An OS Valentine's meal?

Bramleyapple

We had home-made chicken fried rice followed by some yummy solid chocolate hearts - not so very exciting but we enjoyed it!:smileyhea

TiaBaby

Bought a pack of 10 chicken thighs and drums marked down to £1.35 in my local c* *p so did piri piri chicken with pilau rice and made choccy brownies for dessert.

I did stretch to buying OH a card but he knows better than to buy gifts!! Oh the romance :rotfl:

thegirlintheattic

We had a roasted pork joint and all the trimmings and will be heading out for a posh meal Friday.

daisiegg

Desperately looking for inspiration and ideas from all you excellent cooks out there

We never go out for Valentine's Day as we find it's always disappointing and the set menus are a nightmare for my allergies.

Last year I cooked a lovely, super fancy meal and spent a fortune on it - hm bread and olives, then truffle risotto, then Kobe beef steaks (v expensive!), hm chocolate mousse for dessert and hm macaroons with coffee... It was gorgeous and perfect but I am struggling for ideas to live up to it this year!

I think the problem is I cook from scratch most days, often make nice fancy meals at the weekend so I don't know how to make this Valentine's meal really special this year.

So what would you make? If you didn't have to worry too much about money (though I won't be buying Kobe beef this year!) and had lots of time as well, and just wanted to make a really, really special meal.

Any thoughts? Recipes? Thank you!

pigpen

My OH would want a takeaway. We rarely have them and when we do it is a 'treat'

I think I would probably do OH lamb or duck, which I cannot abide and won't eat (I'd have something boring) Or how about fish? salmon or suchlike??

Dessert has to be HM cheesecake.. shortbread base, layer of caramel, vanilla topping with chopped pieces of fudge.. to DIE for..

msb5262

Hi OP,

If you are fond of red meat, Delia Smith has a fantastic recipe for braised steak au poivre and another for beef strogonoff made with braising steak. They are both really delicious and easy (and of course cheaper than any other kind of steak), and you have the added advantage that timing is not so fine tuned as they are both cooked long and slow.

HTH
MsB

[Deleted User]

If cash was no object I would make

Steamed Asparagus with butter and black pepper

Pan fried Salmon with Buttered New Potatoes and Petit Pois and Homemade Cream Sauce

Fresh Raspberries and Cream

Brie,Mature Cheddar and Oatcakes with celery and black grapes

Nice Coffee

However, that is what I would like, not necessarily what I can afford, Cheers Lyn .

pesky85

Depends what your allergies are?

But perhaps something like a Beef Wellington would be good, or slow cooked lamb shanks with celeriac mash.

Chocolate fondants for dessert.

LameWolf

I can't advise on the type of meat, as I'm vegetarian, but I'd do something that can take a wine sauce of some sort (Mr LW loves my HM white wine sauce). Maybe work out a way of cutting the veggies into heart shapes or something (freezing the offcuts to bung in soup later);)

For dessert, it'd definitely have to be my HM choc mousse, which is made with fresh rosemary from the garden, and I'd decorate it in some way, which I don't do if we're having it normally - maybe use little bits of fruit on top, and maybe a tiny sprig of rosemary - gosh, I'll have to look at actually doing this for Valentines Day, if I can persuade Mr LW to eat at home that day (he likes to go out).

I think decorating the dinner table would be nice, too - not sure what nice things you'd find in the wild at this time of year to make table decorations, but perhaps red candles would be a start.

Good luck!:beer:

daisiegg

pesky85 wrote: »

Depends what your allergies are?

But perhaps something like a Beef Wellington would be good, or slow cooked lamb shanks with celeriac mash.

Chocolate fondants for dessert.

I am allergic to eggs, dairy and nuts but I didn't mention that as I can adapt most things - apart from perhaps cheese souffle and poached eggs! :rotfl:

I make fantastic chocolate fondants but they are something I'll whip up fairly regularly for a quick dessert if we need a chocolate fix so I will try and think of something more 'special' (to us) for this meal.

I'm liking the lamb ideas as it's not my favourite thing so I hardly ever cook it, but he likes it a lot.

Thanks for all the ideas - lots to think about