Valentines Day Menu: Master Post

Happy Valentine's Day!

The last 3 days have been a little challenging.

Though I have put in a request to get out of work early I started preparing for this meal Tuesday night. I made the pink peppercorn butter Tuesday. That was super easy, and tasty.

Last night was.... less good. I made my vinaigrette no problem even though I made the recipe up without tasting it I knew approximately what the proportions needed to be and it turned out really great. I even forgot to add the lemon zest and it was fine. Then there was the mousse...

I always forget what a huge pain in the ass mousse is. Next year I think I'll make the penultimate valentines day dessert (strawberry shortcake), rather than the ultimate since it's such a huge headache. Anyway, basically what happened was this: my boyfriend had done the grocery shopping, and in spite of the fact that I told him I needed 6oz of chocolate he bought only 4oz. Simple mistake, especially given that Ghirardelli  bars look so huge, but are super thin. I was using a recipe from Bon Appetit, against my better judgement I might add, even though it looked different from my Mom's recipe I went with it. I didn't notice the chocolate issue until my egg-espresso-sugar mixture was already finished. I yelled a bunch of expletives and ran from the house. I went to the closest (and certainly not cheapest market), grabbed a bar of chocolate and ran back. Even now I could have been okay, if I wasn't so flustered that my mind wasn't working. Instead of doing the smart thing and warming the chocolate separately I did the stupid thing and re-warmed my egg mixture. Of course it broke, but I was still being an idiot so I thought "Maybe it will be okay, the chocolate isn't scorched..." Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. So I beat my egg whites, added about half. It still wasn't fluffy, but I was still being an idiot so I thought "Maybe it will be okay, maybe this recipe is just weird." Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. It WAS a weird recipe, but not THAT weird.

Needless to say, I ended up in my kitchen at 10:30 at night covered with some very strange lumpy chocolate whipped cream, which was actually delicious but not mousse, crying over all the ingredients and time I had wasted. I immediately called my mom and talked over the best way to re-make it. So I have to do that later today. Hopefully that will be the final issue for my Valentine's Day dinner.

Dinner went off without a hitch last night. Everything tasted good, the presentation was nice. I actually spent some time on table setting. We made the rest of the house dark and then shone a single track light onto our dinner table. Vivaldi was playing in the background. It was really nice to just sit and talk and eat. Rather than watching a movie or a show with dinner. Not that Chris and I don't talk and hang out all the time, but it was nice to not have the screen presence.

My goals for next Valentine's Day: 1) To have spent more time having dinner with Chris, rather than along side him. 2) To let my meat rest more often (see the main course post).

Links to the recipes below.

Sides
Main Course
Dessert

Valentine's Day Menu: Dessert

In case you weren't completely overwhelmed by rich, decadent food already...
For dessert one of the richest and in my mind one of the most quintessentially Valentine's Day deserts out there.

Post Dinner Update:
So if you've read the mater post and seen my original edit at the bottom of this page you know I actually made two chocolate mousses. My Mom's was perfect. Light, airy, awesome. You will notice some white spots in mine. I personally don't worry too much about getting my mousse PERFECTLY mixed, because you end up crushing a lot of the egg whites and it tends to deflate even if you are the gentlest of folders (which I am not). I also did not add the extra whip cream dollop on top, I don't really think it's necessary aside from presentation, and just fills in space that should be reserved for chocolate only.

Mom's Chocolate Mouse
Can be made 1 day ahead.
Ingredients
3/4 cup chilled heavy cream, divided
4 large egg yolks
1/4 cup espresso or strong coffee, room temperature
3 tablespoons sugar, divided
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
6 ounces semisweet chocolate (60-72% cacao), chopped
2 large egg whites

1. Beat 1/2 cup cream in medium bowl until stiff peaks form; cover and chill.
2. Dissolve sugar in coffee and heat over gently simmering water
3. Add chocolate and whisk till combined and hot through. Remove from heat
4. Add eggs one at a time whisking constantly. Let stand, whisking occasionally, until room temperature.
5. Using an electric mixer, beat egg white in another medium bowl on medium speed until foamy. 6. With mixer running, gradually beat in remaining 1 Tbsp. sugar. Increase speed to high and beat until firm peaks form.
7. Fold egg whites into chocolate in 2 additions

8. Fold whipped cream into mixture just to blend.
9. Divide mousse among six teacups or 4-oz. ramekins. Chill until firm, at least 2 hours. 

