Valentine’s day for me has always been about staying home and enjoying good food with loved ones.
This year’s valentine was no different, although in a more exciting way. We had a date night right in my house and it was really fun.
Why We Chose to Have Dinner at Home
We decided on this because it was on a Monday and because Mondays are for serious work, we were left with just the evening for anything fun, I am sure it is like this for most people.
Especially with our little baby, staying home was the best thing for us, we can’t be moving around Lagos with her at such a late hour so we were left with no choice but to prepare something at home. This is just the best idea and with the way restaurants were overbooked with other fun places, the best place was home.
Luckily for us, our daughter was sleeping at the time. We prepared the whole meal and we had the best time together, while I was doing the major work of the cooking, my husband set the table.
The whole idea of the meal was from my husband and I made it just as he wanted. It was grilled meat with baked potatoes and carrots. The combo was great and flavoursome. The ingredients were few but the taste was the best. This is for you to know that it is not about the number of ingredients you use before you can make a good meal.
Preparing The Meal
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Ingredients For The Grilled meat
Beef- 1kg (into 3 wide but thin cut, about 2 inches each)
Olive oil / Vegetable oil – 2 Tbsp
Freshly ground black pepper- 1 tsp
Freshly ground white pepper- 1 tsp
Freshly ground suya spice- 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Ingredients For Baked potatoes
Potatoes- 8 pcs (finely sliced into 4 of each)
Melted butter – 2 tbsp
Freshly ground black pepper- 1 tsp
Thyme – ½ tsp
Green bell pepper – 1 (finely sliced)
Carrots- 4 (finely sliced)
Spring onions – 3 Scallions (finely sliced)
Directions for grilled meat
- Wash your beef until the water turns clear white and put it in a baking tray, cover with a plastic bag and place it in a refrigerator for 30minutes so that the water the beef retained through washing will be drained in the process.
- Marinate the beef after removing it from the refrigerator with the Olive oil, rub it in well, you can use a brush or use your clean hand in doing so. Rub every part properly with it (NB- do not dip the meat into the oil directly).
- Add the black pepper, the white pepper, salt and the suya spice on every part of the beef
- Allow it to rest for like 20 minutes for the ingredients to penetrate deeply into the beef, you can place it back into the refrigerator.
- Pre-heat your oven using 270℃
- Cover the beef with foil paper for it to grill fast
- Before grilling, you can place it on your cooking burner for like 5 mins. Turn it frequently to avoid burning, this will help to dry up the water from the beef completely before grilling.
- Place your beef in the oven and grill it for about 40 minutes. Turn it to the other side after 20 minutes. If you are not satisfied with the grilling result you can transfer the beef into a Barbeque grill rack and place it directly on the heat from the oven (NB- do not leave for too long when using the Barbeque grill rack)
- Once you have grilled it to your preference, allow it to cool before serving it.
Directions for baked potatoes
- Wash the potatoes until the water appears clear white
- Cook it for about 5- 8 minutes on medium heat, add salt to it ( NB- it should not be too soft)
- Add your melted butter into the baking tray to form a layer
- Transfer the cooked potatoes into the baking tray and cover it well with the melted butter by mixing it with your spatula or spoon
- Add your black pepper, add your thyme and pinch of salt
- Mix everything together and cover with a foil paper
- Pre-heat your oven using 200℃
- Place the baking tray into the oven after 5 minutes of preheating
- Leave it to bake for about 30 minutes. Turn the potatoes to the other side after about 15-20 minutes into baking
- Remove it from the oven and add your spring onions, green bell peppers and carrots, add small melted butter to it and mix together
- Leave it to bake for another 10-15minutes
- You can allow it to bake extra minutes depending on your preference but make sure you are checking regularly, remove it from the oven once you are okay with it, allow it to cool a little before serving it.
Final Note
That is it for our valentine’s special meal. Oh, before I forget, we enjoyed this great meal with grape wine.
How did you spend your valentine’s day? Was it a day-out or a home thing just like mine?
What do you think about the meal? I will love to hear from you in the comments.
Well I spent my Val, at work mostly, got not calls, no text, no gift😂😂, but I got a surprise tho and I think it was one to remember, anyways I’m glad u had fun on ur Val day, I pray that you’ll always be happy 🙏🙏
Thank you so much. I’m glad it was a memorable one for you too
I know you love good food, good food brings out good skin, keep doing what you love, you will get there soon
Amen. Thank you so much ma.