I plated the prawns on a bed of mixed leaves and topped with the Marie Rose.

The very simple, but ridiculously tasty main of barbeque pork ribs and pre-made Italian salad, was exactly that: put the salad on my plate, took the ribs out of the oven and put them all on the plate.

Ready made ribs are fantastic, always so moist and tender. I just love them. The ready made Italian salad, well, it was about as Italian as nachos, or sashimi. Mixed greens, cherry tomato and red peppers, no dressing included. Fortunately I had some broccolini and snap peas,and dressed it with extra virgin, balsamic and lemon juice.


Sunday Night: Steak!

The Sainsburys delivery was due for between 7pm and 8pm, and I was starving by 5 but didn't want to ruin my appetite.

Unfortunately for me, Mr Sainsburys driver couldn't find my street, and didn't get to mine till right on 8pm... I was famished. Luckily steak only takes a few minutes to cook.

Tonight: rump, crushed potatoes, asparagus, broccoli, and a white wine and cream sauce with mushroom and diced celery.

I hate that there are brown bits on the broccoli, I cut them off before eating.

The steak was beaaauuuttiiffuuuuullll! The potatoes which were 'Sainsburys Roasting Potatoes' were so fluffy, like really fluffy. When I need to eat fast, I cube the tatties to maybe 1-1.5cm squared, they only take about 5-7 minutes to boil, once I drain them I throw them back into the pan on the hob and evaporate any remaining moisture, and get some nice crumbly edges and brown crunchy bits.

The sauce was diced celery and mushroom sauteed, then 50/50 cream and philly cream cheese finished with flat leaf parsley.


Monday: Char-Griddled Veg with Guacamole and Thai Curry Pumpkin Mash.

If you've had a read through my blog you'll notice that as much as I love meat, and I LOVE meat, I am not adverse to a bit of veg, actually my veg cravings can come on quite hard and fast. Tonight I had one of these pangs for veg.

 I cut courgette (zuccini), red pepper (capsicum), celery, mushroom, and placed them on a really hot, oiled griddle pan and allowed them to char slightly.

The guacamole was avocado, diced tomato (runny, seedy bits removed), spring onion, Tabasco, lemon-salt and about a teaspoon of philly, mashed together and seasoned with pepper.

I had some 2cm cubes of squash (pumpkin) boiling away, and when they were done, I drained, added a teaspoon of thai green curry paste, a big blob of butter and mashed.

Then arranged all on the plate with flat leaf parsley.

The vegetables were so lovely and sweet, and with every mouthful you could combine different flavours the peppers with the squash was divine.

The squash mash would make an incredible dip to serve with crackers.

I just can't get over the stuning colours in the veg. Veggie dishes make me really happy.