Valentines Day - 14th of February

Another year.. another Valentines day :-)
I made a very cute dinner for myself and Karim for Valentine's day.. puff pastry hearts filled with feta, parma ham and caramelised onions.. yummy... and they looked fab too.

Puffy Valentine hearts for 2:

- 1 ready rolled puff pastry pack
- 1 pack of parma ham (6-8 slices)
- pack of thyme
- 1 large red onion
- 1 tbsp of caster sugar
- 4 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
- 1 red chili
- 50-100 grams of feta cheese (up to you how much you want)
- handful of pine nuts - toasted
- 1 egg (whisked and used to glaze)
- salt and pepper to taste
- rocket salad for the plate

How to: Roll out the puff pastry and cut out hearts, gently cut a "frame" 1 cm inside the hearts but not all the way through. use the leftover pastry and create letters or other shapes and stick on to the heart (you can use some of the egg glaze for it to stick. Brush the whole heart with the egg glaze and put in the oven for 15 - 20 min (200 c) until risen and golden.
In the meantime, sweat down the onion (chopped) in some olive oil together with some chopped chili, when soft, add sugar, balsamic, some fresh thyme, salt and pepper and let it caramelize. Put aside.
Take out the puff pastry hearts, gently cut off the "lid" then fill the bottom bit with the onion mix, strips of parma ham and top with the feta cheese. Put back into the oven and let it cook for 10 min or until done.
Take out, sprinkle the toasted pine nuts on top, put the lid on and serve on the plates with some rocket on the side.

Cocoon - 8th of February

Had a dinner date with my lovely friend Helen last Tuesday.. we normally meet up once a month but we have been a bit slack in organising these catch up's recently.. we finally agreed on tuesday the 8th of February and Helen booked us in on a 50% off deal at Cocoon. I used to love Cocoon but i haven't been for over 2 years.. last time i was there it looked a bit tatty and in need of a refurb.. i was pleasantly surprised when i arrived on Tuesday.. it looked quite fresh and nice.. and the waiter told me that they are in the process to have another re-furb in the next couple of months.. hmm.. i think i will be back again.. but only on a deal mind you.

We ordered 3 starters to share... i highly recommend all of them actually.. firstly duck spring rolls crammed full of lovely duck.. a classic but with a very generous filling. The 2nd dish was also fabulous, chicken gyozas.. which i love.. and they were very very good (and a nice presentation). the 3rd dish was quite subtle in flavour.. i loved it but Helen wasn't so sure.. which meant that she only had one dumpling.. and i had the other 3 :-) It was a a vegetable dumpling with truffle.. bright green in colour and filled with perfectly cooked vegetables and a hint of truffle.. very tasty.

For mains we shared a "Bo-Luc-Lac beef" which translated to stir fried beef slices with mushrooms served with a dipping sauce and little lettuce cups which you put the beef in and rolled up into a roll. It was nice but the sauce lacked chili heat.

We also had a green chicken curry with rice.. it was OK but not great.

The meal for 2 incl 2 glasses of wine and 2 non alcoholic coctails, a bottle of water and service came to £70 after our discount which i think was good value for the meal and i would go back again on the offer.