For Real Romance, Make it Nice… At Home

How to Avoid Amateur Night + Cocoa & Coffee Rubbed Fish with Japanese Sweet Potatoes and Green Tahini Sauce

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Walking under crystal chandeliers in the dining room of Caprice, a three Michelin star restaurant at the Four Seasons in Hong Kong, I couldn’t help but feel pity. Black suited servers were draping the normally white linen clad tables with black cloths then placing small rosebud filled vases in the center. All that black made the room, with its floor-to-ceiling windows looking out to Victoria Harbor, far from romantic - it felt heavy. This was Valentine’s Day. The restaurant, located in the luxury hotel where I ran communications, was fully booked. It seemed unfortunate that for the sake of an artificial holiday, just to make the room look “special”, so many couples would not be experiencing Caprice the way it should be - romantic, glistening, and beautiful just as it was, on any night but this.

Do you know what people in the restaurant industry call Valentine’s Day? Amateur night.

A bunch of couples go out to dinner with a bunch of other couples, paying for overpriced set menus. Drizzle something in truffle oil, add a molten chocolate dessert, throw in some red roses at four times the normal cost and you have yourself a recipe for a night that no one particularly enjoys and nearly everyone resents. Here is a day that is supposed to be about love and by the end of the night, servers and guests alike end up wishing everyone had just stayed home, cooked a nice dinner, and watched some Netflix.

From the restaurant standpoint the trouble is room set up. Dining rooms and tables are designed to hold a mix of parties of varying size. On Valentine’s Day when nearly every reservation is for two, you end up with a lot of couples seated at vast tables designed to hold many more people. Since the restaurant cannot maximize revenue in seating, they are forced to make “special” menus to guarantee a minimum return on each seat. You will be getting that molten chocolate cake (and appetizer and entrée) for each of you whether you want all that food or not.

As a guest, this doesn’t feel particularly nice either. Maybe you don’t need quite that much food. I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember ever feeling sexy after finishing a 5-course dinner. Maybe you’d rather have some choice in what you eat. My husband, my forever Valentine, will never eat a prix fixe menu any night of the year. Or maybe you think about the cost of that “special menu” and the two or three date nights you could get for the same amount of money on a day where you aren’t celebrating love with the rest of the world.

Here is my pitch. Don’t go out on Valentine’s Day this year. Stay in. Cook something nice. Open a good bottle of wine. Still go to that restaurant you have been wanting to try, but do it another night. You will get the best of them, and they will get the best of you. Because you, my friend, are no amateur.

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One thing I love about the best restaurants (on a night other than Valentine’s Day), is their ability to surprise. A perennial favorite of ours, Herb & Sea in Encinitas is the perfect example. Sitting squarely within the farm-to-table ethos of California cuisine, they consistently turn out dishes both familiar and unexpected.

I’m still haunted by a swordfish dish I had there almost two years ago. Rubbed with a mixture of coffee and spices, it was the sort of earthy blend that lifted fish from summer fare to winter. I went back for bite after bite, puzzling through the unexpected combination of flavors. When I recently came across a recipe for catfish with a rub of cocoa, chili, and caraway, it put me in mind of that swordfish. Coffee, cocoa – these are ingredients I would gladly rub on a venison tenderloin but for fish… now that was something special.

Working on a blend of cocoa powder, coffee, dried herbs and spices, I settled on something that I think could elevate a humbler species, like catfish or our abundant southern Californian rockfish. I would gladly use it on a thicker steak like swordfish or simply a sturdy fillet like mahi mahi.

If you are cooking this for Valentine’s Day, the whole combination of fish, roasted sweet potatoes and green tahini sauce can be made with minimal effort, mostly in the oven. It’s light enough to keep you feeling good if love is in the air, but fancy looking enough to feel special. It is simple but lovely, and far from amateur.

Recipe

Fish in Coffee-Cocoa Rub with Roasted Japanese Sweet Potatoes and Green Tahini Sauce

Makes enough for four. If cooking for two, use half the weight of fish and number of sweet potatoes. Save the extra tahini for salad dressing.

• 1 lb. Japanese Sweet Potatoes

Rub

• 2 tsp. cocoa powder

• ½ tsp. good quality instant coffee or espresso

• ½ tsp. coriander seeds

• ½ tsp. dried oregano

• 1 tsp. brown sugar

• ¼ tsp. ancho chili powder

• 1 tsp. salt

• ¼ tsp. black pepper

Fish

• 1 ¼ lb. mahi mahi, skin removed

• 2 T. hulled, raw pumpkin seeds

• 4 T. extra virgin olive oil

Green Tahini Sauce

• 3 T. tahini

• 2 T. extra virgin olive oil

• Juice of 1 lemon

• ¾ tsp. salt

• 2 T. water

• ¼ cup finely chopped parsley

Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a small baking sheet with parchment paper. Clean sweet potatoes and pierce several times with a fork. Place on baking sheet and roast in the oven for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, until soft when pressed on each side. Let cool slightly while fish cooks.

Meanwhile, combine all the ingredients for the rub in a small mortar and pestle. Crush spices and mix to combine. Pat fish fillets dry with paper towels. Rub seasoning into fish fillets on both sides. Without wiping out mortar, add pumpkin seeds and lightly crush. Drizzle two tablespoons of the olive oil on a parchment lined baking sheet. Place fish fillets on the oiled parchment with the most attractive side facing up. Sprinkled crushed pumpkin seeds on each fillet. Drizzle with the remaining oil.

When potatoes are out of the oven and cooling slightly, place fish inside. Bake for 12 minutes for mahi mahi until fish appears to flake easily when tested with a fork. For thinner fillets, like catfish, snapper or rockfish, check after 8 -10 minutes. For thicker fillets, like swordfish, check after 14 minutes.

While fish is cooking, in a small bowl whisk together tahini, 2 T. olive oil, lemon juice, salt and water. Taste. Add more lemon juice or salt if necessary. This tahini is on the more acidic side as it will balance the sweetness and spice of the potatoes and fish. The sauce should be drizzling consistency. If it is too thick, add more water. When the taste and consistency are correct, whisk in 2 T. of parsley.

To plate, remove skin from roasted sweet potatoes. Divide potatoes among plates and gently mash with the back of a fork. Sprinkle with sea salt and drizzle with a small amount of the tahini sauce. Place a fish fillet on top of each potato mound. Drizzle more tahini around the plate along with some of the parsley. Serve immediately.