What makes a good Valentine’s meal? Something to share, maybe, Lady and the Tramp-style? Or food to eat by hand, signalling informality and ease? For some, it’s a full-on steak and champagne feast, eaten under candlelight, while for others a baked potato eaten on the sofa while wearing PJs does the trick. All good meals are a relationship match of sorts. Some pairings are clearly going to work from the start, while others take a bit longer to persuade, not least because they seem an odd fit: trout and tahini, say, are hardly the most obvious couple but, once tried, they make so much sense. It’s tempting to force the analogies when it comes to food and love, so let’s leave the ingredients to do what they do best.
Burrata with marinated blood orange, hazelnut and crisp kale (pictured top)
This is the best of all starters (and relationships). It can be as deliciously decadent and complex as you want it to be, and at the same time wonderfully low-maintenance and fuss-free. Earmark this one for the rest of the year, too, because it’s worth making with regular oranges instead, when blood oranges are no longer in season. Serve with grilled focaccia.
Prep 15 min
Cook 15 min
Serves 2 as a starter
30g kale, leaves picked off the stems, stems discarded (20g)
20g blanched hazelnuts, roughly chopped into large pieces
½ tsp olive oil
Flaked sea salt and black pepper
2 burrata (100g each), drained
For the blood orange dressing
3 tbsp olive oil
1½ tsp runny honey
¼ tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sherry or red-wine vinegar
¼ tsp orange blossom water (optional)
½ tsp aleppo chilli flakes
1 blood orange, or regular orange (180g)
Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan)/350F/gas 4. Put the kale, hazelnuts, oil and a pinch of salt on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, toss to coat, then roast for 10 to 12 minutes, until the leaves are crisp and the nuts golden. Remove and set aside for about 10 minutes, to cool completely.
Put all the dressing ingredients except the orange in a medium bowl, add a quarter-teaspoon of salt and a good grind of black pepper, and whisk to combine.
With a small, sharp knife, cut off the top and bottom of the orange, then cut off all the skin and pith. Set a small sieve over a bowl to catch any juices, then cut between the membranes to release each individual segment. Put these in the dressing bowl (and drink any juice as a chef’s treat).
Just before serving, put each burrata on a small plate and break open slightly to reveal its creamy interior. Sprinkle over a pinch of salt, scatter the crisp kale and hazelnuts over the top, spoon on the dressing and serve.
Baked trout with tahini and peppers
This is one for those who want something delicious – of course! – but that won’t weigh you down. The combination of tahini and trout might not seem an obvious combination, but in this instance opposites really do attract, to coin a Valentine’s cliche, with the nutty sauce providing a welcome counterpoint to the rich, oily fish. If you want to get ahead, the dish can be prepared up to a day ahead right until the point before the tray goes in the oven.
Prep 15 min
Cook 25 min
Serves 2
2 medium floury potatoes (king edward or similar), peeled and cut into 6-8 wedges (460g)
Fine sea salt and black pepper
160g roast red peppers in vinegar (drained weight), roughly cut into 5cm pieces
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
85ml olive oil
1 tsp coriander seeds, lightly crushed
2 tsp aleppo chilli flakes, or regular chilli flakes
2 skin-on trout fillets (220g)
½ lemon, thinly sliced into 4 rounds
2 tbsp capers
40g pitted green or black olives
2 tbsp tahini
5g tarragon leaves, finely chopped
Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan)/350F/gas 4. Put the potatoes in a pan of well-salted water and bring to a boil. Cook on a medium-high heat for 10 minutes, until the potatoes are cooked through, then strain through a colander and leave the potatoes to steam dry.
Put the roast peppers, garlic, oil, coriander, chilli and a good crack of pepper in a small saucepan and cook, stirring often, on a medium-high heat for 10 minutes, until the peppers have softened and the spices are starting to stick to the pan. Take off the heat and set aside.
Lay the trout skin side down in a small roasting tray (20cm x 25cm) and season with an eighth of a teaspoon of salt. Add the potatoes to the tray, then spoon over the pepper mixture. Scatter the lemon slices, capers and olives over the top, then bake for 10 minutes, until the fish is just cooked through.
Meanwhile, make the tahini sauce. In a small bowl, whisk the tahini, 60ml cold water and an eighth of a teaspoon of salt.
Plate the fish, potatoes and peppers, spoon the sauce over the top, sprinkle on the tarragon and serve.
Tinned peach and rosemary tarte tatin with vanilla ice-cream
Does anything say love more than a can or two of tinned peaches, a sheet of ready-rolled pastry and a tub of shop-bought ice-cream? This is nostalgia, decadence, ease and deliciousness all in one tart, and with leftovers for the next day.
Prep 10 min
Cook 55 min
Serves 2
2 x 410g tins peach halves, in syrup or juice, drained (480g net)
1 tsp plain flour
1 x 320g sheet all-butter puff pastry
75g caster sugar
25g fridge-cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1 tsp rosemary leaves
½ vanilla pod, split in half lengthwise (or ½ tsp vanilla extract)
½ tsp lime zest
Fine sea salt
Vanilla ice-cream, to serve
Pat the peaches dry with kitchen paper, to remove as much moisture as possible. Lightly flour a work surface and unroll the pastry on top. Cut the pastry into a 21cm circle, or to the diameter of the base of a medium ovenproof frying pan. (If you like, bake any pastry offcuts and dust with cinnamon sugar, for a sweet treat.) Cut a ½cm-wide hole in the centre of the circle, transfer the pastry to a plate and chill in the fridge.
Heat the oven to 220C (200C fan)/425F/gas 7. Put the sugar in a medium, ovenproof frying pan on a medium heat and cook, swirling the pan occasionally and resisting the urge to stir, for 15 to 17 minutes, until the sugar dissolves into a light, amber caramel. Add the butter, rosemary, vanilla and a pinch of salt, swirl gently to melt the butter, then take off the heat.
Carefully lay the peaches in the hot caramel cut side down and in a spiral shape, then return the pan to the hob, turn up the heat to medium-high and cook for five minutes, until the caramel turns dark and sticky and coats the peaches.
Lay the chilled pastry over the peaches and carefully tuck in the edges (the caramel will still be very hot).
Bake for 30 minutes, until the crust is a deep, golden brown, then take out and set aside for five minutes. Put a large serving plate that’s at least 2cm wider than the pan on top of the pastry, then carefully and quickly invert the pan, so the tart flips out peach side up on to the plate.
Sprinkle on the lime zest and serve warm topped with a large scoop of vanilla ice-cream.
