So I’ve decided to bring ‘fancy’ to Domestic CEO HQ instead.
Now if the thought of cooking a fancy dinner for two makes you recoil in terror, this is the blog post for you. Nobody is flush with cash these days and eating at home is infinitely cheaper than its more expensive counterpart. You’re only paying for ingredients (which you get to choose yourself) and the cost and hassle of getting a baby-sitter is eliminated.
“But I can’t do fancy!” I can hear you shriek.
Sure you can. Anyone can do fancy if they follow the three P’s . . .
1) Planning
Don’t wait until 8p.m. on Saturday evening to start wondering about what you might eat. If you do this you can be guaranteed it’ll either be beans on toast or a takeaway and I’m not sure which would be worse.
Think about your menu early in the week. This way you’ll have time to research your ingredients (remember time is thriftiness’s best friend) and explore just how fancy you want to go.
When you’re picking your recipes, allow for the fact that some items won’t be available in your local store so you may have to either go further afield, use a substitute, or simply pick something else.
When choosing your menu, try not to pick three courses that require your presence at the stove. You’ll only end up hot and bothered – and not in a good way. A cold starter (pear, walnut and blue cheese salad for e.g.) is a good way to go as it means you’ll arrive at the dinner table unflapped and still looking good. Something like soup is also ideal, though possibly not that seductive . . .
And finally, remember, after your amazingly fantastic main course, you’re not going to feel like getting up from the table to assemble a complicated dessert so one that’s ready-to-go-just-add-ice-cream will be a blessing.
2) Preparation
Preparation is planning’s Siamese twin. The golden rule is that the more you can do in advance, the better.
Anything that can be cooked or par-cooked in advance, do that morning and then cover and store. There’s a strong case to be made for casserole-type mains (especially fancy ones, like stroganoff, bourguignon, coq au vin etc). These also generally improve with resting, so can easily be made the day before and then just heated up.
There is simply no case for an iota of veg-peeling after 5p.m. on the night of the dinner. Prepared veg lasts perfectly well submerged in water.
Likewise your garnishes. Have your parsley chopped, your tomatoes concassed (i.e. roughly chopped and skinned) and your chives snipped and set aside in little bowls. There’s a reason the professionals do this, and it’s not to increase the wash-up. When I worked in Fontaines of New York, if your ‘mise en place’ wasn’t set out to a tee, Tony Abadesso would not be happy . . .
Speaking of wash-up, advance preparation often means that a lot of the heavy wash-up can be done in advance of the meal, meaning you can leave the table guilt-free in a hurry, with only a few plates left for the morning!
If it’s possible, set your table that afternoon. It might sound ridiculous, but it’s too late to discover at 7p.m. that the only candles you have are of the birthday variety.
3) Presentation
Sometimes it’s not so much what you serve, but how you serve it. For my fancy dinner there’s no way I’ll be taking out my Heston Blumenthal science kit, nor will there be a ballotine of ANYTHING on the menu, but there are certain tricks that can make even the simplest of food look, well, fancy!
Use your best tableware. The ‘good china’ is great – plain white is possibly even better but mismatched should only appear at kitschy afternoon tea spreads.
Don’t just lob your food at the plate. Have a look at the images in your cookery books. It’s as easy to put it on neatly as not. Wipe up spills with the corner of a wet cloth and don’t drown anything in sauce unless it’s called a stew!
Use what you have – ramekins, serving bowls, even shot glasses are all fantastic for adding that extra ‘oomph’ to the look of a dish.
Give a bit of height – serve your fish draped over a ‘tower’ of mash or champ (mash with spring onion). You don’t need anything fancy to do this. If you don’t have ‘rings’ then use a scone cutter or even a cup/mug to shape the tower. Then drizzle your sauce around the outside, scatter with chopped chives or tomato concasse and you’ll think you’re a chef.
Serving homemade chips? Don’t just land them in a heap – make a neat stack (think Jenga) and it will look very impressive.
There are very few desserts that don’t look better with a dusting of icing sugar and a strawberry/mint leaf combo on the side.
If serving a mousse/posset use a nice glass.
And finally, stick a petit four on the side of your coffee cup.
Before I go, I should mention the ‘P’ that you should try to avoid – Panic. If it all goes wrong, the worst thing that can happen is that you end up with that takeaway and a very funny story to tell the grandkids!
Enjoy, and do let me know how you get on!
Holly
xx
Don’t forget to tune in on Friday for my promised Pack a Picnic from Scant Pickings Special! See you then!
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