Another Lucky Escape

Last week, my girlfriend offered to do all the cooking: an offer I wasn't going to turn down in a hurry. Since she met me (a highly enthusiastic amateur) food has gone from being fuel to a bit of a passion for her as well. Since this revelation she has not only started cooking more and enjoying the process, she has been getting ever more creative in the kitchen. Therefore a week of having delicious food cooked for me sounded rather good. It did also mean that she set the menu...

To be fair; it was a heady mix of tried and tested favourites, dishes she had made before but I hadn't tried and new dishes conceived for the occasion. So far so good. BUT there was one fly in the ointment. A black sheep. An outlier in-keeping with the letter of the offer if not the spirit. Vegetarian lasagne.

I have written before about my feelings on vegetarianism; suffice to say, I think it's a fairly serious eating disorder. However, on principle I make a point of trying virtually anything vaguely edible that's put in front of me. If I don't like it, I will never touch it again and hopefully come up with a pith put-down or two but I will certainly eat it.

Therefore, making suitably grateful noises (and I was genuinely grateful that she has been cooking for me even if it wasn't exactly what I would have chosen), I manfully tucked in. To be fair it wasn't half bad. The bechamel was lovely and velvety in texture with a nice cheesy hit, the lasagne was lovely and tender and the filling was nice, rich and thick. There was an interesting mix of texture and flavour and the mouth-feel was rather nice. However it just missed the mark. It lacked a certain something. Something to give it depth, flavour, texture and a rather more elusive concept; satisfyingness. That certain something could be achieved quickly, easily and very, very nicely by the addition of one key ingredient... MEAT!

From the moment I heard about the vegetarian lasagne, I did my best to be gallant and hide my natural reticence to the dish. I made vaguely positive remarks (if a bit stoic) or avoided saying anything at all. However as I'm rarely shy about sharing my feelings my girlfriend knew exactly how I felt about the concept of vegetarian food. The tension rose as the day drew on. However, ultimately, I have nothing but praise for the dish. A surprise ingredient that made the dish. It came out the blue and was a true bit of creative genius by my girlfriend. What was this wonderful ingredient that made the whole dish perfect? A couple of slices of the meatloaf left over from the night before! Nice one JRGF.

So, as you can see from the above the dish was a very, very lucky escape!

JR