Valentine's Day Make-Ahead Menu

Posted Tue, Feb 06, 2007, 1:33 pm PST

You are probably too late to score any reservations at the top restaurants if you have not already made them, since Valentine's Day is the second most demanded day for reservations after New Year's Day. Why don't you grab your romantic interest and head to the best and most happening bar in your area and order a half-bottle of Champagne (or a couple of glasses) and enjoy an apéritif before heading to the homestead to prepare your love a seductive dinner for two? Of course, that means some advanced planning, so here is the strategy for attack: Plan a menu where most of the dishes can be prepared ahead of time, such as seared tuna carpaccio with ginger and hot pepper sauce, roast lamb loin with pistachio crust, and sweet potato purée.

Rely on your local markets to find the most pristine ingredients. Ask for the prettiest tuna at your seafood market, a boneless loin of lamb at the meat market, and two gorgeous desserts from the bakery. One of my favorites is a crunchy meringue and amaretto butter cream dacquoise.

Prepare the tuna and sear and coat the lamb the day before. The sweet potato puree can also be made a day ahead, so on Valentine's evening you need only plate the tuna, place the lamb in a hot oven for five minutes, heat through the sweet potatoes, and bring out the dessert. Just add more champagne, a rosé, or a cabernet-based red wine from California or France. Here's your shopping list:

8 ounces tuna, sushi quality -- should be bright and shiny and not from the tail section, trimmed and cut into a 4-inch by 2-inch block

Cracked black peppercorns, salt

Olive oil

Ginger

Lime

1 small head frisée

10-12 ounces boneless lamb loin, trimmed of silverskin and cut into two portions

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

½ cup chopped pistachio

2 baked sweet potatoes, puréed with 2 tablespoons butter

Fresh mint for garnish

Dessert for two

Season the tuna with salt and roll in the crackled black pepper and sear in a very hot pan with a drop of olive oil for about 2 minutes a side until charred but very, very rare. Place on a rack and cool.

Prepare vinaigrette with ginger, salt, pepper, sugar, lime juice and a fruity olive oil.

Season the lamb with salt and pepper and sear in a heavy pan over high heat a couple of minutes per side, until charred all over. Remove to a rack and allow to cool for 10 minutes. When cool, brush on the mustard and roll in pistachios and return to rack until ready to complete cooking. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

To serve, slice the tuna into thin slices and place on serving plates, toss the frisée with vinaigrette and spoon a little of the vinaigrette over the tuna.

Pop the lamb in the oven and cook until medium rare, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, reheat the sweet potato purée.

To serve, slice the lamb loin, spoon the sweet potato purée onto the center of the plates, top with the lamb and scatter the mint leaves about and drizzle with a little more olive oil.

Celebrate love (and being at table together)!

24 Comments

1. Posted by sam on Sun, Feb 11, 2007, 3:02 pm PST

this is for rich people
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2. Posted by jamison c on Sun, Feb 11, 2007, 3:45 pm PST

I agree
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3. Posted by Janna h on Sun, Feb 11, 2007, 3:57 pm PST

Not just for rich people ..it just takes a bit of planning ..you can get a bottle of champagne for around $20.00 ..not the best but not nasty either...and as for the food...save up money..buy the ingredients a bit at a time when you do regular shopping so that you have it on hand and if it is a really special day then it will wrk out
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4. Posted by Melissa on Sun, Feb 11, 2007, 4:14 pm PST

You don't have to be rich to enjoy a good recipe. It sounds great and not that expensive (cheaper than than dining out in a lowere quality establishment?).
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5. Posted by Belle on Sun, Feb 11, 2007, 5:32 pm PST

This can be made, even on a budget. Buy the items on sale & shop around for the best prices. Most of us keep several of the ingredients on hand anyways. Why buy a $20 bottle of wine when you can buy wine coolers or the mini bottles of Arbor Mist that are just as great and cost less?
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6. Posted by megan b on Sun, Feb 11, 2007, 5:47 pm PST

I would love this meal...my husband however would hate it! hmmm he's so picky its not even funny, I will have to wait and make it as a dinner for when the girls get together!
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7. Posted by Eric Johnson on Sun, Feb 11, 2007, 6:30 pm PST

Paying for a meal like this at a restaurant is for the rich...but the great secret is cooking it at home for a quarter of the cost is much more acttainable, and believe me...it's more romantic than a crowded restaurant with slow service on the busiest night of the year.
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8. Posted by Eric Johnson on Sun, Feb 11, 2007, 6:35 pm PST

You can buy Italian Prosecco (another sparkling white wine) for $12/bottle that tastes like a $40 bottle of Champagne.
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9. Posted by shane on Sun, Feb 11, 2007, 7:20 pm PST

there are no directions... no amounts, good luck. Oh and Korbel is $10
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10. Posted by mehndi95356 on Sun, Feb 11, 2007, 7:27 pm PST

it iz not only 4 rich ppl?!?!
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11. Posted by Deanna on Sun, Feb 11, 2007, 8:18 pm PST

