Cooking for someone is always an act of love, regardless of the date. Still, it can be fun to have an excuse to dial things up a notch, just because, so, leaning into a Valentine’s Day theme, I have still beet-ing hearts, bittersweet oranges, heady, floral spices, prosecco and decadent chocolateness. Maybe I am an old romantic, after all?
Beet-ing hearts salad (pictured top)
Blood orange looks particularly dramatic here, but a regular navel orange will also work just fine, if that’s all you have to hand.
Prep 10 min
Cook 20 min if using cooked beetroot, 80 min if using raw
Serves 2
250g beetroot (ie, 1 large one or 2 smaller ones), scrubbed clean but skin left on, or 250g shop-bought cooked beetroot
1 small shallot, peeled and cut into 1mm-thick rounds (20g)
1 blood orange (or regular orange), zest finely grated, to get 1 tsp
½ tsp fennel seeds, finely crushed in a mortar
1 tsp maple syrup
20ml olive oil
1¾ tsp red-wine vinegar
Fine sea salt
90g ricotta
60g radicchio, leaves picked and roughly torn into three pieces
If you’re working with raw beetroot, heat the oven to 220C (200C fan)/425F/gas 7. Wrap the beetroot in foil, put it on a lined baking tray and roast for an hour, until it’s easily pierced with the tip of a sharp knife. If you’re using shop-bought cooked beetroot, skip this step.
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, mix the shallot, orange zest, fennel seeds, maple syrup, a tablespoon of oil, a teaspoon and a half of the vinegar and an eighth of a teaspoon of salt.
Top and tail the orange, then, working around its natural curves, cut away the skin and pith. Cut the flesh into eight chunks, removing and discarding any pith from the centre as you go.
When the beetroot is cool enough to handle, slide off the skin (wear rubber gloves, so you don’t stain your hands), then cut the beetroot into eight equal pieces (or four if working with two smaller beetroots). Set aside 60g cooked beetroot, put the rest in a small bowl with the remaining teaspoon of oil, quarter-teaspoon of vinegar and a pinch of salt, and toss to combine.
Put the reserved beetroot in the small bowl of a food processor with the ricotta and a quarter-teaspoon of salt and blitz smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as you go.
Just before serving, mix the torn radicchio leaves through the shallot dressing. Put half the ricotta mixture on each of two plates, top with the radicchio mix, beetroot wedges and pieces of orange, spoon any extra shallot dressing over the top and serve.
Seafood in saffron and cascabel chilli broth
Get all your prep done in advance, because, once the pan is on the heat, things move very fast. As ever, use the freshest seafood you can get your hands on, which means buying it from a fishmonger, if you can.
Prep 15 min
Cook 20 min
Serves 2
1 dry cascabel chilli, stem and seeds discarded, flesh finely chopped
⅛ tsp smoked paprika
2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to drizzle
70g fresh fennel (ie, about ¼ large bulb), 50g finely chopped, the rest finely sliced (on a mandoline, ideally)
10g fresh coriander, finely chopped
1½ tsp lemon juice
150ml chicken stock
¼ tsp loosely packed saffron, roughly crushed and steeped in 1 tbsp boiling water
1 shallot, peeled, halved and cut into thin half-moons (70g)
1 stick celery, trimmed and finely sliced
Fine sea salt
2 tsp tomato paste
100ml prosecco (or any other dry white wine)
10 mussels, cleaned (500g)
100g sustainably sourced, skin-on white fish fillets (sea bass or similar), cut into 4cm cubes
12 sustainably sourced king prawns, peeled and deveined (100g)
30g cavolo nero, leaves stripped off and roughly chopped, stems discarded or saved for stock
2 thick slices sourdough, cut in half
Put the chilli and paprika in a small heatproof bowl. In a small pan, heat a tablespoon of oil until it’s visibly hot, but not smoking, then pour it over the chilli and paprika and leave to cool. Mix in the sliced fennel, coriander and lemon juice, then set aside.
Put the stock and the saffron and its steeping water in a small saucepan and heat gently.
Put a medium saucepan for which you have a lid on a medium-high heat and add the remaining tablespoon of oil. Once hot, add the diced fennel, shallot, celery and half a teaspoon of salt, and cook, stirring, for a minute, until lightly softened. Add the tomato paste, cook, stirring, for another minute, then turn up the heat to high and quickly add the prosecco and mussels, put on the lid and leave the mussels to steam open; check after a minute – if they haven’t started to open, cover again and leave to cook for 30 seconds more.
Once all the mussels have opened (discard any that do not), take off the lid, pour in the hot saffron stock and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat to medium-low, stir in the fish, prawns, and cavolo nero, leave to cook for a minute, then take off the heat, cover the pan and put to one side while you grill the bread.
Put a griddle pan on a high heat and, once hot, grill the bread on both sides until toasted, then take off the griddle and lightly drizzle oil over both sides.
Divide the soup between two large bowls, top with the fennel mixture, tuck a couple of pieces of toast into the side of each bowl, and serve hot.
Coffee chocolate fondant with tahini mascarpone
These can be assembled a day ahead, if you like, ready to be cooked on the night. They also keep well in the freezer; if baking from frozen, however, add four and a half minutes to the cooking time.
Prep 30 min
Chill 2 hr
Cook 15 min
Serves 2
2 tsp tahini
30g mascarpone
45g caster sugar, plus 1 tsp extra
Flaked sea salt
50g unsalted butter
1 tbsp cocoa powder, plus ½ tsp extra to serve
50g 70%-cocoa dark chocolate, finely chopped
1½ tsp instant espresso powder
1 egg
25g plain flour
1 tsp sesame seeds, toasted
In a small bowl, whisk the tahini, mascarpone, a teaspoon of sugar and an eighth of a teaspoon of flaked salt, until smooth and well combined. Spoon the mix on to a plate lined with greaseproof paper in two roughly 22g mounds, then freeze for at least an hour, or until frozen solid.
Once the cream is frozen, start making the chocolate base. Put the butter in a small heatproof bowl and set it over a small saucepan of barely simmering water. Once the butter has melted, liberally brush some of it over the base and sides of two 170ml pudding moulds (or use two moulds from a regular muffin tray, though you’ll need to take great care when unmoulding them later). Refrigerate the moulds for two minutes, until the butter coating sets, then dust with the cocoa powder and shake off any excess. Put the chocolate, coffee and an eighth of a teaspoon of salt in the hot butter bowl, take the pan off the heat and leave the chocolate to melt in the residual heat. Once melted, stir with a spatula to make a glossy sauce.
Put the egg and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk and beat for three minutes on medium speed, until pale and fluffy. Sift the flour into the egg mix, then pour in the chocolate mixture and whisk again, this time on low speed and scraping down the sides of the bowl as you go, until everything is well combined. Spoon 50g of the mixture into each pudding mould, to fill them by about half, then lay a piece of the frozen mascarpone cream smallest side down on top. Divide the remaining chocolate mixture between the moulds and refrigerate for at least an hour.
Meanwhile, lightly crush the sesame seeds in a mortar, then mix with a quarter-teaspoon of salt.
To bake the fondants, heat the oven to 220C (200C fan)/425F/gas 7. Put the moulds on a baking tray, bake for 10 minutes, then remove and leave to rest for three minutes. Using a kitchen cloth, carefully invert the fondants on to two small plates, dust with the extra cocoa powder, sprinkle the sesame salt on top and serve warm.
