Hello Everybody!

In the previous post (Recipe for Valentine’s Day) I suggest you some idea to be perfect and beautiful in that night. Today, I introduce the first new section on this blog dedicated to recipes and cusine. For doing that I’ll share with you some recipes and ideas for a perfect Valentine’s Day home dinner. Following you can find two option and two full menús including all the recipes for cook them. I tested personally every single recipe in several occasion, I used some of them for past Valentine’s Day home dinner… The “test subject” married me in the same year, so I can assure that these recipes work!

The recipes I’ll show, are not my original ideas (unfortunately). I started from the original idea figured out on internet, journal or cusine’s books, and I changed some steps or ingredient and I tested few times until arrive to best recipe for me. I decided to show a complete menú instead single recipes, because I hope this could be useful for who have no time to match recipes for making a good menu driven by a uniform theme. I selected the recipes also for have efficiency at the shopping time, and avoid to buy a bunch of different ingredients and to waste part of them.

Let’s see what I suggest!

Fish Menú

If you like Tuna, Salmon and Shrimps but you want save money, this menú fits perfectly for you! It is easy, quickly to prepare, beautiful to see and it is a “no food waste” menu… at last Shrimps have aphrodisiac property!

Entréé: 2 Mousses

These two mousses are similar in the preparation and have some common ingredients. Due to this fact you can optimize and minimize the shopping and, at the same time, you can propose two amazing variation of mousses without waste.

1. Salmon Mousse whit Black Bread

Time to prepare 15/20 minutes

Ingredients for 2 person:

• 50 gr of smoked salmon;
• 125 gr of “ricotta” cheese;
• 50 gr of whipping cream;
• Few dill’s leaf;
• Salt and black pepper;
• Black Bread.

Useful tools:

• Mixer (hand blander);
• Whisk;
• Terrines spatula;
• Cookies cutter (optional);
• Sac á puche (optional).

Procedure:

With the chopper (hand blender) I mixed ricotta cheese and smoked salmon, I chopped the dill with a knife and  added it to the salmon and the cheese. I put the mixture in a terrine and added salt and pepper. With the whisk I whipped the the cream and put it on the terrine with the other ingredients gently. I cut the bread slices using a cookies cutter and I toasted them. Whit a sac á poche I put some mousse on the toasted bread. I used some leaves of dill or a slice of salmon rolled for decoration.

2. Crunchy Baskets with Tuna Mousse

Time to prepare 20 minutes – cooking time 10/12 minutes + 30 minutes to cool

Ingredients for 2 people:

• One box of fillo dough;
• 100 gr of tuna in olive oil;
• 100 gr whipping cream;
• 100 gr of “ricotta” cheese;
• One egg yolk;
• Salt and pepper.

Useful tools:

• Metal baking cups;
• Baking tray;
• Hand blander;
• Whisk;
• Terrines and spatulas.

Procedure:

At first I oiling the internal side of baking cups, I opened the fillo dough roll and cut some square (big enough for staying in the baking cup). I put the squares in the baking cups and cut the exceed. Heating the oven at 200 celsius degree (about 400 Fahrenheit), when the oven was ready, I put in the baking cups, covered by fillo dough, some dry bean, and placed them on a baking tray in the oven and I baked for 10/12 minutes. When the border of the baskets was gold I moved out the oven and let cool for 30 minutes, after that time I pulled out the beans. With the hand blender I mixed and cutted the tuna, the ricotta, the egg yolk and when ready I added salt and pepper. With the whisk I whipped the cream and added it gently in the tuna mousse. I put the mixture in the fridge for 30 minutes. At last, I filled the basket with the tuna mousse and with some mint leafs I made a decoration.

Instead of fillo dough basket and black bread you can serve the mousse on some white or red radicchio leaf.

Main course: Romantic Pureed Soup

It is the most elaborate dish of this menú, the preparation is quite easy but it need some time to spend on it!

