There probably isn’t anything more romantic than cooking a nice meal for a partner of prospective partner. I’m not talking about lashing a frozen pizza in the oven or warming up a Tesco curry either. I’m talking about making that extra special effort and going all out to cook something fancy that you can both laugh over and enjoy together. You don’t have to be young and single either to be cooking something like this for a date night and at the risk of turning in to a marriage agony aunt type blog post this is the perfect recipe for a married couple to share together. Turn dinner from a chore into something fun and relaxing and send the kids to bed early. I don’t want to over-egg this too much but it is more or less the best thing I’ve ever tasted out of all the recipes I’ve cooked on here.
Ingredients
- 1 Packet of crab meat
- 1 Mango
- 1 Baguette
- 1 Tub Creme Fraiche
- 1 Bunch of coriander
- 1 Bunch of asparagus
- 3 Limes
- 1 Packet Rocket
STEP 1
Spend a little extra on getting some good crab meat. Save yourself the headache of prepping it yourself and just get pure meat.
STEP 2
Lash the crab meat into a bowl and, unless you want somebody to choke on your date, make sure there are no nasty little bones in there.
STEP 3
Chop the ends off the mango so as it sits evenly on the chopping board.
STEP 4
Use your knife to run around the edges. You want to make sure you lose as little of the flesh here as possible so take your f*cking time.
STEP 5
You'll have a lovely peeled mango at this stage. There is a dirty big pain-in-the--hole stone in the middle so use your knife to go around the outside carefully removing all the flesh.
STEP 6
Chop all the lovely flesh up in to little cubes.
STEP 7
F*ck all the mango in to the bowl, along with the crab meat.
STEP 8
Lash in a couple of spoonfuls of the creme fraiche.
STEP 9
Stir all that around and lash in a bit of salt and pepper too.
STEP 10
Chop your limes in half. You don't need to be a f*cking rocket scientist to do this.
STEP 11
Squeeze the juice into the mixture. This will give it a lovely zing.
STEP 12
Chop up the coriander. I lash the stalks in as well as they are soft and packed full of flavour.
STEP 13
That is your mix completely finished now. You just need to combine it evenly and then set it to one side.
STEP 14
Slice really nice big pieces of bread. You'll get a long piece by slicing it at an angle.
STEP 15
They should be about 5 or 6 inches long (that's what she said!) and 2 per person will be perfect.
STEP 16
Chop the stalks off the asparagus and lay them on your chopping board with the bread.
STEP 17
Give them both a good lashing of olive oil, salt and pepper.
STEP 18
Get a chargrill or griddle pan (frying pan will do if you don't have these) and give the bread a couple of minutes on each side.
STEP 19
When the bread is finished take it out and do the exact same thing with the asparagus. 2-3 minutes here while tossing them the odd time will be perfect.
STEP 20
Time to plate up now. Start with the bread on the plate. You should be able to manage that part at least!
STEP 21
First off put a few pieces of rocket on each bread. You eat food with your eyes and this is all about presentation so don't be a messy f*ck. Take your time.
STEP 22
Next you go with a couple of dollops of the lovely crab mixture. TIDY!!!!
STEP 23
And finish it off with your lovely asparagus on top. You could serve them hot or cold, it doesn't really matter. That's all there is to it. Now take it in to your partner and watch their faces light up!
Serve this up and you are going to be on to a massive winner. Brownie points will be coming in your direction at a serious rate of knots. Your partner would expect to get this sort of food served up to them in a fancy restaurant but when you bring this out to the table you never know the title of this blog post might just come true!
WORDS: Niall Harbison
For more recipes and restaurant reviews from all round, sound lad Niall Harbison, check out https://lovindublin.com/. It's awesome.
