Monday, February 23, 2009

Love Love Love

Jason cooked all the dinners the week leading up to Valentine's Day.  He spoiled me with some pretty fantastic dishes-  both delicious as well as visually stimulating! He is becoming an incredible chef! Thank you Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsey! (the chefs whose cookbooks inspire J) :)





I did make the dessert for valentine's day - the red velvet cupcakes by Sprinkles. :)

2 comments:

Turbogroove said...

Here is the recipe to go with the first salad...
Fifteen Christmas Salad by Jamie Oliver
Number of Servings: 4
4 x 100g/ 3.5oz balls of buffalo mozzarella
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 lemon
4 peaches or clementines, peeled and sliced into 1.5 inch thick
2 handfuls of rocket, washed and dried
1 treviso or radicchio, roughly torn, washed and dried
A small bunch of fresh mint, leaves picked
1 x lemon oil dressing recipe (see below to make)
4 slices speck (smoked prosciutto)
Aged balsamic vinegar
Instructions:
• Lemon Oil Dressing A classic, delicate all-round dressing that’s especially lovely on herb or smoked salmon salads. Use the dressing within 24 hours for the best flavour. 3 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (the juice of approximately 1 lemon). 10 tablespoons best-quality extra virgin olive oil. Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Put the lemon juice and oil into a jam jar and season. Tighten the lid and shake. Try out your dressing on a salad leaf and adjust the seasoning to taste.
• Get your individual serving plates and tear the balls of mozzarella into rough chunks on each plate (about 4 chunks/ball). Sprinkle with salt and pepper and grate over lemon zest (be generous with the lemon zest).
• Add your fruit - don't be limited by peaches or clementines, they aren't in season here right now so I used strawberries the first time and kiwi fruit the second and both were equally as pleasing. Be creative.
• In a bowl, dress the rocket, treviso or radicchio (or spinach) and mint leaves in a little dressing, reserving a few small picked mint leaves for serving.
• On a chopping board, lay out a slice of speck and use this to pick up and wrap about a quarter of the dressed leaves.
• Place the little package on one of the plates, on topo fo the clementines slices. Repeat this for the other plates. Serve with a shaving of Parmesan, a springle of sprinkling of mint leaves and a drizzle of aged balsamic vinager. Eat immediately!

irideout said...

Wow!!! Those dishes look fantastic!! Like they were made by professionals for sure. I bet they tasted as good as they looked. Love your square dishes, too. Very stylish.