A Valentine’s Day Dinner for Two

For a supper that includes the Valentine’s Day motifs of the color red and a heart shape, you might try a heart-shaped Salisbury steak. It comes to the table under a blanket of red sauce.  The whole menu could be:  Vegetable salad, Salisbury Steak, steamed brown rice, kale with garlic, ginger, and a sprinkle of rice vinegar or red wine vinegar, a salad of dark green lettuce leaves, diced cucumber and diced red bell pepper with your favorite salad dressing, and for dessert sliced strawberries and whipped cream over chocolate shortcake.
 
Order of preparation: Start the rice cooking. Set your timer for when the rice will be half done. Prepare the kale. Peel and slice the garlic. Mince the ginger. Wash, hull, and slice strawberries.  When the timer goes off, start cooking the meat.
 
SALISBURY STEAK       
        2 servings
 
Spray-on olive oil
    Or 1 Tablespoon extra virgin Spanish or Turkish olive oil
½ pound leanest ground beef, flattened and formed in heart shape
15 ounce can tomato sauce
 
Coat the bottom of a large skillet with olive oil. Heat it.
Apply the heart-shaped meat patty. Brown it, turn it and brown the other side. Pour the tomato sauce over it. Reduce the heat to medium low. Cover the pan. Cook 20 minutes. This is difficult to transfer to a serving dish. I’d just serve from the pan.
The extra red sauce, flavored by the meat, goes well on steamed rice.
 
KALE with GARLIC & GINGER
 
½ bunch kale
2 garlic cloves
3 or 4 slices ginger
Dash chicken granules
½ cup water
sprinkle of rice vinegar
 
Wash the kale. Cut the tough center rib out of each leaf. Stack the leaf halves and cut in several small pieces. Place in saucepan and add remaining ingredients. Toss. Bring to boiling, reduce heat, cover and cook 15 to 20 minutes, until tender. Offer rice vinegar at the table.
 
CHOCOLATE SHORTCAKE: The Chocolate Cake, or the Chocolate Angelfood Cake from my cookbook, Wholegrain and Gluten Free, available at Minglement. Or a chocolate cake from a store bought mix with an extra tablespoon of cocoa powder stirred into the batter, will serve well here. Bake in a square pan or pans. Cut in squares, top with sliced strawberries marinated with a little brown sugar or coconut sugar and topped with whipped cream.
 
A very happy Valentine’s Day to you all!  Marj.