May 23 2009
Post-Theatre Menu
Dougal and I had a couple of nights of culture this week at a two-part performance of His Dark Materials trilogy at the theatre. The plays were long and so had an early 7pm kickoff- tricky for me to get home from work for, if we were to eat before hand. So we decided to eat afterwards!
This scrumptious dish is a Lady Claire MacDonald/Scotsman recipe which came to me via my dad. I had spied the note that it could be prepared entirely in advance and then grilled at the point of eating, so I made this on Wednesday night. It is pretty easy to prepare although I ought to have allowed myself a little more time- I ended up squeezing out rather hot water from the blanched spinach!
On Thursday, Dougal took it out of the fridge after work to come up to room temperature, and after the play we bunged it under the grill before wiring in with glee. If we’d had it at a proper tea we would probably had some other vegetables or salad or maybe some of D’s bread on the side; as it was it was half past ten and so we just scoffed (most of ) it au naturel.
It was lovely; the baby spinach still tasted very fresh and green (I’ve never actually cooked with spinach myself before so my main experience of it is cooked to death in saags); the eggs (as instructed) were in that lovely squishy place just beyond soft-boiled but not yet hard-boiled (I wish I had a picture!) and the cheese sauce was tart and added piquancy to it all. I had been a little sceptical of only using cheddar in the cheese sauce, but it was a nice Canadian mature and it seemed to do the trick. Finally, there was grilled cheese (cheddar and parmesan) on top too, which as we know is the mark of a classy dish!
Let me tell you, it was bloody brilliant cold the next day at work, too.
gosh, yours looked just like mine… yes it was wonderful hot and cold…. perhaps I should make another one.
It has also inspired me to serve up spinach as a vegetable on a couple of occasions, though the flaw in that strategy is, as you may have spotted, the squeezing stage! I, too, have squeezed rather-too-hot water from my spinach, but then given it a whirl in the pan with some, ahem, butter (just to stop it sticking, you understand) just to get it back to perfect serving temperature… popular with young (that’s us) and old (well, relative to us, literally, there is only one… Granny)
x
not *exactly* a recipe card, but handily available online as per your link.
not a recipe card, tis true. but the categories are one of many things needing overhauled on this blog. but that means dedicating some time to maintenance, and that means not feeling guilty about ‘wasting’ my time online- as it is actually something worthwhile. One day!
Wow
It look so delicious
Thank for sharing
http://www.ahacook.com
Helen,
This looks yummy, I’m all about cheese sauce right now. In fact I could go as far to say it’s my look of Summer 2009, well more my face covered in it… Aaanyway, thanks for finding my blog and yes I would definitely recommend trying your local car boot sales, it may not be your thing, second-hand kitchen wares, but I’ve found some amazing old pyrex for pennies at places like that. You know, bright coloured mixing bowls and stuff. And Le Creuset. Unused.
I will stop there! Nice to *meet* you!
Anna :)
Yummy! Oh, it looks soooooo good. I am salivating and in need of food now. I will blame you for the extra cheese tonght ; ) being inspired by your cooking. Thanks so much for stopping by happysquirrel and leaving a comment. Sorry it took me so long to come and see your blog, I was away on holiday!