Love Potion #31 features white chocolate and raspberry ice creams, a raspberry ribbon, chocolate chips and raspberry-filled chocolate hearts. We love chocolate and raspberry, so thanks, B-R: This is right up our alley.

Customers can enjoy a free red waffle cone with the purchase of any double scoop of ice cream at participating Baskin-Robbins shops nationwide.

The Valentine offerings also include ice cream cakes in the shape of “conversation hearts,” with messages including Be Mine, Love You and XOXO. You can order the cakes online for pickup at your local Baskin Robbins.

[1] A dish of poutine: fries, gravy, cheese curds (photo © V. W. Campin | CC-BY-NC-SA-2.0-License).

[2] Wendy’s Canada locations serve classic poutine (photo © Wendy’s | Canada).

[3] There are many enhancements to basic poutine. Here, it’s topped with pulled pork (photo © Dirty Dogs | Montreal).

[4] This poutine baked potato trades the fries for a baked russet potato, loaded with cheese curda and gravy (photo © Idaho Potato Commission).

In Canada, the first week in February is La Poutine week.

Poutine (poo-TEEN) is a popular Canadian potato dish: French fries topped with cheese curds and gravy.

It’s the northern version of cheese fries, with brown gravy instead of ketchup; and is often referred to as the national dish of Canada.

Decades ago, it became popular in Quebec as a snack to follow a night of drinking. Of course, it begs to be accompanied by a cold beer.

During La Poutine Week, chefs at restaurants across Canada will pull out all the stops to out-poutine the classic poutine. Last year:

 
Year-round, La Banquise in Montreal serves more than thirty different kinds of poutine. It’s open 24 hours daily. Here’s the menu.

This recipe from French’s makes adds shredded barbecue beef and a fried egg (French’s used its company’s Cattlemen’s Memphis Sweet Finished BBQ Sauce). Make it, or create your own.

As for a matching beer: Cold Snap from Sam Adams sounds just right.

The unfiltered white ale has a snap of added flavor: fruit including orange peel, plum and hibiscus, and a peppery snap from fresh ground coriander.
 
 
RECIPE: BARBECUE BEEF POUTINE

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. FRY the French fries to a crisp, golden brown and arrange on a platter.

2. COMBINE the beef with barbecue sauce and heat. Sprinkle over the fries.

3. SLICE the cheese curds in half and top the fries. Melt in a hot oven.

4. TOP with the egg and scallions. Serve.
 
 
POUTINE HISTORY

Various places claim the credit for inventing poutine, in rural Quebec in the 1950s, where numerous dairies produced Cheddar cheese curds.

The first leg of the story is that poutine originated in a restaurant called Le Lutin Qui Rit (“The Laughing Goblin”), when a customer asked the owner Fernand Lachance to mix cheese curds with his fries.

A restaurant called Le Roy Jucep is the first to have served poutine as we know it today—French fries, cheese and gravy—in 1964. The owner registered a trademark for the dish.

Another restaurant La P’tite Vache (“The Little Cow”) sold curds from the local Princesse dairy. Customers would order fries and buy a bag of cheese curds to mix together at their tables in a 50:50 proportion.

When gravy was added, the dish became known as “mixte” (“mixed”).

The name “poutine” appeared in 1982, when large restaurant chains began to sell it.

While no one can explain the derivation for certain, it could be derived from the English word “pudding,” which was expressed as “pouding” in Acadian French.

One meaning of “pouding” in Canada is “an unappetizing mixture of various foods, usually leftovers.” According to Merriam-Webster, poutine derives from a Quebecois slang word meaning “mess.” [Source]

We vote for that one (see photo #1)!

Pretty to look at, these shiny chocolate hearts are filled with luscious raspberry-infused ganache. Photo courtesy Kohler.

These lovely hearts, from Kohler Chocolates, are beautifully crafted:

The dark chocolate shells are filled with a delicate raspberry-accented chocolate ganache.

The dark chocolate is then enrobed with a thin layer of red-tinted white chocolate, which is hand painted with pink dots, and glazed to a very dazzling shine.

Choose from four sizes, gift-boxed and tied with a lovely ribbon. The smallest size makes a great wedding favor.

