Sushi with tuna belly and spicy wasaby mayo
It has taken me some time to get around to writing about our dinner last Saturday night, Valentine’s Day eve. (Besides, our blog is currently under construction). Earlier that afternoon I was in the office, furiously pounding away on the keys of my computer’s keyboard when I heard a commotion in the kitchen. Our good friends Marlene and Steven surprised us by stopping by on their way out east from Manhattan. After hugs and kisses, Marlene explained that she had forgotten her mobile phone in the city, so they decided to quickly stop by our house, and if we weren’t here she was going to leave a note suggesting that we get together later on. Immediately Rosaria urged them to come back for dinner at around 7:30. Both Marlene and Steven have been at our table before so it didn’t take much arm twisting to persuade them to join us for dinner. They promised to return later and left, at which point we instantly began planning a menu for that evening’s dinner, with only hours to spare. 
Lately I’ve been working on a short video piece about my grilled kidney lamb chops. A prerequisite is to soak them in a marinade of soy sauce, red wine, stone ground mustard, olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice and mirin, with some minced shallots and sliced garlic. I usually let the lamb chops steep in that concoction for several hours. When I’m ready to grill, I take them out of the marinade, pat them dry with paper towels, and grind some fresh black pepper and sea salt over them. Grilling takes about three or four minutes per side for medium rare chops. It’s important to stand by the grill and keep and eye on your lamb chops for any initial flare-ups from the dripping oil and fat. Once they’re grilled, I de-bone the lamb chops into bite size pieces, plate them on a bed of fresh seasonal greens and sauce them with a veal reduction that is almost the consistency of a demi-glaze. For this particular serving I also garnished them with some oven roasted orange pepper strips. By now we all know that Rosaria doesn’t eat meat (although occasionally I’ve gotten her to nibble at well cooked edges of lamb). So, earlier I threw freshly de-boned chicken breasts into the same marinade with the lamb, and I grilled them with the chops. I served the chicken and the lamb chops on separate plates as an appetizer at the table from which we all helped ourselves. That was after we had fresh shucked west coast oysters and sushi at the kitchen island!
Veal stuffed ravioli with sweet red pepper sauce
Caramel praline w/ raspberry cream & shaved chocolate
By this time we were truly stuffed, but since it was almost Valentine’s Day, I asked if anyone possibly could make a little room for caramelized praline ice cream with shaved chocolate on top, garnished with larger pieces of sliced chocolate, floating in a small pond of raspberry purée and mascarpone sauce. The sauce was just the right bright pink color for the occasion and, of course, the chocolate hit the high notes of Valentine’s Day. In spite of being full from dinner, everyone found it irresistible and greatly enjoyed their Valentine’s dessert. After dinner was over and our guests went home, I told Rosaria that I thought that was a pretty good, spur of the moment dinner. She agreed. What was really cool was that our guests thought so too. We received an email the next morning from Marlene thanking us and also telling us that “Steven said he could eat that meal every day for the rest of his life and Marlene would write about our evening on her JAM website.” Whoa! Now there’s a real tribute to our dinner.
Waffles with walnuts & orange rind
The next morning we persuaded our friends to stop by again, on their way back to NYC, this time for some home-made Valentine’s waffles. Although they were still plenty full from the previous night’s dinner, they graciously joined us at for our Valentine’s light brunch. And that was our lovely weekend.
