Sunday 19 February 2012

Saturday - Postponed valentines

Jo and I decided to postpone our valentines day till yesterday to give us more time to enjoy it. That's not to say that we need a reason to eat, drink and have a laugh together,  but it was a good an excuse anyhow! On valentines we take it in turns to cook, and my previous bi-yearly efforts have included monk-fish wrapped in parma ham, and a red snapper dish which were well received by Judge Jo! Jo is more of a seafood fan than a meat eater (unlike me) so I decided to keep up the fishy theme with a crab starter and classic moules marinières for the main; Jo took up the dessert challenge.....

So, after taking some advice from the very helpful Mario of Gusto Italiano fame, I decided on getting a live crab from Leeds Market, and turning it into a sort of posh crab tower. I headed into town yesterday, but some b@st__d bought the last live crab who was in the queue just before me! So, with only a pre-dressed crab on offer I decided on potted crab instead that was served with some delicious bread from Waitrose. 

Potted crab
Action shot
For the main course we had moules mariniere et frites, which to be honest was okay! I followed a Raymond Blanc recipe but the shallots were a little raw for our tastes, and although the mussels were big and juicy some had a small bits of grit in them. I know this is to be expected, but I can't stand the texture!! Luckily, we had moved onto our second bottle by then so there weren't too many complaints.......

Moules
The star of the show was definitely Jo's mini croque en bouche complete with sugar work - this was REALLY REALLY as good to eat as it is to look at - bravo!!

mini croque en bouche

1 comment:

Rachel Hughes said...

Those all look amazing, well done you two, looks like a lovely valentines meal.