Valentine´s Day

This is the perfect day for celebrate our love for the food! Also for showing your sweetest side to your loved ones – or to that special person in your life. I want to share with you this two easy and romantic recipes to make this an extra special day. 

Champagne & Raspberry Possets

PREP: 10 MINS

COOK: 5 MINS

Ingredients

140g frozen raspberries, defrosted

2 tbsp champagne  (buy a mini bottle and treat yourself to a glass while you prepare dinner!)

200ml double cream

4 tbsp golden caster sugar

2 tsp freeze-dried raspberry pieces

Shortbread biscuits, to serve.

Method

1. Put the raspberries and Champagne in a mini food processor or blender (or use a jug and a hand blender). Whizz until the purée is as smooth as you can get it, then use a wooden spoon or spatula to push as much of it through a sieve as you can. Discard the seeds left behind.
2. Put the cream and sugar in a saucepan and warm gently until the sugar melts. Increase the heat until just boiling, then boil vigorously for 21/2 mins, stirring constantly. Turn off the heat and stir in the raspberry-Champagne purée. Cool for 15 mins before dividing between 2 small pots or glasses. Chill for 30 mins, then sprinkle over the freeze-dried raspberry pieces and chill for at least 2 hrs more until set (or overnight if you’re making ahead).
3. To serve, remove the possets from the fridge and add some shortbread biscuits

Recipe from Good Food magazine, November 2015

Sautéed Scallops with Mushrooms & Spinach Sauce

PREP: 10 MINS

COOK: 5 MINS

Ingredients

3 big knobs of butter

100g mushroom, sliced (button, chestnut or cleaned wild)

100g spinach, stems trimmed and washed

2 tsp groundnut oil

6 good-sized scallops, shelled and cleaned (with or without corals)

nutmeg, for grating

Method

1. Melt a knob of butter in a frying pan. Once sizzling, add the mushrooms and fry for just a min or two before adding the spinach. Cook on a high heat for about 1 min, allowing the leaves to wilt and soften. Drain the leaves and mushrooms in a sieve or small colander set over a bowl, pressing them gently in the sieve to release the juices (the juices will provide the base for the sauce, so don’t discard them). Keep warm to one side.
2.  Heat the oil in a separate clean frying pan. When very hot, add the scallops. Sauté for a couple of mins without disturbing them at all, then add a knob of butter to the pan. Turn the scallops, season with salt and pepper, then baste with the sizzling butter. Continue to cook for a further couple of mins until the scallops are ready.
3. While sautéing the scallops, return the saved spinach juices to the pan the spinach and mushrooms were cooked in, then whisk in the remaining knob of butter to create the sauce. Season with salt and pepper and a grating of nutmeg.
4. Now finish in style: Arrange spinach and mushrooms on plates or in bowls, sit the scallops on top, then spoon the nutmeg spinach sauce around.

Recipe from Good Food magazine, December 2006 | www.bbcgoodfood.com