Adding a little heat to your love life.

  Sometimes we are looking to add a little heat or a little spice to our love lives. If that is what you are searching for, look in your kitchen. That is where the stove and the spice rack are located. If your idea of a romantic evening is a trip to the local restaurant, I wish you well. If you want to try a special meal that will bring you closer together, try cooking it together. It is a really nice bonding experience and might learn a new skill. A meal cooked together with love will taste so much better than any meal cooked by a faceless chef in an anonymous restaurant kitchen.
  For Valentines day we decided to head to the kitchen to prepare a really tasty gourmet supper that is not terribly difficult, but will taste amazing.

Pepper Lime Fettuccine

Lobster Alfredo

Grana Padano Asparagus

Molten Lava Cake

If this seems like a meal that you would love to see on your menu keep reading. The recipes are coming. We start with the dessert as it needs a bit of prep time to cool between stages.

Molten Lava Cake

Center

2 oz or 2 squares Dark chocolate

¼ cup heavy cream

Cake

4 oz or 4 squares Dark chocolate

8 Tbsp butter

2 whole eggs

2 egg yolks

1/3 cup sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

¼ cup flour

To make the centers, melt chocolate and cream in a double boiler or microwave on medium power. Whisk gently to blend. Refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm. Roll into 6 balls and refrigerate until needed.

To make the cake, heat oven to 400F. Coat six 4oz ramekins with butter or spray with no-stick spray. Melt chocolate and butter in double boiler of microwave on medium. With a blender, whisk eggs, egg yolks, sugar and vanilla on high speed for about 5 minutes or until thick and light. Fold melted chocolate and flour into egg mixture until just combined.  Spoon batter into ramekins and add a chocolate ball to the center of each one.

Place ramekins on a cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes or until cake is firm, this keeps any potential spills contained. Remove from the oven and let rest on the counter for 5 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the ramekins and invert onto a plate. Top with whipped cream or a spoon of ice cream and serve.

We used stainless steel prep bowls to cook the cakes and they turned out fine.

Next we have the sauce, which can be reheated to add to the pasta. It keeps really well and reheats well for leftovers and can also be frozen to have later.

 

Lobster Alfredo

1 medium onion finely chopped

2 cloves garlic minced

1/3 cup butter

1 can or 12 oz lobster meat well drained

¼ cup white wine

1cup heavy cream

1 cup grated Grana Padano or other hard parmesan style cheese.

Pinch of nutmeg

Salt and pepper to taste

Chop onion and mince garlic and sauté in butter over medium heat until tender. Add lobster and continue to sauté until the sauce takes on a nice orange color from the lobster. Add white wine and cook until liquid is evaporated. Pour in cream and heat until sauce starts to thicken slightly. Add cheese and stir over heat until cheese melts. Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste.  Pour over plated pasta.  This makes a fairly thin sauce which helps to keep it from being too rich. If you want a thicker sauce, cook it longer before adding the cheese or you could add some flour to the sauté stage to make a roux which will help thicken the sauce.

 The pasta will come next.

Pepper Lime Fettuccine

2 cups all purpose flour

½ tsp salt

2 large eggs

¼ cup water

1 tsp olive oil

Crushed pepper

Zest of 1 lime

Mix flour and salt and make a well in the mixture. Add eggs, oil and water and mix thoroughly.  Knead dough well until smooth and elastic.  Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest about ½ hour.

Divide dough into 4 parts and roll out thin on well floured surface, or run it through a pasta maker at increasingly thinner settings.  Once the dough is rolled out thinly, either cut in desired strips with a knife or pass through the fettuccine cutter on the pasta maker.  Boil the pasta in a large pot of seasoned water, cooking until the pasta floats to the top. Drain and cover with sauce.

For the asparagus, just snap off the woody ends of a pound of asparagus and place in a greased baking dish one layer deep.  Drizzle with olive oil and dot with a little butter. Season with salt and pepper then top with grated Grana Padano or other hard parmesan style cheese. Bake in the oven at 400F for 15-20 minutes. Remove and place on plate beside pasta.

This was a fantastic meal, one we truly enjoyed more than any restaurant meal we could have had that day. It was fun to cook together and made the whole afternoon of preparation part of the celebration of the special day. 

Try cooking together and yo may find the ingredients in the kitchen to add a little heat and spice to your love life.

And don't forget the pets when you make a meal for that special someone.