3 course dinner ala Chez Aspinall!

You would think because I like cooking so much I would be having dinner parties every 5 minutes... But alas we never pull our finger out to arrange this. However I decided to treat my husband to some of his favourite food as he's been so stressed and working long hours, so to cheer him up and help him relax I made our own little dinner party.

As it was just me and Jim it meant I could be a little creative and not do my normal thing of scouring through cookbooks. So I pulled together things I know he likes 😊

To start I made chicken goujons with a chilli jam.

This was combining 2 different meals I've made before. The chicken nugget recipe I made for the children but just cutting the chicken into dipping size fingers, and in ainsley Harriet's meals in minutes cookbook he has a meal called chilli jam gammon, I love the chilli jam recipe. I use it a lot now, it's simple and takes 10 minutes and I bet most of you have all the ingredients for it in your cupboard!

I have tried to find a link on internet for it, but can't find one. So if interested look for Ainsley Harriet's Meals in Minutes.

As a starter this worked really well.

For the main I did try and wing it! Jim loves lamb, so I brought lovely lamb steaks from the butchers and decided to just griddle them and serve with champ mash, veg and a red wine jus. Champ mash is easy, just normal mash but you fry cabbage/leeks in butter then stir them into the mash. I used leeks and Savoy cabbage, but I've seen it with just leeks or just cabbage. Now what not to do is what I did and forget you were frying them so you burn bits... Haha!! I picked the worse bits out, and apparently it added to the flavour (oh he is so lovely). 

Red wine jus..... Never made it before.... Red a few different recipes and thought... Doddle! Ermmmm no...! I used shallots cooked until soft (in olive oil), then added beef stock, ref wine and reduced... Seasoning and adding butter towards the end (oh and chopped rosemary). It was ok, but not as strong a taste as I wanted and also really runny, I didn't reduce enough. But all in all was a lovely meal, and I used a ramekin to shape the mash trying to improve my presentation.... Think it still needs work 😁

So finally Jim loves hot puddings with icecream. I had some apples, so decided to make crumbles. Little hint, you can use eating apples for crumble just don't stew them! I layered individual pots with sliced apple, sprinkled a tiny bit of caster sugar on top then added the crumble mix. I made it using flour, butter, caster sugar but also a little rolled oats, to give it a little bit more of a nutty texture. Can't remember quantities, I just judged by eye and consistency of the crumble. I then added a ball of icecream, and no I didn't make the icecream, this is something I have never tried. I brought toffee ripple... Mmmmmm

The whole meal was a success, I chose things that meant I didn't have to stay in the kitchen too long in between courses, so mash was made and kept warm, etc. I only had to griddle the lamb which took 5-10 minutes. We ate it on trays watching a film, no formalities just a lovely relaxed evening. It did what I set out to do, will definitely do it again.