Need some suggestions...

[pmanson]

With a bit of luck my wife and I should have an evening to ourselves on Saturday for the first time in ages.

I'd like to cook a nice meal and i'm after some suggestions.

Normally i'd cook something like a seafood vermacilli but fancy doing something different.


For a main I was thinking about a chinese/japenese inspired steak salad (any one got any recipes?) and maybe an Eaton Mess type desert but i'm open to suggestions.

Starter wise - i'm open to suggestions! Something nice and easy as i'm not the greatest cook!

[sherman]

Starter - ?

Main - Beef in black bean sauce stir fry

Dessert - Crannachan

[Cactussed]

Starter - Vietnamese spring rolls. Fresh, tasty, quick and easy to make (the only tricky part might be finding the rice paper rolls unless you can go to an asian supermarket). You can shred some chicken breast, julienne carrot, bean sprouts, spring onion etc. with some sweet chilli dipping sauce. Serve with some nice, light, chilled Sake.

Main - go the beef salad. I'd suggest some good sirloin, medium rare then sliced thinly, done with a teriyaki marinade reduced down to a sticky sauce and drizzled over the top. Salad wise, just some leaves and maybe some Japanese pickled vegetables (again, if you can find them in the Asian supermarket) or some bamboo shoots and possibly some roughly chopped peanuts for texture. Serve with a glass of chilled light red (Beaujolais or similar).

Dessert - Pre-make a green tea panna cotta (its really simple) You could whip up a raspberry and lemongrass coulis to go with, if you feel up to it.

Might sound tricky, but everything above is very simple, honestly and involves very little actual cooking.

[pmanson]

Thanks for that Cactussed - sounds great