10. Cover and keep chilled. Let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes before serving.
11. Before serving, whisk remaining 1/4 cup cream in a small bowl until soft peaks form; dollop over mousse.

Master Post

Sides
Main Course

Edit: If you looked at the recipe last night, you may have noticed some changes I have made today. The reason for that is I had a mousse crisis last night. The Bon Appetit recipe is overly complicated and it's very easy to break your egg yolks if you do it that way. This way is much easier, I've done it before with my Mom and it will make you way less crazy. 

Valentine's Day Menu: Main Course

Man, am I excited about this steak. I start to salivate every time I think about it. Which ought to make this post pretty rough...

Post Dinner Update: 
Dear God. So good. The steak was perfect. On the rare side of medium rare (pink all through but not blue-purple anywhere). Chris and I have been broiling steaks recently, more I think to keep the house warm and because it's easy. After last night that is out the window. Pan-fry every time. It's much easier to get a nice sear on the outside and control the degree of done-ness. I am usually really impatient and don't let my steak rest. This is a mistake. It means a lot of the time it ends up over-cooked and not as tender and juicy as it should be. I think my New Years Resolution will be to let my steak rest!

The sauce was really good. I let it cook down a little bit more than this recipe recommend. I think next time for that amount of steak I might use 1/2-3/4 cup of wine rather than the full cup since there was a lot of liquid and took a lot more time than the recipe said to get it to halve. The flavor was great though and even though Chris is usually not fond of super wine-y sauces he really liked this one.

Pan-Seared Strip Steak with Red Wine Pan Sauce and Pink Peppercorn Butter
Recipe via Bon Appetit (February 2011)

Pink-peppercorn butter:
Can be made up to 3 days ahead
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon whole pink peppercorns
Coarse kosher salt

1. Combine first 4 ingredients in small bowl; mix with fork until peppercorns are slightly crushed.
2. Season with coarse salt and black pepper. 

3. Place small sheet of plastic wrap on work surface; place butter mixture atop plastic. Using plastic 4. wrap as aid, form butter mixture into 1 1⁄2-inch-diameter cylinder; wrap tightly and chill. 

5. Keep chilled. Bring to room temperature before using.

Steak and Pan Sauce:
1 10-ounce New York strip steak (about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inches thick)
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
Coarse kosher salt
1/4 cup thinly sliced shallot
1 cup dry red wine
1/2 cup low-salt beef broth or low-salt chicken broth

1. Rub steak with 1 teaspoon oil; sprinkle both sides with thyme, then coarse salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Let steak stand at room temperature 30 minutes.
2. Heat medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add steak; cook to desired doneness, 3 to 4 minutes per side for medium-rare. 

3. Transfer steak to plate; tent with foil. 

4. Add 1 teaspoon oil to skillet; add shallot and sauté until slightly softened, scraping up browned bits.

5. Add wine; boil until liquid is reduced by half, stirring often, about 1 minute. 

6. Add broth; boil until sauce is thickened, about 2 minutes. 

7. Whisk in 3 tablespoons pink-peppercorn butter. 

8. Season sauce with coarse salt and pepper.
9. Cut steak against grain into 1/3-inch- thick slices. Divide between plates. Top with sauce

Master Post
Side Dishes

Dessert

Valentine's Day Menu:Sides

I am going to do things a little bit differently this week. I'm going to post the recipes I'm using for Valentine's Day Dinner today, that way if anybody wants to use them they can get their shopping and possibly some of the prep work done ahead, then I'll either post or just update the post with pictures (as long as I don't forget!) Friday. There will be a separate post for most items otherwise it would be stupid long, although I'm going to combine the two side dishes in this post, then just so that if people want to find them later on I'll do a master post with links to the individual items.

