Valentine's Day dinner: the dessert

This one I’ll have to be a bit cagey on, as it’s a friend’s recipe and I won't broadcast it without her permission.

I was a bit stumped as to what could follow rabbit, so eagerly started soliciting advice via email. “Got any good dessert recipes that aren’t too lardy?” was my question of choice.

My friend Marcella came to the rescue with her baked lemon and poppy seed cheesecake. Relatively low-fat, it uses cottage cheese, low fat cream cheese, and sour cream, in addition to your average cake ingredients of eggs and sugar.

The difference with this cheesecake is that there’s no graham crust – and I have to admit, after the two previous courses, I didn’t need it at all.

Here are a couple of similar recipes – just nix the crust:

http://cookery.newarchaeology.com/baked_lemon_cheesecake.php
http://www.cuisinedumonde.com/lem_cheesecake.html

It was gorgeous - and lasted about three days, which made for lovely desserts on Sunday and Monday too. Marcella’s recipe makes about 6 generous servings – all for about 315 calories each! Not bad at all… I'll definitely be making this one again.

Valentine’s Day dinner: main course

If you don’t know already, here’s your clue as to the main ingredient in the main course: What’s up doc?

Yes, indeed, I spent Saturday evening cooking Bugs Bunny. Let me tell you, this news has sent shockwaves through my American family. It’s a lot less common to use rabbit there these days.

But rabbit’s wild – and therefore free range. And it’s lean – and therefore guilt free. And it’s at the Ginger Pig in Victoria Park – so there’s another excuse to haunt that lovely butcher like it’s my job.

This year I let Pete pick the main ingredient in the Valentine’s Day main course – I often pick it, and it’s usually “of the sea”; i.e. scallops or monkfish. But it only seemed right to let him.

Let’s run through a few well-known rabbit dishes, of which there are few:

-Jugged hare (Not my thing)
-Rabbit ragu (Fine, just not that interesting.)
-Rabbit pappardelle (Now this I like.)

Lots of chefs have recipes for rabbit pappardelle – Jamie, Angela Harnett, Emeril – but I settled on Mark Hix’s version with broad beans and parsley from the Independent, and pretty much followed the recipe to the letter (used a little less butter and replaced fresh oregano with dried). Broad beans (bit out of season, I admit) came from the freezer.

Result: again, gorgeous. Loved it, loved it, loved it. Very filling, but so lovely on the tongue. Perfect with a crisp Sauvignon Blanc.

Valentine’s Day dinner: starter course

Okay, I’m a little late with my Valentine’s Day dinner post. But love means never having to say you’re sorry, right?

I settled on my first course last, oddly enough – I knew that I’d be using rabbit for the main course, and I borrowed a cheesecake recipe off of my friend Marcella for dessert. So I needed something fairly light for the main course. And since they’re in season, leeks shouted out to me.

Leeks vinaigrette is a classic (and likely French) dish in which leeks are braised in butter and stock and then served at room temperature with a Dijon mustard vinaigrette. Simple and elegant, non?

But it’s V-day, so a little tarting up was required, and after going through several variations, such as Leeks Vinaigrette with Eggs Mimosa and Leeks Vinaigrette with Crisp Serrano and Grated Egg, I finally settled on Leeks Vinaigrette with Eggs, in which the classic dish is topped with a mixture of chopped coddled egg, green olives and capers.

(Perhaps needless to say, the amount of butter and oil used was cut considerably, though I was a bit more generous owing to the occasion.)

Result? Gorgeous. The dish has a restaurant look to it – and the flavours are so simple but compliment each other so well. I’ll definitely be making this again. The tangy olives and capers certainly perked up the palate for the rich rabbit dish to come. Stay tuned.