Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Yotam Ottolenghi has provided us with a delightful menu (The food of love, Weekend, 11 February) that is both romantic (pink sorbet!) and ironical (Aperol!). It makes for a perfectly postmodern celebration of love. But what about readers who have alternative plans for 14 February?
Perhaps they will enjoy the great cookery writer MFK Fisher’s un-seduction menu. It starts with several martinis, followed by prosciutto, marinated shrimps and anchovy-stuffed olives. Next comes a ragout of venison, or perhaps squabs stuffed with mushrooms and wild rice, accompanied by plenty of red wine. “I would waste no time on a salad,” she advises, “unless perhaps a freakish rich one treacherously containing truffles and new potatoes”. This should be followed by chilled figs in kirsch with double cream, and a sly bottle of sauternes. By this stage your dinner companion, she guarantees, will be reduced to a “slumberous lump of masculine inactivity”, and your virtue will “to put it mildly, rest inviolate”.
Rebecca Earle
Leamington Spa
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