Some people love this time of year – love the flowers, love the fluffiness and love the various shades of fuchsia – while others despise it, complaining that it’s just another Hallmark holiday. But like it or not, Valentine’s Day is happening. So take the opportunity to impress your Valentine: skip the overpriced, crowded restaurant and, instead, cook up a romantic feast. Here are some of our favourite Valentine’s Day recipes…
Start your evening with a bit of spice with Madhur Jaffrey’s delicious Madras Curry Soup. Usually when you think of aphrodisiacs, the foods which spring to mind are oysters and chocolate. But it turns out curry can be spicy in more ways than one: according to a league table of the sexiest meals compiled by Just Eat, curry contains many of the ingredients that are classed as powerful aphrodisiacs including the onion and cream in this soup. It’s also lovely and warming, making it perfect for the freezing temperatures we’ve been experiencing recently. (Who says sexy can’t be practical?!)
Then do your main course in style with this luxurious Grilled Cod on Pommes Sarladaises with Truffle recipe. Fresh cod and potatoes is always a winner, but adding truffle oil into the mix completely knocks this combo into the stratosphere. And to top it all off it’s really simple to make, so you don’t have to be Rick Stein in the kitchen to earn some serious brownie points.
And for the pièce de résistance you can’t go wrong with Gizzi Erskine’s Butter Caramel and Honeycomb Ice Cream. Valentine’s Day is all about showing your sweet some extra sweetness, and my god it doesn’t get sweeter than this! Rich and creamy with Crunchie bars and Maltesers thrown in for good measure, it really is sinfully delicious!
What are you going to cook to seduce your Valentine’s taste buds?
It’s Valentine’s Day – time to conjure up some home made magic for your loved ones!
It just so happens that we have a few suggestions for all different tastebuds; be it a carnivorous character, some sea-side evocations, or perhaps you have a herbivore to impress, we have selected some of our favourite recipes for cooking up a bit of romance…
For a Carnivore’s treat:
When it comes to meat lovers, you can’t really go wrong with a good steak. Ainsley Harriot’s Seared Sirloin Steak with Blue Cheese Butter and Shoestring Fries may just be the thing to your Valentine’s heart. For something slightly more Italian, Antonio Carluccio’s Bolognese Sauce is a recipe that would make Lady and the Tramp jump from the TV screen… For those who are feeling slightly adventurous, Antonio has a fabulous recipe for Fresh Egg Pasta to complete the magic.
For Fish lovers:
Well-known for being an aphrodisiac, a seafood lover’s Valentine’s Day wouldn’t be right without oysters. Try Rick Stein’s Warm Oysters with Champagne Sabayon for something extra special…
For more ambitious chefs; how about Antonio Carluccio’s Open Raviolo with Fish? A medley of mussels, scallops, salmon and monkfish, it’s guaranteed to tantalise! If you are after something a bit less complicated (but just as delicious!) Rick Stein has a wonderfully fresh and slightly more colourful recipe for Hake with Clams, Asparagus, Peas and Parsley.
For a Vegetarian palate:
The Severshed’s Bazargan from Sophie Grigson hosts an array of the most fabulous and healthy ingredients. With all of the colours and spices going on in this dish, it looks much more complicated than it is, so it really is an all-round success!
With such a mouthwatering selection, perhaps a romantic week is in order? What will you be cooking tonight?
Happy Valentine’s Day!
A dish to enjoy on a day when you are really hungry. If
you do not have lentils, you can use beans or chickpeas as a substitute.
200g (7oz) green
lentils
400g (14oz) salamini
(a type of luganiga –
Italian sausage)
1 bay leaf
2.25 litres (4 pints)
chicken stock or a
bouillon cube
1 small onion
2 carrots
2 sticks celery
5 tbsp extra-virgin
olive oil
200g (7oz) potatoes,
peeled and cut into
5mm (¼in) dice
2 ripe tomatoes,
chopped, or 2 tbsp
passata or chopped
tomatoes
320g (11½oz) risotto
rice (carnaroli, vialone
nano or arborio)
salt and freshly ground
black pepper
Step One
Simmer the lentils, salamini and bay leaf in the stock
for 15 minutes, covered.
