To ask how you make your meals a bit more posh/fancy?

[WanderingWildflower]

We used to eat out a fair bit but our income has reduced due to maternity leave plus we are feeling the pinch of the cost of living crisis (like most I imagine).

So I'd like a few of our (mainly weekend) meals to be a bit more 'restauranty' as a compromise!

So I'm asking, what makes a meal feel 'nice' to you? Good wine, nicer condiments?

And how do I make a REALLY nice roast to match the ones you get at a posh pub on a Sunday 😁

Invest in or learn how to make some nice sauces, flavoured butters, salsas, relishes. Then you can lift any meat, fish, veg dish really easily.

Buy nice accompaniment type things that are tasty. Capers are great, nice sun dried tomatoes, olives, fancy pickles, nuts. Stuff like that.

Smaller portions but more courses!

I put this on my mozzarella salad and it makes it feel like a restaurant (a bit). I am seduced by the word ‘reduction’ as it’s on the master chef voiceover a lot:

www.google.co.uk/shopping/product/4679821595748237461?lsf=seller:8225840,store:15145725242106082491,lsfqd:0&prds=oid:18408361976163583692&q=marinades+%26+barbeque+sauces&hl=en-gb&ei=pm-8Yo2qKZGRgQa5m4aoCA&sts=14&lsft=gclid:EAIaIQobChMIxeKt9fzS-AIV1-7tCh1iDwbAEAQYCSABEgK2NfD_BwE,gclsrc:aw.ds

Bang some vine tomatoes in the air fryer for 7 minutes , drizzle with balsamic-and serve on side - delicious!

Grow your own basil. One sees packet makes 3 pots and unlike shop plants, they last all summer and make the kitchen feel v sophisticated.

Also, I make the fruit and vegetable shop into an event by going to a big local farm shop instead of a supermarket. Much better quality, more, way, cheaper, no packaging etc and just seeing all those colours in the fridge makes me feel like a sophisticated cook - especially loads of vine cherry tomatoes.

For classic French cooking look up French Cooking Academy on YouTube. Lots of great recipes with simple, basic ingredients (most of them, anyway) and he goes through each one with you to show you how and explains why you do things. Good, clear instructions on things like sauces and so on. It’s great and I often look to it for inspiration. I also watch lots of home cooks on YouTube (as I don’t have television channels anymore) from many different cuisines. I have a good stock of almost every kind of ingredient I might need (which tbf can be on the expensive side to buy if you have to get them all in one go, but still cheaper than going out to eat every weekend!). I read recipe books for fun and am always trying new things and exploring new dishes. The only thing we can’t really do much of is seafood as we don’t have access to good quality at reasonable prices, hence when we do go out (2 or 3 times a year, if that) we tend to go for seafood.

The only thing I really do miss is a proper Italian pizza.

Sprinkle black sesame seeds on top of rice - especially if you’ve made a neat little mound of rice with a bowl in the centre of a wide dish. Then put Thai curry or similar round the outside of the rice and serve with a wedge of lime. I also sprinkle chopped mint, peanuts and crispy onions onto any noodle dish to make it a bit more interesting.

So (I move quickly!) I am now the proud owner of potted basil, mint and coriander plants! I found some little ceramic pots that had just been sitting around gathering dust and now they look all pretty on the windowsill. Going to research how to care for them later but having fresh coriander on our curry tonight actually did make it feel a bit more special!

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone I'm looking into them all.

@Figmentofmyimagination I too love seeing all the assorted veg colours in the fridge!

Also re the roast, I make an okay one but there is just something about the Sunday lunches they do in a few of the country pubs round my way that I cant seem to replicate. Perhaps it is the quality of the ingredients or the cuts of meat they use..

It might just be that you’re not having to cook it, nor clean up afterwards! Sometimes that does actually make things taste that little bit better...

If they’re naice pubs then yes it’ll probably be down to the quality of the meat, in large part at least. If you don’t have a meat thermometer make sure you get one as it takes all the guesswork out of it and you can make sure it’s never overdone. Nothing worse than a dry, sad roast. Can you get a to a farm shop or a good butcher? That will give you a much better selection to choose from. Again, not a cheap option as such but the money you do spend it well worth it.

I’m so hungry right now.

I wear a top hat whilst eating my fishfinger butty.

I cut my sandwiches into triangles rather than rectangles when I’m being posh 🤣🤣🤣

🤣 I hope you mean a fish GOUJON butty!

Nice china, glass, table cloth and napkins.

Fresh herbs. I would add chives to your list.

Good wine if you drink alcohol, chilled fizzy water or tap water with slices of lemon and lime if you don’t.

We had rice and dal tonight, but zhuzhed it up a bit with mango chutney, dollop of yoghurt with coriander, mint and a bit of lime chutney stirred through it, fried shallots and garlic out of a tub and a drizzle of mint samosa chutney in a vaguely artistic fashion.

We’ve got chives and parsley well established in pots in the garden and I’ve just planted out some basil as companion plants to the tomatoes (apparently they’re good for keeping aphids at bay. But then other sources tell me basil is very prone to aphids, so I really don’t know what to believe!). I’ve got a supermarket mint that I’ve used half of for dinner tonight, and I’ll plant that one out tomorrow. Rosemary doesn’t like it here at all, sadly. I’ve never tried thyme because it freezes so well but I might grow some next summer. Basil hasn’t done very well historically but I’ve never thought to just plant some and keep it inside on my windowsill! I’ll do that next summer too, since we’ve got some already this year.

Dinner tonight: not fancy by any means (I couldn’t be bothered with coordinating dishes/linen napkins/nicer plates/candles etc today) but just decanting everything into dishes does make it feel a little more special.

Decent salted butter rather than a spreadable pack and getting our ingredients for Thai meals from the Thai deli rather than the supermarket have been good improvements for us.

@NiqueNique that looks lovely!!

Ok I'm making a list..

My top tips are:

Have you got a small child you can use as waiter to approach the table every five minutes asking if everything is ok.

Serve everything with a ‘foam’.

Open the wine and taste it. Declare it not good enough and send it back to the cupboard.

Pretend to pay with Monopoly money. Do you
leave a tip?

As a lot of people have said - fresh herbs make such a difference... All garnishes do really, whether it is a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds or chopped nuts or freshly chopped herbs. Also things like drizzles of yoghurt or curls of Parmesan - they are the bits which you can leave out if you are making a recipe on a budget (or, for Parmesan, swap for a cheaper cheese), but make dishes feel more special if you do leave them in.
Also adding wine to dishes - red wine if beef dishes and white wine to chicken / risotto dishes. Yes, the alcohol is evaporated off, but it adds a depth of flavour.
Happy cooking!

We have a simply cook subscription we use at the weekends to make the meals seem more special and always make a desert for weekend nights, trifle, sticky toffee pudding, meringues...agree with other posts nice plates and table settings as well .

Ooh yes sesame seeds. They pep up a lot of things. Another good tip is that a lot of veggies are delicious when sliced finely and briefly stir fried with sesame seeds.

Fry chopped garlic in a bit of oil or butter and put it over your boiled veggies, it's a staple at mine!
Also roast cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, etc. instead of boiling them with whatever condiment you have, curry powder, paprika... instead of just boiling them.

The difference between home cooking and home dishes ime is shed loads of butter, wine and herbs.