A Romanatic Valentine’s Day Salad

I am convinced that making a great salad is within everyone’s grasp. The secret is in knowing how to make a great, basic vinaigrette and then in dressing it up in any number of ways so it complements your salad ingredients. A salad should be a refreshing and healthful combination of flavors and textures: a mixture of tender and crisp greens, the interplay of sweet against salty against bitter. Start thinking of salad composition in terms of these contrasts, and you will be able to put together a great version for your Valentine.

A Romantic Valentine’s Day Meal For Her

Be sure to check out my previous post on putting together a romantic home cooked meal for your sweetheart and look for upcoming blog posts for more ideas and recipes. So far I have talked about:

Romantic Valentine’s Day Meal Suggestions

Romantic Cheese Course

Lobster Bisque Recipe

and I put it all together with music and flower suggestions, along with cooking videos and polls on my new Squidoo Lens, A Romantic Valentine’s Day Dinner. Please check it out, give it a rating and send me your comments at the end.

How to Make a Vinaigrette

First things first: the vinaigrette. The general rule of thumb for making a vinaigrette is one part vinegar or other acidic ingredient, such as citrus juice to three to four parts of oil. For example, a basic vinaigrette need contain nothing more than ¼ cup vinegar and ¾ to 1 cup of oil.

Generally speaking, the oil and vinegar are forced into an emulsion by vigorous whisking. A spoonful of mustard contains emulsifiers that make that easier. So now, the basic formula for 1 cup of vinaigrette becomes:

¼ cup vinegar
1 tablespoon mustard
¾ - 1 cup oil

The salad I have in mind for our Valentine’s Day dinner includes the now-classic combination of roasted pears, toasted walnuts and creamy goat cheese, so I want to make sure that I make some additions to the vinaigrette that will complement these ingredients.

Vinaigrette for Pear, Walnut and Goat Cheese Salad

Optional ingredients are in italics

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (you may use ¼ cup of either, or a mixture of both vinegars, depending on what you have in your pantry)
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard (smooth or whole grain—the texture is up to you)
2 tsp honey
Pinch of kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon minced shallot
¼ teaspoon Herbs de Provence
½ roasted pear, pureed in a food processor or just mashed very well with a fork
3/4 - 1 cup extra virgin olive oil (if you do not like the flavor of olive oil, you can use a more neutral vegetable oil, such as canola)

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A Simple Lobster Bisque for Valentine’s Day

Ok guys, how’s this for a great fish course? Lobster Bisque. A bisque is a cream soup that uses the shells of crustaceans (shellfish like shrimp & lobster) and is often pureed. What’s not to love? Sweet, succulent lobster, creamy base, and easy, too (but you don’t have to tell her that).

There are recipes out there that call for setting things on fire (flambé), chopping up whole lobsters, and that have ingredient lists as long as your arm. That’s all well and good, but what we’re aiming for here is maximum impact with a minimum of frazzled nerves, so you can both enjoy your romantic Valentine’s Day dinner and not smell like you just crawled out of the sea.

If you really want to see how easy it is to make lobster bisque, check out my friend Chef Todd Mohr’s video on Shrimp Bisque. It gives you a great understanding of what a bisque is and how easy it is to prepare one at home plus Chef Todd is very entertaining. The video is on my A Romantic Valentine’s Day Dinner Squidoo where you will find a lot more fun and informative information, polls and resources for your own Valentine’s Day meal.

Easy but Elegant Lobster Bisque

Ingredients

1 - 2 cups cooked lobster meat (you can now find lobster meat frozen or canned in most supermarkets, otherwise buy one and cook it yourself)
½ cup dry sherry or dry white wine
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
½ cup onion, diced
¼ cup celery, diced
¼ cup carrot, diced
Salt and white pepper, to taste
½ teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning, or to taste
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cups whole milk
1 cup half and half
1 cup chicken stock (if you have lobster stock, use that instead)

How to Make Lobster Bisque at Home

Combine the lobster meat with the sherry. Cover and refrigerate.

In a hot pan over medium heat, melt the butter. Once it stops sputtering, add the onion, celery, carrot, salt and pepper and Old Bay. Stir and let cook until the vegetables are translucent and are getting soft.

Add the tomato paste and cook for another couple of minutes.

Add the flour and cook for two to three minutes, stirring all the time.

While whisking, add the cold milk, half and half and stock and bring to a boil. Let boil for about 1 minute, still whisking constantly. Turn the heat down and let simmer until slightly reduced.

Now, you have two options.

Option 1: using an immersion blender, blend the soup until smooth.

Option 2: Strain the soup through a fine mesh strainer, pressing down on the solids.

Taste, and add more salt, pepper or Old Bay, if you think it needs it. Add the reserved lobster and sherry to the pot and simmer for just a couple of minutes, so the lobster is heated through.

Serve with crusty bread and maybe a little sour cream on the top. If you want to be really fancy, sprinkle on a little chopped tarragon as garnish.

Alternative Direction

If you don’t want to make your own lobster bisque, you can look for a quality commercial brand at your local supermarket or gourmet store. Many of them now have there own signature label and are making some decent soups. I buy fresh soup from Genuardi’s supermarket once in a while and it is good but not as good if you make it yourself.

You can also buy find some good lobster bisque online. These are commercial companies that sell lobsters but also sell bisques and chowders. Of course they do, what are they suppose to do with all those shell? You will end up paying a lot in shipping and because lobster bisque is really easy to make at home, I encourage you to give the recipe above a try.

