A Very Special Valentine's Day

This Valentine’s Day was really special.  The morning of Valentine's Day, my dad didn’t get me an ordinary present.  He got me flowers.  That might seem like a really ordinary present for Valentine’s Day, but they were roses.  But not just regular roses. They were bacon roses which is the best present a bacon lover can have! Then my dad and I decided to make a special Valentine’s Day dinner for my mom.  We looked up some good recipes for a surf and turf.  We decided on a Moroccan styled theme.  We decided to make lamb and shrimp.  First we seasoned the lamb with salt and Ras el hanout.  Ras el hanout is a Moroccan spice blend which reminded me of Indian and French spices.  For example when you smell the Ras el hanout you could smell the paprika because paprika was in it.  It also had cumin, cinnamon, ginger, coriander, turmeric, black pepper, cardamom, allspice, mace, white pepper, rosebuds, nutmeg, cloves, saffron, and bay leaves. After we rubbed the spices on the meat, we put it in a plastic bag and added prunes and honey.  Then we put the bag in a vacuum sealer to seal the bag. Once the bag was sealed, we put it in our Sous Vide Supreme machine.  The Sous Vide machine will cook it for two hours the way we want it to be cooked without overcooking it.  It has water in it and the water is heated to the exact temperature we want the meat to be. Once the machine had the right temperature, we put the bag in. Many restaurants cook using machines like this so that when you cut into the meat it will be the perfect color you want.  Then we peeled carrots because we were going to make carrots along with the shrimp and lamb.  After we peeled the carrots, we made a paste to put on the carrots.  The paste was made out of butter, maple syrup, and harissa sauce.  Harissa sauce is a Moroccan pepper sauce and it will give the carrots a kick while the maple syrup gives it sweetness.  After we got the paste on the carrots and got them in the oven we had to do the shrimp.  So, we got the shrimp and cleaned them under water. Then we put it in a bowl with scallions, lemon zest, ginger, garlic, and sesame oil.  Then, I mixed it all together with my hands and then I smelled the bowl and said, “Dad, come over here and smell the bowl, it smells amazing!”  My dad came over and smelled the bowl and called out for my mom and they thought it smelled amazing too.  After that, we put it in a plastic bag and did the same thing we did to the lamb.  Then after we did the vacuum sealer, we put the shrimp in the Sous Vide machine and took the lamb out.  For dessert, my mom made chocolate lava cakes. I helped by melting the chocolate.  After we finished the shrimp and did the finishing touches we were ready to dig in.  When we sat down I tasted the lamb it was sweet and really tender.  Then, I tasted the shrimp and it tasted the way it smelled and the carrots were soft and sweet.  Then, after we ate and cleared the table, my mom brought out dessert.  When I sliced through my chocolate lava cake, a puddle of chocolate came through.  When I tasted the cake it was dense and rich.  I hope that we all remember this lovely dinner. I hope that everyone else had a cool Valentine’s Day like me!

Here are links to the recipes we made:

Moroccan Lamb Chops with Prunes and Honey
Baby Carrots Glazed with Harissa and Maple Syrup
Shrimp with Lemon and Ginger