Simple and speedy recipes for a cosy Friday night dinner
In my teens, Saturday night was the big night. Friday night was about fraying edges and feeling tired, tripping over the pile of school bags by the back door that our mother repeatedly told us to move. On Saturday nights you went to discos or parties, or had friends to stay and turned the music up to full volume (your parents were out). We danced, shaking our heads violently to Elton John's Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting. There was a recipe in an M&S cookbook – Indian chicken with peaches – that I made again and again on Saturday night even though we didn't have all the right spices and depended on tinned peaches. If your parents came home early, it spoilt the whole weekend.
I'm not the only one who loves Friday nights. Swedes call it fredagsmys, a ritual that seemed to develop in the 1990s. The term entered the Swedish dictionary in 2006. Picking up your children from school on Friday afternoon, the teacher will say, 'Enjoy your fredagsmys tonight!' The food is supposed to be cosy – nothing grand, in fact tacos are very popular – and forms part of an evening of film watching, eating sweets, chatting and lounging. It has been suggested that the Lutheran concept of hard work is so prevalent in Sweden that Friday nights evolved to mark a break between the working week and the weekend.
Here too, Friday-night cooking should be easy – nobody expects or wants anything grand. It can be a huge bowl of pasta. I make my old standby, spaghetti with garlic, parsley, lemon and chilli; or my latest love, pasta with fried prawns, 'nduja and little chunks of ricotta (the soothing coolness of ricotta and the burn of 'nduja colliding with each other). You want dishes you can make in your sleep: roast chicken, risotto, a big pilaf and nothing more than a green salad on the side.
You can prepare some of the food – a braise that needs slow cooking, say – on Thursday night, but leave something to cook on Friday night itself. Being perfectly prepared doesn't create the right vibe. You want to get home, quickly sort out one dish, throw crisps and olives into bowls and get someone else to do the drinks. There's no need to have ingredients for six different cocktails, though one would be good, and wine, chilled if necessary.
Pudding? It's not mandatory but most people like a little sweetness. When they're in season, raspberries or baked peaches or pears with cream is fine. Or you can go for indulgence and ease with tubs of ice cream. For me it has to be Hackney Gelato (no, they're not paying me), which you can get from Tesco, Ocado, Sainsbury's and Waitrose. Even bowls of jelly babies are good. You're with friends, remember.
I'm lucky. Since I became a freelancer working from home – 25 years ago – I've never had the Sunday-night blues. But even when I have to work on a Saturday (you have many masters if you're freelance, and deadlines are deadlines), I still get the Friday-night rush.
It's Sunday as I write this, but I'm already wondering what to cook next week, and who's going to share my Friday-night freedom with me.
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More Trending Personal experiences have the power to educate, validate and empower others. As we end South Asian Heritage Month, it is very much the right time to highlight domestic abuse within our communities and to push for cultural change. Domestic abuse is a generational issue – it's passed down to children unless we confront it. It transcends culture and community – and trust me, every survivor deserves support, respect and freedom. *The survivor featured in this piece has requested to remain anonymous for her safety and privacy. We are using a pseudonym to protect her identity. Do you have a story you'd like to share? Get in touch by emailing Share your views in the comments below. 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