A Valentine's Day Dinner Guide: My Stimulus Package for Romance

I'm really looking forward to Valentine's Day this year, it'll be nice to think of something other than the economy and big bailouts when I hear the words 'stimulus' and 'package.' At least for one day, and night, stimulation will be aided by food and lead to the recovery of romance.

Although a romantic Valentine's dinner should always include one or two items deemed aphrodisiacs, to serve course after course of aphrodisiacs could send the wrong message—if you need all those special foods to get excited, what's that say about your date? Valentine's dinners, like Valentine's dates, should be a reflection of personal taste, not a reflection of what others say you should like, and they should always stimulate romance.

For these reasons, when I was thinking about a menu for Valentine's Day to share with my readers, it hit me that no one menu could possibly work for all the lovers out there. So instead, I've chosen to provide guidance rather than a strict menu, a stimulus package—so to speak--for a romantic evening.

Appetizer Course

Valentine's is a special occasion dinner, so don't skip the appetizer course. It takes a bit more effort, but isn't your honey worth it?

Besides the famed aphrodisiac oysters, other great foods for amorous appetizers are baked Brie, caviar, smoked salmon, Prosciutto, steamed artichokes, dips, olives and other similar savories that pair well with bread or crackers. The point being to eat your appetizer with your hands, thus inducing the need to lick your fingers with each bite. My advice for this course is to go with the bread / cracker accompaniments you both love, serve the course on the coffee-table and seat yourselves on the couch, then keep the flatware and napkins on hold.

First Course

Depending on the size of your appetite, you may choose to skip a first course and move straight from the appetizer to the main course. The advantage of adding a first course is that it gives you some extra wiggle room time-wise—and otherwise—in case you're delayed getting yourselves to the table.

For this reason, I like soup for a first course. Soup's a pretty independent food, you can make it days in advance, and it can sit and wait on your stove until you want to serve it—it won't get overcooked or cold waiting for you. Any soup you love enough to say "Mmmm" and "Ahhh" while you eat it will do the trick. To up the Valentine's factor, find some heart-shaped bowls or ramekins and serve the soup in them, or make heart-shaped croutons using a small cookie-cutter.

Main Course

For Valentine's dinner, you want something absolutely delicious and not normal weeknight fare, but maybe you don't want something too fussy or requiring too much work à la minute. In this case, a Braise is a perfect main. Braises cook slowly, don't need basting, and the longer they simmer in the oven, the better they get. While I love veal Osso Buco, there's hundreds of braises made with all kinds of meats (and vegetables), so just choose your favorite and let it take care of itself while you take care of your date.

Some couples truly enjoy cooking with each other, even on romantic occasions—perhaps especially on romantic occasions. If you're in this category, you may want to get yourselves in the kitchen together, wear sexy aprons (or scant little under your normal aprons), then make a mess and have some fun. In this case, just choose a main course you both love, one that evokes those Mmmms and Ahhhhs—sounds similar to those we make when... well, you know— then turn up the heat and get creative.

Dessert



There's no skipping dessert on Valentine's Day. As with everything else you choose to make, dessert ought to be something you both love. Perhaps one of the most romantic (and easy) desserts to share at home is a Chocolate Fondue, complete with a bowl of Chantilly (melted chocolate and whipped cream, you catch my drift). Chocolate is another famed aphrodisiac, and Fondue can be accompanied by long-stemmed strawberries, cherries, amoretti, biscotti, meringues, ice cream, and whatever else your hearts desire. You can make the accompaniments yourself in advance, or just buy them if you're short on time.

Me personally, I love cake, so of course my Valentine's dinners are followed by a heart-shaped cake made with love by my man. You can make almost any cake in advance, or simply go out and buy one from your favorite bakery or patisserie. I also want a box of chocolates at dessert, my favorites being Recchiuti Confections, La Maison du Chocolat and Jacques Torres Chocolates. My man and I also like to make our own confections, our favorite for this Valentine's Day being salted chocolate caramels.


Drinks

What would Valentine's Day be without Champagne? I don't remember, and I don't want to be reminded! As I recently wrote a feature on Champagne, I'll just refer you to this article for more on real French bubbly.

Valentine's Day coming in winter, I love to end the evening with a steamy cup of spiked hot chocolate. But my idea of hot chocolate doesn't involve powder, it involves real chocolate. It's simple enough, just heat your milk almost (but not all the way) to boiling, remove it from the heat, and drop your chopped chocolate straight into the milk. Wait a minute for it to melt a bit then whisk it, then add the liqueur of your choice. I use about 2oz of dark chocolate per 8oz of milk, my favorite being El Rey of Venezuela, followed by Scharffen Berger of Berkeley, California. Then, of course, I top the cup with fresh whipped cream and a sprinkle of cocoa powder or chocolate shavings (cut a heart shape out of some paper and sprinkle the cocoa/chocolate through it).

Whatever you choose to make for Valentine's Day, remember it's all about the love. Loving the person, loving the process of cooking and baking, and loving to eat. While aphrodisiacs have their place in a Valentine's dinner, they shouldn't be the only thing that stimulates romance, the entire evening, and every course served, should be planned and carried out with love in your heart, and lovin' on your mind.


