The Course(s) of Love

The lucky ones get a single great and everlasting love. Just one. An earth shattering romance that starts with a bang, melts into soft and tender affection, then lingers on, strong and sturdy as an old, gnarled oak. For them, love is nothing more than an inevitable rite of passage, a forgone conclusion; obvious, unsurprising, simple.

For the rest of us, love is summed up rather more aptly in Ringo Star’s words:

It don't come easy"

The challenge of picking (from the 7.5 billion inhabitants of our planet) a single human with whom to share the trials, tribulations and mundanities of life, is no small feat. It shouldn’t be surprising, either, if it takes more than a few attempts. But do not be deterred. Take heart, shelve your bewildered confusion, and allow me to remove at least a little of the guess work. Find below a chronological menu to guide (and feed) you through the fundamental stages of new romance.

Love might be a battlefield, a circuitous and rocky road, peppered with pitfalls and potholes, but I’ll be damned if we can’t make the journey at least a little bit tasty.

First Date

Now I hope you don’t think me forward, but there’s really no two ways around this. Unless you’re Mary Berry, it’s highly unlikely you’re going to go out of your way to make someone a homecooked dinner on the first date. Who needs that kind of pressure?! And perhaps I’m being overly optimistic, but I figure what is rather more likely is that you might find yourself in want of a quick and easy breakfast the next morning. (Wink wink, you sly devil, you.)

The beautiful thing about these pancakes is that you can pre-mix all of the dry ingredients and keep them in a jar in the cupboard, lying in wait for an especially special date. Then, in the morning, happy and hungover, you simply have to add the wet ingredients, the berries and voila! You are a domestic deity.

Vegan Blueberry Pancakes with Dark Chocolate Ganache

Dry ingredients

• 1 cup wholemeal self-rising flour

• 4 tbsp coconut sugar

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 1/2 tsp salt

Wet ingredients

• 1 cup coconut milk

• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar

• 1/4 cup soy milk

• 1/4 cup water

• 3/4 cup frozen blueberries

Ganache ingredients

• 1/3 cup coconut milk

• 1/2 cup dark chocolate

Instructions

1. Put all of your dry ingredients in one bowl, mix until well combined (at this point, if you like, you can transfer the dry ingredients to a jar to keep and use later).

2. In another bowl, whisk together all of the wet ingredients except the blueberries. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until well combined. Gently stir in the blueberries.

3. Fry a little non-dairy butter or olive oil in a frying pan. Pour a little of the pancake batter in (I find it’s easier to make a lot of smaller pancakes instead of a few big ones as they can be tricky to flip), and fry until both sides are golden brown. Transfer to a plate and repeat until all the batter is used up.

4. While your pancakes are frying, microwave the remaining 1/3 coconut milk until it’s very hot, then stir in the dark chocolate until it has fully melted and forms a smooth ganache.

5. Just before serving the pancakes, pour over the melted ganache. You can garnish with a few extra blueberries if you like. Best eaten with a jug of strong coffee by a sunny window.

Notes

For simplicity’s sake, I buy a single 400mL can of coconut milk. I use 1 cup of the milk in the pancake mix, and then use the remainder in the ganache (it works out to about 1/3 of a cup, but don’t worry if you have a little more or a little less, the ganache will still taste great).

I’ve found the longer the pancake mix sits before cooking, the thicker it tends to get. You want it fairly runny for frying, so if you notice it thickening, just stir through a little extra water until it’s back to runny pancake consistency.

One Month In

You’ve survived the first month. Congratulations. A lot of people don’t even make it this far. I like this stage. It involves a lot of tasty dinners, bottles of wine, nice clothes, neat hair and taxis. You’re still both on your best behavior, but by now you’re probably getting the inkling that you kindaaaa like LIKE each other. Which is fun. Butterflies in the belly and all that jazz.

You still wanna look cool though, and totally nonchalant. Which is why my next dish recommendation is this: springtime risotto. If he’s a romantic you can tell him that you made it in honor of your blossoming romance. If he’s, er… not, you can just act cool because this dish is pretty effortless, and it involves cooking with – and drinking – wine. Molto romantico!

