What to cook your loved one on a wednesday?

 So it's Wednesday, it's probably raining, it's the middle of the month and you have no money. What do you do?

 That's right! Cook something great for a little mid week treat! But then you have the next problem, what to cook? Of course there are recipe books and online resources full of suggestions for you but with a world of choices at you disposal but a limited fridge full of stuff, you may well feel a little.. um.. limited. But don't panic as I'd like to share with you some of my tried and tested methods for creating just the right meal to lift a sullen midweek soul.

First address what you are hungry for; is it spicy, rich, light, salad based, pasta, meaty, non meaty?
Then stare at your fridge until you realise that you don't quite have all of the ingredients.

The key is to have some special little store cupboard treats lined up for just such a time and a portfolio of tasty little recipes to use them in. Here are some suggestions for one such item and how they can be used to save oneself from midweek melancholia.

Dried porcini mushrooms

 These little bastards are perfect for adding savoury depth to a pasta, sauces or mixing with the regular mushrooms you may have knocking about to add a little richness and sparkle. Soak them in boiling water until soft to create a lovely stock which is perfect for a mushroom risotto or creamy sauces to go with white meats or even steaks. Here is one such example;

PS. I'm confusingly listing options in the ingredients list, not because Jamie Oliver does but because sometimes another option may be on offer in the supermarket or you have something left that needs using up. Certain foods share common characteristics and therefore a recipe can work just as well by swapping ingredients within these groups (as long as the basic principles are stuck too). I will blog about in this in greater detail in the near future.

Pork schnitzels with creamy mushroom sauce (a bit of a bastardised version of jaeger schnitzel)
Serves 2 (1 man and 1 beautiful woman)

Ingredients
2 x pork chops, or pork fillet, or chicken or turkey breasts as you need to cook them quickly, perhaps some meaty white fish such as cod (mushrooms and fish are quite common in Italian cooking)
2 x cloves of garlic all bashed and chopped up
A handful of dried porcini mushrooms soaked in a cup with boiling water
1 x small brown onion finely diced, or a couple of shallots
1 x cupful of stock, if serving with pork use veg or chicken
Dijon or wholegrain mustard (another useful store cupboard essential)
1 x tsp of paprika
1/2 x small pot of crème fraiche, or single or double cream but a little sharpness may need adding by means of a squeeze of lemon or white wine
1 x lemon
A bit of plain flour seasoned with salt and pepper on a wide plate
1 x some fresh parsley will be nice as will thyme or even sage (think classic pork accompaniments) but only if you have some.
oil and butter for frying

Method
Preheat your oven to 50C
Get out a nice large heavy bottomed frying or sauté pan, a plate and some tinfoil.
First use a meat hammer or a rolling pin to bash the meat on a hard surface such as a chopping board, the aim is to slightly flatten the meat out to speed up cooking and to tenderise it by breaking down the muscle fibres. If using pork chops you could take the bone out or skip this step completely. Do not bash fish with a mallet as this will make a mess.
 Once the meat is bashed up you can lightly coat it with the seasoned flour on the wide plate.
Get the rest of the ingredients ready as you will need to crack on with the sauce as soon as the meat is cooked. Get the pan nice and hot but not too smoky as you'll burn the flour, put in a good glug of oil and a knob of butter. Fry the meat until nicely browned and cooked through (check with a knife after about 8mins). I like to cook the pork so it is still nice and juicy, if you like to cook meat until it is tough and dry you will never know how what meat should taste like. You probably read the daily mail too. Once cooked put on a tray or plate, cover with tin foil and leave to rest in the warm oven.
If the pan has a lot of burnt on stuff, give it a scrape before starting the next step but leave a little as it will help flavour and thicken the sauce. ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION?!! (just checking)
Pop in a bit more butter/oil in the same pan so that the onions and garlic have something to fry in. Recently I've started adding the onions first when I create sauce bases like this as I find the smaller cut garlic with it's higher sugar content can burn and go bitter before the onions have softened nicely. Soften the onions and garlic nicely and add the paprika and some herbs if you have some (pop out into your beautiful kitchen garden perfectly manicured by a bunch of smiley eco-volunteers). Next step is to add some liquid, so go on pour in the stock, the mushrooms and their juice (cut them up if they are too big) a dollop of mustard and last but not least the crème fraiche (but do not go boiling crazy once this is in). Be flexible with the liquid as you want a nice consistency. Before you serve, check for seasoning.
Gently drizzle the mushroomy goodness of the sauce all over the succulent mass that is the meat and serve with some good veg and mash. Or potato croquettes and spaghetti hoops, it's your life.

Options:
If you fancy cider then a good glug in the sauce will go reet lovely with the pork and the rest can be drunk whilst cooking or to serve. Try something slightly oaky like Weston's vintage cider as the oakiness goes well with the slight smokiness of the mushrooms and paprika.

 Wine will add a nice sharp twang to the sauce and like wise is a good excuse to do a Keith Floyd. A nice medium bodied white goes well with the slight sweetness of the cream.

STOP PRESS!!

LIDL (the cut price German concentration camp of the supermarket world) has some lovely German Spatzle in at the mo which is lovely cooked for a little longer than the suggested 15mins and coated in the above sauce.