I have dough for bread rising now (thanks Cathy2 for the gluten flour you gave me ages ago, since I only had AP flour in the house) I'm grilling salmon, just with salt and pepper. Also probably doing a wild rice/fancy brown rice pilaf, sauteed green beans, salad with mandarin oranges, tomato, and green pea pods. DH has said he doesn't really need a dessert (I was going to do one of those melted inside cake recipes) or he'll just eat a lemon-ginger cookie if he needs a sweet. We're drinking Tarlant Brut Rosé champagne.

Cathy-
I tend to keep it simple...toasted pepperidge farm ultrathin white bread, creme fraiche, and lemon. If we get ambitious for round 2 we may make blinis. Along the line of Mrs. Onassis, I have done new potatoes with creme fraiche, but I am usually too lazy to use anything other than the toaster. Sometimes we put some leftover caviar on buttery scrambled eggs for breakfast.
Kelleyskatch is by far the least expensive source that I have found for american caviar for the last couple of years, and it has always been very good. They catch the paddlefish and prepare the caviar themselves down in Tennessee.

-Will

What did I cook for Valentine's Day? Well, I started with a run to (a very busy) Dirk's this morning for a lovely red snapper. Myles immediately wanted to hold it and recreate a classic LTHForum photo here:



The preparation was atop some blanched fennel with lemon, thyme and olives (this, like most of the following, was from The Balthazar Cookbook):



I liked some golden beets I saw at Whole Foods and eventually found a blog post which gave me an idea of what to do with them: roast them, blanch the greens, sprinkle with oil and balsamic vinegar, and top with a bread-crumb-rolled slice of hot goat cheese:



The fish was served with some pan-roasted carrots, parsnips and celery root, fried in goose lard:



And we concluded with two desserts: the chocolate pot-de-creme from The Balthazar Cookbook, and Nigella Lawson's flourless (it uses ground almonds) clementine cake. A very satisfying version of the classic orange-chocolate combo; Myles' comment on it was "I am at one with the universe."



Afterwards I was pleased to learn that my restaurant, Dad's Diner, had won this major food award. The dogs in the picture (one of whom is a dog we actually have; not sure where that gray one came from) seem very excited about it too.



Happy Valentine's Day!

Mike G wrote:And we concluded with two desserts: the chocolate pot-de-creme from The Balthazar Cookbook

Dare I say that this is becoming your signature dessert?

Mike G wrote:And we concluded with two desserts: the chocolate pot-de-creme from The Balthazar Cookbook

eatchicago wrote:Dare I say that this is becoming your signature dessert?

I thought the same thing when I read pot-de-creme from Balthazar. I've tasted Mike's, and made it myself, it's not a bad signature to have.

Well, it certainly gets made at least once a year, maybe twice (Valentine's and birthday?), at least if I know what's good for me it does, and the fact that I make it so often is partly why I wanted to make the clementine cake to go with it; though actually if I do have a most frequent dessert it'd probably be one I may never have posted about-- make a sweet pastry crust (I do the one from the old Joel Robuchon-Patricia Wells book) and part-bake it, spread apricot jam on the bottom, arrange apple slices in circles (the jam helps hold them), make a simple custard and pour it over it till it only covers it about halfway, and bake it till it sets.



I make this to take places (like a recent event at the kids' school) and always get serious brownie points for the apples being arranged so prettily, which really, is incredible easy. It's a nice dessert, not too sweet, but the combination of apricot, apple and a vanilla-scented custard is just complex enough to impress. It's from French Farmhouse Cookbook by Susan Herrman Loomis-- not that any capable baker couldn't fake a perfectly good version from the description above.

eatchicago wrote:

Mike G wrote:And we concluded with two desserts: the chocolate pot-de-creme from The Balthazar Cookbook

Dare I say that this is becoming your signature dessert?

Balthazar is getting quite a workout this weekend. I made braised shortribs with a riff on the ricipe from that very same cookbook. I, too, have made the pot de creme on several occasions, just not this time.

I did Azerbaijani lamb chops in a pomegranate, garlic, mint, and black pepper marinade, with a quickly improvised saffron and onion Basmati rice pilaf and steamed teeny asparagus. I usually do the lamb as kebabs with cubed leg, rather than chops (I decided to splrge a bit), and they were fabulous. No dessert - I was going to run to Trader Joe's to pick up dessert ingredients while the lamb was marinating, but I fell asleep instead.

