So on Monday it was my beautiful girlfriend's birthday, which meant it was my turn to cook! I enlisted the help of my girlfriend's mum for the dessert and I was to do the starter and main. My girlfriend has a huge folder of recipes from various food magazines so I used this for my inspiration.
We kicked the meal off with Sticky Pork-Stuffed Peppers, which were a real hit. The Romano peppers roasted in the oven were sweet and juicy whilst the filling was flavoursome and full of different textures. Personally, I'd have liked a bit more of the sweet chilli and soy flavour and if you're following the recipe I'd suggest doubling this if you like a real hit of flavour, but these were perfect for my girlfriend's gran who was even asking for the recipe!
Moving on to the main, I chose Jerk Spiced Ribs as my girlfriend is a real fan of ribs. The ribs were slow cooked in stock for 2 hours before draining and adding the marinade and then roasting. The slow cooking process meant the ribs were tender and succulent, with the meat practically falling off the bone. However, I probably wouldn't do the jerk marinade again. The cloves and allspice were a little over-powering and it lacked the kick of a decent jerk marinade. The cooking process was perfect though so next time, I think it'll be a case of smothering them in BBQ sauce before roasting for the perfect BBQ flavoured ribs. I served the ribs with sweet potato wedges and coleslaw. I just cut the sweet potato into wedges and dusted them with a mild chilli powder, salt and pepper, drizzled over olive oil and then roasted for 45 minutes. The outside has an awesome caramelised effect but keeps the sweet potato soft and packed with flavour on the inside. A friend makes a cracking coleslaw, and this is her recipe: chop some white cabbage, then using a vegetable peeler to get strip of carrot, dice some onion and then heaps of mayonnaise and drizzling in some balsamic vinegar and season to taste.
The dessert was a real show-stopper, raspberry meringue pie! Served warm the raspberry filling had the same tartness of it's lemon counterpart and the meringue was perfectly crunchy on the outside and gooey in the middle. Honestly, I haven't had too many better desserts, although it did cost rather a lot in raspberries so you'd be advised to wait till they're in season!
Links to the recipes
Jerk spiced ribs
Sticky Pork-Stuffed Peppers
Raspberry Meringue Pie
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