The food love
I make heart-shaped biscuits, pretty little heart-shaped Coeur à la crème, and scatter heart-shaped croutons over soup, a teeny bit obsessive, not to mention unsubtle, but fun and great for a giggle.
Well, with Valentine's Day coming up we can legitimately indulge our romantic side and go seriously over the top. Let's start at the beginning, get out the coloured pens and paper and make a heart-shaped invitation. Keep it light-hearted and fun you mustn't pretend you are too serious, might scare him away even before you get him to the table. And yes, the invite is for dinner remember, the way to every chap's heart and all that. It's worth a try anyway.
If you can't quite manage a three course meal how about whipping up some little fairy cakes, ice them with bright pink and white icing and decorate them with those adorable little candles which spell out 'I love you' in fact they would make a pretty edible centrepiece for your dinner table set the scene with scented candles, dark red roses, love hearts in a glass bowl and pretty napkins. Champagne or bubbly of some kind is a must drink it not just as an aperitif, but sip it all the way through to heighten the feeling of fun and excitement.
So what to eat? Its difficult to choose should it be comfort food or OTT luxury? Crunchy crudities with a bowl of garlic mayonnaise would be delicious and fun, but perhaps the garlic might not be a good idea later.
You may want to choose some aphrodisiac food a couple of dozen oysters, some lobster, caviar, or wild mushrooms.
If you are really trying to bring on a proposal though, beware of seeming too extravagant he may conclude that you would be far too expensive to keep! So how about cheese fondue with lots of crusty white bread for dunking (in fact this could be served as a starter or a main dish.)
A rack of lamb with a gutsy bean stew would make a delicious main course served with a few rustic roast potatoes. Looks impressive but it is very easy to cook and there will be lots of time for soulful chat while the meat and potatoes are roasting.
For dessert there's lots of sweet nonsense, pretty little heartshaped Coeur a la crème are adorable, serve with poached apricots.
The dark intensity of chocolate mousse is perfect to linger over with a cup of freshly ground espresso, or you may want to finish on something fruity like Banana and Passion Fruit in lime syrup.
If you can't cook don't despair little notes with secret messages tucked into wallets beside credit cards, or behind the sun shade in the car, or even into a shoe, will give most people an oops in their tummy, or at least a giggle. Happy Valentine's Day.
The recipe is from Jane Grigson's Fruit Book, but I claim the naff but nice assembly and presentation. The plate has a good contrast of passionate colours black, pink and red
3-5 ripe passion fruits
125g/4oz sugar
125ml/4 fl oz water
150ml/5 fl oz whipped cream
A heart-shaped cookie cutter
Honey
Rose petal
Passion fruit seeds for decoration
Scoop the pulp of three to five passion fruit into a basin. Simmer together the sugar and water for 3 minutes, then pour on to the passion fruit. Leave to cool slightly, then sieve [some believe that if the flesh/pulp is warmed slightly it will be easier to sieve]. Freeze until the edges are firm, the middle slightly mushy, then beat and fold in the whipped cream.
Line an appropriate sized loaf tin with cling film and transfer the fruit mixture. Set to freeze.
Remove the ice cream form the freezer and leave to sit for about 10 minutes.
Turn out the ice cream log and remove the cling film. Dip a palette in hot water and cut the ice cream into inch thick slices or to your own desired thickness. With your heart-shaped cookie-cutter cut out a heart from each slice. Arrange ice cream slices on a plate and outline each heart with black passion fruit seeds. Drizzle the ice cream and plate with runny honey. Strew red or pink rose petals over it all and feed to someone you love.
