Valentine's Meals For Your Sweetie

One of the best Valentine's Day gift is something homemade. Any sweetie will appreciate either a homemade meal .Even if you can't cook you can come up with an easy and delicious table for two.

A lux breakfast in bed is always appreciated. A simple dish would be scrambled eggs with ham . Put it on croissants for a richer look and taste. Another easy breakfast dish is eggs Benedict. This is simply poached eggs on English muffins with a lemon- butter sauce. It's mixed with egg yolks for richness.It's the perfect dish to serve with mimosas , or Bellinis, peach nectar blended with champagne. If you're lucky to have lunch together, then think of a charcuterie platter. This is one for the easiest but also the richest tasting of all lunch time dishes. Start with buying a beautiful wooden charcuterie plate. (you can always reuse it at parties and holidays). Have an array of good Italian cold cuts such as mortadella, hard salami and prosciutto. Sopressata, a spicy Southern Italian dry salami is another good meat, perfect on sliced Italian or French bread. Cheeses are a must. Brie is perfect, especially on French bread but Gruyere and smoked Gouda are also good choices. Have a chilled Cabernet or Zinfandel  to sip with this tasty mix. You could also go old school with grilled cheese and tomatoes. Cut the grilled cheese into a heart . Get creative and drizzle sour cream into a heart shape onto the soup's surface.

Of course a Valentine's Day dinner is a big deal. Just remember that's it's just as easy to make surf and turf at home than ordering it at a restaurant. Keep in mind that the seafood could be anything from shrimp to lobster to crab. As for the beef, any cut will do, from a flank to a T-bone. Serve with a side of buttery string beans almondine and/or sauteed spinach. Cornish hens are another tasty and romantic night dinner. Spike up the flavor with a rub of powdered garlic and paprika and serve with brown rice. Want to impress with a night of exotic flavors? Then try tagine, the Morroccan hot pot of different ingredients and spices. The recipe does call for tagine pot , a kind of skillet with a triangular lid but you can also use a deep skillet or even a crock pot. A chicken one calls for a whole roaster cut up  and cooked with tomatoes, peas and carrots. Almonds and dried apricots are also essential to give it a true Moroccan vibe. You could also make a veggie tagine by subbing in chickpeas and butternut squash. If your sweetie is a vegan, then think about a Beyond Meat burger with all the trimmings. Use a cumin spiced Nayonnaise , vegan mayo with tomato slices and soy bacon. Serve with a big helping of air fried sweet potato fries with a home made tomato paste based ketchup.

Nothing says love more than a home cooked meal.It could be breakfast, lunch or dinner. As long as it's home cooked by a home chef with a heart and a kitchen full of love.

The May Facets Of Nigerian Cooking

Nigerian cuisine is as multifaceted and diverse as the nation itself. There is street food, and celebration dinners.All reflect the country's different groups and history. It is  history full of flavor and taste.

Recipe writer and Nigerian born Yewande Komolafe wrote an interesting and extensive article - really a guide - in today's New York Times Food section. It has every aspect of Nigerian cooking and it's exciting to read it. Chef Komolafe has been here since she arrived at the age of sixteen, bewildered by such American staples as fried chicken sandwiches and the classic Slushie. She has created and cooked in such prestigious restaurants as Momofuko Milk Bar as well as testing recipes for The James Beard Foundation and Bon Appetit magazine. She had been questioning whose culture was being reflected in her cooking. She realized she hadn't included her heritage. That's changed. She shows us how truly dimensional Nigerian cooking is. The country is three times the size of Italy  and has just as many different cuisines. The dishes in the north is influenced by the availability of cattle and other livestock. Coastal regions are more into seafood than their inland counterparts who prefer smoked or dried fish. Red palm oil is a staple in the south. The dishes featured are from the country's southwest  where she's from. Some of the ingredients  such as selim pepper, calabash nutmeg and uziza seeds may be hard to find but you can find  most of them on Amazon.Make it now to combat the heat.

The recipes are just plain exciting. There are so many I'd like to try. What is surprising is that she doesn't include fufu, a staple like rice in many central African cuisines.It may be because she included the recipe for jollof rice which could be made as a side or as a main. The recipe includes a Nigerian basic obe ata which is a kind of spicy tomato  - pepper sauce spiked with ginger and a
habanero pepper. Keep in mind that this sauce can also be used in the braised goat leg recipe. Braising is quite common in the cuisine. The meat usually comes bone in and skin on. Goat is the most used in stews however Nigerian home chefs also use beef pork chicken or fish when available.If you can't find goat then use lamb,beef or pork cubes. As a side you could use Chef Komolafe's Umani Rich greens recipe. This is sort of like the Caribbean and Southern callaloo recipe. Again obe ata is the base while amaranth greens or mature spinach is cooked with dried crayfish and green peppers. She also includes street food - beef suya - which is generously seasoned thin strips of meat. What gives them their kick is yaji a dry rub mix of ground ginger , cayenne and roasted peanut powder. Tomato slices and raw onion is added to it in its' newspaper wrap. Another recipe is the pepper soup, rich with fish such as mackerel , red snapper and black bass. Exotic and familiar spices are added to it for kick and heat.

Nigerian cooking is as diverse as the country itself.Try any of Chef Komolafe's recipes and experience the rich variety of flavors and textures. It is a trip into a diversity of different veggies and meats blended with an array of exciting spices.