Mark Hix: The loving spoonful

Valentine's night, as I've probably mentioned in the past, is one of the worst nights of the year to go out for dinner. As you sit there with all the other couples, being charged a fortune for the privilege of eating food resembling a heart or other such nonsense, it's hard not to feel ripped off.

One answer would be to go somewhere really special for a celebration with a group of friends; I recently went to Burgh Island, a romantic private island off the coast of south Devon to stay in a wonderfully evocative art deco hotel (www.burghisland.com).

If you're celebrating at home, however, as I probably will be, then I think cooking food to share is probably the most romantic thing to do - food that you can eat with your hands, and don't have to be too prim and proper about.

Lobster thermidor

Serves 2

Cooking a live lobster at home will probably frighten the life out of most of you. The last time I did a lobster recipe, the RSPCA sent me a thick ream of paper the size of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary suggesting that I put the lobsters to sleep in the freezer before plunging them into boiling salted water.

If I were a lobster, I think I would prefer a quick death instead of a sleepy torture followed by an early morning wake-up call in a plunge pool of boiling water. Anyway, that's my opinion and I will eagerly await all your responses on the subject of what you think is the correct procedure.

But if you want to save yourself the aggravation, why not buy your lobster ready cooked? You can order it specially from your fishmonger, but remember to ask him to cook it for slightly less time than normal - fishmongers often tend to overcook them.

1 x 500-600g lobster, cooked
50ml white wine
1 large shallot, peeled and finely chopped
1tsp English mustard
100ml fish stock (or a third of a good quality stock cube dissolved in that amount of hot water)
300ml double cream
20g cheddar cheese, grated
^1/2tbsp freshly grated parmesan
1 small egg yolk
Salt and pepper

Simmer the white wine with the shallots until it has almost evaporated. Add the mustard and fish stock and reduce again similarly. Add the cream, reserving a tablespoon, bring back to the boil and simmer until it has reduced by half or more and is quite thick. Then add the grated cheddar and parmesan and whisk until the sauce is smooth. Season and leave it to cool. You can add a little more mustard at this stage to taste if you want the sauce a little more tangy. Whip the remaining tablespoon of double cream until it forms soft peaks and fold it into the sauce with the egg yolks.

Pre-heat the oven to 230C/gas mark 8. Remove the claws from each lobster, then crack and remove all of the meat including the smaller joints. Cut each body in half lengthways by inserting the point of the knife in the head and pushing it with the palm of your hand down through the centre. Remove the meat from the tails and cut it into four or five pieces. Mix it with a little sauce and lay it back in the tail end of the shell, with the meat from the claws left whole or cut into pieces and put into the head section.

Spoon more sauce over the lobster meat, bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until the pieces are nicely glazed, or put them under a hot grill for 4-5 minutes.

If you want to make a really elegant presentation and have a large silver serving dish, then break the head off the lobster and remove the upper section that is not attached to the claws. Using a pair of scissors, cut a section of the head either side so that it faces up in the air when placed back on to the lower section of the legs. You can then glaze the halved tails as above and also spoon any extra sauce on to the tray to glaze, then place the warmed head and legs on the tray.

Roast duck with blood orange sauce

Serves 4

A good roast duck is hard to beat, and sticking with the sharing theme, I'm going to make this relatively easy for you.

I used to have a Britannia oven with a spit roast, which I miss since I inherited the Viking. It was perfect for a duck or chicken, which would crisp to perfection in under an hour. But for this recipe we'll keep with the traditional roasting method.

Duck à l'orange gained a bit of a dodgy reputation in the Seventies - some restaurants would buy it in ready-cooked in the sauce when the whole boil-in-the-bag thing hit the market.

Not so long ago, a good quality duck had to be French, because we couldn't produce consistent ducks with the right level of fat to flesh and with the right taste. Reg Johnson, our duck and chicken supplier in Lancashire, produces some of the best-tasting poultry that I have come across. He doesn't claim to be organic, but it's worth remembering that we're starting to learn that good provenance is often a more reassuring factor than being stamped as organic.

