instead of scallops you could always do a roast tomato soup or bruschetta or something that's nice to pick at.
a risotto with a side salad might be a nice main if you want to avoid meat entirely
Maybe you could buy a non alcoholic champagne or make an exciting soft drink so she still has something nice to drink
for great food pictures/ideas and links to recipes I can fully recommend www.foodgawker.com
http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/M...rse/50040.aspx
For dessert I would go for chocolate covered strawberries (white and dark)
Good luck !
and to end the soirée , some chocolate sauce to use in a different way
Although we did have fondue chinoise the other night - another bland meal but the kids enjoy it -but we managed to avoid mixing the raw with the cooked meat.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandsty...s-food-of-love
Truffles might be good . . . I know a few girls who find the aroma enticing. Something like a fonduta is quite simple and fun.
[](https://www.englishforum.ch/attachments/food-drink/23501d1297442544-valentine-s-day-meal-ideas-what-cook-fonduta_med.jpg)
Personally, I think it's best to go asian - the food is normally cut to bite size, and it takes you away from all the flavors you usually find here, and the "beaten flat and breaded" convention you often see. It's relatively straightforward to make a fresh teriyaki sauce, and very very good. Plus, it's relatively simple to broil or charcoal-grill some steak, brush it with sauce, and put some cut vegetables on.
Alternatively, you could show off and go Indian - buy some curry at the local farmer's market, toast it a bit and mix with plain yogurt to make a very rich/spicy sauce, then toss with meat of your choice. You can buy par-baked naan (flatbread) or make your own with a little bit of work.
Either way, it's a delightful break from the usual Teutonic flavor profiles.
As for what to cook I kind of agree with this sentiment:
My stand-by is grilled chicken breast with homemade herb butter, and tomato risotto and crunchy salad as sides (fennel and celery, finely sliced, with some lemon and olive oil is my favorite at the moment). Simple because the herb butter and salad are easy to prepare in advance and the chicken doesn't require a lot of attention. For the risotto, just add a small tin of tomatoes when you add the stock at the beginning.
Also like baked fish Mediterranean: salt/pepper/dust fish fillets with flour, flash fry them in olive oil, put into a casserole dish. Then, fry up onion, garlic, nice tomatoes (tricky at this time of year--I used cherry tomatoes last time I made it), some roughly chopped olives, and sliced mushrooms. Fry for a few minutes, until the liquid has mostly evaporated. Mix a bit of white wine with some tomato paste, combine with tomato-mushroom mixture, then cover the fish in the casserole with the mixture. Dust with bread crumbs (I'm sure it will be fine without this bit), add some chopped parsley and flakes of butter, then bake 10 minutes at 220 degrees. Serve with side salad and crusty bread. The bread might be difficult in your house--the recipe actually recommends mashed potatoes or parboiled rice as an accompaniment.
I'd bought 4 oysters, and after cracking them open one smelt, well what i can only describe as rank! So that put us off of eating the other 3.
Followed by more disappointment, mussels. More than half were already open before i even cooked them. i tapped a few on the side (as suggested on the internet) to close them, some closed, most didn't. So after a while i gave up.
We had toast instead!
Sorry for your valentine's meal.
Thans for all the suggestions. There's a lot of knowledge of food and expertise in cooking on EF which is great.
(Especially Argus's long-running photo and recipe thread).
Anyway, our meal:
I was going with Economisto's suggestion for Osso Buco but when I got to the butchers, I remembered why I had never cooked it before - my wife didn't like it.
I asked her about it after the meal and she said she was put off it by her mum's cooking of it - regularly and badly. I'm going to cook it next week to see if I can change her mind.
So, instead, we had a rocket salad, pan-fried medallions of veal-fillet with wilted baby spinach and wild mushrooms followed by a (pasturised) cheese course and then chocolates.
Veal fillets are one of those things where if you're careful, you can sear it and rest it so it's cooked through but still very tender.
Thanks for everyone's help. Great ideas!
What did other people cook?
we both started with lightly scrambled egg with truffle
then I had a piece of cod served on a bed of leeks topped with a mustard sauce
mrs had what turned out to be a not very nice rack of lamb....overdone and tough
but we picked up a nice recommendation that other day for a new place in Chancy ( outskirts of GE ) run by a former chef from the ChateauVieux ( ** Michelin ) in Satigny.
I planed to cook the sea bream in crusty salt. When i arrived to Manor where I ordered the fish, they told me they did not receive it!! Needless to say that I made a scandal especially that I'm a regular customer they know. They proposed to let me buy anything for 50% of the price as compensation. So I bought some scallops (coquille st-jacques), oysters and mussels (bouchot quality). But since I wanted to make a surprise to my wife, I went online and checked my favourite cook page (chefsimon.com, only in french) and selected following recipes:
- stuffed mushrooms with foie gras
- chinese soupe with scallops
- veal medaillon in green pepper sauce
- dessert: warm-cold strawberry marinated in red-porto
The oysters, mussels will be prepared tonight