MORE PLEASE - SOLO SUPPERS

Fried Quesadillas and other things I will be cooking for myself while my husband is away.

Hello and welcome to the first More Please of March! Thanks to a really wonderful mention in The Times last week, there are a lot of new faces here - welcome! I wanted to give you a little guide on how to navigate The Dinner Party, so you can get the most out of it.

All previous recipes and posts can be found here, so if you are a recent subscriber but want to check out what I have been cooking, do take a look. There is a search bar at the top left hand corner of the page, so you can search for things within the newsletter from there. Free subscribers have access to free posts in the archive only, whereas paid subscribers have access to everything (we are approaching 400 recipes). The Recipe Archive is where I have broken down recipes into an index of sorts, so if you are looking for ideas, that’s where to go.

More Please is the name of paid subscription level of The Dinner Party, and that’s what today’s post is part of. I tend to paywall my paid posts so everyone can see what I am talking about at the beginning, which is why free subscribers can still read this bit. More Please subscribers get 3 additional posts a month, as opposed to 1 for free subscribers.

If you don’t know much about me, then hello! My name is Rosie, I have been a chef for 12 years, and I will have been writing The Dinner Party for 3 years in April. After leaving restaurant life, I have worked as a food stylist and home economist for cookbooks, tv and advertising for the last 8 years or so. My debut cookbook, Good Time Cooking, was published last September and is an extension of this newsletter in book form, filled with 20 gorgeous dinner party menus (90 odd recipes) and tips on how to execute them perfectly, without stress.

Recently I became a host of the BBC show QI’s new food podcast - Lunchbox Envy where myself and QI writers Jack and Manu discuss ingredients, cheffy tips, foody facts, bonkers food history and science.

I live in South East London with my husband, we were married last year under the Bolognese sun in Emilia Romagna and it was heaven. I am a huge Italophile, and spend as much time there as possible.

Any excuse to share a wedding pic, eh. In fact, Tom is away for a long work trip on the other side of the world, so I am dining alone for the next few weeks. It’s a common misconception that chefs cook themselves beautiful, elegant and thoughtful meals when they are eating solo. I would say I am much more likely to grab some instant noodles, a few dumplings from the freezer and garnish the lot with an old spring onion. I need a little bit of encouragement to engage my brain when I am cooking for just myself. It’s perhaps a sad thing to admit, but we chefs are people pleasers, and the last person we are aiming to please is ourselves. I know, however, that in these few weeks without my treasured dining partner here, I will get sick of noodles. I need to carve out some time for escapism, for self love via food. Or, as my therapist said, you need to do something nice for yourself every day.

So, today I am sharing with you a recipe for some indulgent, delicious and utterly transportive Fried Quesadillas. I have a deep love of Mexican food, and the occasions when I have travelled there have been some of the most scrumptious of my life. These quesadillas are both luxurious and decadent whilst also being refreshingly hot and piquant. I think that’s what I love about Mexican food so much - it is brilliantly balanced. This is a lush little treat dinner for one, perfect with a cold beer and some excellent TV.

With that, I am revisiting a couple of my favourite recipes from the archive that I have popped on my cooking list for the next few weeks, and have adapted them to serve 1. Firstly, a glorious Spicy Prawn Fregola with a homemade prawn head stock. Self care can sometimes be making the quickest meal you can manage so you can jump in the bath, but sometimes it’s spending a little time in methodical cooking. Those extra minutes spent are a declaration of love for yourself, and for the food you cook.

Finally, an easy bowl of goodness, my Sweet Potato and Kale in Harissa-Onion Broth. This is a simple and relatively hands off dinner (see above about needing to jump in the bath) but it’s nourishing, vibrant and basically, to use the cliché, a hug in a bowl.