All of the heart-shaped cakes featured in this article were made for me by Chef Patissier Damien Herrgott, Executive Pastry Chef at soon-to-open Bosie Tea Parlor. The pink cake is Pierre Hermé's famed Ispahan, which Damien fell in love with during his four years as Chef Adjoint at Pierre Hermé in Paris, the other two are his own creations.
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Champagne: A Few Facts on Real French Bubbly

We all love Champagne this time of year, but nobody loves Champagne—anytime of year, in fact— like the French. My first holiday season with a French man brought this fact home, literally, with more Champagne than I could have imagined. With cousins visiting from France, cousins who produce Champagne for Moët et Chandon, there was an obscene amount of bubbly, most of it unlabeled, from the private family reserve.

It would be hard to describe with any clarity just what that first French-infused Christmas and New Year's Eve were like. After all, with so much Champagne flowing, that particular week from Christmas to New Year is pretty much one big, bubbly blur. Since that holiday, we haven't had his cousins to visit, but we still go for the Champagne big time, as you can see by my Fridge.



Shopping for Champagne

First things first, even if you already know this—I'm always surprised how many people don't know—Champagne comes from only one place in the world, the region of Champagne, France. Anything else must be labeled "Sparkling Wine" or "Champenoise." While there are a few Sparkling Wines out there that I have heard are pretty decent (mostly from California, Australia and New Zealand), I don't really drink the stuff. If it's not real Champagne, it's not usually on my table. The only sparkling wine I genuinely like is Lambrusco, a sparkling Rosé produced in my home town of Reggio nell'Emilia, Italy (Trader Joe's has a very nice one for a super bargain price).

If you're planning to drink a lot of Champagne in one night, and you don't have family bringing you cases from France, then you should consider buying a Magnum (= 2 bottles), a Jeroboam (= 4 bottles), a Rihoboam (= 6 bottles), or a Methuselah (=8 bottles). The sizes go all the way up to the ludicrously large Melchizedek, which holds 40 bottles. Thing is, you will save some dough by getting these larger bottles rather than buying their volume equivalent in normal, 750ml bottles. Plus, it is a fact that the Champagne in a Magnum and a Jeroboam actually taste better and are more bubbly than the standard size, and the Jeroboam is the best. But, this isn't the case as the bottles get larger than the Jeroboam.



Champagne Brands and Labels

While all real Champagne is better than Sparkling Wine, the best of the best are Louis Roederer's Cristal Champagne, Laurent-Perrier's Grand Siècle, Krug Cuvée, and any Moët et Chandon Vintage Dom Perignon. Of course Louis Roederer and Laurent-Perrier have other Champagnes that won't cost nearly as much and will be pretty darn fabulous even if they're not the top label. I never shell out the big bucks for a bottle (I let others do that for me), but if I stick to buying real Champagne—even a $40-$80 bottle like a Perrier-Jouët or Veuve-Cliquot—I'm never disappointed.

When it comes to reading labels, there's way more to know than I can tell you here, but I'll just give a few basics that will help you navigate. First, it's good to know that most all Champagnes are a blend of the Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes. Any single grape Champagnes will be labeled "Blanc de Blanc" when it's pure Chardonnay, and "Blanc de Noir" when it's a pure Pinot Noir or Meunier.

The label designations that let you know how much alcohol is in the Champagne (it varies), are Extra Brut, Brut, Sec, Demi-Sec, Doux and Extra Doux, with Extra Brut being the most alcohol and Extra Doux being the least. You may be surprised to know that a Vintage or Reserve designation is actually given by the producer, according to what they deem is a particularly good year, but there are no regulations there to follow, it's basically just the producer's opinion. However, a Cuvée class Champagne does have regulatory standards to meet, so it's generally better than a Vintage or a Reserve. In any case, a Vintage, Reserve, or Cuvée are all best drunk about five-ten years from the year on the label.



Pouring and Preservation

My last tips are to always pour your Champagne against the side of a tilted flute, to control the bubble overflow. Also, pour Champagne into glasses that weren't washed in a dishwasher, but hand-washed. Even the slightest film left from a dishwasher isn't great when mixed with Champagne. If, for some unknown reason, you should have an unfinished bottle you want to save, get a proper Champagne stopper and it'll last one extra day. A wine stopper just doesn't work on Champagne.

While Champagne is never super cheap, really, who wants to drink something super cheap for a celebration? But, if you're on a tight budget, supplement just one bottle of Champagne with however many bottles of Lambrusco from Reggio nell'Emilia because it's a good, inexpensive companion.

As I gear up for that time of year when the Champagne flows freely, I can take comfort that one other wonderful thing about Champagne is the fact that the good stuff doesn't leave you with a terrible hang-over, however blurry your bubbly evening (or brunch) gets. When it comes to celebrations, I follow the French, and if you do too, your guests—not to mention your taste buds, head and tummy—will thank you.