LobsterGram.com - sells whole lobsters as well as their own lobster bisque

Gortonsfreshseafood.com- another good choice for buying seafood online

Linton’s Seafood

Another alternative is homemade but with the help of a commercial product. There is a good lobster stock reduction called Glace de Fruits de Mer that you can read about at GatewayGourmet.com - lobster stock. They have a recipe for Lobster Bisque using this Glace de Fruits de Mer that is sort of homemade but not entirely.

Serving Instructions

There’s going to be a lot of food served on this special night and lobster bisque is rich and creamy so go easy. A small cup should be plenty. Think of it as a tasting menu. A lot of small servings. Go the extra mile and buy some fresh chives to chop up and use as a garnish. Home cooks just don’t use enough garnish with their cooking. It is simple enough to do but really improves the presentation. I might suggest a dollop of creme fraiche, but this soup should be rich enough.

Next, we’ll look at salads. Don’t forget to check out my Squidoo lens called A Romantic Valentine’s Day Dinner. It’s full of interesting information about Valentine’s Day and pulls all these blog posts together with additional recipes, videos, movie suggestions and a lot more.

Image from Linton’s Seafood

Romantic Cheeses and Brie en Croute for Valentine’s Day

I thought cheese might be a great way to start off you home cooked romantic Valentine’s dinner for two. It can be simple, elegant, rich and a great way to start off the night.

There is cheese, and there is cheese. The first kind of cheese is the kind you find at the regular grocery store - mass produced, cut into blocks and vacuum sealed. Perfectly fine for making a sandwich or grating and sprinkling on tacos or chili, but not what we’re looking for when it comes to a romantic Valentine’s Day dinner.

When I asked my wife and a couple of her friends what kind of cheese they think of when they think of a romantic dinner, they all immediately said “Brie.” Brie is a soft French cheese named for the area in which it is made. Another similar soft cheese to consider is Camembert. Both of these cheeses can be found pretty easily in the gourmet cheese section at the regular grocery store. They are rich, so a couple of ounces per person will be more than enough. And there will be more courses to come, so don’t gorge yourselves on cheese.

While my wife and her friends I spoke to were partial to Brie, I am a big fan of French double and triple crème cheeses. By French law, double crème cheese must have a minimum butterfat content of 60% per gram, and triple crème cheese must contain at least 75% butterfat per gram. As you can imagine, these cheeses are all very buttery, rich and very spreadable when ripe.

One of my favorites is a French cheese called Excelsior - it has about 72% butterfat, so it is just shy of a triple crème. Another fine triple crème is Brillat-Saverin. If you’re wondering where you’ve heard that name, he is quoted at the beginning of the original Iron Chef: “Show me what you eat, and I’ll show you what you are.” While these cheeses are very expensive, since they are so very rich, a little goes a very long way. It is well worth your time to go to your local gourmet shop or cheese shop and hunt down some double or triple crème cheese.

For a simple presentation, serve small wedges of soft cheese with some sturdy crackers, such as Triscuits, or toasted slices of baguette. Add a few small bunches of grapes (no more than 8 grapes per bunch - you don’t want to slam a whole pound of grapes down on the plate) or slices of apple (mix the juice of one lemon into a cup of ice water. Dip the apple slices into the lemon water to prevent browning), and you have a lovely fruit and cheese course for two!

Important - cheese is best served at room temperature, so make sure that you get your cheese out of the refrigerator well before serving so that it has a chance to warm up. Serve the fruit straight from the refrigerator, and use freshly toasted baguettes and you will impress your Valentine not only with your simple and beautiful presentation, but also with the three temperatures on one plate - cold fruit, room temperature cheese and warm bread will elevate your cheese plate from good to great.

Let’s get back to the Brie

If you feel comfortable and want to offer your Valentine a baked cheese dish, you can make Brie en croute. This is a fancy name for Brie wrapped up in puff pastry, and it is very easy to make.

Brie en Croute

Ingredients

1 small wheel of Brie
1 sheet of puff pastry (found in the frozen food section near the piecrusts—It comes in boxes of two pieces. Take one piece out and thaw it for at least 12 and up to 24 hours in the refrigerator before using. Leave the other piece frozen for later use)
1 small jar of apricot preserves
A pinch or two of salt
Egg wash (1 egg whisked together with one teaspoon of water)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, F.

Flatten your piece of puff pastry, and then roll it so it is about 1/8”- 3/16” thick. Set the small wheel of brie on the pastry just for reference, and then cut a circle of puff pastry large enough to wrap all the cheese entirely. Reserve the extra dough because you’ll be using some of it later.

Brie rind is edible, so just leave it on. Mix a pinch or two of salt into the apricot preserves and spread it in a thick layer on top of the wheel of cheese.

Place the center of the circle of pastry over the center of the cheese, right on top of the jam. Gently press the pastry down the sides of the wheel of cheese. Turn the whole thing upside down and pleat and seal the pastry. Just press all the edges firmly together, but don’t press straight down, or you’ll mess up your layer of jam.

Turn the pastry covered wheel right-side up again. Put it on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and press down from the sides, just to make sure the cheese is sitting fairly level on the sheet. Cut a couple of heart shapes out of the extra pastry - or you could cut out your Valentine’s initials or just some leaf or flower shapes. Use a little of the egg wash to “glue” these cut outs to the top of your wheel. Now, brush the entire wheel with a thin coat of egg wash. This will help it to get shiny and brown in the oven.

Bake for 20 minutes or so, until the pastry is a nice golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes. Serve with crackers, toasted slices of baguette and maybe some fresh fruit.

And to drink? A good French Champagne, an Italian prosecco or another sparkling wine. For a non-alcoholic alternative, serve sparkling cider or grape juice. Bubbles and creamy cheese make for a great combination.

Tomorrow we’ll look at the second course of our romantic Valentine’s Day meal - Soup