Valentine's Dinner

Like Thanksgiving, Valentine's is a big deal to Ann. Because I am in the restaurant business, we can never celebrate Valentine's Day together, so Ann has taken to hosting Valentine's dinners at our house on the Sunday before Valentine's Day.

Here is the table that Ann set, all festive in red, black, and silver, complete with gift boxes of chocolate dipped pretzels that she made for everyone.

We had a great time this year with friends Kelley and Marco Due who joined us for cocktails and then had to run, Mike and Dennis, and Jen and Dewi. Unfortunately, I failed to get photos of Kelley and Mark. Here are the rest of the characters. Mike, thanks for the photo of us!

I Like the Shot of Dennis Through Ann's Glass

Ann is not one for starting a party without a cocktail, so I reprised the grapefruity St. Germain cocktail that I invented some weeks ago. Naturally, the glasses are rimmed with red, white, and pink sprinkles! This gave me an excuse to get out the big Mexican citrus juicer. I am not a fan of single purpose cookware, but when you have to juice a lot of citrus, these guys are indispensable.

We started with three hors d'oeuvres—the plan was only two, but I brought home from the restaurant a surprise terrine that was begging to be tasted. For the first appetizer, Ann stuffed dates with goat cheese, sprinkled them with toasted panko, and warmed them in a moderate oven for about 10 minutes. These guys are deliciously and decadently rich!

Next up, I made crab-stuffed, prosciutto-wrapped shrimp. I meant to make a dipping sauce too, but that seemed to get lost in the shuffle. I butterflied the shrimp, packed a little crab into them (a dozen 16-20 shrimps took about 6 ounces of crab meat) and wrapped them in prosciutto. I broiled them 8 inches from the broiler element for about 10 minutes.

Crab-stuffed, Prosciutto-wrapped Shrimp

For the main course, we had a cassoulet made not from the traditional Tarbais beans, but from an American heirloom bean called the Steuben Yellow Eye which is famous for holding its shape while becoming deliciously creamy inside. Besides a lot of mirepoix, garlic, and fresh herbs, the other garnishes were duck confit that we put up in early January in anticipation of this cassoulet, local bacon ends, guanciale, and Surry sausage.

The guanciale (Berkshire Jowciale) and Surry sausage both come from Edwards Hams in Surry, VA, a company whose products I have eaten all my life and long-time supplier to the restaurant. We moistened the cassoulet with a stock made from the goodness that accumulates in the bottom of the roasting pans when we cook our pork belly.

 

Cassoulet

Dewi brought along a Clos la Coutale Cahors 2008, the traditional Malbec wine from Southwest France that often accompanies cassoulet. We kicked in a SonVida Argentinean Malbec 2008, a very modern style wine. I expect Cahors to be a big, dark, brooding wine, but this one was not. It was educational to taste the lighter, more traditional, and more rustic French import from Kermit Lynch against the juicy, darker, sleeker, and more modern Argentine offering. But great minds think alike: cassoulet = Malbec.

 
And what better to accompany a cassoulet than a mixed green salad and wonderful rosemary bread?

Finally, dessert queen Jen brought a bittersweet chocolate pie topped with crème fraîche. We opened a bottle of Warre's 1977 Port to go along with this. A fruitier wine would have done the chocolate more justice, but we needed a slim excuse to open the '77!

Kudos to Ann for orchestrating yet another fabulous dinner!