a dinner for lovers

Yesterday’s post explained why this is what’s for our Valentines dinner…it’s quick and easy to prepare, colorful, pretty, sensuous, light in the stomach, delicious in the mouth. Tomorrow morning I’ll lay out a schedule for how to get it from kitchen to table in under an hour. That will be easy as pie if you just spend maybe 10 or 15 minutes of light prep work the night before. (Tomorrow or Sunday will also bring another option for dessert.)

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A reminder of the menu:

To whet (& wet) the Appetite:

Passion Fruit Cocktails for Two

Stacked Crab Bistro Salad with Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette

Dinner:

Seared Sesame-Encrusted Ahi Tuna

Sugar Snap Peas with Shiitake Mushrooms and Ginger

oh-so Forbidden Rice

Dessert:

a sweet multitude of options

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A very little time spent prepping the vegetables the night before will make this dish a breeze.

Sugar Snap Peas with Shiitake Mushrooms and Ginger

• ½ pound sugar snap peas
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil (I love toasted sesame oil for this, but not necessary)
• 2 teaspoons canola oil
• ¼ cup thinly sliced shallots
• ¼ pound shiitake mushrooms, (stems removed & discarded) – sliced
• 1 to 2 Tablespoons ginger, thinly sliced & sliced again into matchsticks
• 1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon soy sauce or Tamari
• 1 Tablespoon cooking sherry
• 1 teaspoon unsalted butter

Wash the snap peas and remove their strings, if any. Put a pot on to boil, add salt. Have a colander in the sink and a bowl of ice-water close by. When the water comes to a boil, add peas. Cook for only 1½ to 2 minutes. (You want peas to be bright green and crispy, nearly tender.) Empty into colander. Transfer peas to bowl of ice water for one or two minutes to cool. Remove from water. Place in a clean kitchen towel, and roll and pat to dry. (At this point you can put them in a plastic bag and put in the refrigerator if you’re preparing ahead.) Otherwise set aside as you prepare the other ingredients.

Remove the stems from the mushrooms and slice fairly thinly. Cut the ginger into tiny “matchsticks”.  (Whether you opt for 1 or 2 tablespoons is entirely dependent on your love and tolerance of spicy warm ginger.) Thinly slice the shallots.

Heat the canola and sesame oils in a good-size skillet over medium heat. When oil is shimmering, add the shallots and, stirring constantly, cook for 1 to 2 minutes.

Add the ginger. Stirring constantly, cook about 30 seconds, then add mushrooms, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes longer. They’ll have begun to release some of their liquid and have started to sizzle. Raise heat to medium-high and add the peas. Stir occasionally, allowing peas to be touched by bits of brown. Add the soy sauce and cooking sherry, deglazing the pan of brown bits. (Taste for salt, adding a bit more soy if needed.) Add a pat of butter, stir to melt and glisten the peas and mushrooms. Serve.

Printer-friendly version of the sugar snap peas, click here.

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Ever hear of forbidden rice? It’s the deepest darkest shade of purple – like aubergine. Royal purple. With all its brilliant color (phytochemicals) it’s rich in antioxidants. (The stuff that protects our cells from free-radical damage.) It’s a whole-grain, even more nutritious than its brown cousin, but cooks in only slightly more time than its white relative. (About 30 minutes.) I suppose it was chosen for this menu for obvious reasons. How can one not be a little tempted – at least intrigued – by what’s labeled forbidden? It got its name in ancient China when it was grown and harvested and fed to only the Emperor. Anyone caught with purple grains between his teeth was summarily executed. Well, perhaps I’m playing loose with the facts there, but it makes a rather dramatic story. And a great introduction for a side dish for lovers. (It’s not on every market’s shelf, but some of the better-stocked markets will carry it. It costs more of course, but it’s not prohibitive…a small bag will make enough rice to feed 8 to 10 and cost about $5.00.)

oh-so Forbidden Rice

(will serve 4)

Bring water to boil, add salt, butter and bouillon (if using.) Add rice, stir, return to boil, then lower temperature to simmer. Cook on simmer for 30-35 minutes. (My simmer took 35.) Turn the heat off and allow pan to sit for 5 minutes or so before removing the lid. Fluff rice with a fork. Return the lid if not serving immediately. Before serving sprinkle with chopped chives.

Printer-friendly version of the rice, click here. 

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The very last thing you’ll do with this dinner is to prepare the ahi. It will only take several minutes, and both the rice and the vegetable can hold on a wee bit as you sear it.

Sesame-encrusted Seared Ahi Tuna

• Fresh, sushi-grade ahi tuna – about ½ pound per person will be good for most appetites – minimum 1 inch thick – better that it be 1½ or more
• Sesame seeds – both black and white sesame seeds taste identical, but if you can find them (at an Asian market, for example) – the black are beautifully dramatic
• Salt
• Wasabi paste (optional, but traditional and I can’t imagine seared ahi without it)
• Tamari or Soy sauce
• Pickled ginger (optional, but a wonderful palate cleanser, spicy, refreshing, num)

If you can allow your ahi to sit on the counter for 20 minutes before cooking, some of the chill will have come off it. Since we’ll be cooking it rare, this will be a good thing. At this time, it would be good to prepare the condiments – soy sauce in a little dish if you can, pickled ginger and wasabi paste in the corner of the plate.

I find a cast iron skillet works best for me when searing ahi. Bring your skillet to a smoking hot temperature. (On my gas stove, medium high is good. Yours may vary.)  Allow the empty pan to heat completely. Definitely no oil! As it’s heating, sprinkle coarse sea salt over the ahi. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and pat so that they adhere (which they’ll naturally want to do because it’s a match made in heaven.)

When your skillet is smoking hot, drop the ahi (lovingly) into the pan. Watch it closely. Ahi is the most exquisitely tender, delicate fish. You could be toothless and eat it happily. It NEEDS to be rare. This means very pink,  which is really more like a claret. (When you buy sushi grade ahi, it’s selected to be eaten raw, and you could certainly do that, but we’ll save that for another time.) Watching the sides of it closely, you’ll see the bottom edge begin to turn white. Allow that white to travel up just a fraction of an inch. I’d say whatever you’re comfortable with, but then you might miss the best fish your mouth has ever known. You can judge from the photo what’s about right. Flip when ready, and observe the same careful watch for the other side.  Remove from heat. Slice on a diagonal, not following the natural “seams” of the fish but running diagonally counter to them. Plate the rest of your dinner. Serve!

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To print the Ahi recipe, click here. 

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(To view the time-line, click here.)