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Summer is the season of love! Who doesn’t love to get hot and sticky come August? Who doesn’t want to enjoy pride with someone by their side (or at least in their bed)? Yes, being single is fabulous – but getting your jam on is worth raising a toast to.
And we all know there’s one way to a (wo)man’s heart: through the stomach.
With that in mind, we’ve teamed up with our friends at the Aphrodisiac Café to help you cook up some spice in your (love)life. So throw some Egyptian cotton sheets over the dining table – it’s time to start salivating.
Red-Hot Chilli Berries
Amy Reiley, gastronomist and aphrodisiac expert says: ‘Chillies may be this dish’s most potent aphrodisiac for their ability to raise body temperature and make lips plump with kissable softness flow.’
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 100g piquillos peppers, drained weight
- 50g icing sugar + a little extra sweetener
- 150ml double cream
- 250g fresh raspberries
Granita ingredients
- 40g piquillos peppers
- 25g caster sugar
- juice ½ lemon
- pinch of Espelette
Method
- Make the granita. Place the 40g piquillos in a small blender with 125ml water, the caster sugar, lemon juice and a good pinch of Espelette. Whizz until very smooth, then scoop out into a small freezer proof box and freeze, stirring with a fork two or three times as it freezes down to crush the ice mixture.
- For tuiles, pat the piquillos dry with paper towel, then blitz in a blender or food processor with the icing sugar. Reserve a tablespoon of the pulp and set aside. Heat the oven 150oC/Gas 2.
- Line a flat baking sheet with a silicone cooking mat (Silpat). Using a thin palette knife, spread the remaining piquillos paste over the Silpat in a wafer-thin sheet, ensuring there are no holes.
- Then bake for 9-10 minutes until the paste hardens. Tear a sheet of non-stick baking parchment and lay on the worktop.
- Up end the SIlpat with the tuiles mixture upside down on the paper and using the palette knife, prise off the sheet of pepper mix onto the paper and allow to dry. Then break or cut into eight even-sized pieces to match the size of your desert or side plates.
- When ready to serve, remove the granita from the freezer to soften a little. Whip the cream and when thick stir in the reserved piquillos purée, plus a little extra icing sugar to sweeten, if liked. Set this spiced Chantilly cream aside. Lay four broken tuiles on four plates, scatter with the berries, then dollop the piquillos Chantilly cream over the berries and finish with another piece of tuile.
- Scape shavings of the granita with a spoon and out onto each plate alongside small spoonfuls of Old Boy’s Jam, if liked.
Flamed and Smoked Oyster Duo
Amy Reiley says, ‘Oysters are the most widely known aphrodisiac food. This fleshy fruit of the sea’s reputation is not without merit as oysters are an excellent source of zinc, which is known to improve blood flow.’
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 8 rock oysters
- 1 x lime
Utensils/materials
- smoker
- 1 x bunch Scottish pine
Method
- Put the Scottish Pine inside the smoker – set alight and when flames appear, lay the rock oysters inside and close the lid for 5 minutes.
- The oysters should open ever so slightly by themselves depending on the temperature.
- Remove the top of each oyster.
- Grate the zest of a lime (washed) across oysters using a grater/microplane.
Gull’s Eggs with Fregola, Wild Asparagus and Samphire
Amy Reiley says: ‘Eggs are recognized the world over as one of the most beautiful symbols of fertility, and while some will assume it is its shape that gives asparagus aphrodisiac appeal, this vegetable of desire is actually packed with libido-boosting power.’
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 200g fregola pasta
- 100g fresh or frozen peas
- 30g butter
- 4 seagulls’ eggs
- 1 dessertspoon vinegar
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 200g fresh samphire, washed and stalk ends trimmed
- 1 bunch wild asparagus or thin-stemmed asparagus (sprue)
- 1 bunch fresh chives, chopped
- 1 tablespoon truffle oil
- 1-2 tablespoons fresh dulse seaweed or wakame, chopped (optional)
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
- Boil the pasta in plenty of salted water for 10 minutes, then drain and set aside
- Boil the peas for 3-5 minutes until tender, then drain, reserving some of the water. Tip the peas into a food processer with half the butter and a little of the water and blend to a smooth sauce. For a velvety texture, you can rub the purée through the sieve with the back of a ladle. Set aside.
- Boil the eggs in simmering water with the vinegar. Time for 1½ minutes from when the water returns to the boil. Drain and place in a large bowl of cold water for a few minutes, then peel.
- Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and sauté the samphire and asparagus until just wilted but still crisp, 2-3 minutes
- Heat the remaining butter in another frying pan and when hot toss in the cooked pasta plus the chopped chives and truffle oil. Toss into the greens (with some dulse or wakame if you have any), season and mix well
- Divide the mixture between four warmed plates, place a halved egg on top and dribble the peas sauce around. Serve immediately.
About Aphrodisiac Café
Aphrodisiac Café is a new project spearheaded by dating website match.com. The Café serves up a saucy menu of arousing ingredients married by Club Gascon’s Michelin-starred chef, Pascal Aussignac. All dishes include at least one aphrodisiac to get your loins burning and your senses tingling, and are designed to feed two mouths – although whether you choose to eat them off a plate or each other is up to you!
Match.com continues to road-test the menu to match.com members at a series of socials throughout the summer – the next one being in London on 27 August.