The best way to make this dish is standing around the kitchen together, wine in hand, jazz playing in the background. The risotto takes a little while to cook and requires a glug or two of wine, but it’s very hard to overcook or mess up, so the chances of dinner not working out are slim. As for your budding relationship…that one’s on you.

Barley Springtime Risotto

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil

• 1 red onion, finely diced

• 4 cloves garlic, finely diced

• 1/2 cup pearled barley

• 4 1/2 cups (1L) vegetable stock

• 1/2 cup white wine

• 3 baby zucchinis, cut into chunky coins

• 6 spears asparagus, cut into thirds

• 1 cup frozen peas

• 1/4 cup pine nuts

• rind of 1 lemon

• 1/4 cup fresh basil, roughly chopped

Instructions

1. In a large, deep frying pan, fry the olive oil, red onion and garlic until the onion goes translucent and starts to brown. Add the barley and fry for another 2-3 minutes.

2. Pour in 1 cup of the vegetable stock and the white wine. Cook, stirring every few minutes, until the stock has been absorbed, then add another cup of stock.

3. Repeat this process of adding stock, reducing the liquid and then adding more, one cup at a time, until around 1 cup of stock remains.

4. Add the final cup of stock along with the baby zucchinis and cook for about 5 minutes, then add the asparagus, peas, pine nuts, lemon rind and basil. Cook for only a few more minutes, until the peas and asparagus have gone bright green. Serve immediately, with a little extra basil on top.

Meet the Parents

Well, you’ve done it. You’re an item. I hope you’ve picked wisely because it’s looking increasingly like you’re gonna be stuck with each other for a little while. Now comes the scary part: meeting the parents.

To be honest, I think I’m more skilled at getting parents to like me than I am with their sons. For the boys, I feel compelled to bring my A-Game. Witty banter, pretty dresses, perfume, pithy societal observations, well-formed scientific and political opinions, yadda yadda yadda, it can be a bit of a tiring gig. With the parents, I just bring food.

See, it all comes down to Pavlovian conditioning. We like to think we’re a complicated species – very self-aware, very reflective and cerebral. But really, we’re not all that different to the dogs Ivan Pavlov trained to salivate at the sound of a bell.

You want your new beau’s parents to like you? You gotta BE that bell!

Arrive with a plate of these salted caramel, chocolatey goodies and a subconscious association will start to form. Sweet biscuits = sweet girl. What’s more, the mother will love you for feeding and nurturing her son and the father will just want you to keep coming ‘round with cookies. Perhaps I’m being a little bit cynical, but I’m not the first to be. Culinary manipulation is an in-law wooing device that has been employed to great effect for millennia. It’s time you get on board.

Salted Caramel, Dark Chocolate + Macadamia Cookies

For the caramel

• 1 and 2/3 cups (400 mL) coconut cream

• 1 cup brown sugar

• 1/2 tsp salt

For the cookies

• 1/2 cup buckwheat flour

• 1 cup wholemeal plain flour

• 1 cup almond meal

• 1/2 cup roughly chopped hazelnuts

• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

• a few pinches of salt flakes

Method

1. To make the salted caramel sauce, place the coconut cream, brown sugar and salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down and continue to cook until the sauce has turned a deep caramel color and reduce the volume to around 1 cup.

2. While the caramel is cooking, combine all your dry ingredients (except for the chocolate chips) in a bowl.

3. When the caramel is ready, pour it into the dry ingredients and mix well to combine. The mixture may be a little warm, so leave it to cool before mixing in the chocolate chips (otherwise they'll melt).

4. If you want big cookies, roll the mixture into 6 balls. If you want smaller cookies, roll the mixture into 12 balls. Flatten these out and place them on a lined baking tray and sprinkle with salt flakes. Bake in the oven at 350ºF (180ºC) for about 10-15 minutes, or until the cookies have started to brown. Place on a wire rack to cool. (Or bundle them up immediately and take them to your future in-laws while they're still piping hot and chewy, you'll be like the daughter they never had in NO time flat!)

Words, recipes & photos by Casey Lister