My husband wouldn't eat it - I'd probably try it, but I'd be better off spending my money on a good cut of beef or pork that I know he'd eat, or making a pasta dish.
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12. Posted by Martha L on Sun, Feb 11, 2007, 8:53 pm PST

unless you're going to a fish monger, i'd be suspicious of buying tuna. the lamb is only like $10-$12 for a rack. it's really not that expensive.
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13. Posted by on Mon, Feb 12, 2007, 7:15 am PST

get them a heart shaped pizza, with his/hers favorite toppings. my heart pizza guy was from brooklyn, ny, never fails. do not forget the wine.
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14. Posted by Armywife23 on Mon, Feb 12, 2007, 9:06 am PST

Well perhaps you could search online if this isn't right for you and your spouse but if you want you could settle for the sparkling cider as well. I don't drink so that is my alternative. It sounds like a good dinner as long as both parties like that food.
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15. Posted by shernise h on Mon, Feb 12, 2007, 11:45 am PST

I think the idea is great! And you are going to pay the same price trying to impress your date at some fancy smancy restaraunt... I say make the food and have each other for desert...
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16. Posted by John H on Mon, Feb 12, 2007, 11:53 am PST

Sounds great to me. Cooking at home is usually better anyway.
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17. Posted by harleyrose on Mon, Feb 12, 2007, 1:03 pm PST

a good champagne - fetzer; simple dinners for special occasions are always the most impressive and turn out to be the most fun; modify the plan with the foods you like best - food is to be enjoyed, not a traumatic event
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18. Posted by nicol_marti on Mon, Oct 15, 2007, 5:13 pm PDT

not my cup of tea. how about cheeseburgers & beer? always a crowd pleaser!! LOL..just kidding
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19. Posted by erik_popham on Thu, Jan 31, 2008, 6:21 pm PST

Order fresh Stone Crabs at www.freshchoiceseafood.com and your Valentine will love you better. Best Stone Crab Claws from Key West! Sweet, succelent meat will win over your Valentine for sure.
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20. Posted by Kitten Morris on Sat, Feb 09, 2008, 5:50 am PST

If you want it to even taste good (unless you have a poor pallet anyways, then who cares) then this is not a meal for people on a budget, it's a luxery meal. This is deffinily not something a normal person can do on a budget, but it sounds good when I have the money to waste $50 on one meal.
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21. Posted by cwrldgames04 on Tue, Feb 12, 2008, 5:30 pm PST

I must say that this is really in an everyday budget. I use to work at Chophouse and Fish market restaurant (Salt Island in Orlando, FL) as a server, and for a meal like this we would have charged somewhere around $50 - $60 per person for a meal like this (that would have also been including one drink per person and no dessert). If you go to a true fish market (not your local grocery store) you can get the tuna at a great price, and most markets like that these days are surf and turf style markets which means you would be able to get your lamb there as well. Key thing to keep in mind is to ask, how often do they get there fish (tuna really only keeps for 3 days fresh and after the 1st day it is no longer true sushi grade tuna) and where do they get it from. A good market will get there fish directly from the fishermen themselves if not a company that does and get the fish every other day(if not everyday). The brighter the tuna the fresher it is as well. (As well as serving at the restaurant i did prep work in the kitchen) As far has the beef portion goes, I can not say that I know too much about lamb, but i would venture out on a limb and say that a lot of the same questions would apply (we sold cuts of beef i.e. filet, ribeye, strip - you get the point). I do know that again the brighter the meat the freaher it is. I would myself would still ask the same questions, how often and from where. Also, one final note on the meat dept., a good butcher at a meat and fish market WILL cut the beef anyway you like it; so if you do not know how to cut the "silverskin" off they will do it for you and more likely would cut the tuna down to the size you want. (That would also save on prep time) As far as the rest of the ingredients, well those are pretty common items and can be found in most local stores, so you should be good to go in that area. This is a great flavor profile of dishes so you would need a good wine to compliment, if you like wine. I would recommend a white wine with the tuna, Chardonay or if you like sweet to counter act the bite of the pepper a resling, and with the lamb a Merlot or Cabernet or better yet a Merlot/Cabernet blend. If you are not a red person (like myself) a good all around Chard would do just fine, and a good bottle of wine does NOT have to expensive as well. A lot of local grocery stores carry big names that you will see in restaurants for half the price you would pay in a restaurant. Now I am going to go on one last major note here (but a quick one) for dessert I would recommend something chocolate (not just for valentine's day either this is a good tip year round) with Rosa Regale sparkling wine again avaliable at most local stores in full and half bottles ranging from $10-$20 in price depending on the size. Never be afraid of food or everything that you can not afford to eat where or what "the rich people" eat - we are all able to eat the same things just have slightly different budgets and may have to make it at home and slave away instead of paying for the comfort of someone else cooking for you. Happy Eating
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22. Posted by bhimsachdeva on Wed, Feb 13, 2008, 4:00 am PST

byhnkk
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23. Posted by scarlett604 on Thu, Feb 14, 2008, 5:07 pm PST

I can make a whole meal or go to a restaurant for the price of that bottle of wine, and I would like it much better. Its all about being together anyway, not food or a sill $20 bottle of wine. I've been married 20 yrs, I'm way past needing to be impressed.
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24. Posted by sylo on Fri, Feb 15, 2008, 4:21 am PST

well should i said that am in titlle to any can of meal both slace and other things, but the problem i use to get is that i don't have money to prepare any can of meal i want at the particle time of the day. so my concerning is this, is there any way you people can sent me money to help myself and my family? please i will be very greatful if you can be of help to me. Thanks for your good information.
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