Sunday 9 February 2014

Treat Your Valentine with Aldi

Aldi have a little booklet of special buys each week. The current issue has some suggestions for putting together a romantic and tasty meal to treat your Valentine.  The magazine has several starter and main course combinations to pick such as Breaded Garlic Mushrooms, Scottish Cooked Mussels and Specially Selected Fillet Steak or Risotto and Mixed Leaf Salad.

I was asked by Aldi to treat my Valentine (Mr R) and although I liked their suggestions I preferred to pick and mix and to come up with my own special Valentine inspired meal.

The main ingredients I bought were Breaded Camembert, Turkey Steaks and Gnocchi.


The breaded camembert can be cooked in the oven or shallow fried.  To go with them I a 'slaw' with celeriac and carrot thinly peeled with a Julienne peeler to which I added Hellman's Mayo with Lemon, Creme Fraiche and some chopped beetroot (left over from the heart cut outs - see below)


The Gnocchi I cooked in salted boiling water and drained them.  In the pan I melted a small knob of butter, some pesto and a ball of mozzarella chopped up.  I put this all in a baking dish with the gnocchi, sprinkled freshly grated parmegianno reggiano cheese and popped it into the oven on low to keep warm.




The rest of the main course was Turkey Steaks in a creamy peppercorn sauce. I started with the usual finely chopped onion and celery and sauteed in a know of butter and a tablespoon of olive oil. When translucent I added the turkey steaks and pan fried them. I placed them in an ovenproof dish whilst I made the sauce.  A splash of white wine, 200gm Philadelphia cream cheese and cracked black pepper. Pour over the turkey steaks and keep warm in the oven.


So here is the final result.  Starter - Aldi 


Mr R loved his special meal!
The main course:-

 
I was sent a voucher to purchase the main ingredients of my meal from Aldi. I was not paid to write this post and all opionions and recipes are my own.


16 comments:

  1. Scrummy, and a third the horrific price that most restaurants charge on rip-off Valentines Day!

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    1. We won't go out for a meal because of just that. The food is not as good and the prices are higher for one day!

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    2. I'd far rather eat at home for that special meal. I also really dislike that feeling of being on parade when eating out on Valentine's day

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    3. I just hate how they hike up the prices and the quality goes down. We have always had a special meal at home.

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  2. Sounds like a lovely valentines meal and at a really good price. That gnocchi looks delicious.

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  3. A great Valentines meal, lots of delicious flavours. GG

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    1. It was tasty and there is left over for me to take to work for lunch - result!!

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  4. I have NEVER been in an Aldi, it's too awkward to get to my nearest one in Tottenham High Road. That said I do enjoy a good trip to Lidl which I imagine is very similar. Craving baked camembert now!!

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    1. We have both Aldi and Lidl near us. There are some things I prefer in Aldi and some in Lidl. They are similar but different. Their camembert was really nice too.

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  5. sounds fab heidi, lucky Mr Heidi!!!

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  6. Thanks Fiona - I keep telling Mr R how lucky he is!!!

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  7. And sporting a lovely jumper, too! Agree, the gnocchi looks good.

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    1. He does like his sweaters and liked the gnocchi too.

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  8. If I wasn't after very turbulent flight back from Poland I would probably make something by myself for Valentines. This time we just went out to local Jimmy's and had a buffet :)

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  9. If we had a nice place to go without all the hype I would have loved to go out but we will go out for a meal next weekend instead!

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