A Lux Galentine's Day

 Love can be true .Friendship is truer.That's why a great idea is turning this Valentine's Day into Galentine's Day is a perfect salute to those friends who mean the world to you. Serve them lux dishes and fun treats.

A gal's night I could be a charcuterie board filled with yummy ,rich cold cuts. Think slices of prosciutto and mortadella along with  the French saucisson sec or dry salami and cured ham slices. Have wedges of Brie and slices of Gtuyere. Crackers are a must as are sliced apples and grapes to offset the savoriness. Rich flavored jams like fig paste are also perfect on a charcuterie board. The theme can be carried into a sea-cuterie where shrimp lobster and crab can be served. You can set out little ramekins of melted butter  tartar and cocktail sauces.  Slices a few lemons too and serve them in a bowl.There could also be bowl of tuna with olive oil and anchovies in oil too. These are perfect on slices of pillowy Italian bread slices. As for extras , olives work as well as cornichons and gherkins.Can vegetarians enjoy a charcuterie board too? Yes! Have raw or roasted veggies with a series for dips and flavored oils. Try tomatoes, sliced bell peppers, broccoli, cauliflower and asparagus. Serve freshly made bruschetta with this as well along with vegan cheeses which you can get from Target under the chai brand.

A hot, luxurious meal also works. Groceries such as Lidl sell lobsters at an affordable price. You can also have a crab leg dinner , thanks to your local seafood shop r grocery. Individual Cornish hens have a certain glamour to them Create such tasty side dishes as a fruit laced stuffing ripe with Fuji apples and Craisins along with asparagus spears in a Hollandaise sauce.A hot seafood sauce based pasta is another lux way of celebrating with friends.A light crab linguine is a perfect meal, delicious with nuggets of rich crab meat in a cream sauce. Of course nothing beats a good steak dinner.Try the French bistro classic Steak Diane. It;s an easy cook, surprisingly that starts with a pan fried steak with a sauce made from the beef drippings from the steak cooked with more butter, shallots and garlic. Carefully deglaze the pan with either cognac or brandy and then add mustard, Worcester sauce and beef broth.Cream us then added at the end to give the sauce a silky mouth feel. What to serve with this? Pomme frites, thin, julieenned French fries that can easily be cooked in an air fryer. 

Celebrate your friends this Galentine's Day with a lux meal Ther'es no better way to tell them you treasure them, Have a delicious dinner with those you love.

Fired Up Foods

 Setting food on fire is as old as  the flames themselves. There's something dazzling about a dish that comes to the table with a burst of light. This kind of flamboyant coookign is coming back. Best of all it can be replicated in the home kitchen. What better way to enjoy it than for Valentine's Day.

Melissa Clark wrote about this type of cooking in her A Good Appetite column in today's New York Times Food section. Flambeing was a must in so many restuarants in the Fifties and Sixties. The one dish, whcih she also features was cherries jubilee , first created by the great French August Escoffier for Queen Victorti'as Golden Jubilee. Another dessert, New orlean's famed Bananas Foster is another such dish. This si a delcious mix of sliced bananas cooked quickly in a butter, brown sugar and cinnamon saute. Rum is added tableside and the whole flaming sauce is then ladled over vanilla ice cream. Crepes Suzettes are made in a similar vein with the crepes being ignnited tableside to the delight of diners. She also gives the recipe and writes about Cafe Brulot a fancy whipped cream coffee , laced with  cognac and Gran Marnier>Flambeed food goes back to Eighteenth Century Germany when young university students used t ignite their punches. Flaming it tempered the harsher tastes of new alcohol.The 1800's saw a rise in it, especially  with sauces,puddings and even fruit cakes. Charles Dickens wrote them, in  his famed "A Christmas Carol" with  about Mrs. Cratchet's flaming plum pudding alight with brandy and fire.

