Valentines Day Dinner

As is often the case in our hectic lives, plans changed at the last minute again yesterday. I was supposed to go to the gym and Anna was going to take Morgan to cubs in Aberyswyth and then go back to work whilst she waited to collect him at 7:30pm. Had this happened, I wouldn’t have been home until about 6pm and Anna wouldn’t get back until 8pm which was going to be too late to prepare and eat a romantic Valentines Day Meal as we had hoped.

However, the gym was closed so I was forced home early which would give me time to prepare the meal. A friend then offered to collect Morgan from Scouts which not only meant that that Anna would be home at around 6pm but better still, Morgan would be at Scouts and not home until about 8pm so we would have time to eat it together as well.

So, once I was home, out came thespicery.com kit and I got set to cooking. First task was to make the pannacotta so that it would have time to set. This was fairly easy to do and the only spices to add to the pannacotta mix was the large Tahitian Vanilla Pod and its seeds. Once it was ready to strain and pour into the moulds it was smelling lovely and the scrapings from the saucepan were tasting pretty good too!

It was then time to make the syrup for the strawberries that went with the panacotta, complete with a sachet of syrup spices containing rose petals and green cardamons. Again, this sugary syrup was tasting lovely as I poured it over the freshly chopped strawberries and place it in the fridge to cool.

It was then onto the making of the Valentines Curry which was packed full of flavour. After making a paste from onion, garlic, ginger, sugar, salt and the curry spices which contained:

• Coriander
• Turmeric
• Black pepper
• Ginger
• Cinnamon
• Cardamon
• Chilli
• Fennel
• Mustard Powder
• Cloves
• Star Anise

I fried the water off of this and then added chicken thighs, chopped fresh tomatoes and coconut milk along with yet more whole spices in the form of

• Lemongrass Stalks
• Lime Leaves
• Cassia Quills
• Star Anise

This then all simmered for around 40 minutes until it reduced down to a delicious rich thick sauce.

Meanwhile I prepared a simple salad of shredded cabbage and grated carrot which got sprinkled with a toasted seeds. The seeds were from a sachet within thespcicery.com box and contained

• Fennel seeds
• Mustard seeeds
• Cumin seeds
• Black pepper

They were first toasted in a little olive oil and then mixed into the salad along with some lime juice and a pinch of salt. There weren’t that many seeds but it certainly made a difference to a fairly simple salad. We usually have all of those seeds in the cupboard too so this little salad should be fairly easy to reproduce at a later date.

Finally there was the rice which was cooked as usual along with the sachet of rice spices which contained:

• Cinnamon
• Green Cardamon
• Cracked Black Pepper
• Cloves

Once cooked it was topped with Rose Petals and again we could easily replicate this whenever we wish from store-cupboard spices.

I did a few other chores, tidied the house, cleaned the kitchen, laid the table and got the fire going. Candles were lit – for ambience this time rather than due to power failures – and some chilled music was picked for my playlist. The whole lot was ready just as Anna got in at about 6pm and we were able to sit down and have a lovely meal together.

Valentines Dinner

The curry was a little hotter than we were expecting but delicious with loads of lovely fragrant undertones. We even had some cucumber and mint raita leftover from a few days ago so had poppadom starters along with that, and some Bucks Fizz to drink leftover from Christmas! The salad and rice went really well with the curry so it made for a really good meal, with plenty of food too.

The pannacotta hadn’t quite set properly which was to be expected really and without the patience to leave it we ended up eating it as it was which was more of a very thick creamy mousse than a pannacotta, but it tasted the same and went really well with the syrup soaked strawberries. Once again we were impressed with the recipe from thespicery.com and can’t wait for the next one.

Tags: Recipes & Cooking