Anniversary Meal

So, I thought I would post the menu for last night's anniversary meal as my lovely virtual friends were so helpful in helping me decide with some lovely ideas.

I went with Delia. Love Jamie but the main meals I've done before and didn't have all the ingredients! So here is what I did in the style of 'Come Dine With Me'.

Starter: Stuffed Cabbage with a selection of leaves and Essex Boy's Caviar

The cabbage wasn't cabbage, because he doesn't like cabbage! So I made it with Collard Greens, the closest thing to spring greens you can get here. The stuffing was brown basmati, onions, roasted pistachios and pine nuts, sultanas, mint and more chopped up cooked greens. It was then baked in the oven with some chopped up tomatoes for a hour. Left to cool and served with mixed leaves from the farm and a dollop of the Caviar...delish!

Main Course: Spicy Bean Patties with Ginger Onion Marmalade and Chips (LOL!)

The spicy bean patties were black eyed peas and green lentils with peppers, onions, a little carrot, thyme and one very fierce green chilli, from the farm. While the juices were burning the tips of my fingers for about 3 hours, the actual patties weren't too hot, hot. I've never made onion marmalade before but this stuff, with fresh root ginger, white wine and rosemary, was just to die for. I thought I would do chips 'properly' a la Marco Pierre White. You fry them for a while at a low heat, remove them, heat up the oil hotter and then re-fry them so they're all crunchy on the outside, fluffy in the middle. Yummers!

Dessert: Microwave Meringues with Whiskey 'Scented' Cream and Fresh Raspberries

I have to thank Laura for telling me about microwaving meringue. I did look for nests at the supermarket but they didn't have any and all the recipes I have are for cooking them in the oven...for an hour and a half... Anyway, had no time for that so went online, Googled microwave meringue, found the BBC Good Food site and made the meringues...which scarily almost took over the microwave but were absolutely fabulously crispy and melt in the mouthy. With all the sugar in the meringue, I didn't want to sweeten the cream, so I stirred in a measure of Dalwhinnie and it was lush!

Drink was our favourite champers, Veuve Clicquot, which we bought duty free on the way home. All in all, a lovely way to celebrate 13 years!