RECIPES: Last-minute Valentine's Day dinner ideas
It’s Valentine’s Day!
If you don’t have time to wrap your head around what you’re cooking for dinner until this day, say, Valentine’s Day afternoon, know you’re going to be okay.
Instead of rushing to find a last-minute restaurant reservation, head to the grocery store, pick up a couple of things that you will need, and whip up these fancy last-minute meals.
Neil Anthony’s famous pea risotto
Serves: 2
Ingredients
4 baby onions
15ml vegetable stock
100g pecorino cheese
200ml arborio rice
2 garlic cloves, peeled and grated
60ml non-alcoholic white wine
20g pine nuts
20ml balsamic glaze
100g peas
8g fresh chives, rinsed and finely sliced
20g pea shoots, rinsed
Oil
Salt and pepper
Water
Tinfoil
Butter
Method
Peel the onions and halve the length. Don't remove the tip that keeps the layers joined. Place a non-stick pan with oil on the stove. Place the onion halves in the pan in a single layer and turn the cut-side down. Once sizzling, reduce to low heat, pop on the lid, and allow to braise for 20 - 25 minutes until the cut side is golden and charred, surfing occasionally.
In a kettle, bring water to boil and dilute the stock with 80 ml of the water. Grate three-quarters of the pecorino cheese, peel the rest into ribbons, and set aside.
Place a large pot over medium heat with a drizzle of garlic for about a minute until coated. Mix in the white wine and simmer until almost evaporated. Add a ladle of stock and allow it to be absorbed by stirring regularly and gently simmering. Only add the next ladle of stock when the previous one has been fully absorbed. Repeat this process for 20 - 25 minutes.
Place the pine nuts in a pan over medium heat. Toast for 3 - 5 minutes until golden brown, shifting occasionally. Keep a close watch, they burn easily. Remove from the pan on completion and set aside for serving.
When the onions are charred, add in 2 - 3 small knobs of butter and three-quarters of the balsamic glaze, and give them a slight shift. Set the lid aside, and allow it to bubble for 2 -3 minutes until; sticky, then remove from the heat. Stir through the grated cheese, a generous knob of butter, half of the sliced chives, and seasoning to taste.
Dish up a generous mound of risotto and lay over the braised onions. Top with the rinsed pea shoots and sprinkle over the renaming chives. Garnish with the renaming balsamic glaze to taste, the pecorino ribbons, and the pine nuts.
Pork fillets with orange and star anise sweet potato
Serves: 2
Ingredients
250g pork fillet cut in half
2 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and crushed
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp crushed chilli
½ tsp ground ginger
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp crushed black pepper
20 ml olive oil
20 ml butter
For the sweet potato
250g sweet potato, chopped into pieces
Juice and peel of one orange
2-star anise
1 tbsp honey
30g salted butter
60ml cream
250ml water
20ml oil
Salt and pepper to taste
⅛ onion
For the pickled carrots, pearl onion, and tender-stem broccoli
250g baby carrots
250g tender stem broccoli
½ cup white wine vinegar
½ cup water
60g sugar
1 cardamom pod
For the red wine sauce
250ml beef stock
120ml red wine
4 sprigs of thyme
2 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon of sugar
25 ml of cold diced butter
5ml mustard
Method
Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Mix all the spices with half the olive oil. Pat the fillets dry and spread over the spice blend. Marinade for at least 30 minutes. In a pan, bring the rest of the oil to medium heat, ensuring the pan is hot before searing the pork fillets until both sides are brown. Sear one side a little longer to form a crust. Add a spoonful of butter and baste before putting the fillets in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove, baste again, and set aside to rest.
Chop the sweet potato and slice the onion. Sautée the sweet potato and onion in the oil with salt and pepper. Add boiling hot water, orange peels, and star anise. Once tender, add the cream, butter, and the juice of the orange and simmer for 3 minutes. Take out the star anise and orange peels. Blend and pass through a sieve.
Blanch carrots and tender stems in salted water. Drain and set aside. Add vinegar, water, sugar, and cardamom pod to a pot and bring to a boil before pouring over blanched vegetables.
Crispy vegetable chips from your local shop.
Deglaze the pork pan by adding red wine and beef stock and heat until the liquid is reduced by half. Add thyme, chopped garlic, sugar, and mustard, and simmer for 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and gradually whisk in the butter. This will thicken the sauce. Add salt and pepper if you desire, but there should be flavour from the pork seasoning in the pan.
To assemble: Using a tablespoon, spoon the purée just off centre of the plate and drag it along to form a smear. Add a little sauce in the middle of the plate and place pork on top. Do not hide the vegetables or group them in one area of the plate but use a zig-zag pattern (see picture) to create a nice pattern. Add the pickled onions and crispy vegetables last.
Deconstructed banoffee pie
Serves: 4
Ingredients
1 tin caramel treat
1 large banana sliced
500ml double cream
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp icing sugar
Base
20g butter softened
100g Tennis biscuits crushed
Banana parfait
250g banana puree
112g sugar
75ml water
185ml double cream
1 tsp vanilla essence
4 egg yolks
Method
For the parfait. Add the sugar and water to a pan and bring to 118 degrees Celsius.
Semi-whip the cream and vanilla essence until almost at the soft peak stage.
Add the eggs to an upright electric mixer and whisk at high speed until the egg yolks become light and creamy in appearance.
Once the sugar mixture has reached temperature, gradually pour it into the eggs at a steady stream.
Continue to whisk at high speed until the mixture has cooled and doubled in size.
Once cool, gently fold in the cream followed by the banana puree.
Pour into moulds and freeze for about 12 hours.
For the biscuit
Mix the crushed biscuits with the butter until they are combined and resemble a paste.
Press into a mould and bake in an oven at 180*c for 5 min or until it has become semi-solid.
Remove and cool.
For the cream
Whip the cream, vanilla essence, and icing sugar together with an upright electric whisk until it forms semi-hard peaks.
Transfer to a piping bag.
To plate
Transfer the caramel treat into a piping bag and pipe a spiral at the centre of the plate.
Slice the parfait and place it just off the centre of the plate.
Roughly break the biscuit and arrange it randomly on the plate.
Pipe the cream haphazardly alongside the parfait.
Place the banana slices so that they lean on the whipped cream.