A friend asked me to run up an simple and easy valentines menu for two. Well not sure that I am very good at simple or easy. Here is the menu I ended up with. This was made this past weekend as a pre super bowl dinner. I was just coming off the end of a cold and almost fever when I cooked all this up waiting for kickoff.
Hors d’oeuvre
Seared Almond Scallops
Scallops are seared and then deglazed with vermouth, placed on a china spoon and garnished with sliced almonds, parsley and lemon segments.
Appetizer
Baked Crab Rangoon
Crab and cream cheese with seasoning in a baked wonton cup with quails eggs garnished with fresh caviar
Soup:
Chilly Dilly
A cold cucumber and dill soup, made with milk and yogurt, garnished with a fresh dill sprig served in a cordial glass.
Entrée:
Poached Chicken with Wild Mushrooms:
Chicken poached in white wine and stock with a richly flavored tarragon and wild mushroom sauce
Served with:
Roasted Rosemary Red Potatoes and Mixed Green Salad
Dessert:
Tall Dark Stranger
Chocolate mousse with candied ginger and a chocolate dipped fortune cookie
We started off the meal with an amuse bouche style appetizer. Just something tasty in a bite sized portion. Here served on Chinese spoons for a fun and elegant presentation.
Seared Scallops:
8-12 very small scallops
2 teaspoons of pesto
A few sliced almonds
A teaspoon of peeled lemon flesh
Parsley sprigs
Lemon wedges
Heat a small skillet over medium heat when hot add scallops and sear on each side for one minute, remove from heat. Place scallops in the bowl of a Chinese spoon. Place a dollop of pesto in the center; add sliced almond, lemon flesh and parsley in a decorative fashion. Serve with wedges of lemon.
Baked Crab Rangoon: Cream cheese, crab, wonton doughness, whats not to love here? Unless you are vegetarian or gluten free.
1 Eggroll wrapper
¼ Cup chopped crabmeat
¼ Cup of cream cheese softened
1 Green onion chopped
Dash of Worcestershire sauce if desired
Cooking spray
Preheat the oven to 375. Grease four holes of a mini muffin tin using cooking spray or olive oil. Cut the egg roll wrapper into four even squares. Press each into one of the holes in the muffin tin. Spray with cooking spray and bake for about 5 minutes till crisp. Meanwhile mix the cream cheese with the crabmeat, green onion and Worcestershire sauce. Place a generous heaping tablespoon of the mixture into each of the baked shells. Return to oven an bake a further 5-10 minutes till lightly golden. If desired serve with halved hard boiled quails eggs topped with black or red caviar.
Chilly Dilly:
I hated cold soup when I was a kid, there was this peaches and cream thing that used to get made in the summer that I thought was just vile. My attitude towards chilled soup has mellowed over time, thought I must say that a jellied consommé is still rather disgusting. It’s like eating a bowl full of chilled slugs. The following cold soup does not taste like chilled slugs its rather refreshing. This makes enough for two full servings or about 4-6 amuse bouche servings (about the size of a cordial glass or demitasse cup.
½ Cup of milk or cream
½ Cup of cool vegetable or chicken stock
1 Tablespoon of plain yogurt
½ Cucumber rough chopped
½ teaspoon of fresh dill (plus extra for garnishing)
Combine all ingredients except dill in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth, after making sure the lid is on the blender tight, you don’t want to spray the walls with cucumber goop, it hardens like seagull droppings and takes quite a bit of elbow grease to remove. Transfer to a non metallic bowl (i.e.: plastic or ceramic, believe me I have been asked what non metallic means) and stir in chopped dill. Chill in refrigerator for one hour for flavors to combine. Serve in chilled glasses or bowls garnished with fresh dill.
2 Boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 Tablespoon of olive oil
½ Cup of white wine
½ Cup of chicken stock
1 Tablespoon of butter
2 Tablespoons finely chopped shallot or onion
½ Cup sliced wild mushrooms
½ Teaspoon of tarragon
1 Teaspoon of cornstarch mixed with 2 teaspoons of water
Salt and black pepper to taste
Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat, add chicken breasts and sear on each side for 2 minutes. Pour in the wine and the stock, it should boil almost instantly. Once boil is reached reduce the temperature and cover the skillet. Simmer over low heat for 20 minutes till chicken is tender and cooked through, there should be no traces of pink. Remember pink chicken equals possible salmonella poisoning and that is the sort of party favor no one wants to go home with. While the chicken is cooking heat the butter in a small sauce pan and saute the shallot or onion until soft but not browned. Add the mushrooms and cook a further three minutes and remove from heat. When chicken is cooked through remove the chicken from the skillet and keep warm. Bring the cooking liquid in the skillet to a boil and cook until reduced by half, about five minutes or less. Strain the cooking liquid into the mushrooms and onions and add the tarragon. If needed thicken with cornstarch mixture and season with a little salt and fresh ground black pepper. Pour sauce over chicken to serve.
For roasted red potatoes see Get Stuffed! Recipe for Salmon with Scottish Whiskey.
For dessert I decided not to make my own chocolate mousse because I really didn’t have time. This had to be done before kick off! So I mixed up a good quality chocolate mousse mix from the store using half whipping cream instead of milk. Then I dusted the top with shopped candied ginger, orange peel and a touch of cocoa powder. I had a sack of fortune cookies so I melted some dark chocolate in a small pan over very low heat and then dipped the cookie in so that half of it was coated with chocolate. I then placed it on a piece of wax paper to cool and finally hooked it over the edge of the martini glass.
Well that's it. Start to finish it took two and a half hours, so rather speedy for me.
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