Valentine's Day Chocolate Meal

Today is Valentine’s Day.  We took our guests to the Loveless Café for breakfast.  It is a Nashville institution.  I think they enjoyed it very much.  We also toured Cheekwood which is the estate of the family responsible for Maxwell House Coffee.  They had an exhibit in the main house of Gold metal high school artists.  It was amazing.  After we did a driving tour of downtown before returning to the house for our all chocolate Valentine dinner.  This dinner was developed by Michael Chiarello.  I first made this dinner in 2004 for just Jim and me.  I knew it was worth repeating especially when your visitor is a chocoholic.  As it is a large dinner, I set out olives and nuts.  Jim served a Lodi Zinfandel, 2010 called Brazin. 

First Course:  Butternut Squash Ravioli with Sage Brown Butter and Bittersweet Chocolate 

Ingredients:

Purchased butternut Squash Ravioli (I used 2 8oz. packages of fresh ravioli for 4 people)

4 T sweet butter

8 fresh sage leaves

2 oz parmesan, for grating

1 oz bittersweet chocolate, for grating

Directions:

1.       Cook the ravioli in boiling salted water until tender about 2 minutes.  Reserve 2 oz of cooking water.

2.       While the raviolis are cooking, in a 10” skillet, melt the butter with the sage and a pinch of salt until it foams and becomes light brown. 

3.       On medium heat toss the cooked raviolis in the sage butter then transfer to a serving platter. 

4.       Add 2 oz of cooking water to the pan and swirl with any residual butter.

5.       Spoon the butter sauce over the raviolis, and then finish with a generous grating of Parmesan and bittersweet chocolate. 

In the original recipe Michael makes his own butternut filling for the ravioli.  I have done that in the past, but if you have done it and can find good quality, I say use it.

Main Course: Seared Pork Tenderloin with Cocoa Spice Rub and Mixed Green Salad with Whole Citrus Vinaigrette and Cocoa Nibs 

Ingredients:  for the Pork Tenderloin

1 T whole white peppercorns (I used black)

1 T whole coriander

4 ½ T ground cinnamon

2 t ground nutmeg

1 t ground cloves

3 ½ T unsweetened Cocoa

4 T sea salt

2 (2#) boneless pork tenderloin

2 T EVOO

Directions:

I made the rub and coated the tenderloins before my guests arrived.  I placed them in a Pyrex pan covered with plastic wrap and placed them in the refrigerator.

1.       In a medium saucepan over medium heat, toast the peppercorns and coriander seeds until they begin to pop.  Remove from heat and grind to fine powder in a spice mill.  Mix the ground pepper and coriander with remaining spices, cocoa and salt. 

2.       Trim the pork tenderloins of fat and silver skin.  Rub with a generous amount of cocoa spice rub.  (After this I refrigerated as described above.  Before cooking, remove and let come to room temperature.)(I freeze the extra cocoa spice rub for future use.)

3.       Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

4.       Heat the EVOO in a large sauté pan over medium high heat until hot but not smoking. 

5.       Sear each tenderloin on all sides until a rich brown color, about 2 minutes on each side.

6.       Place the skillet with the tenderloins in the oven for about 10 minutes or until cooked through. 

7.       Let the tenderloins rest out of the oven for 10 minutes covered with aluminum foil before carving.  

Ingredients: for the salad

2 lemons

½ navel orange or 1 small orange

1 shallot

1 ½ C EVOO

1 t gray salt

½ t ground pepper

8 C mixed young green lettuces

Coco Nibs (I prefer Scharffenberger brand, but tried Trader Joes as I did not have to order. I still prefer Scharffenberger.) 

Directions:  I made the dressing ahead of time.

1.       Juice the lemons, orange, and shallot in a juice extractor. 

2.       Put the juices in a bowl and whisk in the EVOO in a slow stream to form an emulsion. (I did this in the food processor.)  Cover and it can be refrigerated up to 3 days.  A full recipe is 2 cups, I cut in half.

3.       Just before serving, place the greens in a salad bowl, add about ½ C vinaigrette and toss well.  We also cut up an avocado and added to the greens.  Finish with a sprinkling of cocoa nibs to taste. 

This dressing is a pain to make, but worth the effort.  The pork was absolutely delicious.  I know what most are thinking chocolate rub, but it is really good.  We started the main course with a 1994 Barolo from Viberti Vineyards.  I really wanted to serve a bottle of the Gaja that I bought Jim for Christmas.  He talked the wine merchant.  To serve this early he recommended that Jim open the bottle two days ahead and set up in the wine refrigerator.  Before serving he was directed to decant the bottle.  The wine is a 2009 Sori San Lorenzo.  It will age very nicely and is a long lived wine. 

For dessert I made the Tiramisu Bon Bons that went with the dinner.  When I made the dinner in 2004, I did not make this dessert.  This is very good, but the directions did not quite work.

Ingredients:   

1 tray store-bought tiramisu

½ # bittersweet chocolate cut into small pieces

Directions:

1.       Using a small ice cream scoop, spoon out balls from the tray of tiramisu to create the bon bons. 

2.       Freeze the bon bons on a cookie sheet covered in parchment or waxed paper overnight. 

3.       Melt the chocolate in a double boiler until smooth and glossy.  Dip the frozen tiramisu bon bons in melted chocolate until covered on all sides.  (This resulted in it immediately falling apart.  So after fishing out the first one and getting it back on the tray, I spooned the chocolate on the remaining bon bons, rolling them slightly to get chocolate all around them.  They looked homemade.

4.       Return to the freezer and let them thaw for about 15 minutes before serving. 

These are very good, but I would have liked them to look better.  We ate them all.