Valentine's Day Planning - recipe ideas for an elegant dinner?
Hi folks,
So, rather than drop 3 bills on a fancy restaurant this year, I'm thinking of using that money to get some truly killer ingredients and making an elegant Valentine's dinner.
Rather than throwing it up to you CH'ers and say "What should I make?" I'll give you an idea of what I'm thinking based on what she likes:
Appetizer - Not sure on this one, but I'm thinking of something fancy, like a poached lobster salad, or something like that. I haven't made this before, so I have no go-to recipes.
Main meal - The wife likes eating meat "on the bone" so I'm thinking of buying a frenched rack of lamb and roasting that. I don't have a good recipe for it though, and I'm debating whether to cut the rack into chops, or make the whole rack at once. I've heard good things about Lobells, so I may get the meat from them, also since I live in Brooklyn.
Sides - Not sure what could go well with lamb, but I'm thinking of something more creative than throwing couscous into a pot of water. Perhaps a scalloped potato dish?
Dessert - I'm lost on this one, as we're both not big sweets fans, and she's (surprisingly) not a chocolate fan. She likes fruit, so I'm thinking of going the easy route and buying a key lime pie, apple crumble, or something like that.
Any recipes, mail order recommendations, or suggestions would be great!
By Rocknrope
on Jan 11, 2007 04:03 PM
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Congratulations on thinking ahead and planning a very special evening for your love.
I'm in the same boat, with a caveat: my wedding anniversary is Valentine's Day. We never eat out on our anniversary because we always feel ripped off.
The lobster salad sounds perfect. I found this recipe for lobster salad that you may like. The greens sounds as though they could use a little something!
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/rec...
I've ordered lamb via Lobel's. They are a great source and the lamb was fabulous. (I live in LA and was concerned about shipping - all was fine).
The scalloped potatoes idea sounds great with the lamb.
For dessert, if she isn't into chocolate, you may want to think about fresh berries and champagne.
What wines are you thinking about serving with the lobster and lamb?
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Hi OJD,
Thanks for the support and recommendations! You bring up another good point - wine pairings. I have no clue, and thought I would just go into a wine shop and say "lobster salad, give me a wine. rack of lamb - ditto."
The Champagne/berries idea is great, I'll probably go with that in addition to whatever I figure out for the dessert, if not the only thing.
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You could also make a zabaglione sauce for the berries.
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Or a pavlova (meringue, whipped cream, fruit). Easy, impressive, delicious.
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Yes - that's a good idea b/c you can do it ahead of time. Maybe drizzle with a little chocolate sauce.
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I like the herb-crusted rack of lamb recipe in the Dean and DeLuca cookbook. You combine fresh herbs, fresh bread crumbs, garlic, olives and olive oil and crust the rack with this mixture on top of a coating of mustard.
I have gotten great rack of lamb (as well as other great prime meat) from Ottomanelli Brothers on York and 82nd St. You can also order online from ottomanellibros.com. Make sure to use this web address because there are quite a few different Ottomanelli families running butcher shops.
I once served rack of lamb with a great orzo dish made with shiitake mushrooms, caramelized onions and spinach. More often I serve rack of lamb with fluffy mashed potatoes (made with creme fraiche and seasoned with lemon zest) along with haricots verts with a simple herb butter.
Can't say I've made a poached lobster salad, sounds ambitious! I always like a salad with stuff like sliced pears, candied walnuts, and fresh pecorino or blue cheese. You could add some truffle oil to make it more fancy.
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I LOVE lobster salad! I don't have any specific recipes, but I had one for an appetizer a while back that paired mango or papaya or something and it was brilliant. In my opinion, Champagne would go wonderfully with any lobster salad.
Some light and fruity dessert options could be fruit flan or fruit tart, or home made creme brulee. Or fresh strawberries, either plain or dipped in white chocolate (since she's not into chocolate) is a romantic touch. Maybe champagne, a rich and sweet dessert wine, or a light fizzy one like Moscato D'Asti to accompany.
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For dessert, panna cotta or coeur a la creme? Champagne and fruit sounds good too.
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Great ideas for the meal! For New Year's I've done a lobster salad with some kind of pureed herb like tarragon. It's beautiful on the plate and gives the lobster a great fresh taste. As an alternative, you could make your own infusion by soaking an herb (or lemon wedges) in olive oil and then use the flavored oil as a dressing. Yummy and not that hard.
You could also do a porterhouse steak for two. If you go to Florence Meat Market in the village (which I think is even better than Lobel's, and much less expensive)they will cut you a perfect porterhouse which you can just sear and serve with an elegant sauce of some kind. It's pretty good plain too and because it's got the bone and some fat, you have some leeway with cooking time.
Actually if you go to Florence you could stop by the little wine shop on Jones Street. The owner's name is Jeff and he's always given me wonderful recs when I bring menus in.
Enjoy your dinner!
Jeremy
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Thanks for the meat suggestion Jeremy. I've never heard of that meat market, but if it's better than/comparable to Lobels and cheaper, I'm all for it.
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Florence Meat Market is wonderful - on Jones St. between W. 4th and Bleecker - I've not bought enough from Lobel's to compare though.
