Aaron continued his Valentine's tradition of bringing me two bouquets, but I put them both into one vase; I couldn't really capture their majesty with my camera, in real life they're ginormous.
Another Valentine's Day tradition is that, instead of going out, we have an in-home date and cook together. Aaron found every candle we owned and lit them on the table.
We made shrimp cocktail and lemon drop martinis to start. We drank the lemon drops before I got a picture, but they were perfection.
This picture looks totally unappetizing I think, but it was one of the best meals we've ever made. Aaron made garlic mashed potatoes and they were the perfect consistency; the secret is a little gadget called a
potato ricer, and it makes super fluffy potatoes. We also made pan-seared steak tenderloin, covered in the most delicious sauce; we caramelized an onion until it was reduced to a soft golden-sweetness, then added some beef stock and reduced it down. Then we added some cream and reduced it some more before adding a little blue cheese, salt and pepper. I'm just going to be honest and admit frankly that I'm going to toot our own horn here: it was amazing. Amazing. We also made Caesar salad, but I didn't like how any of those pictures turned out.
For dessert I made creme brulee, which was nearly perfect. Nearly, because as you can tell from the picture, my brulee job had some granular troubles. I started with a too-thin layer of sugar and the custard underneath started to scramble before the sugar had properly melted, so I added some more sugar which only made things worse because then the sugar was unevenly melted. I would have used a torch, but I don't have one and the broiler is a pretty imperfect tool for this job; you can't concentrate the heat properly. Besides the grainy topping, dessert was excellent. I changed the recipe to scale it down for two and reduced the sugar a little. It took me years to figure out how to cook for two, so in the interest of helping anyone else out who doesn't want to make eight creme brulees at once, here's my recipe:
Creme Brulee for Two
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup half-and-half(you can use all whipping cream if you like)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
4 egg yolks
3 Tablespoons sugar
Preheat oven to 250.
Combine egg yolks and sugar in a medium-sized mixing bowl and stir gently. Do not whisk.
Meanwhile, heat the cream and half-and-half to a bare simmer. Remove from heat and add vanilla.
Working very slowly, gently drizzle the warm cream into the egg yolks while stirring constantly. Do not add cream all at once or the egg yolks will scramble. When combined, pour mixture through a fine mesh sieve(this step isn't absolutely necessary, but it makes it very, very smooth).
Pour mixture into two 6 oz. ramekins. Place ramekins in a water bath(the water should come about half way up the ramekin) and bake for exactly 60 minutes. Remove ramekins from water bath. When cool enough to handle, press plastic wrap directly on the surface of the custard and place in the fridge to cool for at least two hours. The longer you can let them cool, the better the texture.
If desired, once the custard has cooled you can sprinkle each one with 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar and place under a broiler, watching very closely until the sugar has melted. Cool and serve.
Matteas, enjoying a stolen lollipop from the Vanltines we made for Jack's class.
Aaron continued his Valentine's tradition of bringing me two bouquets, but I put them both into one vase; I couldn't really capture their majesty with my camera, in real life they're ginormous.
Another Valentine's Day tradition is that, instead of going out, we have an in-home date and cook together. Aaron found every candle we owned and lit them on the table.
We made shrimp cocktail and lemon drop martinis to start. We drank the lemon drops before I got a picture, but they were perfection.
This picture looks totally unappetizing I think, but it was one of the best meals we've ever made. Aaron made garlic mashed potatoes and they were the perfect consistency; the secret is a little gadget called a potato ricer, and it makes super fluffy potatoes. We also made pan-seared steak tenderloin, covered in the most delicious sauce; we caramelized an onion until it was reduced to a soft golden-sweetness, then added some beef stock and reduced it down. Then we added some cream and reduced it some more before adding a little blue cheese, salt and pepper. I'm just going to be honest and admit frankly that I'm going to toot our own horn here: it was amazing. Amazing. We also made Caesar salad, but I didn't like how any of those pictures turned out.
For dessert I made creme brulee, which was nearly perfect. Nearly, because as you can tell from the picture, my brulee job had some granular troubles. I started with a too-thin layer of sugar and the custard underneath started to scramble before the sugar had properly melted, so I added some more sugar which only made things worse because then the sugar was unevenly melted. I would have used a torch, but I don't have one and the broiler is a pretty imperfect tool for this job; you can't concentrate the heat properly. Besides the grainy topping, dessert was excellent. I changed the recipe to scale it down for two and reduced the sugar a little. It took me years to figure out how to cook for two, so in the interest of helping anyone else out who doesn't want to make eight creme brulees at once, here's my recipe:
Creme Brulee for Two
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup half-and-half(you can use all whipping cream if you like)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
4 egg yolks
3 Tablespoons sugar
Preheat oven to 250.
Combine egg yolks and sugar in a medium-sized mixing bowl and stir gently. Do not whisk.
Meanwhile, heat the cream and half-and-half to a bare simmer. Remove from heat and add vanilla.
Working very slowly, gently drizzle the warm cream into the egg yolks while stirring constantly. Do not add cream all at once or the egg yolks will scramble. When combined, pour mixture through a fine mesh sieve(this step isn't absolutely necessary, but it makes it very, very smooth).
Pour mixture into two 6 oz. ramekins. Place ramekins in a water bath(the water should come about half way up the ramekin) and bake for exactly 60 minutes. Remove ramekins from water bath. When cool enough to handle, press plastic wrap directly on the surface of the custard and place in the fridge to cool for at least two hours. The longer you can let them cool, the better the texture.
If desired, once the custard has cooled you can sprinkle each one with 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar and place under a broiler, watching very closely until the sugar has melted. Cool and serve.
Matteas, enjoying a stolen lollipop from the Vanltines we made for Jack's class.
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