3 courses on a Monday Night?

Since I'm on Easter hols, I thought I'd cook the boyf. a relaxed 3-courses, with amuse bouche too. I spent the morning scouring recipe books and looking at what was in season, finally plumping for retro smoked salmon pinwheels with cream cheese and chive, simple carpaccio with rocket and Parmesan, salmon, herb and white wine steamed parcels and rhubarb trifles.

The smoked salmon appetisers and carpaccio are old favourites, but the salmon I had only done versions of in foil. For this particular recipe - if you can call it that - was simple a piece of salmon fillet with fresh herbs, olive oil and a lemon slice parcelled up in baking parchment.

Before sealing, I tipped in a glug of white wine and baked for 15 minutes. Serve with new potatoes and salad. Had I thought, I'd have added a dollop of aioli too.

I had some rhubarb that needed eating and found a River Cottage Hugh recipe, so gave it a go. Again, it was really simple but somehow, my rhubarb didn't produce enough juice so I had to improvise with orange juice. First, simmer off the rhubarb chunks (about 8 stems) with 100ml orange juice and a couple of tablespoons of sugar; I'd add more orange juice if I did it again, probably 200ml, maybe a little more. When soft, strain the juice and chill both the rhubarb and syrup. In wine glasses, place some broken up sponge - I baked a simple plain sponge recipe - pour over the chilled syrup to cover the sponge, spoon custard over and top with the rhubarb chunks. I also sprinkled toasted flaked almonds over the to to add a different texture too.

The cake went a bit grainy at the bottom of the glass but I think that was because I didn't have enough juice for them to soak up properly. The meal as a whole was good, but not one of my best. I think I'd spent so much time looking for recipes and buying the food, by the time it came to cooking it, I didn't really give it the love it deserved. With a little more care, it would have been tastier!