Avatar's saved me having to bag Valentine's day with a marvellously offensive spray . Yes Valentine's Day is crapalapdap but it did get me thinking about chocolate and then that I hardly ever make any desserts, and how all this time I've been cooking for me , my wants, my needs, my ambitions, and leaving Toni to fend for herself with some Neopolitan ice-cream and tinned fruit salad that I'd nick the cherry out of…
So a mousse recipe I found it was. Doing this I thought dinner should be a wee bit special but still light and Veal Scallopini came to mind. Veal Scallopini made me think of Ruffino Chianti and as I pull out a couple of old champagne(?) glasses for the mousse, I realised the unifying theme was – romantic evening out circa 1972 extraordanaire. All I needed was an excuse to slip into my silky thigh length kimono with the tiger on the back.
Veal Scallopini with a Lemon Sauce
Two veal scallopini steaks (ask your butcher) pounded thinly then lightly coated with flour . Fry on each side in a heavy pan in 2tbs of butter and oil . Quick and hot! Remove the scallopini, and the deglaze with 2tbs of lemon juice and 1tbs of butter . Add a little chopped parsely . Return the scallopini to the pan to quickly reheat (don't cook it) on both sides with the sauce.
Served on bought Cappelleti di Pollo with a simple white wine and cream sauce with a little of the lemon sauce and some lemon zest .
Chocolate Mousse with Strawberry Marinated in Port
Oddly more like creamy chocolate crunch as the chocolate turned into crunchy little bits . May have been my losing patience with incremental microwaving. Any idea people?
Melted 100gm of Cocolo Fairtrade milk chocolate with just under a tablespoon of butter until smooth (ideally). Allow to cool.
Whisk two eggs yolks and 2tbs of sugar whisked together over the improvised double boiler of a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water. After four minutes it should be thick so remove and continue to whisk until pale and cool. Add to the chocolate and then mixed in with 100ml of lightly whisked King Island Pure Cream .
Added one strawberry marinated in port to each glass and then filled with mousse. I sliced the strawberries horizontally and the put it back together again so it didn't have to be eaten in one go as slicing with a spoon in a champagne glass invites danger, no? A splash of port to fill the slight indent around the strawberry.
Ruffino 2002 Chianti
Chianti so rarely disappoints me. Slightly chilled.
And?
The chianti had the filtered through a bag of socks taste that I love for some reason (repressed foot fetishism?). The mousse was not the saccharine fluff I'd had ages before but a solid amalgam of milk products and chocolate and a crunchy delight, an unwitting success. The veal and pasta was a little too lemony. I should have kept the pasta sauce just plain cream and wine to balance. Toni though, said that the lemon taste was just the thing to offset the humid weather. That and the 6-pack of Beck's, what a doll.
And in the spirit of things, Santos has valentine's music if you're quick.
[I don't think I've had the "post as a redemptive journey" yet, so there ya go genre buffs – collect the whole set]