One serving has just 160 calories (45 from fat). Serve with a vinaigrette-dressed salad. Use raspberry vinegar and garnish with a few fresh raspberries for a Valentine’s Day touch. Enjoy with a glass of rosé.

Then dig into that chocolate!

TILAPIA TOMATO BASIL FILLETS

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Start to Finish: 35 minutes
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 4 tilapia fillets, about 1/2 inch thick (1 lb)
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Low-calorie, healthy and festive. Photo
courtesy Muir Glen.

• 1/4 teaspoon lemon-pepper seasoning (if you don’t have any, just use fresh-ground pepper)
• 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, drained (use the liquid in another recipe)
• 3 tablespoons shredded or grated Parmesan cheese

Preparation
1. Heat oven to 400°F. Spray 11×7-inch (2-quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray.
2. In a shallow dish, combine lemon juice, peel and oil. Dip fillets into lemon mixture, turning to coat. Place in baking dish.
3. Sprinkle basil, salt and lemon pepper over fillets. Spoon tomatoes over fillets. Sprinkle with cheese. Cover with foil. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until fish flakes easily with fork.

Add as many basil leaves, bean sprouts, and scallions as you like (photo © Simon Gurney | Dreamstime).

Last night on “Top Chef,” contestant Dale Talde won the fondue Quickfire Challenge with his adaptation of the Vietnamese soup, phö (pronounced fuh).

Phö is a symphony of flavors—one of the world’s great soups. It is a complex and flavorful beef broth seasoned with cardamom, chile, cinnamon, clove, coriander, fennel, ginger, onions, and star anise.

The broth is piled high with stewed beef, rice noodles, basil, bean sprouts, cilantro, and scallions, and is topped off with fresh lime juice squeezed at the table. The ingredients create a heady aroma and flavor.

Hearty enough to be served as a main course for lunch or a light dinner, the Vietnamese enjoy phö for breakfast. It’s a winner any time of the day.

It’s been a long time since The Clovers bought a bottle of Love Potion No. 9 to solve their romantic problems.

If you listen to the ingredients in the 1959 song by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, you’ll far prefer this 2011 recipe for Love Potion No. 299. (Also check out the 1963 cover by The Searchers.)

This 299th love potion was created for Valentine’s Day by Kenneth McClure, General Manager of Hospitality Holdings. It’s being served at Bookmarks, the rooftop lounge atop The Library Hotel in New York City. If you’re not in the area, whip up your own Love Potion No. 299.

The recipe includes rose sorbet (sherbet), which can be purchased at Middle Eastern markets, international markets and online. Those with organic roses—no chemical pesticides, please—can make their own with this recipe.
 
 
COCKTAIL RECIPE: LOVE POTION No. 299

Ingredients Per Cocktail

Will this love potion do the job? Photo
courtesy The Library Hotel | New York City.

1. STIR lightly together in mixing glass (heavy stirring will break the Champagne bubbles).

2. STRAIN into a chilled Champagne flute.

3. TOP with extra Champagne.
 
 
WHAT IS ROSE SORBET/SHERBET or FALUDEH?

The favorite Persian frozen dessert, rose sorbet is a rare and wonderful experience, made from cooked rose petals. You step into the very essence of the flower. In am authentic Middle Eastern faludeh, fine threads of starch noodles (like rice noodles, but made of wheat) are added for visual beauty and an appealing crunch.

Next time, don’t send a dozen roses: send a few quarts of rose sorbet from Los Angeles ice cream artisan Mashti Malone.

In addition to flavoring Love Potion No. 299, rose sorbet is a great palate cleanser between fish and meat courses, a dazzling dessert, and an invigorating refreshment. In Persian circles, faludeh (the Persian word for rose sorbet), is as ubiquitous as the ice cream is in the U.S. It is generally served in a bowl, garnished with sour cherries and/or a drizzle of sour cherry syrup, a squirt of lime juice, and pistachios.

It would make an absolutely great Valentine’s Day dessert, followed by a Love Potion No. 299.
 
 
FOOD HISTORY: THE WORD “SORBET”

Sorbet originated in China up to 4,000 years ago as snow and ice flavored with syrup. Through trade, the recipe arrived in Persia. Persians invented a dessert made of rosewater and vermicelli—faludeh—around 400 B.C.E. Alexander The Great brought the recipe back to Greece after he conquered Persia in 330 B.C.E. The recipe became a favorite with the Roman emperors.

According to TurkishCookbook.com, sherbet is served both as a liquid—the rose version of lemonade, served on hot summer days—and a frozen dessert. Ottoman Turks drank sherbet during meals as we drink water. As with lemonade, sherbet is made from fruit juices (or extracts of flowers or herbs) combined with sugar, water and ice.

See the History Of Ice Cream (and its predecessor, sherbet).
 
 

Raspberries grow on a tall bush. Photo
courtesy PickYourOwn.org.

Raspberries are a delicious food, a beautiful food, and equally important, a very healthy food: high in potassium, vitamins A & C and fiber, with no fat, cholesterol or sodium (in fact, they can lower blood cholesterol levels and are a diabetic-friendly food). They’re a good source of iron and folate.

And raspberries are an antioxidant-rich food. They contain ellagic acid, a polyphenol antioxidant also found in blackberries, cranberries, pecans, pomegranates, raspberries, strawberries, walnuts and other foods.

Everyone has seen red raspberries; but there are also black, gold and purple and gold varieties.

Pop them into the fridge as soon as you bring them home. Never wash berries until you’re ready to use them.

If you realize you won’t be using them, raspberries freeze easily. To prepare for freezing, just wash, pat dry and put them in a freezer bag, squeezing out the air.

Browse raspberry recipes and make something new. You can start with the Frozen Raspberry Soufflé recipe below.

And be sure to use them as a Valentine’s Day garnish, for both savory and sweet dishes.

It’s a frozen version of an Italian meringue, a soft meringue (beaten egg whites) that has been cooked by slowly pouring hot sugar syrup over it instead of sweetening with granulated sugar. There is also an eggier style of frozen soufflé, based on a Bavarian cream, that cooks the egg yolks with sugar.

For a special Valentine’s Day dessert, it’s easy to make individual Frozen Raspberry Soufflés. Use frozen raspberries to keep the cost down and save the fresh raspberries for garnish. (The dish is not named for the frozen raspberries, but because it’s a frozen soufflé.)

• Get the recipe.
• Find more of our favorite dessert recipes.

A frozen soufflé is a perfect Valentine’s Day
dessert. Photo courtesy Oregon-Berries.com.