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Sounds sweet, especially that you're planning so far in advanced. I think poached lobster salad sounds great but can you get good fresh lobster right now? I like using seasonal products for best flavor. Is it dungeness crab season right now? My husband made me this great stacked salad (using a can opened top and bottom) w/ greens, chopped persimmons, avocado, crabs, on different levels, drizzled w/ a persimmons vinaigrette. It was beautiful and delicious. You could use shrimp, too. How about risotto for the side? As fruit goes, again, there isn't that much in season--maybe a citrus fruit salad? Or, a fruit sorbet served in an orange shell. An apple crumble or tarte tatin would be great. I love all the berry ideas, too, but berries aren't in season either.
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Chowser,
That "can used as a salad mold" is brilliant. I just may use this technique for the lobster salad - possibly with avocado, blood orange, and frisee. Not sure if that combo works, but I'll have to do more research. Risotto's a good idea, but may be too much work for me. The fruit sorbet in an orange shell is great, and I can use the blood oranges from earlier (as you can see, I saw blood oranges on sale at Freshdirect, so I'm obsessed.)
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I made a rack of lamb a couple of weeks ago using Mark Bittman's recipe from How To Cook Everything. He made a persillade (parsley, garlic, cracked pepper, olive oil - can't remember the rest. Keep getting it mixed up with the mock porchetta stuffing from Zuni). Will post if you don't have book and are interested.
It was really delicious, but I got my rack of lamb from a much less revered butcher - COSTCO to be exact. Although the lamb was delicious, there was a HUGE amount of fat and I didn't take off enough so we had to cut it away after cooking.
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I actually think that the rack of lamb at Costco is a great deal - I just trim off some of the fat before cooking.
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oakjoan,
Thanks for the suggestion! I do have Bittman's book, so I'll check it out. I also saw a very cool lamb recipe on The F Word, where Ramsey made this brilliant green herb crust that just looked cool, so I may try that as well.
I love Costco meat. In fact, that's where I bought my 11 lb rib roast for the New Years Holiday meal. It was great, particularly after 72 hours of dry-aging in my fridge.
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A simple granita served in a champagne glass is an elegant and romantic dessert. You could do a coffee granita, or a citrus granita, or some sort of melon or berry granita.
OR, how about a small cheese palte for dessert?
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Congratulations on your forethought! Your wife is now the envy of all the female CH's!
For that romantic evening, remember to keep it simple. You don't want to be slaving in the kitchen while she is waiting at the table; nor do you want to face a kitchen full of dishes and pans at the end of the evening.
For the appetizer, enjoying the lobster as a first course with clarified butter (the seafood course) with a really nice Champagne would be lovely as well. Pure, simple, beautiful. Focus on presentation.
Berries for dessert is a fabulous suggestion, particulary if they are delivered with the hand that prepared the meal. No doubt they would be well received!
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For an appetizer, what about a steamed whole artichoke, or even braised artichokes w/ garlic and thyme?
these look good http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/rec...
For side dishes, I'd consider letting the lamb shine and doing something simple like a potato gratin alongside some sauteed mixed mushrooms or green beans.
For dessert, if you don't have a sweet tooth, why not do a special cheese plate sampling? Otherwise, I second the recs for berries or tarte tatin. I know you didn't ask specifically for sensual, but fondue fed by the chef can be good... I guess anything hand-fed is on-turning...
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So, as a final recap of the day, here's what ultimately happened with the menu, and some of my foibles:
First mistake: I waited too long to order what I needed from FreshDirect. I figured I would have time to order a day or two in advance, but the Valentine's Day crush, along with the bad weather (snowstorm) contributed to a backlog of orders and filled spots. Luckily, the local C-town had everything I needed on my list anyway.
Salad - Spring Mix with microgreens and a Blood Orange vinaigrette dressing. This was pretty much no fuss - bagged spring mix with a couple of microgreens I bought (spensive!) to make it look fancier. The dressing was 1 blood orange juiced, 1/4 cup of Balsamic, 1/2 cup of EVOO, TB of Honey, S&P. The citrusy brightness of the blood orange juice was a nice layer to the deeper balsamic flavor.
Appetizer - Butter Poached Scallops with Avocado and Mixed Greens. Here's my 2nd mistake - this was supposed to be "Butter poached Lobster", but when I went the day before to C-Town, the monger told me that "They'll die by tomorrow, come back tomorrow." Of course, when I went back the next day, they were all sold out. I had to compromise and use sea scallops. I used Ming's Butter poaching Technique: http://www.ming.com/simplyming/showrecipesSeason3/ButterPoachingTechnique.htm. The wife loved this, but I think it could have been better, particularly with lobster =(.
Main Meal - Herb-Crusted Rack of Lamb with Garlic Mashed Yukon Golds. I used the recipe from Gordon Ramsey's F Word because when I saw this on TV, I loved the bright green color the breadcrumb crust took on after the herbs were chopped with the breadcrumbs. Overall it turned out very well. http://www.bbcamerica.com/content/159...
Dessert - Chocolate covered strawberries and Champagne. Again, very easy by melting the 70% cacao chocolate in the microwave. To tell the truth, we were so filled up by everything else that we didn't make it to the dessert, but we had this a few days later....
The picture is of the main rack of lamb....
Overall, a very successful homemade Valentines! Thanks for all the suggestions!
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Thanks for the follow up. I'm impressed, even w/ your "foibles." The lamb looks perfectly done, and the microgreen garnish adds a romantic touch. Just curious--what red wine are you drinking w/ it?
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Thanks CL! The wine was a simple Australian Shiraz that the "wine guy" paired for my lamb for about 15 bucks - the wife's not a big drinker so the cheap stuff was ok by me.
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