made a sumptuous, delightful chorizo lobster valentine dinner for wife this evening on 14.2.2018. ^^

last year in 2017, i did a fine chinese/fusion valentine dinner. lobster in superior stock & mini pencai 盆菜 etc… 🙂

our newly wed daughter asked if she & her hubby could join dinner. i told her to ask my wife. i knew what the answer would be.

Valentine Dinner Menu

we had 4-5 dishes this evening for 4pax-

1 pumpkin salad
2 pan-seared hokkaido
3 teriyaki cod
4 chorizo lobster
5 paella mixta

later after dinner, daughter & her hubby shared with us what they had for the last few valentine day dinners, like some edible tomato pasta, some other not so edible stuff, finally graduating to a nice instant noodles last year…ie hoping to get themselves invited next year…lol! ^^

i made a nice pumpkin salad, my wife’s recipe. australian butternut squash (20mins in oven), with rockets & cherry tomatoes in extra virgin olive oil, balsamic & some agave nectar. refreshing & tasty,  simply excellent!

roasted miso cod very good this evening, and nice, plump hokkaido scallops pan-seared… 🙂

firm, flaky, oily & flavourful, bits nicely charred, a whole dining experience, an excellent rendition of nobu miso cod! ^^

the scallops were nicely pan-charred in a bit of gourmet butter, sea salt & black pepper. sweet, plump, tasty.

the highlight of the dinner was chorizo lobster.

i made a very good chorizo prawns, so it was just making a delightful tasting stock, with 12 slices of chorizo, whole bulb of browned garlic cloves in olive oil, sweet basil, white wine, intense chicken stock, and reduced to a very very tasty stock.

then added red pepper to add to the colours & taste, and lightly braised, steamed the lobster for few minutes so the right, bouncy texture, and just cooked. & then garnished with sweet basil.

a beauty to behold & an excellent tasting dish. ^^

paella mixta was very tasty with the intense stock, prawns, squid & pan-grilled chicken all added to the flavours for a very tasty dish.

it was not as good as the superb paella mixta i made recently for the 10pax tapas + pasta dinner for my RI budddies….

still, looked nice enough, very tasty because of the stock, sotong were good, prawns were ok…

for the dinner preparation, basically just my nobu miso cod recipe.

pan-seared hokkaido scallops with butter, seasalt, black pepper on a non-stick pan.

2 small 370g frozen boston lobsters from phoon huat, cut in halves & pincers & legs shelled.

small but enough for 4pax, 1/2 lobsters + pincers each…

just braised (steamed in covered pan) lightly for few minutes will do.

paella was 80% done, about 9mins in a 210degC oven..

basically olive oil, whole bulb of garlic cloves browned & softened, chorizo, 1/2 onion, whatever veg available (i used brocoli steams), a bit of salt, then added carnaroli rice to fry, then added intense chicken stock, boiled & place in oven with the green, red, yellow peppers on top. a bit of tumeric, 1/4tsp…

nice to look at..

& i had browned chicken thighs to add.

when serving, add chicken stock, boil & reduce to cook the rice & cover the pan to steam the prawns & sotong.

c.h.e.f andy