In planning for your romance-filled wedding reception, apart from choosing the venue, décor, lighting, and music--selecting food for the event is always a major part of the decision-making. As you determine your reception menu, consider dishes with ingredients that would help bring out l'amour, which really is the theme for your celebration.
Ingredients such as oysters, chocolate, garlic, chilies, tomatoes, strawberries, asparagus, and ginger have long been referred to as aphrodisiacs. While science has yet to prove whether or not these really have an effect on our desires, dishes with these elements, as well as dishes that have been slow-cooked and decadently prepared, always provide us with a gustatory treat.
Julie Rabe, founder of Jack & Jenn Catering and author of Secrets of Recipes Revealed, suggests these dishes for your romantic reception:
Lengua con champignon
Lengua con champignon (ox tongue with button mushrooms) is a popular dish among Jack & Jenn's clientele. The ox tongue is slowly cooked in Jack & Jenn's wood-fired oven for six hours. The lengua, cooked so soft it melts in your mouth like butter, is accompanied with rich mushroom gravy and other sidings.
Worried that the creamy gravy won't last in our climate? Not to worry, as Jack & Jenn uses all-natural ingredients (such as lemon and vinegar) to keep their dishes tasting as if they just came out of the kitchen.
Sauerbraten
By tradition, Sauerbraten (sauer for pickled, braten, roast meat) is pot-roasted beef (or even game) that's been marinated in vinegar and other seasonings. Jack & Jenn updated this German national dish and made it sweeter for the Filipino palate. Consider Jack & Jenn's version a German take on the Filipino caldereta.
Carbonade Flamande
The dish features beef lightly browned in butter and bacon fat, then left slowly stewed in the oven with onions, herbs, beef stock and light beer. Carmonade Flamande is a remake of the Belgian beef and onion stew, and is traditionally sweet and sour.
Barbecued spareribs with beer and honey
For the occasional drinker, the barbecued spareribs is a sure treat. To prepare Jack & Jenn's barbecued (pork) spareribs with beer and honey, Julie asks her staff to soften the spareribs in her special marinade of beer and honey. The spareribs are then grilled in a wood-fired oven to release the flavors and the tangy scent of beer.
Kashmir Chicken Breast
Arouse the senses with the aroma and rich taste of Kashmiri cuisine. This simple dish features lightly browned chicken breast that's been cooked with onions, garlic and other herbs and topped off with potatoes and a generous serving of creamy curry sauce.
Grilled fish fillet with lemon butter sauce
The seemingly simple dish is quite a treat, and a healthy one at that. The lemon butter sauce does well in providing flavors for this dish, and if you're wont for more color in your menu options, you can opt for this dish's herbed cousin, Salmon Verte.
While Jack & Jenn's romantic offerings will surely put you in an amorous mood, Julie shares that there's so much more about the celebration than eating sumptuous fare. "It's not just about the food," says Julie. "It's also just being together, relating and bonding with each other."
