The 'Here's what I had for dinner last night' thread - Part I

Faith

Fantail prawns and yellow peppers in a garlic, white wine and cream sauce, served with linguine and garlic bread. It was really tasty.

lg123

had out of the jar lasagne last night at friends house with baked potatoes, was nice.

however, earlier in the week had two fabulous meals. on monday had Ukranian Borscht Soup form the river cottage book. i spent a some time over there and this was very close to what i was getting in restaurants in kiev. will defo be making again.

another night we had shepards pie but we didnt use mince lamb, there was a special offer with shanks at the butchers so we got a few of these and gave them a good few hours in the oven, stripped the meat of the bone, added some veg and diluted the juices a little and used it as the stock. was very nice. if i was making again i would have more meat, but i usually say that after most meals.

rocknchef

lg123 wrote: »

another night we had shepards pie but we didnt use mince lamb, there was a special offer with shanks at the butchers so we got a few of these and gave them a good few hours in the oven, stripped the meat of the bone, added some veg and diluted the juices a little and used it as the stock.


now that sounds like good food:p

nerdysal

Speaking of shepherds pie- me and my ma made the nicest one ever last weekend. We put the usual carrots and peas and stuff in it but for the sauce we used some tomato puree and worchester sauce and beef stock and for the potatos on top we made up champ! Oh my god- it was so good!

Last night I had pork stir fry

Tonight it's chicken goujons- yummy!

Heineken Helen

Alun wrote: »

2 hours to cook a fillet :eek:

Hahaha... no... it was destalking the bloody spinach that got me that took almost an hour :eek: but I was taking my time in fairness... and then it was time to start the roast potatoes (which take an hour from peeling, parboiling and then roasting). I had to do the spinach, the roast potatoes, the sauce, the roux for the spinach and the fillets... so there was a bit of multitasking involved :eek: the fillets themselves only took about 6 or 7 minutes but I love cooking and was having fun

It's chinese tonight though :cool::D

Alun

Heineken Helen wrote: »

Hahaha... no... it was destalking the bloody spinach that got me that took almost an hour :eek:

Ah, that would explain it then I hate that particular job with a passion .. the sooner they develop a new strain of GM spinach that doesn't have stalks the better :pac:

goingpostal

Just had some panfried seabream with lemon juice and freshly ground black pepper and steamed cabbage, carrots, green beans and turnip. My stomach is singing to me. Two loaves of wholemeal bread just out of the oven. They turned out very well. I am getting the hang of baking bread at last, thank god.

Heineken Helen

Alun wrote: »

Ah, that would explain it then I hate that particular job with a passion .. the sooner they develop a new strain of GM spinach that doesn't have stalks the better :pac:

Lol, tbh I didn't really notice that bit when I was reading the instructions for creamed spinach and thought it sounded quick and easy to make it was my first time making it and it was only when I opened the packet and thought 'hang on, I've to destalk ALL of them?':eek: but it was soooo worth it Do the stalks REALLY make a huge difference?

goingpostal, that sounds FANTASTIC

Just had chicken in oyster sauce with fried rice

Berbatov

Seabss steamed in the oven with ginger, spring onions, soy sauce and scallions. Served with delicious side salad - super

rocknchef

Alun wrote: »

Ah, that would explain it then I hate that particular job with a passion .. the sooner they develop a new strain of GM spinach that doesn't have stalks the better :pac:

use baby spinach bit more expensive but twice as quick

Heineken Helen

rocknchef wrote: »

use baby spinach bit more expensive but twice as quick

really?:o ya don't need to remove the stalks? Does it taste the same?

rocknchef

treat it like lettuce or rocket. little bit more delicate but great flavour and be careful as it cooks in seconds. also lovely raw in salads if the leaves are young.

Seaneh

Pan Fried duck fillets with orange sauce, Glazed carrots and baby spuds, just using up stuff I had to use up (sue me, i had orange in the fridge, I know it was lazy), kept all the fat I rendered form the breasts for roast spuds tomorrow .

Made the orange sauce by gezlazing the pan with a glass of oj (after draining the fat into a bowl!) threw in a desert spoon of demerara sugar, tea spoon of soy and a few drops of thai fish sauce, some garlic and ginger and let it reduce by about 2/3rds did that while the duck was resting on the chopping board, took seconds and makes a really nice sticky sauce. I've made it with apple juice a few times with tenderloin pork.

Minder

Last night we had a seafood pasta dish - I made a light tomato sauce of garlic, white wine, tomato and basil. Then pan fried ten large scallops with corals and added a couple of handfuls of butterflied fresh tiger prawns. Added the sauce and the pasta which was fedelini - a thin strand, like spaghetti.

hedgehog33

Last night was pasulj, a Serbian/Croatian style bean stew with kielbasa. Perfect comfort food on a dreary rainy day like yesterday.

Alun

rocknchef wrote: »

use baby spinach bit more expensive but twice as quick

I do I still remove the stalks though.

