Valentine's Day Dinner

A couple of weeks ago, I had a last minute opportunity to attend the US Bocuse d'Or final at The Culinary Institute of America. Twelve teams fought to be the US representative at the main Bocuse d'Or competition in Lyon, France January 2011.

Chef Thomas Keller, is the President of the US Bocuse d'Or organization and while there I was able to get him to sign my copy of The French Laundry cookbook! (Awesome!)

Anyway.... Part of my Valentine menu was inspired by a recipe in that book and the beef broth I made, *did* come from his instructions and it took all stinking day to make. That's okay though. The flavor of that stock was A-MAZING!!!

Competition floor


Chef Daniel Boulud introducting some of the judges

One of the presentation trays as it passes the judges -- (thank you zoom lens for having the capability to get these shots from my seat in the bleachers!)


At church, we can sign up to feed the missionaries who are serving full-time. Right now, we have the cutest, SWEETEST Sister Missionaries that I just love so when I saw that they didn't have plans on the calendar for Valentine's Day (except church), I put my name down and got to scheming. I like to make food they normally don't get every day and for this holiday, I wanted to make it extra special and extra delicious!

Dinner was served in 3 courses -


{Course #1}
Sweetheart Salad w/ Goat Cheese Croquette & Sweet Potato w/ Rosemary Rolls
I made my roll dough like normal but before adding the flour and salt, I stirred in 1 cup mashed sweet potatoes and 1 Tbsp rosemary. A little extra flour is necessary due to the moistness of the sweet potatoes, but if you gauge it by how the dough pulls together, you'll have just the right amount. I loved how savory these were. Delicious.

The salad was in a parmesan bowl that I made, but I didn't keep them in the oven long enough and they flattened out. They were so delicious with this salad! What I did was use my silpat and sprinkled two semi large circles on the mat (on a cookie sheet) and popped into a 400* oven. Let it melt until nice and golden brown. Remove and let sit for a few minutes so the cheese is cool enough to handle. Slowly pull the cheese up and off the Silpat and place over an upside down bowl. Allow the cheese to cool and harden completely.

My "sweetheart" salad had mini hearts cut out of a red bell pepper, I did a zigzag cut around radishes and when pulled apart, they look like little flowers, I curled green onion sprigs by slicing the chive part and then popping in a bowl of ice water for 30 minutes. Grated carrots, sliced cucumbers, and topped with a goat cheese croquette.

To make the croquette, I cut semi-thick slices off a goat cheese log. Dipped each slice in egg wash (1 egg white + 1 Tbsp water) and then into a bowl of crushed Panko breadcrumbs.
Place all the pieces on a plate and put in the freezer for about 15-20 minutes. Heat a little oil in a small saucepan and carefully put each croquette in to fry. When golden brown on both sides, remove and sit on a paper towel to drain. Put on top of the salad. This ooey, gooey warm bit of goodness is pure heaven!




{Course 2}

Parmesan Polenta Cake, Pan-seared Pork Tenderloin, & Root Vegetable Garnish

Polenta: Bring 2 cups water and 1/2 tsp salt to boil in a saucepan. Add 3/4 cup polenta and cook until thick. Add 1 Tbsp butter and a small handful of fresh grated parmesan cheese. Taste. Season with more salt and pepper if necessary. Dump out into a 9x13 pan and refrigerate. This can be made a day before hand to cut down prep time. I used a circle cutter to cut out all the cakes. This made 12 rounds. When ready to plate, heat a skillet. Melt butter and carefully place a cake for each person in the pan. Fry until both sides are golden.

Tenderloin: This part was the easiest. Cut thick slices of tenderloin. Season well with salt, pepper, and thyme (fresh is best). Heat a skillet over medium high heat. When hot, drizzle in some olive oil and carefully place each medallion in the pan. Sear for 3-4 minutes on each side. Pop into a 350* oven until the centers are no longer squishy, but still spongy. We don't want to overcook the pork!

Root Vegetable Garnish: Peel and slice celery root into batons (rectangles). Slice those little snack size carrots into quarters. Slice a beet and then cut into very very fine dice (small squares). Take 3 cloves garlic and crush with the side of your knife. Remove the dry skin.

