When Valentine’s Day rolls around, we need something to whet our appetites and stoke the flames of love.
Paula from The LDN Diaries shares a couple of ideas based on home comforts as, let's recognise it, we’ve all turned to the trusty web to inspire creating a seductive atmosphere or cooking a swanky meal with aphrodisiac ingredients, but it can all be intimidating — not to mention cheesy! So we are going to the basics, some chocolate and a bottle of bubbly are things that can't go wrong.
Paula suggests "starting with mac and cheese bites, crispy breadcrumb covered bites filled with mac and cheese. Then for main I would choose toad in the hole, it’s such a home comfort dish with sausages and batter mix. Lastly for dessert I’d make a batch of fried Oreos. Not many people have tried them, but when they do they always love them!"
Fried Oreo Recipe
Ingredients
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1 cup of Plain Flour
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1/2 cup of sugar
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1/2 cup of milk
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1 egg
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1 pack of Oreos
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Icing Sugar
Method:
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Fill up a deep fat fryer with oil and switch on to 190 degrees and allow it to heat.
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Whilst waiting for it to heat, mix up the ingredients to coat the Oreos. Pour the plain flour, sugar, milk and egg into a bowl and whisk together until there are no lumps left in the mixture and it resembles a thick batter.
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Drop the Oreos into the batter and make sure they are completely covered in it.
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One by one drop them into the deep fat fryer, making sure to turn them with a spoon to make sure they don’t stick.
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When golden remove from fryer and place on kitchen towel to soak up.
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Coat with icing sugar and enjoy.
Love Story Fizz
Turn up your cocktail game with a drink that's simple but special at the same time. A sparkling wine based cocktail will add the celebratory touch the occasion requires, bubbles are always a happy choice! Paula suggests this treat with cranberries and lime, the perfect sweet-sour combo.
Ingredients
Method:
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Grab your favourite flute or cocktail glass and pour in 75ml of cranberry juice.
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Pour in your chilled Freixenet Cordon Negro cava until your glass is full.
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Take your lime and cut into halves, squeeze the juice of half of the lime into your cocktail glass, grab a straw and stir gently to mix the cocktail.
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To complete your cocktail, take a small slice of lime and with a sharp knife cut a small slit into the lime, then add to the side of the champagne glass to garnish.
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Enjoy!