Step Two
Finely chop the onion, then peel the carrots and cut
them along with the celery into 5mm (¼in) dice. Fry the onion
gently in the oil until soft,but without colouring.Add the potatoes,
celery, carrots and tomatoes and fry gently for 2 minutes. Add
the risotto rice and stir to coat each grain. Stir in 1 ladleful of
broth, lentils and sausages to the rice at a time, and continue to
stir, allowing each ladleful to be absorbed into the rice grains
before more is added. Continue until all is incorporated, when
the rice should be creamy, but still retain some bite. Check the
seasoning and serve.
New reports show that we are tucking into more pork goods than any other meat, due the price of beef, lamb and poultry rising. With so many different options on offer, we wanted to give you some great ideas for this low cost and delicious meat…
Gizzi Erskine has a fresh take on a ham joint with her recipe for Spiced Mango Roasted Ham. This is a fantastic addition to a Ploughman’s lunch, a lip-smacking addition to a work sandwich and a very tasty way to add a bit of fruitiness to a meaty brunch.
Madhur Jaffrey has a delicious and easy recipe for Pork Madras; the fact that it is a one-pot dish makes it even more appealing for weeknights.
Ken Hom’s Dim Sum Style Pork Dumplings are brilliant for dinner parties and bite-sized portions. Ken also has an amazing recipe for Red Pork Curry (Gaeng Phed Moo). It is a quick and easy Thai curry, excellent for midweek meals and entertaining friends.
A superb recipe for entertaining with minimal fuss is Raymond Blanc’s Pot-au-veu of Braised Pork Belly. Pot-au-feu is a French peasant dish, in which the meat, vegetables and broth are all cooked together in one pot, making it a very stress-free way to impress the guests!
Do you have any favourites that you would like to share with us? Perhaps bangers and mash is the only way to go? Have you had a go at one of these recipes? Get in touch and let us know.
According to new reports released by the British Retail Consortium, thousands of tonnes of fruit and vegetables are thrown away annually for being the wrong shape or size.
With this in mind, we thought that we would suggest a few fantastic recipes to use up the ugly vegetables that you may have lying around and turn them into something quite stunning!
Rosemary Conley’s Moussaka is a fantastic way to use up any bruised, battered, or slightly unattractive tomatoes and aubergines, transforming them into a healthy and hearty treat for all.
Gizzi Erskine has a fantastic recipe for Jamaican Brown Chicken Stew. Great for using bumpy butternut squashes, peculiar potatoes, ogre-some onions and perishing peppers.
Ken Hom’s Buddhist Casserole is a clean and fresh way of using seasonal cabbage and broccoli, whilst combining them with those courgettes and peppers that may have a nail scratch or a tiny blemish, easily overshadowed when blended together in this heavenly recipe.
The Maestro of Italian cooking, Antonio Carluccio, has a mouth-watering recipe for Vegetarian Lasagne. Do you throw away spinach when it looks a bit soggy, or the bags that are reduced in the supermarket? Use it! Those leaves will be brilliant in this.
With baking royalty in our midst, Mary Berry has a wonderful Courgette Loaf recipe, great for using up your scuffed up courgettes, or any that have been half-used. Sliced and served hot or cold with a bit of butter, cream cheese, or on its own; this is great for both tea time treats or some home made lunch at work, fantastic.
Do you have any ugly vegetable recipes? Perhaps you have some photos of particularly odd-shaped vegetables? Let us know; we would love to hear from you!
Rick Stein’s recipe for Apple tarts with a cheese pastry cream is guaranteed to earn brownie points this Valentine’s Day. The soft cream pastry is truly special, a lovely finishing touch for a home made meal in with a loved one, and a great one to make together as well!
For a slightly more refined evening, Raymond Blanc’s Vanilla Crème Brûlée is a recipe for pure, unadulterated love… With a juicy strawberry to garnish, this really is the epitome of elegant romance!
If you are spending the evening with more than one of your nearest and dearest, Gizzi’s Lemon and Passion Fruit Self-saucing Pudding is great way to spread some love at a dinner party… The citrus punch of this is a fantastic alternative to what can be an overload of chocolate this time of year. While the passion fruit is known for being an aphrodisiac, in Brazil it is also used as a mild sedative, so perhaps don’t have too much!
For those who want something sweet without any chocolate or citrus involved, how about topping off a romantic meal with Ainsley Harriot’s incredible Jamaican Sticky Toffee Pudding? With a kick of ginger, it is most certainly a pièce de résistance!
What are your favourite romantic treats for loved ones? Perhaps you have a story about one of these recipes? Why not share it with us?
