Celebrate Valentine’s Day like the French, using these tasty French Recipes your day will be sure to sizzle. @Londonfoodboy has teamed up with @tastefrancemagazine @loirevalleywine to bring you the perfect French-style Valentine’s Day menu.
MENU
Amuse Bouche: Blinis with a French Touch
Entrée: Seared scallops with Beurre Blanc
Plat: Aligot with parsley salad and steak
Dessert: Crème Brûlée
Amuse Bouche: Blinis with a French Touch
While preparing your three-course dinner to enjoy a few delicious amuse-bouche. Our suggestion would be blinis with fresh crab, naturally smoked herring, crème fraîche, caviar and dill with a squeeze of lemon.
Entrée: Seared scallops with Beurre Blanc
Serves: 2
Time: 20 minutes
You’ll need
-One large frying pan
-One small saucepan
Ingredients
- 6 large scallops
- 1/2 shallot
- 100ml white wine
- I00g unsalted butter, cold
- Salt, pepper and lemon juice, to taste
- 10g chives, to garnish
Method
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Finely chop the shallot and cut the cold butter into eight pieces.
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Place a small saucepan over medium heat and add the wine and shallot. Bring to a simmer and leave to simmer until the liquid has reduced with two-thirds.
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Turn the heat down to the lowest temperature and start to whisk in the cold butter, one piece at the time to form the emulsion. Once all the butter has been incorporated season to taste with salt, pepper and a few drops of lemon juice. Keep the sauce warm and whisk often to prevent it from splitting until ready to serve.
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Heat a large frying pan over medium-high heat and add oil when the pan is hot. Sear the scallops on each side for 1-2 minutes, or until golden and cooked to your liking. Remove from pan and set aside.
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Chop the chives and whisk it into the sauce. Divide the sauce on two plates and top with three scallops and garnish with more chives.
Plat: Aligot with parsley salad and steak
Serves: 2
Time: 40 minutes
You’ll need
-One large frying pan
-Two medium saucepans
-One mixing bowl
-Grater
Ingredients
- 180g x2 Entrecote Steaks
- 500g floury potatoes
- 30g flatleaf parsley
- 10 Caperberries
- 200g Tomme de Savoie cheese (alternatively Cantal or Raclette)
- 25g butter
- 50ml full-fat milk milk
- 75g crème fraîche
- 1 clove of garlic
- Nutmeg and black pepper, to season
Method
- Salt the steaks and set aside. Peel the potatoes cut them into large chunks and boil in salted water for 20-25 minutes. Remove the parsley leaves from the stems, wash and dry in a salad spinner. Mix a simple vinaigrette from 2-3 tbsp caper liquid and 4-6 tbsp olive oil, seasoning with salt. Halve the caper berries and add them.
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Remove the rind from the cheese and grate it roughly. Heat the milk in a (preferably non-stick) saucepan, melt the butter, peel and finely grate the garlic and stir in. Drain the potato chunks and pass them through a potato ricer whilst hot, adding them to the saucepan. Add the cheese and crème fraîche, return the saucepan to the stove and quickly mix it all together to make a hot, creamy purée, stirring with a wooden spoon. Season to taste with salt and a pinch of nutmeg.
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Lightly brush the steaks with olive oil and sear in a pan for 3-4 minutes before turning and frying them for a further 3-4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper then allow resting, turning twice. Dress the parsley leaves with the vinaigrette. Serve the steaks and parsley salad with your celeriac and potato aligot.
Dessert: Crème Brûlée
Serves: 2
Time: 1 hour 30 minutes plus a minimum of 4 hours in the fridge
You’ll need
-One medium saucepan
-Two medium mixing bowls
-One sieve
-One ovenproof dish
-Two portion ramekins, minimum 120ml
-Torch
Ingredients
For the custard
- 250ml double cream
- 5 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 vanilla pod
- 2 large egg yolks
- A pinch kosher salt
For the Brûlée topping
-
4 tsp sugar
Method
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Preheat the oven to 160C with a rack in the middle of the oven. Place your two ramekins in an ovenproof dish and set aside.
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Split the vanilla bean in half and scrape out the seeds. Mix the vanilla bean and the seeds together with the double cream, half the sugar and salt. Bring to a simmer on medium heat.
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As soon as you can see the cream starts to simmer remove from the heat and leave for 15 minutes allowing the cream to be infused by the vanilla. Remove the foam on top of the cream with a spoon.
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When the cream is ready to separate the eggs and whisks the egg yolks together with the rest of the sugar in a medium bowl.
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Whisk the egg yolks continuously and start adding the cream, little by little in a thin stream. Adding the cream this way will allow the eggs to temper gradually and avoid the mixture turning into scrambled eggs.
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Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh into another mixing bowl and discard off the vanilla bean.
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Bring a kettle or pot of water to boil and divide the custard between the two ramekins. Fill the ovenproof dish with the hot water until the eater comes up two-thirds of the way up the side of the ramekins. Make sure you don’t splash any water into the custard.
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Place the dish with the ramekins in the middle of the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes. The custard is ready when it springs back just a bit when touching the centre and a slight jiggle.
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When the custard is baked remove from the oven and leave in the water until you safely can remove the ramekins. Leave to cool down to room temperature on a rack before covering the ramekins and placing in the fridge for at least 4 hours, but can also be left overnight.
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When you’re ready to serve the dessert remove the custard from the fridge and sprinkle them evenly with 1 tsp sugar each.
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Ignite your torch and hold the flame about 10 cm from the surface. Move the flame across the sugar in a circular motion until all the sugar granules have melted and the sugar starts to get a caramel colour, the sugar will then solidify into a hard sugar crust. Sprinkle each of the custards with a second tsp of sugar and repeat the process again.
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Leave too cool for a few minutes before serving.
Tips & tricks
The custard can be made up to a few days in advance and left covered in the fridge until the day you’re serving the Creme Brûlée.
We hope you enjoy this delicious menu and wish you a very Happy Valentines Day!
Written By: Patrick Smith | Food & Drink Editor
Instagram: @londonfoodboy