The marinade is from Anya von Bremzen's Please to the Table (a sort of former Soviet cookbook), and wow, those Azerbaijanis sure know what to do with a lamb. It's simple and a real crowd-pleaser, though it's fine to marinate for more than the 4 - 12 hours the book recommends; once I marinated the lamb for 2 days, and then grilled it, and it just about blew my mind.

Last night's dinner for us was breaded veal cutlet from Paulina (lovely veal, but I need to work on this dish), roasted fingerling potatoes, and a mélange of peas, fennel and mushrooms (tip of the hat to Chef Pépin).

I overcooked the potatoes and mishandled the veal breading, but cookie was happy anyway. The professionally-made dessert made up for my kitchen bungles.

Best,
Michael

Last night I made leg of lamb with homemade mint jelly, risotto, and jerusalem salad. I think the biggest part of the leg ended up being still a little too rare on the inside but overall it turned out really nicely. I didn't do anything too revolutionary with the lamb, just lemon/garlic/herbs, but I was pretty happy with how it turned out. The salad was beautiful and I was also really pleased with the risotto. First time making any of these dishes so I managed to impress both the wife and myself.

My plate (not professionally plated or photographed by any means):



She made foul madammas for an appetizer and tiramisu for after and both of those were delicious as well.
Tiramisu:



I wish the pictures had turned out better. The dinner was delicious beyond the ability of my meager photographic skills to show.

The only problem is all the leftovers, if you can consider that a "problem"

We made leg of lamb (a beautiful leg from Colorado purchased at Paulina Market) and buttermilk mashed potatoes, both from the Zuni Cafe cookbook. Zuni has become my go-to source for instructions on prepping and cooking meat. Per Zuni instructions, we salted this three days prior to cooking. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the nice, rare center. We enjoyed the leftovers on sandwiches spread with Aioli and Muhammara (Middle-eastern red pepper/walnut spread)




For dessert, we tried the chocolate souffle recipe from Bittman's NY times column earlier in the week (I overcooked these a little but they were still good).

At the last minute, we ended up having a Bittman Valentine. He made steak diane for two and added cremini mushrooms. I made roasted potatoes, roasted asparagus and chocolate molten cake. The steak and cake recipes were posted on the Bitten blog last week. Simple dinner, but delicious.

switched up the menu slightly but all turned out excellent.

I did grill out a 38 oz. T-bone(pictures of this impressive slab of meat on the Random Pictures thread). It came out a little overooked - medium rare vs the rare I was shooting for. But it was great.

I made 1000 Island Dressing, and had a green salad as desrcibed minus the red onion. I used organic carrots, and romaine as they were priced competitively with their non organic version. The salad also had cucumber, avocado, and radish.

I decided to make twice baked potatoes, and they were very good.

The beer battered shrimp were excellent, a lite beer batter, and the butterflied shrimp were a success.

We also had some peas, and a desert my wife made that I was too full to eat since I ate most of the steak solo.

Our V-Day supper is turning into a President's Day supper, will report tomorrow. Kidneys defrosting as I speak.

jimswside wrote:We also had some peas, and a desert my wife made that I was too full to eat since I ate most of the steak solo.

What dessert did she make?

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:
What dessert did she make?

Regards,

something called a banana crumble, looked pretty good.

I overcooked the salmon a little (the grill fire was hotter than I thought, or the salmon was thinner - something) but otherwise it was a nice dinner. The bread I made, however, ptui. It was no better than what I could have gotten at the Jewel. Back to the drawing board.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

Valentines Day right around the corner... whats on the menu?

Me, undecided, but pretty sure V-Day dinner will be held on Saturday vs Sunday night(I want to enjoy the meal without thoughts of going to work the next day hanging over me).

Leaning towards a surf and turf of some sort. Planning on getting a 10# case of snow crab @ RD tomorrow, and see what kind of beef I may like the looks of. Most likely going to wheel the Weber kettle out of the garage, and grill whatever is decided upon.

Sides will be TBD based on time, and what looks good @ the store tomorrow afternoon.

I'm finally getting around to making Cathy2's grape pie.