Ms. Clark offers more romantic fare for a spectacular Valentine's Day at home. There is the classic French bistro dish of Steak Diane along with Cherries Jubilee and Cafe Brulot. Steak Diane has filet mignon or strip steak that's first saiteed in unslated butter.It's then sliced  and kept warm under an inverted bowl. The sauce is made by sautring shallots in grapeseed or safflower oil. Tomato paste is added and cooked untilits' deepened in color. This si when the cognac is added .Light it with a long stick match  and let it cook until the flame burns out. It's then time to add cream, Worcester sauce , mustard and fish sauce .Cook for another three minutes. You could serve it with shoe string fries for  true bistro dinner. For dessert it's Cherries Jubilee!! It's first crearing a sauce of freshly squeezed orange juice, butter and cardamon pods Sweet cherries and sugar is added to this and cooked until the sugar is dissolved.Pur Cognac in a ladle then into the cherries. Ignite and then turn down the flame. Add a pinch of salt and add oiver cake or ice cream (try chocolate instead of vanilla this time) Finish with the Creme Bruyot. It'd cooking Gtand Marner with  orange and lemon zest along with cinnamon sticks. Igniteand then pour in th e coffee. Strain and served piping hot topped with a good head of whipped cream and cinnamon.

A flambeed meal is a special one. Try a French classic Steake Diane and finish with Cherries Jubilee and Creme Bruyot. It' will make for a fiery and delicious Valentine's Day dinner.

Viva La France Toujours

Our hearts go out to the Parisians and the French who  experienced those atrocious attacks of vile barbarism. It is a shame that the city and country of good food, where haute cuisine originated will have this scar for a long long time. Let's celebrate the dishes and treats of the City of Light. They are magnifique and what the city should be known for.

One favorite is the croque monsieur , that heavenly cheese sandwich.This is one if my all time favorite dishes to make..It's taking ham and Gruyere and drying it in butter. There should be a dash of mustard added for color and bite and it can be served with a béchamel sauce. A croque madam is one served with an egg on top and tomato can also be added for a croque provencale. Another Parisian favorite is steak Diane with pomme frites..These are a snap to make, with pan cooked steak with a cognac,tomato and shallot sauce.The sauce was originally meant for venison and wild game and named after the goddess of hunting , Diana.Pomme frites are French fries which can easily be made with Idaho potatoes. Cut  the potatoes into two to three inch sticks with a 1/2 inch width. Be warned, once you start frying these , you'll be snitching them  as they drain on a paper towel.The omelet is quintessentially French, having being created in the capital city in the 1600s. Originally called an aumelette, it has been a staple of French cookbooks for four centuries.The perfect one is made with three eggs and lots of butter (NO margarine, please). The eggs should be whisked into a smooth glossy liquid and then slowly poured into a hot buttered pan. As soon as the egg mix starts solidifying,, tilt the pan and coax it into a roll. Brush with melted butter for a nice glossy finish and decorate with fleur de sel and chives.

French pastries are another great gift to the culinary world. Croissants are true Parisian specialty, originally coming from Vienna with baker August Zang in 1839 . They were first called kipferl and later croissant by the  city that embraced them. In twenty years times, they were a breakfast staple. Even the famed English writer, Charles Dickens,  wrote about it in his periodical, All The Year Round. A variation of the croissant is pain au chocolat, a yummy, layered squared filled with bitter chocolate.There is also the almond croissant , stuffed with a buttery, crunchy almond paste, and again the taste is sheer heaven. Cream puffs, or profiteroles are another lovely treat,made with the slightly complicated choux pastry and filled with cream. These are topped off with melted dark chocolate and made into a tower called croquenbuche, translated as crunch in mouth. Eclairs are another must when in Paris. These are not those soggy ones American bakeries sell, but light , crisp choux pastry fingers filled with whipped cream or vanilla pastry crème and topped with a generous coating of melted semisweet chocolate. Patisseries also sell mille feulle,a thousand leaves, a crunchy  creamy layered pastry , perfect with the French coffee, café au lait

Vive le France! Vive Paris! Its ' people and food will shine through these dark days ! They have in the past, they will again! Salut!