Valentine's Day 09 - 15 Course Dinner

A LOVE AFFAIR WITH FOOD…

Happy Belated Valentine’s Day! (This is the post for Sunday Feb. 21 and Monday Feb. 22, 2010...couldn't "waste" it on one day...took a long time to make ;))

I didn’t do anything really special on Follow Me Foodie for Valentine’s Day so I’m doing it now.

As you know, my best friend and I really enjoy cooking and baking…well if you didn’t know, not you know. (It really pays off to be friends with us! ;)) This is the same friend I made 3 kinds of crab cakes with for our Christmas dinner – See my post for My Holiday Dinners and Feasts.

Anyways on Valentine’s Day last year we got together and made a 15 course dinner…for the 2 of us. Yay! Fun right?! It was! And we ate it all. I wanted to do an appetizer thing so I suggested that we make 3 appetizers each…except I went overboard and couldn’t stop and ended up making 12 appetizers. Well we actually had 12 savoury and 3 dessert courses which came to 15 courses in total.

So here’s a sneak preview of what happened last year.

Added note: Sorry, but I have no recipes for anything...(well might have an idea by memory, and I'm not sure what her recipes are) but I like to cook and so does she but we're not chefs (she could be!)...we just really really like food and I like to go with the flow :)

15 Course Dinner Menu

1) Deep Fried Mac n' Cheese Balls with Pomegranate Salsa - by SC
2) Coconut and Panko Crusted Prawns with Sweet Chili Sauce - by SC
3) Chilled Strawberry and Cardamom Soup (palette cleanser) - by SC
4) Baked Creamy Crab and Artichoke Dip with Pine Nuts - by SC
5) Red Beet with Feta, Almonds and Balsamic Reduction - by Me
6) Red Beet with Honey Glazed Pears, Cranberry & Pink Peppercorns - by Me
7) Sicilian Salad - Pasta shells, sun dried tomatoes, basil & lemon caper dressing - by Me
8) Caramelized Onions, Sesame Pork, Garlic Spinach and Candied Walnuts on Baguette - by Me
9) Creamy Chicken Ragout topped on Yam and Sweet Potato Cake - by Me
10) Sweet Potato, Yam & Snap Peas with Caramelized Onions and Sweet Chili Balsamic Glaze - by Me
11) Edamame Pesto Rotini - by Me
12) Lemon Orzo with Feta, Spinach, Almonds & Cranberries - by Me

Desserts
13) Homemade White Chocolate & Cranberry Cookies with Espresso Ice Cream - by SC
14) Baked Pumpkin with Pumpkin Seed Cookie, Caramel, Vanilla Ice Cream & Pecans - by Me
15) Half Baked Chocolate Brownie with Red Beet Compote & Vanilla Ice Cream - by Me

A few highlights...

Deep Fried Mac n' Cheese Balls with Pomegranate Salsa - by SC

Coconut and Panko Crusted Prawns with Sweet Chili Sauce - by SC


Chilled Strawberry and Cardamom Soup (palette cleanser) - by SC

Baked Creamy Crab and Artichoke Dip with Pine Nuts - by SC

Red Beet with Feta, Almonds and Balsamic Reduction - by Me

Red Beet with Honey Glazed Pears, Cranberry & Pink Peppercorns - by Me

Caramelized Onions, Sesame Pork, Garlic Spinach and Candied Walnuts on Baguette - by Me

Creamy Chicken Ragout topped on Yam and Sweet Potato Cake - by Me

Dessert 1 - Homemade White Chocolate & Cranberry Cookies with Espresso Ice Cream - by SC

Dessert 2 - Baked Pumpkin with Pumpkin Seed Cookie, Caramel, Vanilla Ice Cream & Pecans - by Me

Dessert 3 - Half Baked Chocolate Brownie with Red Beet Compote & Vanilla Ice Cream - by Me

Blueberry Coffee Cake with Walnut Streusel Topping

Muffin tops!!

They're huge!!

I loaded the streusel topping with walnuts, brown sugar and butter...and a little salt to bring out flavour. How can you go wrong with those ingredients?

As you can tell I really load up on the good stuff. I loaded the batter with tons of blueberries as well ;)

Item: Blueberry Coffee Cake with Walnut Streusel Topping

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Blueberry Coffee Cake with Walnut streusel topping 4/6

Ok I made this coffee cake into 6 mini bundt cakes - I took a regular coffee cake recipe and added TONS of blueberries to the batter last minute. Fold them gently into the batter. I really filled the pans to the top because I LOVE muffin tops - the only time I like muffin tops. Anyways instead of a regular streusel topping I added walnuts to the brown sugar and butter mixture to make it extra crispy and flavourful. I packed on the streusel topping! I made these coffee cakes into decadent treats that were nice and filling. They were also HUGE as you can tell by the pictures. I love it!

Tips: Blend your ingredients really really well when you're making a coffee cake - makes a huge difference. Make sure your butter is left out at room temperature before you use it. Cream the butter and sugar together with a blender for a long time until it becomes pale yellow and fluffy. These few methods will make for a great coffee cake that has almost a pound cake texture. It looks like a giant muffin, but is the texture of cake! Delicious! Doesn't hurt to LOAD it with streusel topping too - I can't guarantee you won't get a muffin top after eating these though =p

Enjoy! I did!

