I associate Valentines Day and Chocolate and this dessert definitely delivers that. Cherries, chocolate and whipped cream. Heavenly! This recipe was in the January/February issue of Everyday Food. Serves 2.
Ingredients-
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup plus 3 tablespoons packed light-brown sugar
1 1/2 cups drained jarred sour cherries (1 teaspoon juice reserved)
1/3 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1 large egg yolk
3 tablespoons whole milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons rum (I used Cassis)
Directions-
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place 1 tablespoon butter, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon cherry juice in the bottom of each of two 8-ounce ramekins. Microwave ramekins until butter and brown sugar are melted and bubbling, about 1 minute. Arrange cherries in a tightly packed layer in the bottom of each ramekin.
- In a small bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. In another small bowl, stir together 2 tablespoons butter and 1/3 cup brown sugar with a wooden spoon until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Stir in egg yolk, then flour mixture and milk. Divide batter between ramekins.
- Place ramekins on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cake comes out with only a few crumbs attached, about 30 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack, 20 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, beat cream, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, and rum until soft peaks form. Run a paring knife around edge of each cake and invert onto a plate. Serve cakes with rum whipped cream.
This is definitely a special occasion type dessert because it is high in calories and fat but seriously delicious. The pictures don’t even begin to do it justice.
Restaurants on Valentines Day are not my favorite, you get stuck with a limited menu and it is always so busy! Instead of going out for dinner we opted to cook a really nice meal at home. Flank Steak is a pretty affordable piece of meat that will take flavors very well. We bought 1 pound of flank steak for $9.95 and it could easily serve 4. This recipe was in the March/April 2010 Clean Eating Magazine.
Ingredients-
Cooking Spray
1/4 cup Whole Wheat Panko
1 tbsp Pine Nuts
2 tsp Red Wine Vinegar
2 cloves Garlic
1/4 tsp Fine Sea Salt
1/4 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
1 flank (1 lb) trimmed
6 cups Spinach Leaves
Kitchen String
Directions-
- Preheat oven to 400 F, coat a baking pan with Cooking Spray
- In a small bowl, combine panko, nuts, vinegar, garlic, salt and red pepper. Set aside.
- Place steak on a work surface. Holding a sharp knife cut steak in half horizontally so it opens like a book.
- Sprinkle panko mixture evenly over steak, leaving a 1-inch border along the farthest edge. Arrange spinach on top of panko mixture. Beginning with the edge closest to you, roll steak up, gently pressing down on spinach. Rotate steak roll so it’s vertical to you and tie at 1-inch intervals with kitchen string. Place steak on baking pan for about 35 minutes for Medium or 30 minutes for Medium Rare. Transfer to cutting board, loosely cover with foil and let rest for 10 minutes.
- Remove foil and string and slice into 1/2 inch slices
We cooked the flank steak for 30 minutes and could have gong a few minutes less to make it a little more medium rare. Even though it was a bit more medium this steak is amazing- good flavor from the panko, spinach and the red wine vinegar. This recipe was a winner and would definitely do this again. To add more veggies to the dinner we simply roasted some broccoli with garlic and olive oil. Once out of the oven we grated just a bit of parmesan to add some complexity.
Since the steak had so many layers of flavor we went a bit lighter on the wine, we opted for a Cooper Point Pinot Noir. A solid pinot and a nice pairing to the steak. This was an awesome Valentines dinner and I am so glad we stayed home and enjoyed our own cooking and wine.
As a starter to our Valentines Dinner I found a Green Apple Carpaccio recipe in the March/April 2010 of Clean Eating Magazine. Serves 4.
Ingredients-
1/2 shallot, minced
2 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
1 tbsp 100% Apple Juice
2 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4 tsp Fine Sea Salt
1/8 tsp Black Pepper
1 Large Tart Green Apple
1 oz Arugula
2 tbsp crumbled Goat Cheese
Directions-
- In a medium bowl, whisk together shallot, vinegar, juice, oil, salt and pepper. Set aside.
- Cut apple crosswise into thin slices, discarding seeds. Arrange apple slices on a platter and drizzle with about half of dressing.
- Add arugula to bowl with remaining dressing and toss. Arrange arugula on top of apples, top with goat cheese and serve.
The dressing added a nice acidity and tartness to the apple while the goat cheese was nice and creamy. The one difficulty with this recipe is getting the apples sliced thin enough, next time we would use our mandolin and get more thin and even slices. This may become our go to starter as we usually have most of the ingredients on hand and it more unique than just a plain salad.
Last night we headed to dinner at our friend Scott and Jill’s for a belated birthday/Valentines day celebration. Since Jill is the uber-hostess we knew we would be having a great meal! Jill had a gorgeous Valentines day table all set up with flowers and lots of red and pink. She has the cutest table decorations!
Dinner was a roast leg of lamb with thyme, rosemary, garlic, it was perfectly cooked and delicious. We started with a light salad with mixed greens, pears, candied pecans and balsamic dressing.
Asparagus and Truffled Mashed potatoes went really well with the lamb and I was reminded how much I love mashed potatoes. I could have eaten the whole bowl. Yum!
After dinner we hung out and enjoyed their wood burning fireplace and the rest of the Shiraz that was served with the Lamb. We headed out about 10:15 and went to meet Heather and Steve to see Pat McCurdy, he is musician based out of Milwaukee and puts on a very fun sing along style show. My favorite part is his tribute to the 80’s, 90’s, and now 00’s. The audience votes on which decade they would like to hear, last night it was 90’s.
It was after 2 by the time we got home, I am one tired girl today!
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