I have spent most of the prep time this week pulling together the ingredients for the Veloute of Bittersweet Chocolate with Cinnamon Stick Ice Cream in The French Laundry Cookbook. First I made the veloutes, which are sort of somewhere between a meringue and a mousse; you freeze them and bake them at serving time. They bake on top of a kind of cinnamon butter cookie, which I made last night and which are very good (the scraps-- you bake them part way, then cut rounds out and bake them some more-- were gobbled happily by the kids last night). That sits on cinnamon ice cream, which I made a couple of days ago, and it all rests in a pool of homemade chocolate sauce, which I just made while listening to Hammond's octopus-love radio piece. It will all come together in about 15 minutes on V-Day night.

Main course? I dunno. I have some short ribs on order from a meat guy at the Logan Square Farmer's Market; I'm thinking I may make this an all-Thomas Keller meal and contribute to the Ad Hoc thread as well.

Mike G wrote:Seems like a good moment to start a Valentine's Day dinner thread. Or at least to start it with dessert:

Speaking of which, can anyone recommend any items that would be good for two people to cook together? The idea here is something that is fun to collaborate on with any romantic touches being an extra great touch.

(Yeah, I should have thought of this a while ago)

JohnnyConatus wrote: Speaking of which, can anyone recommend any items that would be good for two people to cook together? The idea here is something that is fun to collaborate on with any romantic touches being an extra great touch.

(Yeah, I should have thought of this a while ago)

I am jealous of your two-person kitchen. Just a thought - any dish that requires prep work is easily divided: for instance, one of you could be sous-chef, the other saute station for a sauteed pasta primavera. You could prep and saute vegetables in the order in which they cook, so that you're both busy at the same time.

Not a specific recipe, just an untested idea.

Mike G wrote:I have spent most of the prep time this week pulling together the ingredients for the Veloute of Bittersweet Chocolate with Cinnamon Stick Ice Cream in The French Laundry Cookbook. First I made the veloutes, which are sort of somewhere between a meringue and a mousse; you freeze them and bake them at serving time. They bake on top of a kind of cinnamon butter cookie, which I made last night and which are very good (the scraps-- you bake them part way, then cut rounds out and bake them some more-- were gobbled happily by the kids last night). That sits on cinnamon ice cream, which I made a couple of days ago, and it all rests in a pool of homemade chocolate sauce, which I just made while listening to Hammond's octopus-love radio piece. It will all come together in about 15 minutes on V-Day night.

Main course? I dunno. I have some short ribs on order from a meat guy at the Logan Square Farmer's Market; I'm thinking I may make this an all-Thomas Keller meal and contribute to the Ad Hoc thread as well.

Ha! Oddly, that was the only recipe I actually tried from My FL cookbook after I got if as a gift a few years ago. I don't remember all those steps for the veloutes though. I probably didn't make them right. The cinnamon ice cream came out well.

Mike G wrote:Afterwards I was pleased to learn that my restaurant, Dad's Diner, had won this major food award. The dogs in the picture (one of whom is a dog we actually have; not sure where that gray one came from) seem very excited about it too.



Happy Valentine's Day!

Dude that is golden! Good kids....taking care of dad!!
Wife is cooking up some shrimp tonite for us.
Enjoy all.

got my stash, 10 lbs. of snow crab legs(maybe will do 4 lbs.), a NY strip, a green salad, and some rice.

of course beer and bourbon.

Just made Mexican Chocolate Pots de Creme -- they're chilling. I've got a pound of shrimp and a bunch of baby spinach. I'll come up with something for the main course!

We had the Cook's Illustrated strawberry shortcake for dessert last night. I couldn't imagine a better tasting biscuit/cake for this dish.

Why oh why didn't I take pix?

Prosciutto with melon

Lobster tail for Lovely Dining Companion with butter and chili garlic sauce brought back from Puerto Vallarta
Shrimp marinated in above chili garlic sauce for me
Arroz a la Mexican con Verdura (from Sr. Bayless's Authentic Mexican)
Ratatouille (from Antoine Bouterin's Cooking Provence)

Dessert: homemade cupcakes (adapted from Shirley Corriher's BakeWise with the single best cream cheese frosting recipe I've ever tasted)

Too bad there isn't a smiley for sheer bliss...

Simple, but oh-so-good. Steamed Dungeness Crab from H-Mart, dipped in a blend of butter and the crab fat. On the side, a lemony stir-fry of Chinese Okra (really, more like zucchini), and King (Pleurotus eryngii) mushrooms. Sorry, no pix, but everyone knows what a Dungeness Crab looks like.