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Hello Dear Reader,
Thanks so much for the kind emails asking after DB, he's being well looked after and I'm continuing to spoil him. No veggie chilli and rice or other thrifty recipes this week. I still want to keep within a reasonable budget but want to make a fuss of him this week. Anyway, who says you can't have a romantic dinner for two, on a stormy Wednesday night in January? Talking of storms, we're getting a battering aren't we! I feel for readers in Scotland, the north and Northern Ireland. You are getting it worse, stay warm and stay safe please.
Dinner tonight was a bit of a 'fusion' of recipes.Beef cooked in stout, but served 'en croute' and an apricot tarte tatin. Both are cheaper and definitely cheats recipes for a weekday evening. So, I set the dining room table, put out the linen table cloth and napkins and really wanted this to be special. Also, it's almost a pie and DB loves pie of any sort. What is it with men and meat and pastry?
Here's my cheats, ever so simple and quick way to serve up a romantic dinner for two on a wet Wednesday night. I cooked the steaks in the slow cooker.
I used
two small medallion steaks - a cheaper cut but cooks well when braised.
4 finely chopped shallots
4 thinly sliced mushrooms
1 can of stout
1 cup of beef stock
1 teaspoon of dried thyme.
Pop the lot in a slow cooker and go to work for the day.
When you get home, roll out ready made buttery puff pastry. I used a small pudding basin as a template, cut around them with a very sharp knife and then baked them at 180 for 15 minutes. I cut the pattern into them after I had glazed them with egg. ( I don't waste the beaten egg, I pop it in the microwave for 1 minute and when cool, give it to the dogs with their dinner)
I served the beef steak by arranging it on a plate, heaping steamed and buttered beans and carrots next to it.
As ever, here's the close up.
I then popped the crisp and flaky pastry on top. It was a total winner. Definitely cheered him up! It really didn't take any longer than standing in the kitchen cooking egg and chips, it makes a change for him to have something cooked this lovely on a weekday. Why do we wait for special occasions to cook something romantic? Why do we have to go out to do this? Light the fire in the dining room, lay out your best china, cook something lovely and have a romantic dinner on a weekday evening.
Dessert was really simple. Apricot tarte tatin.
I placed a drained tin of apricots into a small frying pan and heated them until they started to caramelise. I helped this along with a tiny knob of butter and a heaped teaspoon of soft brown sugar.
I then arranged them on top of one of the pastry rounds and drizzled the sticky residue from the pan.
Oh come on, we've got to have a close up!
I thought I'd mention this ice cream, as it's £1.49 and I think it tastes better than some expensive brands I've had. I bought this a present for DB, he loves ice cream. I love it too but dairy doesn't do me any good at all. Any way, I had to try a spoonful. It's divine.
Here's DB's dessert, apricot tarte tatin, vanilla ice cream and lots of love.
All my ingredients were bough in Aldi, I'm not sure if we could have afforded this if we bought it else where. As I said yesterday, Aldi gave me shopping vouchers this week to show how you can cook luxuriously on a budget. That is of course subjective and none of us would eat like this every night but I do think it's possible to eat something we'd expect in a restaurant. My romantic supper cost £6.50 for the two of us. We did get to sit in front of the fire in the dining room, have a wonderful supper and knowing I'm taking care of DB right now is priceless.
I'm glad you're enjoying the recipes and I'll be back with more.
Stay warm and safe in this horrible weather and I'll be back tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxx