16
Cris Harshman on 16-02-2007 
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...I mentioned previously my wife and I were cooking dinner together for Valentine’s. The dinner was a success, so I thought I’d share my recipes. The dinner consisted of a salad and a mojo-style fondue.
Salad: wilted spinach & raspberry (thanks Dave for help on this one)
Ingredients
One bunch fresh spinach
Large-leaf green lettuce
Crumbled Gargonzola or Bleu cheese
Nuts (I used maple-crusted pecans, but walnuts have worked fine too)
Fresh raspberries
Tomato (I prefer vine-ripened)
Avocado
Balsamic vinaigrette
Raspberry vinaigrette
Assembly
Wilt the spinach - I clipped the spinach and put in a saucepan, added one tablespoon each of balsamic and raspberry vinaigrette, covered the pan and put it on low heat for a few minutes. Unfortunately, I didn’t keep track of how long (I was adding raspberry-jam hearts to her plate), but it shouldn’t take longer than 3-5 minutes or so. The longer it stays in the saucepan, the more it resembles canned spinach. I plated it by making a bowl out of one large leaf of lettuce, started with the spinach and added ingredients. The sweetness of the raspberries, tomato and nuts went nicely with the saltiness of the cheese. This salad was an absolute success, probably my favorite part of the meal.
Fondue: Mojo-style
Ingredients (I adapted this recipe.)
1 head garlic
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
Cayenne pepper
Lemon pepper
1/2 cup crushed pineapple
2 cups orange juice
1/2 cup lime juice
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 cup minced onion
2 teaspoons oregano
1/4 cup virgin olive oil
Assembly
Peel and press garlic, then mash with salt and pepper. Stir in juice, onion and pineapple and put on low heat for at least 30 minutes. Add oregano, lemon pepper and cayenne pepper to taste. About ten minutes before transferring to the fondue pot, whisk in oil.
I bought a large chicken breast, some beef (it was some sort of blade cut, but I prefer tenderloin), mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes and raviolis. I have made potstickers from scratch in the past, but dinner preparation was running long as it was and we were hungry. When cooking the items, keep in mind to use separate fondue forks for meat (so the raw meat doesn’t touch the utensils and plates you eat with), leave the meat in long enough to thoroughly cook (I think it took between 3-5 minutes on 300), and be careful with raviolis and potstickers lest they burts and ooze cheese into the broth (I didn’t mind, but you might).
For sauces, we used a sweet sesame sauce, a BBQ sauce and a green goddess dip I made from scratch:
Dipping sauce: Green Goddess
Ingredients (I adapted these recipes here and here.)
3/4 cup fesh terragon
3/4 cup fresh chives
3/4 cup Italian parsley
3/4 cup green onion
3 tblsp lemon juice
3/4 cup light sour cream
3/4 cup white wine vinegar
salt, garlic, pepper to taste
Assembly
Throw it all in a blender and turn it on. It didn’t quite taste right, so I added 2tblsp of yogurt; I wish I had added mayonnaise instead - I think that would have been perfect. As it was, the vinegar and terragon really made this sauce. After blending it all up, put it in a dish and stick it in the fridge for at least 20 minutes to let it thicken.
How about you - have a favorite Valentine or special meal to share?
Thank you for visiting The Life Ledger. If you enjoyed this article, check out the related posts below and subscribe to our feed.
| 2.9 |
No related posts.
You’re welcome for the salad tip! In discussing it with Mrs Chef, we got afraid that the cheese of the salad would be over powering for the fondue.
Is there no broth in the mojo fondue?
Hi Nhu, thanks for stopping by. No, I didn’t use any broth for this one, it was all citrus juice. It probably wouldn’t ruin it to cut it with chicken broth though.