Labor of Love

J and I don't have a great track record with Valentine's Day outings. The first year we were dating, I was disappointed to find out that I had to travel to Colorado for work on Valentine's Day, so we ended up celebrating a day early with dinner at a casual Mexican joint. (It actually turned out to be a very fun, romantic date, so no complaints here.) The next year, we tried to get our Valentine's Day on in the form of dinner at a very well reviewed and swanky French-Korean fusion restaurant (don't ask...) and found out the hard way that a Valentine's Day dinner out equals two hour waits-- even with a reservation-- and then, when you finally do get to eat, nothing but high-priced, bad food (read: well done filet mignon and cold sides). To be fair, they gave us a complimentary dessert, but at that point we were just so annoyed and tired that it didn't do a whole lot to restore the romance to our evening. After that, we vowed never again to eat out on Valentine's Day, and in the years since we've concocted several very memorable and delicious meals.

This year, I was quite proud of my our endeavor. J has been requesting seared scallops for several months now, but due to an unfortunate and scarring incident involving over-cooked-to-the-point-of-tire-rubber bay scallops many years ago, I've always shied away from this particular dish-- which is silly because I am a far better cook now than I was at 23, and I have mastered many other much more difficult dishes. Searing scallops should be a snap! So, I finally decided to conquer this little phobia, and we selected a surf and turf menu of petit filet mignon and diver scallops with a sweet vermouth reduction sauce, accompanied by yukon gold mashed potatoes and roasted asparagus. De-li-cious. The sweet vermouth sauce was the star, and I will definitely be using it on steaks in the future. The whole meal was super easy to prepare-- the only slightly challenging part was managing the timing of everything because the filets and the scallops cook so quickly and we wanted everything to arrive at the table still warm. The asparagus was a little room temperature, but other than that... success!

(my attempt at food photography)

Sweet Vermouth Reduction Sauce

Serves 4 (although I made about 75% of this quantity for two of us and I thought there was just barely enough)

Adapted from Rachel Ray

1 large shallot, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 Tbsp butter

1/3 cup sweet vermouth

chives

Heat pan over medium and add olive oil. Add shallots and garlic and sautee for about two minutes. Add sweet vermouth and reduce by half, about 30 seconds. Remove from heat and stir in butter to finish sauce. Pour over steaks immediately and garnish with chives.

Bon Appetit!