Clik here to view.
I’ve finally got to the bottom of why I don’t get invited to dinner parties.
As a food blogger, it is literally my job to spend every day creating recipes, but it has only recently been brought to my attention that most people don’t know where to start with dinner parties due to insecurities in the cooking department. No one wants to be that person on Come Dine With Me who wins at entertainment but still scores a four because of their food.
And so, to those people worrying that they're not a "good" enough cook for their foodie friends, to those people who've been putting off having a dinner party because they think their culinary skills aren't up to scratch, I'm here to help.
The following recipes are not difficult or scary, and don’t involve any special skills or time management so you'll be able to nail them easily. And even if it does all go wrong, I find a chilled bottle of good wine usually keeps everyone happy anyway.
Clik here to view.
Broken Pasta with Lemon Crab & Courgette
Serves 2 as a main, 4 as a starter
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Ingredients
1 small courgette
1/2 red chilli
Zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
Glug of extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt
8 dried lasagne sheets
70g white crab meat
Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
Break each lasagne sheet into two or three pieces, and cook in a pan of boiling, salted water for about 7 minutes until just tender. You can use any type of pasta shape for this dish, but using broken lasagne sheets gives things a stylish, homemade pasta/ dinner party-type feel.
Meanwhile, create ribbons out of the courgette using a vegetable peeler, and finely chop the red chilli. Toss together with the lemon juice and zest, a glug of olive oil and a good pinch of sea salt.
Drain the pasta, and toss it together with the seasoned courgette ribbons and the fresh crab meat. Serve straightaway in warm bowls, each finished with a good grind of black pepper.
Photographed by Rachel PhippsClik here to view.
Smoked Salmon & Green Pea Quiche
Serves 6-8
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes, plus 10 minutes resting time
Ingredients
Butter (the spreadable you buy for your toast is okay!)
1 x 320g pre-rolled puff pastry sheet
150g frozen peas
100g smoked salmon
Large handful fresh dill
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1 x 150ml pot single cream
50ml whole milk
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees, and put a metal baking sheet in the oven to heat up. Using a piece of kitchen paper, butter the inside of a glass or metal flan dish. Mine is about 26cm wide and 5cm deep, so use anything roughly of these dimensions. I’ve made dishes in slightly smaller, deeper baking dishes before and they’ve come out fine!
Remove the pastry from the pack, and roll it out over your dish so that it covers 3/4 of it. Press it into the corners, then using a sharp knife cut off the excess around the sides. Use these scraps to fill in the rest of the pie dish, pushing down gently and slightly overlapping to seal the joins. I never do this with other types of pastry, but puff pastry is really forgiving! Tidy up the edges of the dish again with the knife. If you want to try your hand at making a fancy edge on the pastry case, make a ‘V’ shape with two fingers on one hand, and rest them on the edge of the pastry case. Using the thumb on your other hand, gently push down the pastry between those two fingers about a centimetre. Repeat around the pastry case.
To defrost the peas, run them under cold water in a sieve. Shake to drain, then scatter the peas over the pastry case. Tear the smoked salmon into bitesize pieces, and scatter those over too. To make the filling, whisk together the eggs, egg yolks, the dill (finely chopped) and a generous amount of salt and pepper. Pour the mixture over the peas and the salmon.
Bake the quiche in the oven for 45 minutes, on top of the hot baking tray. This tray, along with the well buttered case and the fact you’re using forgiving puff pastry rather than shortcrust, helps prevent the dreaded soggy bottom! When it is cooked, the pastry and the top of the quiche should be golden, and the filling should be golden. A slight wibble is okay! Leave to stand for 10 minutes before slicing and serving with a light green salad.
Photographed by Rachel PhippsClik here to view.
Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas
Serves 3-4
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Ingredients
2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp sweet smoked paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp vegetable oil, plus extra for drizzling
Juice of 1 lime
2 large chicken breasts
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
1 large white onion
6-8 flour tortillas
Soured cream or natural yoghurt
Fresh tomato salsa
Fresh guacamole
Instructions
Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees. Combine the spices, herbs, vegetable oil and lime juice together to create a paste in a medium bowl. Cut the chicken breasts into bitesize pieces and stir into the spice paste until the chicken is well coated.
Deseed the peppers and peel the onion, cutting everything into slices. Spread the vegetables out across a large, non-stick baking sheet and toss together with a drizzle of vegetable oil. Add the chicken and any excess marinade, and toss everything together again until the vegetables have been lightly coated with the spice mixture.
Cook the chicken and the vegetables together for 20 minutes, and serve with flour tortillas (they’re nice warmed in the microwave), soured cream or natural yoghurt, and fresh salsa and guacamole. If you’re not making your own but you’re having friends over, spring for the type that is homemade elsewhere, like from a deli counter or the refrigerator section of Whole Foods.
Photographed by Rachel PhippsLike what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
The Birth, Death & Inevitable Comeback Of The Cosmopolitan, SATC's Greatest Icon
Chrissy Teigen Just Gave Kris Jenner The Best Gift A Champagne Lover Could Ask For