Valentine's Dinner in Halesowen, Birmingham

...'cos  ......

Life is busy! It certainly was for the couple in Birmingham that I cooked for on Valentine's Day this year - they had only moved in to their house three weeks before. Both doctors, one of them was on nights, the other on days. 

Then there comes the pressure of what do for Valentine's Day. Go out to a restaurant and you're just one table of 2 out of a whole roomful, whereas, when you're dining in your home it's all about you.... and your other half. Even better when you don't have to spend all of that time in the kitchen though!

Heart shaped bread rolls
Starter - Salad of herb roast salmon, king prawns and mango
Main course - Involtini of chicken, brie and apples, heart shaped fondant potato, french beans and roast asparagus
Dessert - Chocolate fondant with vanilla ice cream (it's a romantic dinner winner!)

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Assiette of desserts with mini heart shaped scones - Wedding catering in Chepstow

Assiette of dessert with mini heart scones with clotted cream and jam,  lemon meringue pie,  ricotta and raspberry cheesecake, spoon of sticky toffee pudding and homemade Baileys ice cream

Heart shape scones - used in the dessert above. 

Italian meringue on lemon meringue pies gets glazed with blow torch

Looks like this will be one of the last events we will be doing at Wyelands in Chepstow - sadly the owners are taking it back into private ownership next month - they're downsizing to Wyelands, which makes you laugh slightly.

The kitchen there is infront of the dining table, so as the guests were eating the main course they could watch us putting the finishing touches to the dessert. Apparently we made it all look so easy. The secret is in the days of preparation beforehand.

Starter - pearl barley pea and mint risotto with grilled prawns, & mint pesto. No picture of the dessert -  as always so busy getting it out hot & on time forgot photo 

Related posts:

Previous assiette desserts we have served
What does 'assiette' mean? Assiette of desserts 12 July 

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You're all heart

Offal has always featured in the Benson family repetoire for as long as I can remember - kidneys and scrambled egg, kidney and sausage, liver and bacon, steak and kidney, cold tongue with salads. But it wasn't till 2 years ago I ventured as far as tripe and that was on La Rambla - it was worth the wait. And it wasn't till last week I tried cooking heart - and it wasn't even Valentines Day.

Remove the top of the heart. You can leave in the aortas et al. I prefferred to remove them - as you remove the veins from kidneys or liver because they are tough.

You just need to slip a super-sharp knife around.

I filled them with a mixture of minced lamb, breadcrumbs and fresh herbs. Then sealed them (with gives you the caramelisation flavour) in a hob-to-oven cassrole dish.
Then braised in red wine sauce, onions & thyme for 4 hours. If you have ever experienced tough heart (the edible variety) it was probably because they were just not cooked long enough. Mustard creamed potato makes a great accompaniment.

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