Heat three saucepans up with water. If you don't have three, then just use one and alternate your cooking. Put the carrot and celery root in a small pot of boiling water. Cook until just slightly fork tender (do not overcook!). Strain and put the veggies into ice water immediately to stop them from cooking any further. Drain and set aside.

Boil some more water. This time, add the beet and repeat the same method as above. You want to cook the beet separately because it will bleed color everywhere and you don't want to change the color of the other vegetables.

Finally, we're going to do the exact same thing with the garlic! Boil in water until fork tender, drain, shock with ice bath, drain and set aside.

When you're ready to plate your food, put the veggies in a little saute pan to heat back up with 1 Tbsp butter. Season with salt and pepper. I think some chopped italian parsley would have been perfect for some color. I had used up the last of my parsley to make my beef stock so I wasn't able to do this.

Savory beef sauce: Heat olive oil in a skillet. Saute chopped carrot (2), 1/2 an onion, diced, 2 stalks celery, and 1 bay leaf. When the veggies are cooked through, remove from the pan. Add 1 Tbsp butter and move around the bottom of the pan. When melted, add 1 cup red wine and 3 cups beef stock. Cook over medium high heat until the sauce has reduced by half and is starting to thicken. If it doesn't thicken, stir a little beef stock and a tsp or two of cornstarch in a small bowl. Whisk until there aren't any more lumps and then carefully add to the sauce. Stir well. Once thick (not too thick!), drain through a mesh sieve to remove any particles.

When you're ready to plate, put one of the polenta cakes in the center of the plate. Carefully stack two pieces of tenderloin on top. Spoon the vegetable garnish on top, and then drizzle with the beef sauce. Be prepared for pure silence at the dinner table. Everyone will be too busy enjoying every bite of this dish! :)

{Course 3}

Bittersweet Chocolate Charlotte

I'd been eyeing this recipe for awhile and decided it would be perfect for this dinner. What says "I love you" better than chocolate? Come on now.

To improve on the recipe, I made my own chocolate lady fingers. I have to say, WAY better than store bought but with all the eggs you need to make both the Charlotte and Lady fingers, I say buy them if you can find them. (I used over a DOZEN eggs!)

I love individual desserts for special dinners so I lined the inside of my ramekins with a parchment circle on the bottom (for easy releasing) and put lady fingers around the edge. I cut my lady fingers in half so they were flush with the top of the ramekin. Once you have sides covered, spoon in some of the chocolate mousse. Top the mousse with more lady fingers and press slightly to make sure there aren't any air holes. Cover with saran and chill overnight.

When ready to plate, I simply ran a small knife around the inside of the ramekin to unstick any lady fingers then sat a plate on top. Flip them over so the Charlotte pops out (might require some shaking of the ramekin). Pull up the parchment circle if it's still attached to the Charlotte.

I piped on some whipped cream (use fresh whipped if you can. Aerosol whipped cream will melt and deflate all over and will be a huge huge mess), drizzled with a little ganache I had in my fridge, and garnished with a white chocolate heart I made the night before.

The perfect ending to a perfect night! I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's day. When you're looking for a showstopping meal for your loved one, or if you just want to impress the pants off your guests/family, I definitely suggest this meal! You'll be the talk of the town!

.polenta with skirt steak and mushroom ragout.

When my husband, girls and I first made our trek north to New York to check out the area, we stayed in a hotel with a small kitchen. I was trying to avoid eating out for every meal because I'm sure if you've done it before, you know how old it gets, right?

One of the items I made was a creamy parmesan polenta with skirt steak and a wild mushroom ragout. It was so delicious that I knew I'd have to make it again.

You need to mentally break this meal into three separate tasks. 1)Polenta, 2)Steak, 3)Ragout. Each are very simple to make, but when you bring them all together, it makes for a very showy meal. Not only that, but you could easily have this on your table in 30 minutes! That's something I think we can all appreciate.