Salad with Pink Peppercorns, Lemon and Thyme Vinaigrette:
Can be made 1 day ahead
1/2-1 Tsp pink peppercorn Lightly crushed (you can do this with a fork, bottle, rolling pin etc.)
1/2-3/4 Tsp Lemon Zest
1/2-1 Lemon Juiced
1/2 tsp minced thyme
1/2 tsp minced shallots
1/2 tsp honey
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1/8-1/4 tsp anchovy paste
1/3-1/2 cup good olive oil
Sea Salt and pepper to taste (I'm going to use gray fleur de sel for extra oomph, but any will do)

1. Whisk everything but salt and pepper together and then season to taste. You may not need the additional pepper.

You can obviously customize this based on whatever you want to put in the salad, croutons, cucumber, tomato etc. We're a little light on salad fixings this week, so for me it's probably just going to be red leaf lettuce, which is fine since it's not even the sub-sub-focal point of this meal.

Mashed Potatoes and Cauliflower with Caramelized Shallots
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter**, divided
2 cups sliced shallots
3/4 cup whole milk
1 pounds large Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled, quartered

1 medium-large cauliflower*

1. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in heavy medium skillet over medium heat.

2. Add sliced shallots and cook until tender and brown, stirring often (20 minutes). 

3. Transfer shallots to small bowl. Add milk to skillet. Set aside.
4. lace quartered potatoes in large saucepan. Add enough cold water to pan to cover potatoes by 1 1/2 inches. Bring to boil, reduce heat to medium, and simmer until potatoes are tender (15 minutes). Drain. 

5. Return potatoes to pan and stir over medium heat until dry, about 1 minute. 

6. Add remaining 4 tablespoons butter**. 

7. Bring milk in skillet to simmer, scraping up any browned bits. 

8. Blend cauliflower and hot milk till smooth.

7. Add cauliflower puree to potatoes. Mash potatoes. 

8. Stir in caramelized shallots and season to taste with salt and pepper.

* Instead of using cauliflower you can just double the potatoes.
**Instead of using 4 Tbsp of butter I used the remaining Pink Peppercorn Butter from the steak recipe + 1 tbsp regular butter.


Post-Dinner Update:
Both of these items turned out really nicely. The vinaigrette was really bright and light as a nice counterpoint to the richness of the other dishes. Next time I make it I might add a little more honey than I did, the lemon and shallots made it really acidic and I think a little honey might ease that bite. Overall though it was really nice. As for the potatoes, I didn't have as much shallots as the recipe called for, but that wasn't really a problem since I was also using the pink peppercorn butter which added a lot of good flavor. If you are making this without the butter I would definitely make sure you have the full amount of shallots. I have a ton left over, which is going to be a pain, since Chris is on a diet that only allows simple carbs once a week...

Master Post

Main Course
Dessert

Italian Sausage and Cannellini Bean Stew

I love one pot meals. They make my life so much easier. Since I work until 7pm I like meals I can make relatively quickly and that are going to have as few dishes as possible. Its a wonderful thing when I can get out of the kitchen with one pan, a cutting board and a knife as my only prep dishes. This is a super easy and tasty meal, it is also pretty healthy all things considered.

You can substitute different sausage if you like, but I would recommend something with a little kick and a lot of flavor like Spicy Italian or Chorizo otherwise I think this dish could come off a little bland.

Sorry no pictures of this one! I was in a time crunch.

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 lb fresh Spicy Italian Sausage/Chorizo
1 larg eonion
4 garlic cloves minced
1 sprig thyme
2 15 oz Cannellini beans (white kidney beans), rinsed
2 cups low sodium chicken broth
Kosher salt, freshly ground peper
5-6oz baby spinach
Paprika (smoked is preferable)

Directions:
Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a large skillet ove rmedium heat. Add sausage and cook, till sausage is mostly cooked through and casing is browned (15-20 minutes). Transfer to plate.
In same pan, add onion, garlic, and thyme sprig. Cook until onion is softened (5-8 minutes).**
Add beans and broth, cook and crush a few beans with spoon to thicken sauce (8-10 minutes).
Season with salt and pepper
Add spinach by handfuls and cook till wilted
Add sausage
Sprinkle with additional  olive oi and sprinkle with paprika if desired

Calories 570, Fat 33g, Fiber 11g, (I recalculated with Sparkrecipes and it said 466 calories, it just depends on the sausage I think...)

This recipe was originally featured in February 2013's Bon Appetit

**If you feel comfortable multitasking you can start the onions etc. sauteing as the sausages finish, this will cut down on your cooking time.