Valentine Amuse Bouche

Tonight for service in the restaurant (we are not open Sundays) we went kind of Valentine's themed for our menus. I was on the garde-manger station, and part of my responsibilities was to create the amuse-bouche for the night. I definitely wanted to go with something heart-shaped, something red or pink, and something decadent. Here is what I devised:
- Heart Shaped Cranberry Cracker
- Foie Gras Ganache
- Honeyed Bakeapple
- Candied Pistachio

Heart Biscuits

These biscuits are based from my go-to biscuit recipe I devised myself. I haven’t found a tastier, easier biscuit to make and this recipe never fails and can be manipulated in different ways. Here is the base formula

Basic Biscuits

2 cups all-purpose (plain) flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

½ cup cold butter or hard margarine, cut into cubes

1 cup milk

Stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the butter until crumbly. Stir in the milk to form a soft dough and knead briefly until it just comes together. Roll or pat out to desired thickness and cut as desired. Bake until golden.

Variations

Flour: Try whole wheat, a mix, ground oats, or adding in other whole grains.

Sweet: Cut back on the salt and add up to two tablespoons of granulated sugar to use dough for sweeter applications.

Fat: Both butter and margarine work well. Use a compound butter for extra flavor, or cream cheese for extra richness.

Milk: I have had success with evaporated, powdered, and fresh milk of varying milk fat percentages.

Baking: I have been able to bake these at temperatures ranging from 350◦F to 425◦F – all work but the lower the temperature, the longer they take. Higher temperatures also make the biscuits slightly crispier. I always bake them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Preparation: I have prepared the dough ahead of time and refrigerated before rolling and cutting. I have also prepared biscuits and refrigerated those before baking. I have also mixed up the dry ingredients and had the butter cubed and ready to go and the milk poured in advance.

Applications: Use for basic biscuits, crescent rolls, pizza roll-ups, crusts for meats, croissants, shortcakes for desserts, turnovers, toppings for casseroles and soups, and more. The dough holds filling really well.

Fruit Salad In A Heart

Here is a simple fruit salad I recently made. It's nothing extravagant, or anything a recipe is needed for, but I thought it would make a great, healthy addition to a breakfast or brunch, or even serve as a light dessert. It is a nice light dish to serve in the winter to brighten up a snow-covered world, but it would work well in the summer as well. These days it is not difficult to find just about any type of fruit in the supermarket, no matter what the season, so any fruits could be used. I used oranges, which are considered more of a winter fruit, strawberries since they are readily available and delicious, and local wild blueberries from the freezer. I arranged these three fruits in heart-shaped bowls, and added a small leaf for garnish. 

Heart Pizzas

This is another dish I made for Valentine's Day: heart-shaped pizzas. I just made a batch of regular pizza dough, rolled it out, and cut it into hearts with a cookie cutter. Then I did some fine-tuned trimming with a sharp knife. You have to be careful not to stretch the dough too much, or it will just spring back and not look like a heart at all. Also, after the pizzas are baked, the dough rises a bit, and the hearts aren't quite as uniform in shape, but they are still pretty. I spread some sauce on to within approximately 2 cm of the edge, to show the heart-shaped crust, and put on some toppings. I kept the sauce to a minimum to avoid the dough becoming soggy and overladen, and I also went light on the toppings. The pizza turned out crisp on the outside, and nice and fluffy on the inside.
You could also use heart shaped pans, if you have them, or make one big heart pizza. I opted to make miniature pizzas, which are more like pizza slices.

Valentine's Bruschetta

This is a little side dish I made for Valentine's Day. I just made a quick batch of bruschetta and some heart-shaped biscuits out of a yeast bread dough. I placed a heart-shaped cookie cutter on a plate and spooned in some bruschetta. Then I carefully lifted the cookie cutter up so that the bruschetta would stay in the shape of a heart. The umbrella term bruschetta actually refers to the entire dish - not just the tomato topping, which is normally served atop the bread. Actually, bruschetta can also refer to bread that has been rubbed with just a little olive oil and some spices and grilled, it doesn't necessarily have to contain tomatoes, although most North American takes on the dish do. For the sake of Valentine's Day presentation, I served the bruschetta on a plate to make it in the shape of a heart, and just served the heart-shaped bread alongside it.

The bruschtta I made was fairly basic, and I didn't really follow a recipe, I just eyeballed the amounts. I used chopped tomatoes, finely diced onion, salt, ground black pepper, granulated sugar, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, and garlic powder.
Contrary to popular belief (or Americanized pronunciation), bruschetta is not pronounced with the "sh" sound but with the "sk" sound. The dish is of Italian origin, and in Italian "ch" is always pronounced "k" and therefore "sch" is pronounced as "sk".

Valentine Ideas

Valentine's Day is approaching, and there are many, many different recipes out there geared towards the occasion. You can cut pretty much any food into a heart shape, and it will be suitable for Valentine's Day. Any red or pink foods are also appropriate for Valentine's Day, especially raspberries and strawberries, and deeply indulgent chocolate desserts are also very popular at this time of the year.

Popular dinner menus for Valentine's Day include: lobster, pasta, tomato, seafood, steak, and shrimp dishes.
Popular Valentine's Sweets: heart shaped cookies, brownies, cakes.
Popular Valentine's Desserts: chocolate mousse, parfaits, tortes, molten chocolate cakes, flourless chocolate cake, cupcakes, red velvet cake, meringues, cheesecakes.
Popular Valentine's Treats: truffles, chocolate-dipped strawberries, chocolate hearts, chocolate kisses, cinnamon hearts, candy hearts.

Some cute ideas for Valentine's Day:

• Heart shaped pancakes or waffles with strawberries.
• Sandwiches cut into hearts.
• Spaghetti with hearts - meatloaf cut into hearts.
• Heart shaped pizzas or breads.
• Cut out sugar cookies or brownies decorated with red sprinkles.
• A heart shaped cake with buttercream roses.

PHOTO CREDIT:"send-valentine-cards"    http://valentine-greeting-cards.blogspot.com/2008_12_01_archive.html  . Valentine Greeting CArds, n.d. Friday, February 10, 2012.