•  Avocado Salad
• Chorizo and Sweet Potato
• Melt in the middle chocolate pudding

Food on Fridays

This week Maria has a Valentines Special for all you lovebirds…

Valentine’s Day is like Marmite; you either love it, or hate it. Am I right?

I admit that it is a highly commercialised event, but if we see it with positive eyes, we can actually learn, or at least try to enjoy it. Even with the ridiculous amount of red and pink that we are exposed to on the date.

Although in Britain people often focus on the romantic side of it, in Mexico, where I grew up, Valentine’s Day is the day where we also celebrate friendship, and love in general.

What I am trying to say here is that it doesn’t really matter whether you are dating someone or not. Valentine’s can be spent with a bunch of good friends and is a great opportunity to remind them how much you care for them.

For this reason I came up with a simple three course menu for 4 or even 6 if you have it as tapas, which you can share before you watch a movie or head of to a club.

Oh and if you do have a partner, why not prepare a candle lit dinner with these easy to make recipes?  Just remember to use half of the ingredients.

Have a happy Valentine’s Day.

Three course menu for four: 

Avocado and Balsamic Vinegar salad

Ingredients:

2 Avocados

4 Celery sticks

A few leaves of lettuce

1 lime

Hard Cheese shavings (optional)

Balsamic vinegar of balsamic glaze

Sea Salt and Cracked Black pepper

Method:

Cut the celery sticks and the lettuce into small slices and mix them well.

Serve equally on four small plates and put half sliced avocado on each plate.

Sprinkle some of the hard cheese on top, add salt and black pepper, squeeze a tiny bit of lime juice and decorate with the balsamic vinegar.

Sweet potato with chorizo                     

Ingredients: 

2 Sweet Potatoes

350gr of Chorizo Sausages (raw, Tesco has really good Chorizo style Chipolatas)

200gms of Chopped tomatoes (optional)

Method:

Cut the sweet potato into small cubes and part-boil it for 7 minutes.

Meanwhile, slice the chorizo into thin rounds and when the potatoes are ready cook them together on a wok or large frying pan. You do not need to put oil as the sausages release enough of it already.

If you think it is too dry for you, add the chopped tomatoes and keep stirring for another 7 minutes or until the sausages are thoroughly cooked.

Then you can either enjoy it on its own or you can have it with the salad.

Melt in the middle chocolate pudding   

Ingredients:

200gms of 70 % Dark Chocolate

160gms of Butter plus extra for the baking trays

6 Eggs

140g of Sugar

110gms of Flower

1 teaspoon of Vanilla

A pinch of Cinnamon and a pinch of ground nutmeg

Method:

Butter 6 ramekins or if you don’t have them you can use mugs instead. If you are using mugs, line them up with baking paper so the puddings do not stick to the mug.

Cut 6 to 8 squares from the Chocolate and melt the rest by putting it in a bowl over boiling water. Or you could try doing it in the microwave, then add to the butter and mix in.

In another bowl, whisk the eggs, with the sugar, the vanilla nutmeg and cinnamon. Sieve the flower on top and incorporate. Continue by folding in the mixture, to the melted chocolate with a wooden spoon or spatula.

Divide between the ramekins or mugs (only fill half of the mug), and put them in the fridge for at least two hours until they are very cold.

Preheat the oven for at least 10 minutes at 180˚C or at 160˚C if you have a fan oven.

Then just before you put them in the oven, push a small chocolate square in the center of each one of them.

Bake them for 10-14 minutes (until the top is firm but not hard) and serve with Berries or Vanilla Ice Cream.

P.S. You can freeze these ramekins ahead, and prepare them whenever you need them so long as you take them out of the freezer for an hour before you put them in the oven.