Читать книгу Spooning with Rosie - Rosie Lovell - Страница 25

Food and love are hopelessly entangled in my mind. I for one have a hungry heart. Feeling giddy with excitement, eating oysters at Borough Market, while my boy held my hand. Slipping out of bed on a Sunday morning, to the Portuguese for café con leche and pastéis de nata. Preparing a big winter hotpot together for our friends, listening to Radio 4. And the simple stuff, like shelling beans, while the heart goes boom. It’s all to do with the senses.

Here is a gathering of recipes, all successfully tried and tested, for seduction in the kitchen. Whether it’s an emergency date, or one of those evenings planned long in advance, full of anticipation and palpitation, my advice is to crank up the music, and let the juices flow. It’s one of the finest things to do for the one you love. You should really enjoy working your magic, and casting some culinary spells.

Generally I like to eat quite simple foods when I’m in for seduction. Simple but really impressive, like for instance duck breasts, or really good steak. Your meal should be full of impact and thought, without appearing fussy or over-zealous. And don’t forget, if you are cooking for men, the demands are altogether different: Raf’s face frequently falls when I realise I’ve not incorporated massive potatoes, pans of rice and wedges of plantain into every meal!

I once shared a Bramley sorbet with verbena jelly in a dark and seducing booth in Black’s. It’s in the depths of sultry Soho and is one of my favourite places to go for simple food and uncomplicated dining. It was subtle, refreshing and lip-tinglingly good. Inspired by this, I have kept these puddings simple but suggestive, because hopefully you’ll be too enthralled by your date to want to be clattering around in the kitchen blow-torching a brûlée.