Going out for dinner on Valentine’s Day is like going shopping in that last week before Christmas, except now you’re forcing someone to come with you. It’s a rather odd ritual, when you think about it. When was the last time you thought “Gee, I’d really like to share an intimate, heartwarming, candlelit meal with my significant other, 40 other couples, and a waiter?”.
Anyhow, that’s why I think a homemade meal is the best way to go. Not just any meal, though—a feast. A feast worthy of love and leftovers. And whenever I think feast, I think Indian. It’s easier than you think to whip yourself up a miniature buffet as most of the prep overlaps—use your food processor to chop up a few onions, and then to make a garlic/ginger paste. After that you pretty much just have to sauté the onions, garlic, and ginger with different spices, add some veggies/lentils/etc., top it off with broth/tomatoes/cream/coconut milk, and let simmer. Do that a few times, et voila. Feast.
Valentines Day Feast Menu
Spiced Basmati Rice
Naan
Daal, daal or daal
Curried Sweet Potatoes
Chickpea, Sweet Potato, and Coconut Curry or Roasted Red Pepper, Chickpea, and Spinach Curry
Going into this, all you’ll need done ahead of time is the bread dough for the naan. I just used the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day master recipe. I mixed up the dough the night before and had it in the fridge when I started cooking.
Start with the Spiced Basmati Rice. While it steams, chop two or three onions in your food processor. Move them to a bowl, and then process about 7 garlic cloves and an equal-ish amount of fresh peeled ginger root into a paste.
Now you’re ready to start the daal. It will need the most cooking time, so get that going on a back burner.
Once the daal is simmering, the rice is probably done. Leave it covered and remove it from the stove top. Now it’s time for the main curry. We’re going to do most of the cooking in the oven so you can ignore it for the majority of the cooking time, so make sure you use an oven safe pot (this means the lid, too!). Once you’ve sautéed everything and are at the simmer stage, cover the pot and move it into a 350ºF oven.
Now for the sweet potatoes! Chop, shallow fry, sauté, and simmer. Once you’re at the simmering stage, it’s time for the naan.
Since you’ve already made the bread dough, the naan is beautifully easy. Preheat your BBQ to medium heat. Tear off peach-sized lumps of dough (3 will probably be more than enough for two, especially with all the other food), and gently form them into circles. Rotating through the three pieces of dough (this gives the gluten time to relax, making it easier to roll out), roll out the naan until it’s about 5mm thick. Cook, one or two pieces at a time (this depends on the size of your BBQ, basting the exposed side with garlic butter, and turning once. They’ll cook quite quickly—about 2 minutes per side, depending on how hot your BBQ runs. You’ll have a few charred spots, but that’s ok.
Now all that’s left to do is re-heat the rice, which I did by dropping the heat in the oven to 200ºF after the curry had cooked through, and placing the rice (covered) in the oven.
Serve and devour! If you still want dessert after all that, I’d suggest some nice, dark chocolate. Mmmm.
That looks very yum. Here is my blog post on making yourself a brown sugar coffee scrub. I think you’ll like it 🙂
http://sweetheartbeautyandgiftbaskets.blogspot.ca/2013/02/diy-brown-sugar-coffee-scrub-recipe.html
Oooh, thanks! I’ll be sure to check it out!
YES! I’ve always been flabbergasted by people who spend crazy dollars on “an intimate, heartwarming, candlelit meal with [their] significant other, 40 other couples, and a waiter”–couldn’t have said it better myself. Honestly though, around these parts where “fancy” restaurants are few and far between, a Valentine’s Day dinner at somewhere worth eating has a special (AKA ripoff) sitting will run you about $75… each. They know they have the market cornered, sadly. Thanks, but I think I’ll actually enjoy my love’s company cooking something together that will fill more than one corner of my belly, perhaps eat in front of a REAL fire, without a nosy waiter assessing our reactions. Oh, and with homemade wine that doesn’t cost an EXTRA $25 a bottle, please. And I’ll probably save $125+ in the process. Thanks for reminding me why home cooked meals are better in every possible aspect, especially for V-Day 🙂 We may just have to utilize some of your recipes next week! Indian food warms the heart, indeed!
75$?! Ouch! Not that you couldn’t easily pay that here, but Calgary has lots of restaurants (and too much money). You can easily spend $20–$30 on a cocktail, and $1000 on a bottle of wine. Ouch. But, when you share a city with people who own airlines, ski resorts, and oil companies, I guess that’s what you get! There are, of course, more affordable options, but it’s always shocking to see how much you can pay for something if you’ve got the cash for it.
Haha, I know. It’s pretty ludicrous, especially in a city where I’m pretty sure the richest person is an orthodontist… We did have an Indian feast, and it was sooo much better on the gut and pocket 🙂 I sort of hybridized your curried daal and chickpea, sweet potato curry recipes (delish), made the rice, some hummus, some flatbreads, and quinoa tabbouleh (not Indian, but wanted something fresh to start), and even had leftover dark chocolate from Christmas for dessert! I was away in Halifax all weekend, so the hubby had leftover Indian for 3 days, too! Thanks for the recipes and the idea. Next year I’m thinking Lebanese/Greek. MMMMMMM…
I’ve had braces—I’m not surprised the richest person in your area is an orthodontist! I’m so thrilled you had an Indian feast for Valentines—you absolutely have to try the Deliciously Curried Sweet Potatoes if you haven’t already, they are my absolute favorite (and the fave of everybody I serve them to!).
I’d highly recommend a Thai feast for next year! So many amazing flavours, and great opportunities for vegan, veg, and omnivore—and coconut rice! Mmmmm.
I will definitely try the sweet potatoes. I LOVE sweet potatoes in all forms! I even make sweet potato gnocchi because it beats the pants off regular potato gnocchi. YUM. Thai sounds like a strong contender for next year’s feast for sure! So many options, so little time… oh wait, I have lots of time!
You’ll have to share your sweet potato gnocchi recipe—I once attempted making some (I was 17, so cut me some slack) and I basically just made little squishy rocks. I didn’t know flour and sweet potato could weigh so much! I imagine using whole grain spelt flour probably didn’t help matters, lol.
I’ll send along the recipe to you. I’d adapted my original recipe to make it vegan, but I’ll send you the original which uses eggs. I promise the ingredient list is much shorter than my veggie burgers 😛