What to cook her for the first time
As was brought to light in the hobbies that women find most attractive in men, cooking is number one on the list. Fiery panache in the kitchen goes a long way to boosting a man’s status in the eyes of his object of desire. Many of you will be adept in this area, knowing your coriander from your cumin, able to whip up a hurricane on the palate that will have her hot under the collar.
Others, however (myself very much included), have a shameful profundity for produce; those who consider spag bol to be an almighty culinary feat worthy of a postcard home – you know who you are. But when cooking on a date in the early stages, microwave lasagne simply won’t cut it, so we’ve enlisted the help of chef Oliver Templeton, who has shared 2 courses to try at home. Simple, yet with a presentation that looks like the work of a dab hand…
STARTER: GRILLED PEAS, SORREL, BOTTARGA & LABNEH
Ingredients
50g sorrel, 400g fresh peas, 100g bottarga, 10g pea shoots, 40g labneh, 10g hazelnuts, 1 lemon juice, 6 tbsp olive oil
Method
Grill fresh peas in their pods until charred on the outside. You can do this on a griddle pan or better still outside on a BBQ. The peas steam and smoke at the same time, leaving them tender and smoky. Set aside the peas once they are podded and save a small handful of charred pea shells.
Infuse the charred peas skins with olive oil so the oil takes on some nice flavours from the smoke.
Blend all of the sorrel, and squeeze the fresh juice through a cloth, this is the base of the dressing. Once this is done it’s basically time to assemble the dish. Dress the peas in the infused olive oil, sorrel juice and lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper. Put onto the plate in a nice bundle, dot over some labneh then grate over the bottarga and hazelnuts.
It’s a very simple dish, but very light and refreshing, a great way to kick off a meal!
MAIN: CUTTLEFISH WET RICE WITH PRESERVED LEMON & AIOLI
Ingredients
1 large onion, 1 head of fennel, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 bay leaf, 1 sprig of rosemary, 2 chilli, 500g calaspara rice, 200g cuttlefish, 100 small prawns in their shell, 1l chicken stock, 100g cuttlefish ink, Salt & pepper, 1 egg, 100ml vegetable oil, 100ml olive oil, 5g saffron, 1 preserved lemon
Method
For the rice base, first peel the prawns, and add the shells to the stock on a medium heat, also add the saffron.
Finely dice the onions, fennel and garlic, and add to a pan with 50ml of the olive oil, allow to sweat down on a medium heat, then add the bay, rosemary and chilli., Then slice the cuttlefish into bite size pieces, ready to add to the rice.
Once the base is nicely caramelised add the rice, and cook it so that the rice toasts a little. At this point add some of the chicken and prawn stock; releasing the sticky bits from the bottom of the pan, I like to repeat this a few times as it makes the flavours in the rice more intense! Add the cuttlefish, and cuttlefish ink and stir it in (the rice will go totally black now). Remember the rice needs to be very wet, so don’t be scared to add lots of stock to it. Once you have added all the stock, allow it to simmer away, and don’t stir it too much – only agitate it with a spoon to make sure it isn’t sticking.
Just before the rice is being served, throw in the prawns and chopped preserved lemon, and serve with a blob of aioli.
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