Here we come again with our newsletter. This time, we've prepared a selection of spanish recipes for that special day: St. Valentine's!

We have selected some recipes that will help you enjoy this special date with the one you love most, spanish-style. So, check them out, prepare the candles, the nicely arranged table, and get ready for a night to remember!

St. Valentine's Day in Spain

St. Valentine's day is not a traditional Spanish celebration, but during the last years it has become more and more popular, and many Spaniards are celebrating it. As in many other countries, Valentine's traditions include making presents to the one you love, and - quite obviously being in Spain - a romantic dinner.

There are no customary recipes on St. Valentine's dinners, but Spanish people tend to favor mild, aromatic tastes, sometimes with an exotic touch. To Spaniards, a romantic diner is often the prelude of a night to remember.

An Spanish menu for St. Valentine's

If you're planning to celebrate this special evening at home, and you want to impress your partner with an special dinner, we've selected some recipes that we believe will make this night really special for both of you. Being Spain a land of contrasts, our selection includes meat and fish recipes, so you can tailor your menu to your own preferences.

The starters

In Spain, seafood is believed to have aphrodisiacal properties, so in Spain is very common to start with Gambas a la plancha (pan-grilled shrimp), with a glass of chilled fino sherry.

Another option, if you prefer something softer and less traditional could be the Endive salad with Cabrales cheese and oranges, where the incredible northern blue cheese of Cabrales meets the freshness of Valencia's oranges. A glass of txacolí (a white wine with some spark that comes from the Basque country) would be perfect for this salad.

Main Courses

As main course, we've selected a couple of recipes, each one with its own personality and character:

• Hake fillets with Clams in Salsa Verde: this dish is one of the front-runners of traditional Basque cuisine. Salsa Verde appears in many dishes; with clams alone, with monkfish or fresh cod, or with a combination of clams and hake, as in this recipe. A perfect match for this recipe would be a white Muga wine.
• Roasted duck with pears: This is another classic, this time from Catalonia's cuisine. Duck's delicacy combines wonderfully with the sweetness of pears. Try it along a nice bottle of Pesquera Crianza or -even better- the superb Malleolus from Emilio Moro.

The deserts and...

The perfect way to end this dinner - not this celebration - is a typical Spanish dessert, for example, a flan (try adding some freshly squeezed orange juice to it if you want a really special taste), a tocinillo de cielo, or much better, some Spanish chocolate treats, like the fig bonbons.

Of course, with the dessert - and what might come afterwards - would be a great idea opening a bottle of Spanish cava, like the Segura Viudas Brut Reserva Heredad.

Gift ideas

If you plan to make an special present to that special someone, a good idea would be to pamper him/her with a Spanish Gift basket:

Kind regards,

Jordi Vallés