Heineken Helen

rocknchef wrote: »

treat it like lettuce or rocket. little bit more delicate but great flavour and be careful as it cooks in seconds. also lovely raw in salads if the leaves are young.

thank you yeh, I was surprised at how quickly the other spinach cooked.

The Sweeper

Had a nice piece of corned beef, cooked in water with carrots, bay leaves, honey, cloves, peppercorns and balsamic vinegar. Forwent the usual spuds n cabbage accompaniment (though may go for that today), just had plain boiled rice and some veggies with it.

bonkey

Tonight I had:

Potatoes, cod, some wild salmon and some prawns all done 'plain' on the grill (BBQ), some mushrooms steamed in white wine, a lambs-leaf salad (aceto and olive-oil as dressing), and a cream-cheese-and-wild-garlic sauce for the spuds.

hairyprincess

I'm salivating reading what y'all had for dinner 'last night'. Ye can't actually be cooking these things!!! Are ye sure your not eating out !! In these recessionary times we're eating rather well it has to be said! Mind you I would be embarassed to put up what I had 'last night'!! :eek:

The Sweeper

I for one can happily say whenever I eat out, I'll say I ate out. Otherwise I'm describing what I cooked at home.

Saying that, I don't cook seven nights a week, and every so often we have what's endearingly termed "freezer medley", which is an assortment of frozen foods that take simliar times to cook. It can and does include pizza slices, hash browns, various vegetable fritters and asian delicacies that are just too fiddly to cook myself on a weeknight, e.g. onion bhajis and chinese dumplings. It's better than a trip to the local greasy spoon, but not much...

Other nights we have toasted tuna, cheese and tomato melts and pint-mugs of tea. That's budget night in our house.

Minder

If I post here, then 99.9% of what we've had has been home cooked by me. We rarely eat out because paying to be disappointed by plates of food has become the norm. Also rarely do takeaway. I find that pizza for two costs just under £20, comes cold and invariably repeats on me all night. The scallop and prawn dinner we had the other night cost less than that.

So last night we had a thai red chicken curry, jasmine rice and tom yam soup. I also knocked up a batch of spicy prawn crackers.

Seaneh

Last night I had guests from Antwerp so I made them a nice proper dinner seeing as they've been travling around the country for a week and haven't been eating amazingly (student back packers).

Stuffed a crown of turkey with cranberry stuffing and roasted that bad boy, served it with Colcannon (made with york cabbage as there was no Kale to be had in Galway, unless Tesco had some but didn't check) Roast potatos (made using the fat I got from duck breasts thursday night) and sprouting broccoli which I blanched, refreshed and then finished in a pan with some toasted pine nuts and gralic butter.

Served it with loads of the unthickened jus wihch i removed the fat from, plonked into a pan, reduced by half and then strained into a gravy boat, was yummy and simple.

All consumed with glasses of Vina Mara (Tecso imported Rioja).

Miss Fluff

Last night I made truly sublime fish cakes (made with crab meat and salmon) -am still salivating at the thought, absolutely yummy and so easy to make too

bonkey

Tonight, I shall be grilling (BBQing) some fillet of venison (pleasently surprised to find that my local butcher had some fresh), wrapped in bacon.

This will be accompanied by some baby potatoes (boiled? bag-roasted on grill? Not sure yet), some wild asparagus, bearnaise sauce and perhaps a green salad.

kenco

Last night we had sea bass baked in a tin foil bag with my own 'what ever takes my fancy' on the night risotto. It was good!

Tonight it is planned to do the Rick Stein pan fried chicken with wilted spinach and reduced sweet wine sauce. Note: wont be destalking any leaves and taking the easy (frozen) way out! That the kids for you dont you know..

watna

Tonight I'm having 12 people over for a Sunday dinner. I'm roasting 2 chickens and having roast root vegetables and potato dauphionise. I'll be cooking for about 5 hours - it'll be worth it though. Good food, good company and lots of wine! a friend is coming over early to be on peeling duty so that'll help. Friends are also bringing some side dishes and desserts so it won't be too bad.

kittykat84

earlier i made mustard crust cottage pie served with a side of green veg - a more modern take on cottage pie, as per receipe on market kitchen website. adsolutely delicious.

bonkey

This evening we had...

Goats cheese, roasted in filo pastry parcels, served with a red currant and chilli jam.
Salad, dressed with aceto and olive oil
Boned gigot of lamb off the grill, boiled baby new potatoes (served with a wild garlic yoghurt fressing), spinach, and asparagus (served with bearnaise).

All washed down with a couple of glasses of a Heida from Europe's highest vineyard.

Man, I am stuffed.

The Sweeper

LOL I'm not surprised. Was wondering when the weather would get good enough that you'd trot out the BBQ again. I want the make and model of that bad boy, you appear to be able to do a LOT of good things on it and in fairness, being in Australia, I need to be brushing up on my BBQ skills for next season.

Tips and tricks are officially demanded!

Got pizza from the local takeaway last night because I went to work with himself and we got home too late to cook. ...it was pretty mediocre.