Time to prepare 45 minutes – Time to cook 1 hour and 15 minutes

Ingredients for 2 people:

• 250 gr of peeled shrimps;
• 6 big shrimps;
• 90 gr of butter;
• 25 gr of flour;
• 3 egg yolks;
• 1 carrot and celery;
• Parsley;
• 750 ml of fish bouillon;
•  100 ml whipping cream.

Useful tools:

• Pots;
• Hand blender;
• Terrine.

Procedure:

In a pot cook carrot and celery with 20 gr of butter. Join the big shrimps and half of the peeled shrimps (125 gr). When cooked removing the big shrimps and with a hand blender cutting the peeled shrimps. In a different pot, melt 20 gr of butter and adding the flour, mixing and add 500 ml of fish bouillon (a little per time) and cooking all until boiling. Add salt, pepper and parsley and boiling again for 15 minutes, after adding the smashed shrimps prepared before and the remained bouillon. in a terrine mixing the egg yolk and the whipping cream, and add also this ingredients in the pot. The last step is making a shrimp butter: 50 gr of peeled shrimp and 50 gr of butter put all these ingredients together and chopping them with the hand blender. At last chop the last peeled shrimps and add them and the butter in the pot. Usinig the big shrimps and some slices of toasted bread for decorating the soup’s plate.

Second Plate: Shrimp in shirt

The taste of this dish is not common but I promise it is gorgeous! Every time I cooked this plate all my guests love it! The secret is to mix the fragile taste of the shrimp with the strong taste of lard! Moreover they are really quickly to prepare!

Time to prepare 20 minutes – Time to cook 5/10 minutes

Ingredients for 2 people:

• 10 big fresh shrimps;
• 10 tiny slices of lard;
• Parsley;
• Salt and pepper.

Useful tools:

• A grill (bbq) or pan for steak;
• Toothpick.

Procedure:

I peeled the shrimp and remove the black strings on the back. Do not remove the head and the tail (it is only for esthetic reason but I think that they look better with head and tail). When I finished, I added some salt and pepper and I wrapped with one slice of lard the body of the shrimp. For holding the shrimp and his “lard shirt” I used a toothpick. When ready, I put the shrimps on the grill and waited until they are cooked. They were cooked when the lard become almost transparent and the shrimps had a good color. I served the shrimp with some parsley when they were still hot. My suggestion is to prepare the shrimps before the dinner and cook them at the last minute.

Side Dish: Orange Salad

I think it is the best side dish for the shrimps

Time to prepare 10 minutes

Ingredients for 2 people:

• 2 oranges;
• Some valerian leaf;
• Extravirgin olive oil;
• Salt and pepper.

Useful tools:

• Salad bowl;
• Knife.

Procedure:

I peeled the oranges with the knife and chopped them in cubes. I put the cubes in a salad bowl with some valerian leafs. Add oil salt and pepper.

Meat Menú 

The time to prepare this menu is bigger then the time for the fish menú, but all the recipes are really easy. Because of the long time to  for the preparation, the starter dishes are really simple.

 Entréé: Classic Board

You can use a classic board with cheese, honey and jams, and this is the quickest solution because you need only to cut the cheese and put the honey and the marmalades in appropriate containers. However this is also the expensive solution because you have to buy a lot of cheese, honey and jams and you’ll use only a little of them. My option is a tray with tiny toast (white bread, whole grain bread, black bread, focaccia) with a cream of fresh sausages and “stracchino” cheese, walnuts cream and pistachio cream

Main Course: Cacao Tagliatelle

This dish is cacao based and you know, cacao has a lot of aphrodisiac property!

Time to prepare 45 minutes – time to cook 15 minutes

Ingredients for 2 people:

• 90 gr flour;
• 15 gr di cacao powder;
• 1 egg;
• 100 gr brie cheese;
• 30 ml milk;
• 30 gr of butter;
• Slat and pepper.

Useful tools:

• Large worktop or pastry board;
• Large pot;
• Rag;
• Pasta machine (or rolling pin and a lot of patience);
• Pan.

