Quick and Sexy Valentine's Day Menu with Recipes

Valentine's Day doesn’t sneak up on you – it pounces. You’ve been blasted with red signs and teddy bears holding silk hearts for a full month now and you have learned to blur it out.  Then BAM: Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and you don’t want to do anything special because you don’t want to be sucked into the consumerism, but you know that if you don’t plan at least a nice meal at home (you’ve spent all your money at Winterlicious) you will end up in trouble with your significant other. Alternatively, you will become depressed and muttering curses at every couple you see, you will go home and hide in your pajamas watching bad TV until 4am.

The first Valentine’s day card was sent in 1806, but the history is long and ambiguous: A priest named Valentine who married young lovers against the Emperor’s will; A man who helped Christians escape Roman prisons; An imprisoned man in love with his jailor’s daughter.

Or, the month of February could have been dedicated Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture. It is the beginning of spring, and animals are swelling with fertility. White snowdrops are bursting through the ground, demonstrating nature’s cycle of death and life. 

Basically, it is all about love, sex and reproduction. So do something that is inexpensive, fun, and truly appropriate for the day. Eat a seasonal meal and get in tune with all your senses: 

          Velvety Smooth Parsnip Soup with Crumbled Stilton

                                Smoked Trout with Crème Fraîche and Braised Leeks

Rhubarb Apple Crumble

Parsnip Soup:

1. Chop one onion and sauté in butter. Add 1 clove chopped garlic.

2. Add 3 chopped up parsnips, 1 sprig of thyme and season with salt.

3. Cook over medium heat for 3 minutes, then pour over some vegetable or chicken stock.

4. Bring to a boil and then turn down the heat so that it is gently simmering for 15 minutes.

5. Remove the thyme stem and puree until smooth. Pour through a fine mesh sieve and use the back of your ladle to push the soup through, back into the same pot. Re-heat, ladle into 2 bowls and crumble Stilton on top just before serving. 

Smoked Trout with Crème Fraîche and Braised Leeks:

1. Buy the smoked trout locally. In Toronto, Roncesvalles is the best place to find really good smoked fish.

2. Buy crème fraîche or make it quickly:

(recipe from Chow)

- Combine  ¾ cup heavy cream, ¼ cup sour cream and 1 tablespoon sugar in a small bowl

- Refrigerate for 15 minutes

- Whisk them together until soft peaks form

- Use right away or refrigerate and use within 24 hours, whisking gently before serving if required.

3. Braised leeks:

- Chop off the top part of the leek that is very green and compost it

- Split the rest of the leek down the centre, lengthwise and wash under running water thoroughly. (Leeks grow in sandy soil)

- Put the leeks flat side up in a baking dish and pour over 1/2 cup orange juice and then dot the top with knobs off butter (about 1 tbsp per side).

- Cover and put into a 350˚ oven for 15 minutes, until tender – but not mushy.

Rhubarb Apple Crumble:

1. Chop up 3 stems of rhubarb and combine with 2 chopped apples in a mixing bowl

2. Add ¼ cup brown sugar, 2 tbsp butter and a pinch of salt

3. Put into a greased baking dish

4. In a bowl, combine 1 cup all purpose flour, ½ cup cold butter and ½ cup brown sugar

5. Massage the mixture gently but quickly with the tips of your fingers until crumbs form in the size of peas.

6. Put the crumble on top and bake in a 350˚ oven until the crust is golden and the apples and rhubarb are bubbling beneath, about 20 minutes. Serve with some ice cream or whipped cream.

This sexy meal will have you happily enjoying Valentine's Day in no time (and with far less fuss than usual).

If it isn’t magical, it cannot be called Stilton

 £3.90 for a large wedge of organic Stilton got me very excited. Before I had even paid I was promising myself I would make bread the following day to go with the cheese; I was making a mental note to buy eggs for a Stilton quiche; and I was salivating and beginning to fidget.

Stilton is not my favourite cheese but I do love it very much. Its creaminess protects the roof of my mouth and calms the penicillin mould, which I sometimes find a little too tangy in some cheeses such as Roquefort.

Stilton has its own website because it is, after all “Britian’s favourite cheese” with “magical blue veins”.  The website provides a link to The Culinary Guide with a mouth-watering recipe for Stilton Risotto With Sausage, Spring Greens And Crispy Sage. So loved in fact, that there is an annual Stilton Cheese Rolling Championship. If you haven't seen cheese rolling, you will enjoy the unexpected community enthusiasm: Click here for a video. I promise it isn't nearly as shocking or painful as the Gloucestershire cheese rolling: Click here)

Although Stilton freezes well (*thaw it in the fridge slowly when you are ready to eat it), I had planned to consume the entire wedge - mostly by myself - by the end of the week, or maybe I should say two weeks, to avoid being quite so evidently gluttonous.

Stilton has been made since the 18^th century. To stay as true as possible to the original recipe, The Stilton Cheesemakers' Association has prescribed the following rules:

•  It can only be produced in the three Counties of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and  Leicestershire
•  It must be made from locally produced milk that has been pasteurized before use
•  It can only be made in a cylindrical shape
•  It must be allowed to form its own coat or crust
•  It must never be pressed and
•  It must have magical blue veins radiating from the centre of the cheese

I especially like the last point. If the cheese does not adhere to every single one of the aforementioned points then it cannot be called Stilton.

The cheese’s unique flavour and texture demonstrates why it is important to follow the rules. It melts and crumbles easily so it is wonderful for salads as well as baked with figs and onions in a tart.

One week after buying the cheese, I have had it in salads, on bread, and in a frittata. I have finished half the wedge and am now worrying that I have too many recipes and not enough cheese!

For Stilton recipes, click here