Valentine’s Recipes; Cook Up Some Love

What could be better than a whole day dedicated to love? Maybe a dedicated to love and delicious food?

Whether you’re feeling sexy and spicy or seductive and saucy, these Valentine’s recipes are sure to perk up proceedings this February.

Valentine’s Recipes – Strawberries, Mint, Oyster

• Strawberry Granita
• 1kg Strawberries
• 125g bunch of mint, leaves picked from stalks
• 50g Cabernet Sauvignon Vinegar

1. In a blender puree the strawberries, then pour over the mint leaves and leave to sit in the fridge overnight.

2. Strain the puree through a fine chinoise sieve, whisk in the vinegar and freeze. Ripe UK strawberries have a perfect sugar level for forming the right crystaline structure for granita, which makes them excellent for this recipe, about 15% BRIX. As a result, no sugar needs to be added to this recipe.

3. To serve, carefully open your oysters, pour off a little of the brine, and use a fork to scrape some of the granita over the top.

Valentine’s Recipes – Berry special Valentine’s cake

There’s no need to buy a special cake tin to make this extra special cake, a large Swiss roll tin or roasting tin will work fine with a homemade paper template.

Cuts into 8 slices
Prep: 40 minutes
Cook: 15-18 minutes

Cake layers

• 175g (6oz) soft margarine
• 175g (6oz) caster sugar
• 150g (5oz) self-raising flour
• 25g (1oz) cocoa
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 3 eggs
• Filling
• 100g (4oz) dark chocolate, broken into pieces
• 200ml (7fl oz) double cream
• 150g (5oz) raspberries
• 225g (8oz) strawberries, hulled, sliced
• Little icing sugar, sifted

1. Preheat the oven to 180oC/350oF/Gas Mark 4. Grease the base and sides of a 25 x 38cm (10 x 15 inch) Swiss roll tin or roasting tin with the same base measurement and line the base with a piece of non-stick baking paper. Add the margarine and sugar to the bowl of an electric mixer or food processor, sift in the flour, cocoa and baking powder then add the eggs and beat until smooth, or mix in a bowl with a wooden spoon.
2. Spoon the cake mixture into the lined tin and spread into an even layer. Bake for 15-18 minutes until the cake springs back when lightly pressed in the centre of the tin with fingertips. Leave to cool for 15 minutes then loosen the edges and turn out on to a wire rack. 
3. When cold, peel off the lining paper and fold the paper into three triangles, with the two outer triangles going one way and the centre one pointing the other. Draw a large heart in one of the triangles that is about 14 x 20 cm (51/2 x 8 inches) then cut out, and use this as a template to cut two more hearts from the other triangles. Lay the templates on the cake and cut around them with a small sharp knife. Check the shapes are the same by stacking the cakes one on top of the other and trimming a little off the sides if needed, then separate the cakes once more. 
4. Melt the chocolate in a bowl set over a saucepan of very gently simmering water for about 5 minutes. Stir until smooth then take off the pan. Slowly whisk in the cream until thick and glossy then chill in the fridge for about 15 minutes until thick enough to spread. 
5. Spread the cream mixture evenly over all three cake layers.  Arrange a single row of raspberries around the edge of one of the cakes, then crumble the rest and arrange with the sliced strawberries over the other two layers. Carefully stack the cakes together on a pedestal plate, if you have one, with the raspberry edged cake on top then dust the raspberries with a little sifted icing sugar.  Chill in the fridge until ready to serve.

Valentine’s Recipes – Mini blueberry Cheesecakes

Make these easy, no cook cheesecakes the night before and leave in the fridge. If you have room, there are some spare for second helpings or just freeze the extras with a little pot of blueberries for another time.

Makes 8
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 4-5 minutes
Chilling time: 5 hours or overnight

Biscuit base
75g (3oz) digestive biscuits
25g (1oz) butter
2 teaspoons golden syrup

Cheesecake
300g (11oz) full fat cream cheese
65g (21/2oz) caster sugar
1 lemon, grated rind and juice
200ml (7fl oz) double cream

Topping
1 teaspoon cornflour
Juice of ½ lemon
2 tablespoons water
40g (11/2oz) caster sugar
200g (7oz) Chilean blueberries

1)    Add the biscuits to a small plastic bag, seal the top then crush the biscuits with a rolling pin. Heat the butter and golden syrup in a small saucepan until melted, stir in the biscuit crumbs and mix together.  Divide between 8, 75ml (3fl oz) heart shaped sections in a flexible silicone cake mould. Press the biscuits into a thin layer with the back of a teaspoon. Chill while making the filling.

 

2)    Add the cream cheese, caster sugar and lemon rind to a bowl and whisk together briefly until just mixed. Gradually whisk in the lemon juice and the cream until smooth and thick.

3)    Spoon the cheesecake mixture into crumb lined moulds then spread into an even layer and swirl the tops with the back of a spoon. Chill for 5 hours or overnight. 

 

4)    To make the blueberry topping, add the cornflour to a small saucepan, stir in the lemon juice and mix until smooth then add the water, sugar and blueberries. Cook over a medium heat for 2-3 minutes, stirring until the blueberries are just beginning to soften and the sauce has thickened to become a rich blueberry colour. Leave to cool, cover and chill until ready to serve.

 

5)    To serve, loosen the edges of the heart moulds and press up from the base, removing the cheesecakes with a small spatula. Transfer to serving plates and spoon the blueberries on top.    

Cook’s tip
If you find the cheesecakes a little tricky to remove from the moulds or haven’t had much time to chill them, freeze for 30 minutes to firm up then try again. 

Valentine’s Recipes – Blackberry and Goats Cheese Tarts

INGREDIENTS:

• 14 ounces puff pastry (shop bought)
• 2 punnet of blackberries or raspberries
• Juice of 1 lime
• 10 ounces of goats cheese log
• 1 egg
• Splash of milk
• For the syrup – 1 red chilli seeded and chopped, 1 tbls granulated sugar
• Juice of 1 lemon, 2 tbls olive oil, salt and pepper

METHOD:

Pre-heat the oven to 180oc/Gas mark 6. Roll out the puff pastry to a rectangle 40cm by 250cm, place it on a pre greased baking sheet and place into the fridge. Using a hot, wet knife cut the goats cheese in half-length ways and then into at least 15 slices. Remove the pastry from the refrigerator, and using a fork puncture holes into it. Beat the egg with a little milk and brush all the edges of the pastry, cover the pastry with the goat’s cheese, sprinkle over all the berries and place this into the fridge whilst you make the syrup.

Finely chop up the chillies, add to a saucepan with the sugar lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Gently heat the mixture to just dissolve the sugar. Remove the pastry and goats cheese from the fridge, using a pastry brush over the berries and goats cheese with the syrup and bake in the oven for 20 -30 minutes. Allow to cool.

Serves beautifully with green leaves, and walnut and blackberry vinaigrette:

In a large bowl add 1/2 tsp of English mustard. A good pinch of salt, and sugar. 2 tbls vinegar, 6 tbls walnut oil and 6 blackberries. Whisk these ingredients together vigorously, pass through a sieve and finish with a bunch of finely chopped chives.