FOR MY VALENTINE

Each Valentine’s Day I prepare my wife, Jane, a feast of seven or eight courses, matched by some lovely wines.  I try and make the menu easy to prepare and stress free so that we can both enjoy the evening, whilst enjoying some good food, perhaps, something different to what we normally eat.    My trick is preparing as much as possible in advance so that I never spend more than 10 minutes away from the table.   So what did we have his year:

Course 1:  A Duo of Duck and Goose Foie Gras with Sauternes Jelly.

I made the Sauternes Jelly myself and it was both very easy to make and absolutely delicious.   First get two leaves of gelatine and put them into cold water to soak.     Then put about 187.5 ml (a quarter bottle) of Sauternes or other dessert wine into a saucepan with 100g of caster sugar and a little salt and pepper.  Bring to a simmer and stir to dissolve the sugar. Take the 2 gelatine leaves and squeeze to remove any excess water and then add to the heated wine mixture and stir.  Remove from the heat and add a squeeze of lemon juice..  Pour through a tea strainer or fine sieve into a bowl and let cool a little.  Then pour into your chosen mould (I used heart shaped ice cube moulds) and let it cool in the refrigerator overnight or for about 6 hours.   This is a brilliant pairing for Foie Gras or blue cheese.

Sauternes Jelly with Foie Gras and Pea Shoots

Course 2: A Carpaccio of Smoked Haddock.

For the second course I followed a Rowley Leigh recipe from the Financial Times and added a few touches of my own.  Undyed smoked haddock is delicious and I just “cooked” it, ceviche style, in a little lemon juice, oil, chilli and herbs.   Served with some roasted yellow and red peppers it made for a very pretty and tasty plate.

A Carpaccio of Smoked Haddock and Peppers

Course 3: Poussin En Cocotte with Bacon and Endives.

For the third course I adapted another Rowley Leigh recipe from the FT but used a poussin instead of pheasant.   The poussin and bacon were browned in some butter and then braised in a small casserole with some white wine for twenty minutes. After this the breast and legs were removed from the bird and then put back into the casserole. The endives were coloured in some butter and then cooked for a short time with some sugar, sherry vinegar and lemon.  This was all done prior to the first course.  Just before serving I added the endive mixture to the poussin and heated through.   The taste was lovely and is the best way yet of making endives delicious.

Poussin en Cocotte with Bacon and Endives

Course 4: A Salad of Young Leaves.

To keep the meal light and healthy, the fourth course was a small salad of fresh young salad leaves.   I decided not to dress the salad and we just ate the greens with our fingers and tasted the gorgeous individual taste of the leaves.

A Salad of Young Leaves

Course 5: Cheese Course.

To finish off the lovely Burgundy (a 1er Cru Volnay) we had three nice cheeses from Waitrose; a wonderful Comté, an Old Amsterdam and a Wensleydale with Cranberries.

The Cheese Board

Course 6: Pear Sorbet

To cleanse our palates I made an Italian style pear sorbet in our Thermomix, in between courses. I had frozen 500g of pears a few days before.  On the night I just combined the pears, some pear liqueur, lemon juice, sugar and egg white in the thermomix, as per the Fast and Easy Cooking recipe book you get with the Thermomix.  The best pear sorbet ever!

Homemade Pear Sorbet

Course 7: Tongham Treacle Mine Pudding.

Jane is American but loves English style puddings, so I decided to make her a treat as dessert.  We live in Tongham and there is an ancient tradition that there was a Treacle Mine in the area and so I created this recipe, using the basis of a Pudding Club recipe posted on the Kitchen Delights blog, but using my own special touch and thermomix techniques.  Very easy to make and a real hit with Jane!   I made the puddings a few nights before and microwaved them for 90 seconds on the night and served with cream, a squeeze of lemon and a little more syrup on top.

120g Butter

120g Demerara  Sugar

120g Self raising Flour

Zest of 1 lemon and 1 lime

Half a lemon

2 Eggs

Golden Syrup

You’ll get the idea of how to make it from the pictures below:

1. Butter the dariole Moulds

2. Add the Lemon & Lime Zest to the Thermomix

3. Add Sugar and Grind for 10 seconds.

4.  Add the Butter and quickly combine.

5.  Cream the mixture using the butterfly whisk.

6. Ad the eggs and flour and then whisk again.

7.  Add some syrup to each mould and then half fill each mould with the mixture.

8.  put the moulds into the varoma.

9.  Steam for 25 minutes.

10. Relax as they steam and rise.

11.  After steaming.

12. Remove from mould and pour on some lemon juice and syrup and serve with cream

Course 8: Coffee and Chocolates

A nice cup of decaffeinated coffee and some heart shaped caramel flavoured chocolates from Fauchon in Paris made for a great end to a very pleasant and completely stress-free evening meal.   As well as the Volnay we had a nice bottle of vintage Champagne which went well with the early courses.  Thanks to Rowley Leigh and others for their inspiration.  Most of all, thanks to Jane for appreciating it!

Expresso Coffee and Fauchon Chocolates