A Romantic Dinner for Two: From Inspiration to Plate

I’ll kick things off with the dinner I made for G on our first Anniversary.

Our Anniversary, Feb 16th, landed on a Monday this year. We’d spent the preceding weekend on a Valentinaversary Extravaganza in Santa Barbara, thus, we opted for a quiet evening at home for the night of.

Weeks before, I started asking G what he might want for Versary dinner. Anything his little heart desired, I’d be willing to take it on. The weeks whirled by, and still not a hint. I start throwing out options, but nothing seems to strike a chord. Sunday night, I’m scrambling for ideas and I realized we still had a can of some excellent smoked salmon that we picked up on an Alaskan Adventure not too long ago. This seems like excellent inspiration. This would bring happy memories from our first year physically into the meal. Perfect! Plus, G LOVES smoked salmon and was thrilled at the idea. However, did he have an inkling as to how he would like his smoked salmon? . . . of course not.

Monday morning – Versary Morning - hits and I get up early to rummage through books and recipes to get some inspiration. I come up with what seems to me an exciting slate of options. I proudly present these to G when he wakes up, and he says, “I’m kind of excited to just eat the salmon with some bread.” * Sigh *

It would have been nice to know this before I went scouring for inspiration. Also, really? Weeks of anticipation to find out what my darling, wonderful husband might want me to lovingly prepare especially for him for the dinner to celebrate our first year of marriage together, and he just wants salmon on bread???

Upon further reflection, I see the man has a point. When you have a centerpiece ingredient you really love, it is probably a good idea to keep things as simple as possible and let that item shine. But still, I think I can make this a little more special. I think about a smoked salmon plate we always order at a favorite family restaurant. The smoked salmon is presented with melba toasts, a very mild brie, pesto, and a myriad of other accompaniments. This is my starting point. Instead of brie, I decide I’ll opt for goat cheese, but what to do with it? The search begins.

The search turns out to be pretty brief. I happen upon this recipe for Baked Goat Cheese with Garden Lettuces, taken from Chez Panisse Café Cookbook by Alice Waters pretty quickly. We both love baked goat cheese, and as with many things, I suspect it’s much easier to prepare than it looks. Here are the ingredients as listed in the recipe:

1/2 pound fresh goat cheese (one 2 by 5-inch log)
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 to 4 sprigs fresh thyme, chopped
1 small sprig rosemary, chopped (I used dried)
1/2 sour baguette, preferably a day old
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sherry vinegar
Salt and pepper
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, walnut oil, or a combination
1/2 pound garden lettuces, washed and dried

The recipe calls for making your own breadcrumbs. It just so happens I have some breadcrumbs already made. These have hint of sweetness, but I think that will contrast well with the vinaigrette. And if you don’t have homemade crumbs, and don’t feel like taking the time, the store bought stand-by would work just fine.

Assembling the baked goat cheese rounds did turn out to be a breeze. Simply chop up a selection of herbs mix them in some olive oil. Slice up a log of goat cheese into rounds, dunk the rounds in the oil mixture, and roll them around in the breadcrumbs. Then just place those babies on a cookie sheet and bake at 400 for 6 minutes. I used my toaster oven and it worked just fine.

While they were baking, I mixed up a vinaigrette for the salad greens. I quickly realized I was out of red wine vinegar. I have white wine vin & a dry sherry that is probably almost nearly vin by now. (The recipe does call for sherry vin after all!) I just mix those up with the olive oil that had already been infused with the herbs. Why not reuse? Mix, Mix, Mix. Taste. Eh . . . not quite right, so I dig through my fridge and found some Dijon mustard. I spoon in a little of that, a little black pepper, and some sea salt. Mix, mix, mix. Ok, much better. Tossed this mix over the salad greens (just some bagged organic spring mix) and placed onto a beautiful platter.

The baked goat cheese rounds had finished up a couple of minutes before, and were sitting off to the side. Next time I’d give them just a little longer to set up after pulling them out of the oven. I definitely underestimated how soft they’d be. The first one came apart as I transferred it from baking sheet to spatula to plate. (You’ll see in the picture, that sadly, the middle round does not look very pretty) The rest came out just beautifully, and I arranged those on the salad plate along with chunks of the smoke salmon. I had also sliced and warmed up some demi-baguettes, and I placed those around the edge of the platter. Gorgeous. (Well, besides, the round that fell apart right smack in the middle of the plate of course)

On the side, I put out little bowls of pesto and wasabi mayonnaise to spread onto the baguette as we ate it with the salmon and goat cheese. (We get the wasabi mayo at TJ’s and it’s awesome with fish, on sandwiches, and most things involving eggs.)

A quick internet search reveals that Champagne pairs particularly well with smoked salmon. We just happened to have a bottle of Veuve Clicquot waiting in the wings for just such an occasion and nothing could be more perfect, so we popped open the bubbly! Happy Anniversary, Baby!