Valentine's Day: ideal recipes for celebrating your love

Valentine's Day has been marked for centuries, but be warned, there is "no lovey-dovey backstory here", said Country Living. The holiday is named after a supposed Saint Valentine, but is thought to be based on two men named Valentine, both of whom were executed on 14 February "in different years by Roman Emperor Claudius II in the third century A.C.E.". 

Over the years, these legends have morphed into a more commercial occasion, with couples all over the world using 14 February to celebrate love and happiness. A major part of Valentine's Day is marking the event with food and drink. 

The Week has selected some of the best recipes you may wish to share with the one you love.

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Recipe: Potted lobster

This dish, by chef Richard Sim of The Potted Lobster, Bamburgh, is easy to prepare, combining the fresh taste of seafood with herbs and mild spices for a luxurious starter for Valentine's Day celebrations. 

Ingredients: serves 2

• 125g butter
• 12.5g chopped parsley 
• 12.5g mixed freshly chopped herbs (dill, tarragon, chervil)
• 25g brown shrimp
• 25g peeled prawns
• 25g brown crab meat
• 25g white crab meat
• 50g lobster meat
• 25g hot smoked trout
• Pinch of paprika
• Pinch of curry powder 
• Pinch of saffron 
• Zest and juice ½ a lemon

Method

• Melt butter in a pan until foaming.
• Toss the seafood in the butter.
• Add the lemon and fold in the herbs.
• Pack into ramekins and allow to cool completely before moving to the fridge.
• Serve with warm toast.

Recipe: Thai beef massaman curry

This nutty, sweet and easy recipe by Dominique Woolf is ready in half an hour and perfect for a busy Valentine's Day. 

Ingredients

• 8 tbsp massaman curry paste
• 2 tins coconut milk
• 250ml water
• 2 tbsp brown tamarind paste
• 2 tbsp soft brown sugar
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 onions, cut into thin wedges
• 450g potatoes, peeled and cut into 2.5-3cm chunks
• 150g cherry tomatoes
• 450-500g sirloin steak, thinly sliced
• Handful of peanuts, to serve
• Coriander leaves, to serve

Method

• Drizzle some oil into a pan over a medium heat. Add the curry paste and fry for a few moments until aromatic.
• Stir in the coconut milk, water, tamarind, sugar and fish sauce.
• Add the potatoes and simmer for around 10 mins until slightly softened.
• Add the onions and tomatoes and simmer for a further 10 mins or until the potatoes are cooked.
• Add the steak and cook for a couple of mins until just cooked, stirring occasionally.
• Taste the sauce and add any extra fish sauce, salt or sugar as needed.
• Serve scattered with peanuts and coriander.
  

Recipe: Dom's rum punch

This drink, from chef Dom Taylor of The Good Front Room at the Langham, offers an intriguing fusion of white and dark rum, with the sweetness of grenadine, a splash of vibrant tropical juice and followed up by the zesty kick of a lime. The perfect taste of the Caribbean.

Ingredients

• 25ml Wray and Nephew white rum
• 25ml dark rum
• 10ml Grenadine
• 10ml pineapple juice
• 1 whole Pimento berry
• 100ml ginger beer
• Juice and zest of 1 lime

Method

• Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice, shake and strain over ice.

Recipe: Raspberry ripple cookies

This Valentine's Day, you may wish to satisfy your sweet tooth with these cookies by Beabop Bakes in collaboration with Whittard of Chelsea. Soft in the middle, the cookies are bursting with fruity flavour.

Ingredients

• 160g unsalted butter (softened)
• 80g light brown sugar
• 120g caster sugar
• ½ tbsp vanilla extra
• 1 large egg
• 1 tbsp Whittard raspberry ripple hot chocolate
• ¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• ¾ tsp salt
• 270g plain flour
• 100g chocolate chips (50g white chocolate & 50g ruby chocolate chips)
• 80g frozen raspberries

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180C and line two baking trays with parchment paper.
• Using a stand mixer or handheld mixer, combine the sugars and butter and beat until light and fluffy. Then add in the egg and vanilla and mix until fully combined.
• Combine the rest of the dry ingredients together (flour, salt, hot chocolate powder and bicarbonate of soda) and then add to the butter mixture and mix until just combined.
• Fold in the chocolate chips and then gently fold in the frozen raspberries – again, making sure not to squash the raspberries or over-mix the dough.
• Scoop balls of dough on to the prepared baking trays and place into the oven for 10-12 mins until the edges of the cookies are golden. If you want perfectly round cookies, as soon as you remove the cookies from the oven, use a cookie cutter to ‘scoot’ the cookies into a round shape.
• Place extra chocolate chips on top and leave to cool on the tray for at least 10 mins. Then enjoy!

Recipe: Heart-shaped red velvet cake with clotted cream frosting

This sumptuous red velvet cake, with rich clotted cream as a topping, by Harry Hook, commissioned by Trewithen Dairy, is a perfect bake to impress the one you love. 

Ingredients

• 150ml vegetable oil
• 250g plain flour
• 2tbsp cocoa powder
• 2tsp baking powder
• 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 250g light brown soft sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 200ml buttermilk
• 1tsp real vanilla extract
• 1tsp red food colouring paste
• 2 eggs
• 400g Trewithen Dairy cornish clotted cream
• Handful of red berries to decorate

Method

• Preheat oven to 160C fan. Grease a 12in heart-shaped tin. Have a smaller oven-proof tin at the ready to bake any excess batter.
• Sieve the dry ingredients together in a large bowl and combine well. In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, buttermilk, 50ml water and red colouring paste until completely emulsified. Add the eggs and combine thoroughly. The mixture will be vivid red!
• Pour the cake batter into the heart-shaped tin. If you have any excess batter, pour it into a smaller tin – you can use this to add cake crumbs to decorate the cake. Bake the smaller tin for 15 mins and the larger heart-shaped cake for 20 mins – or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool for 5 mins in the tin before turning out on to a wire rack.
• Crumble the smaller excess batter cake into fine crumbs to use for decoration.
• When the cake has cooled, place it on your favourite serving plate. Gently smooth the Cornish clotted cream over the top of the sponge, swirling the topping as you go.
• Decorate the top with cake crumbs, berries and red fruit.