Help me find a recipe...

vaderag

Ok, i need a recipe for Thursday night. Trouble is, i need to be able to prepare the majority of it the night before, since i'll be bringing someone back straight after work.

So...
1) It needs to serve 2 people
2) I need to be able to prepare most of it the night before
3) It needs to be impressive enough to make someone think i'm a good cook (i'm pretty good), but not so impressive that they think i've gone to far too much effort. So, fairly easy going food - not going to be getting out the silver service!

Think that about sums up the brief Oh, and most relevantly, i dont want it to cost the earth!

Anyone got any suggestions?!

Thanks

Skint_Catt

Depends what you mean by impressive!

sammiboo

Your brief is quite vague

Have you any idea what kind of food they would like

I make a really nice home made chilli con carne from scratch

Also pan fried fish with lemon and garlic

Smoked salmon with mediterainian veg

pasta tagiletelli with pesto, pinenuts, sun dried tomatos and goats cheese

I have tons of ideas but need to know what kind of things you are thinking of

Frags

Yeah i was gonnasay something with mince, lasagna maybe?? As Sammiboo said it depends how "Impressive" it needds to be?

vaderag

Maybe something a little bit different... but not too different!
I think we're both pretty easy when it comes to food. I think i'd probably like to avoid mince if possible, simply because to me it usually screams 'that's easy cooking', tho i dont know...

windowshopper100

How about lamb tagine with cous cous.

Breast of lamb is cheap, a bit fatty but you could skim it off, or you could go mad and buy a shoulder or neck fillet. They all need to cook for a bit though but if you're transporting it a 'stew' type thing is probably the way to go - the flavours are a bit different in tagine which will hopefully make it a bit more special.

Cous cous with coriander, sultanas/raisins, bit of cinamon.

hth
WS100

windowshopper100

Edit button still knackered - is the site playing up a bit this pm.

Some pine nuts/almonds or just some pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds if the nuts are a bit pricey in the cous cous is nice too - dry roast them first.

morganb

Ok, I know you said no mince but this is easy and MIGHTY impressive!

Lazy garlic and diced onion, fried gently in olive oil, add diced pepper and mince, cook in passata, add mixed herbs; meanwhile peel and then use the peeler to slice two sweet potatoes into ribbons. Then use the sweet potato instead of lasagne sheets. Layer sweet potato, mince mixture, sweet potato, mince mixture, white sauce flavoured with nutmeg, top with cheese and bake in oven on 180C for 40 minutes .... absolutely delicious. I suppose it would be okay with lamb or beef mince. The sweet potato keeps a delicious texture, I only ever tend to mash it or serve it as wedges, but this has opened up a whole new range of recipes for me .. and it is delicious with salmon and prawns instead of mince, too.

sammiboo

vaderag wrote: »

Maybe something a little bit different... but not too different!
I think we're both pretty easy when it comes to food. I think i'd probably like to avoid mince if possible, simply because to me it usually screams 'that's easy cooking', tho i dont know...

Youre still being quite vague

I wouldnt have thought mince is easy cooking, if you pan it and chuck some spagbol sauce in then yes i would agree

Again it depends what you kind of thing you want to cook

Chicken stuffed with black pudding
Chicken with goats cheese and white wine
Chunky veg in tomato sauce with pasta
Kingprawn stirfry in chilli with noodles
on and on and on....

FriendlyJ

Something dead easy is salmon with creme fraiche leek & mushroom sauce served with pasta or roasted new pots & veg. It only takes 15 mins including cooking the pasta.
J

vaderag

Well, somebody mentioned a Chicken Enchilada recipe on another forum which i think i'm going to use. I'll check with them and post it here if they're cool with it
Some of those other recipe's sound mighty tasty tho!