Let's start with the polenta. Polenta was considered a mexican peasant type food ... a lot like grits, cornmeal mush... that kind of thing. "Gruel". In recent years, however, polenta has come up in status and is now found in many upscale restaurants. This recipe is dressed up with a little parmesan and mascarpone cheese. If for any reason you can't find mascarpone, use cream cheese. It won't give you the exact flavor, but it will give you the creamy texture that makes this polenta so desireable.


In a saucepan, put 3 1/2 cups chicken stock. Bring to a boil.


While whisking, add 1/2 cup polenta to the stock. It will begin thickening after 3 minutes. Stir to make sure it doesn't burn or get too thick. If it's super super thick, add a little more stock. We don't want runny polenta but we don't want it too thick either. Season with a little salt and pepper. Don't add too much salt.


Add 1/4 cup mascarpone cheese and 1/4 cup parmesan cheese. Mix well. Taste the polenta at this stage. The cheese adds more saltiness so if you've put in too much sal beforehand, it's going to be too salty. This is why I said to not overdo it. If it needs more salt at this point, go ahead and add it.

That is all this dish needs! See what I mean? EASY!! Set the saucepan aside.

Now for the steak. You want to use skirt steak for this meal. I couldn't find skirt steak so I went with a flank cut. They're pretty comparable. Both are very lean cuts of meat and have very little fat. They are also rather thin and cook quickly.


Begin by seasoning both sides well with fresh cracked black pepper and sea salt.


Heat a skillet on medium high heat. Pour a little olive oil into the pan and then put your steak in. Wait until the pan is hot before putting your oil and steak in. The instant heat will sear the steak, which locks in all the juices and flavor. That's key for a good steak.

Let this sear on one side for 3 1/2 minutes then flip over and sear the other side for another 3 1/2 minutes.

Now if this were a skirt steak, which is MUCH thinner than flank, you'd probably be ready to pull it off the pan at this point. However, this was a thicker piece of meat so I covered the pan, lowered the heat just a smidge and let it cook through for another 3-4 minutes.

I like my steak medium rare, so if you want it more done, let it cook a few more minutes.

Once the steak is done, pull from the pan and put on a cutting board. Let it sit and "rest" for about 5 minutes before slicing.


Slice diagonally against the grain tilting the knife at a 45 degree angle. This gives you nice striations and it's easier to get thinner slices. That's what we're going for!

Now let's do the final step: mushroom ragout.


Mince 1 clove garlic.









Peel 2 shallots and slice thinly.












Clean 1 - 1 1/2 cups mushrooms. I suggest using a mixture of wild mushrooms like crimini, white, and shiitake. I had crimini on hand in the fridge and used those. Trim off the stems and slice.








Roughly chop a little italian flat leaf parsley.












Heat 1 tsp olive oil and a little butter in a skillet. Don't let them get too hot otherwise it can distort the flavor.










Add the mushrooms and stir the pan to coat them with the butter/oil.











When the mushrooms start browning, add the garlic and shallots. Stir to mix and saute for a few minutes.










When the aroma is strong, season with salt, pepper, and a little thyme. If you're using fresh thyme, toss in a few sprigs.











After the shallots start getting soft, add 1/4 cup white wine, and 1/4 cup chicken stock. Keep cooking this over medium high heat until the liquid begins to evaporate and reduce by half.

Pull from the heat. It's time to plate up!







Begin by putting some polenta on a plate. See how thick this is? It will hold it's shape like pancake batter.










Take some of your steak slices and lay them in a fan-like fashion on top of the polenta.











Spoon some of the mushroom ragout on top and then sprinkle with a little parsley. Serve immediately.

Now that you've seen each step broken down, it's important to time this right. Each step doesn't take a lot of time to make. Start with the steak because that will probably be the one that takes the longest to sear, cook, and then rest before slicing. While it's in the pan, you can quickly whip up the polenta. That can sit over low low heat while you quickly saute up the ragout. By overlapping your cooking times, you will have this meal on your table within 30 minutes. Something quick, delicious, and elegant in the time it takes to order and have pizza delivered. You can do it! Enjoy!

Printable version:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_1278489b9cq