Be My Valentine!

Yield: 4 Portions

Ingredients:
3 medium leeks (3/4 pound), white and pale green parts only
1-tablespoon butter
1-tablespoon olive oil
1-1/2 pound celery root, peeled with a knife and cut into ½ inch pieces
4-3/4 cup chicken broth
1 Granny Smith apple
¾ celery rib, peeled of coarse strings and very thinly sliced on a long diagonal (1/2 cup)
1/3-cup inner celery leaves
Kosher salt and freshly ground white pepper, to taste
½-cup half-and-half

1. Slice leeks lengthwise half way toward the root end. Rinse carefully in cold water, removing all sand. Dry.   Coarsely chop.
2. Over moderate heat, melt butter and olive oil in a 4-quart heavy pot. Add leaks, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 6 minutes. Add celery root and cook, stirring. 2 minutes. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil.   Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until celery root is very tender, 35-40 minutes.
3. While soup is simmering, slice apple into matchstick (1/8 inch x 1/8 inch x 2 inch cut). Gently toss apple with celery rib and leaves.
4. Puree soup in batches in a blender until smooth. (Use caution and hold lid in place with a towel!) Transfer soup back into cleaned pot. Add an additional ½ -3/4-cup water if soup is too thick. Stir in salt, pepper and half-and half. Cook over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until warm. Correct seasoning, divide among 4 bowls and top with the celery-apple mixture.

Salmon with Beurre Rosé on a Bed of Wilted Spinach
Try to purchase wild caught Alaskan Salmon, or use Farmed Arctic Char. These fish are considered environmentally safe and healthier than farmed-raised Atlantic Salmon.

Yield: 4 portions

1-½ pounds salmon fillet
olive oil as needed to coat pan
sea salt and black pepper to taste
1 bag baby spinach

Beurre Rosé (recipe follows)

1. Remove any scales and pin bones left in fillet. Cut salmon into 4 six-ounce portions and season with salt and pepper.
2. Heat oil in a heavy sauté pan over medium high heat. When hot, add fillets, skin side down and sauté until crisp. Turn fillets and continue cooking until the flesh is firm, opaque, but not overcooked (Fish is overcooked when it flakes!) Remove salmon and keep warm.
3. Clean spinach and dry. Place in a microwave safe container and cook on high for about 2 minutes. Check and microwave a minute or so more to just wilt the leaves.
4. Serve salmon on a bed of spinach, topped with the Beurre Rosé.

Beurre Rosé
Traditionally made with white wine and called Beurre Blanc, this is a simple sauce to create. Basically, a flavor infused reduction is made using wine and vinegar, then butter is whisked into the reduction until a creamy emulsified sauce is made. The food geek in me sees butter being turned back into cream. I use a restaurant trick and add a bit of heavy cream to the sauce to prevent the emulsion from breaking. It is much sturdier than a Hollandaise and leftovers can easily be covered, refrigerated and when ready to use, gently reheated to serve with other protein products or as a sauce for vegetables.

Wines, citrus, and vinegars may be interchanged with this recipe. Try grapefruit or oranges or any other acidic fruit juice in place of the lemon juice. You will notice that I did not use vinegar in the following recipe, but you can substitute 2 tablespoons of vinegar for half of the orange juice. I have used Dry Vermouth rather than white wine, or substituted rosé or red wine for the white. I do tend to stick to white wine vinegar with whites, red wine vinegar with the reds, and either vinegar for rosés. My next foray will be the use of Balsamic vinegar. The flavor is wonderful and will just intensify with the reduction.

Yield: 1 1/3-cups

½-cup dry rosé wine
4 tablespoons orange juice
zest of 1 orange (I have fallen in love with my microplane for zesting!)
2/3-cup red onion, minced
2/3-cup red bell pepper, minced
2 pinches saffron threads
2/3-cup heavy cream
½-pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1. In a heavy bottomed sauté pan, over medium heat, reduce the wine, lemon juice, lemon zest, red onion, bell pepper and saffron to sec. ( Sec is a French term for dry. The purpose of reducing to sec is to concentrate the flavors in a small amount of liquid.   Basically, the aromatics will be completely wilted and cooked through and there should be less than 2 tablespoons of liquid left in the pan.)
2. Add the heavy cream and reduce in half.
3. Whisk the butter in slowly, 1 tablespoon at a time, making sure that each addition of butter is fully incorporated before adding more.
4. Cover and keep warm over low heat.