1 good quality oven-ready duck weighing 1-1.5kg
For the sauce
1 shallot, peeled and finely chopped
A good knob of butter
1tsp flour
4 blood oranges
2tbsp Cointreau
250ml chicken stock

Pre-heat the oven to 220/gas mark 7. Season the duck and place it breast-side down in a roasting tin. Cook for 30 minutes on its breasts then turn the oven down to 200C/gas mark 6 and turn it up the other way and continue cooking for another 30-40 minutes, basting every so often until the skin is crisp.

I would simply serve this on a wooden board with a carving knife and fork and a couple of plates; then you can just carve pieces off for your loved one or hot date on Valentine's night.

While the duck is cooking, make the sauce. Peel two of the oranges with a small sharp knife, removing any pith, then remove the segments and put to one side. Squeeze the juice from the other two, removing any pips. Gently cook the shallots in the butter for a couple of minutes, stir in the flour then gradually add the extra orange juice and hot chicken stock, stirring well to avoid lumps forming. Bring to the boil and simmer very gently for 20-30 minutes or until the sauce has thickened. Add the Cointreau and segments, season and bring back to the boil. Serve the sauce separately.

Braised chicory

Chicory may not be the most obvious vegetable to serve with duck, but with the orange sauce and the richness of the duck, its slight bitterness makes it the perfect partner.

2 large heads of chicory
100ml vegetable stock
A good knob of butter
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Put the chicory into an ovenproof dish, season, add the stock and butter and cover with a tight fitting lid or foil. Place in the oven with the duck and take the lid off after 45 minutes and continue cooking for a further 20 minutes, basting it every so often until the liquid has almost evaporated and becomes syrupy. If the chicory is becoming dry, just add a couple of tablespoons of water to the dish.

Rhubarb and Pomona trifle

Serves 2

Julian Temperley has now started producing Pomona (blended from cider apple juices fortified with cider brandy) and Kingston Black apple apéritif (a West Country version of Pineau des Charentes). It makes a perfect dessert or cheese partner and adds a very British touch to a trifle. The Somerset Distillery (01460 240782; www.ciderbrandy.co.uk)

250g rhubarb
50g caster sugar
1 sheet (3g) of leaf gelatine
20-30g sponge fingers broken into small pieces
100ml Pomona or Kingston Black fortified wine

For the custard:

Quarter of a vanilla pod
150ml single cream
2 large egg yolks
30g caster sugar
1tsp cornflour

For the topping:

120ml double cream
30g caster sugar

Pre-heat the oven to 180C/gas mark 5. Chop the rhubarb into rough 1-2cm pieces and place on a baking tray scattered with sugar. Cover with foil and cook for 10-12 minutes, or until the rhubarb is just cooked. Remove the foil and drain into a sieve, set over a bowl to catch the juices. Soak the gelatine in a container of cold water for 2-3 minutes until soft, then squeeze out the excess water. Reheat the juice from the rhubarb in a small pan, remove from the heat and stir in the gelatine until dissolved, then add the Pomona and mix well. Refrigerate for a couple of hours or so, or until set.

To make the custard, split the vanilla pod lengthways and scrape out the seeds. Put the single cream, vanilla pod and seeds into a small saucepan; bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and infuse for 10 minutes. In a bowl, mix the yolks, sugar and cornflour. Take out the vanilla pod and pour the cream on to the egg mixture; mix well with a whisk. Return to the pan and cook over a low heat for a few minutes, stirring constantly until it thickens. (Don't let it boil!) Remove from the heat and give it a final whisk.

Transfer to a bowl; lay a sheet of clingfilm over the surface to prevent skin forming and leave to cool for 45 minutes. Once the jelly has set, spoon over the custard, then leave to set for an hour or so in the fridge.

To prepare the topping, put the double cream and sugar into a bowl and whisk until fairly firm, then fold in the rest of the cooked rhubarb. Leave in the fridge until the custard has set. To serve, spoon the cream mixture on top of the custard.

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