What’s your “posh” mid week meal?

[Grantery]

By posh I mean it feels elevated and fancy for a random Thursday evening.

Mine is always Gerlic chilli prawns in tomato sauce with crusty bread and salad. Sometimes I make the bread (using bread maker) and sometimes we pick up something from the supermarket bakery.

Or moules mariniere. Served similar to above and done in no time!

Or homemade pesto with spaghetti. Chuck the ingredients in a nutribullet and bobs your uncle.

What about yours?

And by mid week I mean 20-30 mins of cooking :)

“Sausage ragu” is another one of mine. Literally just fry some sausage meat with onion, garlic and chilli. Jar of Passata. And a grating of Parmesan. So easy.

Absolutely, so easy.

brown and onion until soft with either some toasted fennel seeds or you can finely slice a fennel and cook with the onion and then add a bit of garlic in. Then add sausage meat (if youre being healthier pork mince can be used but sausage meat gives it real flavour!) once browned (side note if you’re skinning sausages instead of using sausage meat you can always use the fennel sausages) add tomato purée, cook it out for a minute and add the chopped tomatoes. I have used white wine to deglaze the pan but didn’t feel it added much. Now once the sauce simmers i add some cream cheese but I see up thread you’ve cooked with boursian, this is absolutely delicious in it but if using adjust the garlic you add earlier. But yep, just leave it to simmer whilst you cook the pasta. It’s so much tastier and easier than a ragu. I have also once or twice added some red pesto in there instead of tomato purée which was very indulgent and probably massively high in calories but really tasty! Add the metric fuck ton of Parmesan at the end and enjoy! I really hope if you try it you enjoy it. It’s so indulgent but can be done in 20 minutes

@Ohyoudodoyou 😆😆

Salmon with honey and mustard, dauphinoise potatoes and roast vegetables.

It’s not really posh at all, but kedgeree because it looks so pretty.

Or smoked salmon and dill pasta.

But more, anything that’s taken TIME feels not posh. But indulgent.

Halloumi and chorizo roasted in a big tray with lots of Mediterranean veg and served in wraps with mint yoghurt.

I’m a vegetarian as is my husband.
We cook 90 percent of evenings but I can’t take an ounce of credit for this as it was always him that wanted to do it (I cook some evenings but him 75% of the time).
Things like halloumi fried with a fresh tomato sauce and pasta with a rocket and pine nut salad, or a roasted veg (peppers, aubergine, red onion, cherry tomatoes), mozzarella pasta bake, or a tofu katsu style sauce with rice, or enchiladas, or home made curry (DH makes a huge batch of base “gravy” and adds whatever to the dish (paneer and veg).

It’s no wonder I’m overweight!

Beef bourguignon in the slow cooker, although lamb cawl is amazing (but probably isn't considered to be as "posh").

Sometimes there's a homemade soup lurking, too... usually leek and potato, or French onion. That way, I get about 7 of my 5 a day all in one go!

Thanks for typing. Will be trying next week!

Smoked haddock pilaf (Simon Hopkinson’s recipe), such a lovely easy meal and never fails. But don’t use brown basmati because it will definitely fail

My go to is BBQ salmon fillets with avocado salsa served with salad or asparagus. Next level is adding smashed potatoes but that’s not really mid week as they take over an hour in the oven.

Or lemon garlic salmon tray bake. So easy and delicious.

Not a Tik Tok thing, I was making Boursin pasta in the 90s!

My very similar sausage meat garlic and fennel seed pasta but turned into a bake with mozzarella and Parmesan on the top .
very easy , huge winner and fills my boys. Feels like an easy lasagna .
www.marcellinaincucina.com/pasta-al-forno/

Home-made Cornish pasty and a glass of local red wine.

Carbonara! This recipe is great - https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/ultimate-spaghetti-carbonara-recipe

Tagliata di manzo. Strips of griddled beef with rocket, lemon juice and shaved Parmesan. Takes five minutes to cook.

What are "non-posh" mid-week meals then?

Most of those you describe would fall under our regular weekly meal-plan...
Then at the bottom we have the "freezer and cupboard days" - fish fingers etc.

Elevated would be things like steak or duck from the butcher, or a whole wild sea bass (hard to come by here), with a couple of sides.
Rarely happens now with 2 toddlers though.

For us it’s a Charlie Bigham meal with microwave veg. The veg really ‘elevates’ it.

Charlie bigham's meal

This is one of my favourite recipes ever!!

Pasta Americana. Tinned cherry tomatoes, chilli and herbs. Fry off a sliced chorizo ring. Chuck it all together with pasta that looks like spaghetti but is hollow. It’s not really fancy but I’ve copied it from a favourite Italian restaurant and the kids are really enthusiastic about it so it feels like a treat.