On the spur of the moment, I decided to take leave from work in the afternoon so that I could come home and cook dinner for our anniversary.
I have to say that it felt really, really good to just focus on cooking and nothing else. Usually, I’d be pressed for time to fill our growling stomachs or multi-tasking but today, it was all about the cooking. The music was playing in the living room and the kitten was an angel and everything was perfect.
Besides a whopping salad made up of cherry tomatoes, arugula leaves and plenty of mozzarella, I also made a second starter of scallops and chorizo sausage. Based on Nigella Lawson’s recipe, I had thought that it would be simple to create. Which it is.
BUT. The only problem was, my chorizos were not giving out oil as they were supposed to! In the end, I had to pour a glug of olive oil into the pan. Towards the end, after squeezing in the lemon juice, a wave of inspiration hit me and I poured in about two to three tablespoons of white wine and let the scallops and chorizo simmer in the broth.
The additional step made all the difference! The sweetness of the white wine and the tangy lemon juice combined to form a stunning sauce that complemented the juicy scallops and salty chorizo. Happiness! Husband slurped up every bit of the sauce.
The main course was going to be lamb chops except that our local Cold Storage had run out of lamb. Bah. Plan B: the pork chops that were already in our freezer. I took the pan-fried glazed pork chops recipe from Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food but since we lacked the apple sauce/honey in our kitchen, I made use of what we had – yuzu! Thanks to Popartgirl’s recommendation, we had gotten ourselves a ginormous bottle of yuzu drink, which had a similar sticky, gooey texture as honey.
It turned out to be sweet, sticky and nice. Dessert was sorbet, again a recipe from Jamie Oliver but instead of lemon, lime and peppermint, I had lemon and orange.
It was a wonderful evening, albeit a tad scorching, and we decided to wash the food down with a glass of chilled, white wine. What a heavenly treat on this sultry night.
Yannisms 
Everything looks sooo good and I’m sure they tasted the way they look too.
But where’s the photo of the sorbet?! x
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woah. you substituted lots and made it fab still! you must have a magic hand! i can imagine those flavors and how they would mesh well together.
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The sorbet was a bit of a fail….it was a bit too sour and watery. 😛
It tasted pretty good! (Not that I am praising myself).
Thanks for all the encouragement!
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Hey yAnn,
Just went and read the recipe.
It’s not your fault…not saying I’m an expert but…
– the sugar-to-water ratio is a bit off
– simply freezing the syrup doesn’t make sorbet…you need an ice cream churning machine to make it…sorbet is actually like ice cream without the cream and eggs
– however, you can try freezing the same “sorbet” mix and make a refreshing granita…instead of freezing it in a plastic container, pour it into a tray (more surface area to allow the mix to freeze faster)…use a fork to scratch the frozen mix and then let it freeze again and repeat at least two more times.
xx
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Hey likklegirl, so there should be more sugar, you reckon?
I guess that’s why the syrup didn’t “hold”.
What I did was to keep stirring the mixture every 30-45 minutes.
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wah. the pork chop looks ACE.
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yeah, the recipe reads more like a granita. for sorbets, u’re supposed to add in an egg white.. that is what makes it hold.
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