Procedure:

I mixed the flour, the cacao and the salt, I arranged the mixed powders on the pastry board like a fountain. On the top of the fountain I added the egg. Starting with a fork and continuing with my hands, I melted the egg. I worked the mix with my hands until it was smooth and soft. When it was ready I wrapped it in a rag and I let it rest for 30 minutes. After this time, using my pasta machine, I made some strips of puff pastry (10 cm large) with a thickness of 1 mm and i put them on my worktop dusted with flour. I rolled the striped starting from the short side and i create some cylinders. I chopped some slices large 1,5 cm from the cylinders. I unwrapped the slices and I cooked them with boiled water. In the meantime I melted the butter, the brie cheese and the milk in a pan. When tagliatelle are ready (“al dente”) I drained them and add them in the pan with the cheese and I cooked for few minutes.

Second Dish: Beef Filet with walnuts

Time to prepare 15 minutes – Time to cook 5 minutes

It is really important to serve the meat hot, you know, mi advice is to cook the fillets at last minute.

Ingredients for 2 people:

• 400 gr beef fillet;
• 20 gr bread crumb;
• 30 walnuts;
• 1 slice of garlic;
• 50 ml of red wine;
• Extravirgin olive oil;
• Salt and pepper.

Useful tools:

• Pan;
• Hand blander (optional);

Procedure:

I peeled the walnuts and I cut them roughly with my hand blender, i mixed the walnuts and the bread crumb. I rolled in the breadcrumbs the fillet (each sides). In a pan I heated some oil with the slice of garlic and, when the slice is gold I put them off and I put in the fillet. I simmered with red wine until reduced. When fillets were ready I served them hot!

Side Dish: Fluffy potatoes

In my opinion the best side dish with the meat are the potatoes. Here I’ll show you a different way to cook them.

Time to prepare 20 minutes – Time to cooking about 1 hour.

Ingredients for 2 people:

• 300 gr of potatoes;
• 10 gr o butter;
• 25 ml of milk;
• tablespoon of white wine;
  
• One little sachet of saffron;
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder (for salt cake);
• 1 egg yolk;
• 2 albumen;
• Salt and pepper.

Special ingredient for serving:

• Sesame’s seeds;
• Poppy’s seeds;
• Curry.

Useful tools:

• Pot;
• Tools for sashing potatoes;
• Whisk;
• Terrines spatulas;
• Baking tray.

Procedure:

I boiled the potatoes in hot water, when cooked I peeled them and I smashed them. I added the milk and the butter. I melted the saffron in the white wine and I added it to the smashed potatoes with the egg yolk and the baking powder. With the Whisk I whipped the albumen and mixed them whit the smashed potatoes gently. At last I added salt and pepper. Heating the oven at 200 celsius degree (about 400 Fahrenheit degree). I made some ball of smashed potatoes and I put them on a oiled backing tray whit. On the top of the balls I put some sesame’s seeds, poppy’s seeds and curry. Than I cocked in hot oven for 20 minutes. I served the fluffy potatoes warm.

Those are my two menú’s proposal for a Valentine’s Day dinner: easy, good and quick dishes.

I want to share with you another suggestion: do not exceed whit the quantities! Otherwise your Valentine’s night ended at the end of the dinner!

About the sweets, i love sweets and in next post I’ll share with you  lot of recipes! But for these two menus, and for this special occasion, my suggestion is: fondue of chocolate with fresh fruits. It is a light, easy, quick, romantic and sexy solution and the only thing you have to do is slicing some fresh fruits and immersing them in hot liquid chocolate!

If you are curios and you like this new section:

Stay tuned!

Tricks in this post:
1. Fish menú for VAlentine's Day dinner 
2. Meat Menú for Valentine's Day dinner 
3. Recipes step by step
4. Romantic dessert

As I told before I realized by my own all the recipe showed but, when I cooked the dishes, I did not know that in few time I opened a blog, and for this reason I had no pics of my dishes. But I really want to share with you an appropriate Valentine’s day menú, so for this post I took some pics from the web. For next posts I will use only my  own pics!