use real butter

Ah, Valentine’s Day – synonymous with giving flowers, chocolates, bling, and other crap. [Well, if you’re going to give chocolate, for the love of All That is Good and Decent in the World, give high quality dark chocolate!] I think the whole concept is quaint but stupid, mainly because I don’t think you need a specific day to be nice to the people you love. You should be nice and not an asshole as a rule of thumb every day. Sort of like the very merry unbirthday. I love the unbirthday. So Merry Unbirthday to everyone except for Katie (whose birthday is today). Nate F would probably ask, “Where’s the Love?!” Not to worry Nate. Here it is, man:

Okay, so despite my loathing of Valentine’s Day because it puts some ridiculous social pressure on the traditional male role to do something to woo the traditional female role by spending money to prove his love – I decided we’d try a few new recipes tonight!

appetizer
california hand rolls

main
wilted spinach salad with pine nuts and dried cranberries
hash browned sweet potatoes
grilled marinated flank steak
willamette valley oregon pinot noir

dessert
chocolate espresso crème brûlée
organic italian espresso

The handrolls were great despite using krab (surimi) instead of crab because the avocado was perfectly ripe AND I bought masago (flying fish roe) from the asian market. Hey – sometimes you have to take the risk… I got the wilted spinach recipe idea from Nicole’s issue of Eating Well today, except I substituted cranberries for raisins because I think Jeremy has a phobia of raisins. I did sweet potatoes because they are far more nutritious than yukon golds, plus variety is the spice of life. And then the grand finale was the dessert in which I got to play pyromaniac in a controlled environment.

california roll with vietnamese spicy chili sauce

wilted spinach salad topped with parmesan

dinner plate

caramelizing sugar the easy way

garnish with almond-flavored whipped cream and a chocolate-covered espresso bean

I thought the crème brûlée was really rich and a bit overwhelming. The texture was more like a hyper-thick and creamy mousse/pudding than the custards that I love so much. Jeremy thought it was fab and finished mine off for me. I’d like to try a non-chocolate one next time… Hell – I have a whole book on crème brûlée recipes! But I’d like to get my grimy little hands on one of those industrial torches…

Forecast is for snow. mmmmm, snow…

February 14th, 2006: 9:12 pm
filed under dessert, dinner, holidays