Pistachio Raspberry Cupcakes

Pistachio Raspberry Mini Cupcakes
Pistachio Raspberry Cupcakes with Raspberry Custard filling
Pistachio Raspberry Cupcake with Raspberry Custard filling

Item: A twist on Martha Stewart's Pistachio Raspberry Cupcakes - review

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Find recipe here: Martha Stewart's Pistachio Raspberry Cupcakes

• Pistachio Raspberry Cupcakes with Raspberry Custard filling 5/6
  

• These are really good! My friend and I baked these over the weekend. We modified the recipe because we wanted to make cupcakes rather than teacakes. These are denser than cupcakes and that's why Martha refers to them as teacakes. I would make these again for sure, but experiment with the recipe a bit more. A bit adventurous for some, but it is a gourmet style cupcake. It's pretty expensive to make too because pistachios and raspberries aren't cheap. Great to make during the summer.
• I love raspberries and nutty flavours, so it's no doubt I would enjoy these. These aren't meant to be those fluffy cupcakes we're used to though. It's really rich in pistachio flavour and I really enjoyed that nuttiness. I made sure not to grind them up all the way, so that I could still bite into small pieces of pistachio. They aren't that sweet either, you can eat it for breakfast or as a dessert. Perfect for bridal showers or any other girly events. You really don't want to overbake these because they're dense enough on their own already. More like a cake than cupcake.

• Tasty Twist Idea: We had so many raspberries so I ended up making a fresh raspberry custard to fill the middle of the cupcakes. The cupcakes are still pretty sturdy so it was hard to inject the cupcakes with the custard. We also made a raspberry buttercream to ice them. I think the custard was a great addition - it adds moisture because they can come off as a bit dry since they're made with nuts.
  

Almond Hazelnut Cupcakes

Item: A twist on Martha Stewart's Candied-Hazelnut Cupcakes - review

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Find recipe here: Matha Stewart's Almond Hazelnut Cupcakes

• Almond Hazelnut Cupcakes - with hazelnut filling and chocolate ganache 5/6
  

• My friend and I baked these on the weekend - along with our Pistachio and Raspberry cupcakes filled with raspberry custard (will be my next blog entry). Anyways, before I get off topic - back to the almond hazelnut cupcakes.

• If you like those Ferrero Rocher chocolates, you will love these! These are Ferrero Rochers in the form of cupcakes. Everyone enjoyed these. They are decadent though and quite filling because of the nature of the ingredients - hazelnuts and chocolate. They do come off as a bit dry because of the hazelnuts, so it really requires something rich like a chocolate ganache.

• These are more nutty than they are sweet. Actually for me it's almost like a hazelnut muffin. The chocolate ganache we made turned it into a cupcake, but alone it could be a muffin. The texture can come off as a tad dry because of all the nuts - but it's not dry, it just gives the illusion of being dry cause of the ground nuts.

• You know it's a good cupcake when the batter is good! We did try the batter and it was so aromatic. Toasting the nuts is one of the most important steps to this recipe. There's no need for any artificial nut flavouring or nut extracts - these are the real deal! An adult cupcake! Without the chocolate, you could easily serve this for breakfast. I would make this again.

• Tasty Twist Idea: Since the cupcake is so dense it really requires a rich frosting. Especially since it's not a really sugary cupcake - less than 1 cup of sugar for a batch of cupcakes is not a lot at all. For this reason, we decided to make a hazelnut ganache to fill the insides of these cupcakes. Without the richness of the ganache and chocolate it doesn't really taste like a dessert...and when I'm eating a cupcake I want to feel like I'm eating a dessert. We topped these off with a lot of chocolate ganache (a nice thick layer, as you can tell by the picture) - and the ratio was actually perfect this way.
  

Martha Stewart's Tiramisu Cupcakes

Item: Martha Stewart's Tiramisu Cupcakes - review

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Find recipe here: Martha Stewart's Tiramisu Cupcakes

• Martha Stewart's Tiramisu Cupcakes 6/6
  

• My friend baked these for me, and I'm so glad she did! These cupcakes are amazing! So moist! It could be due to the fact that you brush coffee marsala syrup on the tops of these cupcakes...but whatever it is this recipe is tres excellent! What a great idea to use a marscapone frosting too. Nice and light and airy - not to sweet either....so you can eat a lot of them. I did. =)
• It tastes as good as it sounds or even better.
• Because it is a whipped marscapone frosting it will melt quite easily. You need to keep it in the fridge or I would serve them immediately - they're the best this way.
  

Ina Garten's Famous Coconut Cupcakes

Item: Ina Garten's Famous Coconut Cupcakes - review

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Find recipe here: Ina Garten's Famous Coconut Cupcakes

• Coconut Cupcakes 5/6
  

• These cupcakes are pretty good. Fluffy, light, white, moist and a nice almond flavour. I would have appreciated an even stronger coconut flavour though. This recipe is worth a try and it's easy to follow. I baked them with my friend and we over baked ours a bit. Do not over bake them. If you over bake them it'll taste dry especially since there's dried coconut flakes in the batter...the texture will just be extra dry and you really want these to be fluffy. They will look really white and you might think they aren't baked all the way through yet...but if the tooth pick comes out clean take them out. They're done! Our second batch was much better!
• Cream cheese frosting - great match! Actually a great recipe to keep.