Yield: about 3 cups cooked

¼-cup pine nuts
2 tablespoons butter
2 shallots, cut into thin rings
1-cup Jasmine rice
kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
2-cups chicken stock or water
½-cup Pecorino Romano, Parmesan, or Aged Gouda cheese, finely grated

1. Toast pine nuts in a heavy bottomed skillet, stirring constantly until brown. Remove from heat and cool.
2. In a saucepan, melt butter and add the shallots. Stir to coat and cook until translucent.  
3. Add the Jasmine rice, stir to coat kernels and toast until aromatic. (It will smell like popcorn.)
4. Season with salt and pepper and add the chicken stock. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce the heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes.  
5. Remove from heat and let stand, covered for 5-10 minutes. With a fork, stir in pine nuts and cheese.

1. Using a cookie cutter, cut rounds or hearts out of the cake.
2. Place a round of cake in a chocolate bowl. Dollop with some of the Lemon Cloud and sprinkle with a few raspberries. Continue layering two more times, finishing with the cloud cream and raspberries. Dust with some of the bittersweet chocolate.

6 balloons
non-stick cooking spray
½ pound bittersweet chocolate such as Callebaut, chopped

1. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.  
2. Blow up and knot balloons. For individual servings, don't blow them up to their full size, but to a small bowl size.   Spray balloons with a non-stick cooking spray.  
3. In a bowl over simmering water, melt chocolate. Remove from heat and quick temper by stirring in about 2 ounces of chocolate to bring the temperature down to 91°F.
4. Dip each balloon in the chocolate to form into a shallow bowl shape. Set on the parchment lined baking sheet and allow to harden fully
5. Carefully peel away balloon and store bowls on the sheet tray in a cool dark place. (If your kitchen is hot, store on a sheet tray in the freezer. The bowls will look dull and spotty when you remove them, but will quickly regain their sheen as they warm up before service.)

1. Combine sugar, lemon juice, and egg yolks in a bowl. Whisk to combine.
2. Place bowl over simmering water and continue whisking, adding warm butter.
3. Whisk until thick. (The mixture will change from translucent to opaque and become frothy. It is ready when the bubbles subside and the mixture is yellow in color.
4. Immediately pour through a strainer into a clean bowl and cool. Pour into air-tight containers and refrigerate. The mixture will continue to thicken.

Lemon Cloud Cream
From The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum

Yield: 5 cups

Special Equipment: Candy thermometer
¾-cup + 2-tablespoons granulated sugar
¼-cup water
4 large egg whites
½-teaspoon cream of tartar
1 recipe Lemon Curd

•  Have ready, near the range, a 1-cup heatproof glass measure.

•  In a small heavy saucepan (preferably non-stick), stir together ¾-cup sugar and water. Heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar dissolves and the syrup is bubbling. Stop stirring and turn down the heat to the lowest setting.

•  In a mixing bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy, add the cream of tartar, and beat until soft peaks form when the beater is raised slowly. Gradually beat in the remaining 2-tablespoons sugar until stiff peaks form when the beater is raised.  

•  Increase the heat and boil the syrup until a thermometer registers 248°F-250°F. Immediately pour into the glass container to stop the cooking.

•  Beat the syrup into the whites in a steady stream, avoiding the beaters to keep the syrup from spinning onto the sides of the bowl. Using a spatula, scrap as much syrup as you can into the meringue. Continue beating on high speed for 5 minutes, then medium speed for 2 minutes.

•  When cool, fold in the lemon curd. Cover and refrigerate.

•  Preheat oven to 375°F.

•  Grease cake pan and cover bottom of pan with parchment paper.

•  Whip yolks with a bit of the sugar until pale and creamy.

•  Whip egg whites, adding sugar slowly as in common meringue to full volume.

•  Add a small amount of whites to lighten the yolks. Fold in lightened yolks into whites. Fold in cocoa powder.

•  Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth surface with a spatula. Bake for about 8-10 minutes. Cake is done when it just springs back when lightly touched.