Dear fellow gourmands,
Valentine’s day is just around the corner and while I’d love to treat my partner to a romantic dinner at this great restaurant we both love, funds are exceedingly tight and we simply won’t be able to afford it. Instead I’ve decided that I can simply cook an extra-special meal at home and dress the kitchen up with candles and really make a night of it.
I’m thinking of making something with salmon that tastes luxurious but won’t break the bank - what do you suggest? I’m thinking of grilling and glazing it with something sticky and yummy and serving it with maybe with boiled new potatos and some other type of veg. Rice is out because it’s a very mundane, every-day kind of staple for us and I really want this to be special.
Fish is good. My salmon recipe is marinate in soy sauce and a little oil, coat in brown sugar (sticky) pepper and garlic powder and saute.
Alternatively if you can afford lobster a couple small lobsters could not go astray. Sex goes well with melted butter.
Go easy on the potatoes. Baby new potatoes sounds good. Maybe some mixed with a salad (I recommend rasberry walnut vinagrette.) Nothing too heavy. And a little chocolate for dessert.
And maybe something (fish related) as a appitizer. Cavier? It’s not all of it that expensive.
sigh Of coruse I’ll be eating spagettios out of a can (see location). Have fun.
That marinade sounds good, as does the potatos in the salad, but I’m afraid lobster and caviar are both definitely beyond our means at the moment. Perhaps I should start with a fishy soup like a creamy bisque?
I’d love to know how to make that rasberry walnut dressing too!
Mmmmm…now I want bisque.
Er…I have no idea how to make walnut rasberry vinigrette. I just bought it. “Ken’s” has a good one (light. As i said VD day in not Thanksgiving , you don’t want to be falling alseep afer dinner :D)
Just don’t get iceberg lettus. Iceberg does not say romance. And wander the seafood section for anyting you can afford…fish is sexy. It worked for Aphrodite.
The salmon sounds good, but I’d suggest the most important points to consider aren’t taste or “fanciness” but a) how comfortable you are with the dish and b)how much time you’ll need to spend in the kitchen, as opposed to gazing deep into the eyes of your beloved and murmuring endearments (or making lewd suggestions about melted butter). I’d guess you want to spend 80% of your time with your partner, disappearing briefly off to add finishing touches to your culinary masterpieces, rather than having her(?) sit there for 20 minutes at a time while strange noises, foul oaths and clouds of pungent smoke issue through the kitchen door. (That’s unfair hyperbole, clearly, but the more stressed the actual cooking makes you, the less fun you’ll both have.) Soup, for example, is an excellent idea because you can make it ahead of time.
Other details it’s easy to score on (and I’m sure have occured to you): flowers, music (if you can find the time, make a compilation maybe?), you’ve mentioned candles, maybe find and display more prominently some photos of the two of you? If you can get the wherewithal to make her favourite cocktail, that might be appreciated…
If the evening goes as well as you hope, the food should actually be the least memorable part of the experience.
i made this for the dive master last year and he loved it. takes a little time to prepare, but the end results are worth it. 
Champagne Chicken
4 boneless chicken breasts
6 slices prosciutto, paper-thin
2 ½ cups fresh-sliced mushrooms
2 T butter
2 T olive oil
1 t fresh-ground black pepper
1 cup dry champagne (or a bit more)
2 cups heavy cream (or a bit more)
Soak chicken breasts overnight in salt water (cover chicken with water and sprinkle liberally with salt). It removes what I call the ‘funky chicken’ taste and makes the meat super-tender.
Rinse chicken well and pat dry with paper towels. Trim fat, etc, then cut chicken into ¼-inch wide slices. Melt butter and olive oil in large heavy skillet. Sauté chicken for 4 to 5 minutes. Add mushrooms, champagne and pepper. Cook over medium heat for about 30 minutes. Remove chicken and mushrooms from skillet and keep warm.
Add cream and prosciutto to remaining skillet contents. Simmer about 5 minutes until slightly thickened. Return chicken and mushrooms to skillet and bring just to a simmer. Serve over fettuccini or angel hair pasta bed.
Serves four to six
If you want to stick to salmon, I made Salmon Fillet with Soy Glaze exactly as written a few weeks ago, and it was fabulous. I bet it would be even more fabulous with a bit of garlic and some orange juice, and several reviewers suggest.
Heres a quick and dirty yet elegant way to serve salmon
You need:
aluminium foil
salmon (peferably a whole fish)
dill
lemon
onions
carrots
olive oil
white wine
Take a large piece of aluminium foil (1 m) and lay it on an oven pan, and garnish half of it with the onion cut in rings and carrot cut in strips. Sprinkle some olive oil over this so it does’nt burn. Lay the fish on the onion and carrots, and stuff it with dill and lemon. More lemon rings can be put on the outside of the fish, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and throw in a cup of white wine. Now pack the whole thing with the rest of the aluminium foil. Chick it in the oven for 45 minutes at 200 degrees celsius.
Potatoes can be cut lengthwise into thick sections (keep the peel on), sprinkled and turned in olive oil, and seasoned with salt and pepper and thyme. Put it all in an ovenproof dish toghether with the fish, same temperature and time.
Easy peasy.
Serve it with rocked salad and creme fraiche and cucumber cut into long and thin pieces. And of course the rest of the white wine.