A “speed-luxury” Food52-approved weeknight Valentine’s dinner for two
Seven years ago — before getting married, moving to Sunnyvale and becoming a mom — Kristen Miglore and her then-fiancé, Mike, spent a memorable Valentine’s evening in their small Brooklyn kitchen with the sloping black-and-white checkered linoleum floor, side-by-side, cooking steaks.
They had a tilting gas stove with burners that had to be lit by hand (is it getting hot in here?), one pair of tongs, a pot fork and matching cast-iron skillets. Awww. They turned on music, sipped something red and seared those rib-eyes in unison, “flipping every 30 seconds like ice dancers.”
“I called it my favorite speed-luxury dinner,” recalls Miglore, who grew up in the foothills east of Sacramento. The founding editor of Food52, she’s the brains behind its award-winning Genius Recipes columns and cookbooks. “We rarely cooked together so it was really special.”
So cut the candles. Bypass the bouquets. And please skip those mealy strawberries. In the midst of this ultra-chilly winter, the only thing your boo really wants for Valentine’s Day is to cook with you, not for you, a quick yet delicious, slam-dunk seasonal dinner.
In times like these — no, not post-pandemic, but yikes-this-holiday-is-on-a-weeknight-again-and-we-work-late — it is totally possible to get a wow-factor three-courser on the table in less than an hour and still get the kids to bed on time or squeeze in some snuggles on the couch.
The secret is simple recipes with time-tested, foolproof techniques and clever hacks. Miglore is an expert there. She’s been distilling the tricks of the world’s best chefs for over a decade (that steak flipping is a J. Kenji Lopez-Alt trick that yields a better crust and quicker cook). And her latest cookbook, “Simply Genius: Recipes for Beginners, Busy Cooks & Curious People” (Ten Speed Press, $35), is filled with home runs. Some call for as few as five or six ingredients.
For the main course, Miglore suggests a One-Pot Citrus Risotto by Judy Rodgers, the late chef and driving force behind San Francisco’s Zuni Cafe.
“For that wow factor, I tend to go for a Judy Rodgers recipe,” she says. “This is made with grapefruit and lime, so it’s perfect for winter. And you just trust Judy Rodgers.”
Miglore does not condone shackling oneself to a pot on a Tuesday night. Quite the contrary. This recipe skips continuous stock-ladling by starting with two cups of any stock you want — even water, Rodgers tested it — and adding another cup or so while you segment the citrus. You can also try Miglore’s hack for quick stock. She makes it alongside her risotto pot by heating up water with mashed overripe tomatoes, smashed garlic cloves, herbs, anchovies or Parmesan rinds.
The final, citrus-flecked dish, which gets its creaminess from mascarpone that is vigorously stirred in, once the rice is al dente, is finished with plenty of time left to make “a fancy salad” of shaved fennel, provolone and one lemon’s worth of zest.
This recipe, from New York City chef Ignacio Mattos, calls for a mandoline or chef’s knife to slice the fennel bulb as thinly as possible. The results are nestled atop a jumble of chopped Castelvetrano olives that are quickly coated in olive oil, white wine vinegar and red pepper flakes. No dressing emulsification necessary.
“The olives sort of play peek-a-boo under all the fennel,” Miglore says. Hence the fanciness.
For dessert, you can certainly go the traditional route with, say, a decadent chocolate mousse made with two ingredients, or you can keep the winter citrus theme. The chilled Algerian orange salad in “Simply Genius” calls for peeling and slicing Valencia oranges and sprinkling them with orange flower water, cinnamon and confectioner’s sugar. It’s a refreshing, palate-cleansing finale to a wintry meal. And the perfect way to get fruit into the tiniest of valentines.
That’s certainly where Miglore is at. This year, she and Mike probably won’t be shaving fennel with their 4-year-old, who is mom’s favorite Genius these days. They could, however, relive that romantic steak dinner or, better yet, repeat last year’s Valentine’s menu: Egg in a heart-shaped hole, made with cinnamon toast, just like Miglore’s mom used to make her when she was little.