 
Get yours at KohlerChocolates.com.

Love sashimi? Looking for a light lunch or first course? Make sashimi salad.

Pick up some of your favorite raw fish from your fishmonger—salmon, tuna and yellowtail, for example. You can also add cooked varieties, such as shrimp and squid.

Then, create a salad of choice:

 
Some Asian markets, fish markets and even supermarkets carry wakame salad. Wakame, pronounced wah-kah-MAY, is a type of seaweed; for wakame salad, it is marinated in vinegar and seasonings. If you can’t find it, you can substitute a fresh herb like cilantro.

The toughest part of making sashimi salad is slicing the fish. There’s no cooking required for this delicious, lower-calorie, healthful dish.

RECIPE: SASHIMI SALAD

Ingredients For 4 Servings

 
For The Dressing

1. MAKE the dressing: Combine the ingredients and whisk thoroughly.

2. CUT the top loin in half crosswise With a sharp knife. Place the knife at a 45° angle and slice into ¼- to-½ inch strips.

3. ARRANGE the fish on plates along with wakame salad and salmon roe. Drizzle the dressing over the fish.

 
RECIPE: HAWAIIAN POKE DRESSING

Another dressing that works with sashimi salad is poke dressing, used in Hawaii’s version of sashimi salad, called poke (POE-kuh).

Ingredients

Preparation

1. BLEND all ingredients thoroughly.

Surprise your Valentine with a beribboned box of homemade red velvet chocolate truffles with luscious raspberry flavor. The insides are the color of red velvet cake.

McCormick, which contributed this recipe, specifies baking chocolate; but these will taste so much better if you use couverture—higher quality chocolate that chocolatiers and pastry chefs use. Look for 60% to 70% couverture from Guittard, Valrhona and other brands in cbaking supply stores or specialty food stores.

RECIPE: RED VELVET RASPBERRY TRUFFLES

Ingredients For 24 Truffles

Make your own Valentine bonbons. Photo courtesy McCormick.

1. MELT 8 ounces of the chocolate as directed on package; or in a double boiler.

2. BEAT the cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar, food color and raspberry extract in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended and smooth. Add the melted chocolate; beat until well mixed. Cover. Refrigerate at least 4 hours or until firm.

3. SHAPE into 24 balls (about 3/4-inch). Place on wax paper-lined tray. Refrigerate until ready to dip.

4. COAT and decorate only 12 truffles at a time (so the chocolate doesn’t harden). Melt 4 ounces of the remaining chocolate in small microwavable bowl on MEDIUM (50% power) for 1-1/2 minutes, stirring after 1 minute. Using a fork, dip 1 truffle at a time into the chocolate. Tap the back of fork 2 or 3 times against edge of dish to allow excess chocolate to drip off. Place the truffles on a wax paper-lined tray. (If there are any “bald” spots on a truffle, cover them with the melted chocolate that remains on the fork.) Repeat with the remaining 4 ounces of chocolate and the remaining truffles.

5. DECORATE: Garnish the truffles with colorful sprinkles immediately after dipping in chocolate. The sprinkles will adhere to the truffles as the chocolate coating sets in the refrigerator. Or, decorate truffles with a swirl of white chocolate. You can use a fork to drizzle white chocolate over the truffles.

6. REFRIGERATE for 1 hour or until the chocolate is set. Store the truffles between layers of wax paper in an airtight container in refrigerator for up to 1 week.

White cake with raspberry cream cheese frosting and filling. Raspberry extract is clear and won’t color the frosting by itself. Red food color was used to make the filling pink. Photo courtesy McCormick.

Some people hesitate to purchase a bottle for only one recipe. Here are other uses for that raspberry extract:

Beverages

 
Sweets

RECIPE: RASPBERRY CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. MELT the chocolate in a double boiler or a bowl placed over a pan of gently simmering water. Take care that the chocolate does not get too hot or it can scorch. Remove from the heat and cool for 5 minutes.

2. BEAT the butter and cream cheese in a large bowl on medium speed, until light and fluffy. Add the melted chocolate and raspberry extract and mix well.

3. GRADUALLY BEAT in the confectioners’ sugar until smooth. Add the food color and blend well.