<3 easy-but-fancy valentine's menu <3
date night in with marry me risotto, crab cakes, and garlicky broccolini
We’re two days away from Valentine’s Day and I’m so excited to share this extremely delicious, restaurant-quality dinner that you can very easily cook alongside your Valentine on Saturday.
My little brother and his girlfriend are coming to town and I’m so excited to cook at home with them. We’ll throw a movie on for the kids, make some cocktails and mocktails, and cook dinner together, taking turns holding Tav. We’ll all sit around our pink-tablecloth-outfitted table and eat, then wrap the meal up by letting the boys take turns blowing out the candles on the Valentine’s-themed cake I plan to pick up from a local bakery Saturday morning. Blowing out candles is fun, and should not be reserved for birthdays only. “Happy Valentine’s to youuuu…!” I can’t wait!
This year’s easy-but-fancy Valentine’s menu stars a delicacy we’ve never cooked with here at What to Cook: crab! We are going to cook four perfectly golden-brown crab cakes and serve them with crispy, garlicky broccolini (which we’ll cook on the same sheet pan as the crab cakes) and the creamiest, easiest oven-baked risotto.
For how gorgeous this meal is, I think you’ll be shocked by how little work it actually takes. The risotto requires only very minimal stirring. The crab cakes, once shaped, will chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes (or up to 4 hours, if you want to prep ahead!) before broiling for 5 to 7 minutes. And the crispy broccolini’s the lowest lift of it all.
We’re using refrigerated crab meat, which is tender, juicy, sweet, and delicious. “Lump” crab meat is ideal, but any refrigerated crab meat (like “claw”) will be great. I really want you to stick to refrigerated crab meat! There are shelf-stable cans of crab out there, but they’re much more processed than the refrigerated stuff so I can’t promise the same results.
You can find refrigerated crab meat at a fishmonger (AKA a specialty seafood seller/shop) or a grocery store with a big fresh seafood department like Whole Foods. But you should also be able to find it at any major grocery store — I developed this recipe with refrigerated lump crab meat from my local Safeway, and we’ve found it at a bunch of Publixes, Harris Teeters, Costcos, etc. across the country via Instacart. (That’s actually a hot tip — if you aren’t sure if your regular store carries it, poke around on Instacart to check before you go, or give them a call!)
If you’re in the mood to splurge because it’s a special occasion, you can buy jumbo lump crab. It’s more expensive than regular lump crab because they took extra care when removing the crab’s shell to leave the meat in as big of pieces as possible, which will yield the most moist, tender, juicy crab cakes. It’s nice! But absolutely not a must.
FYI, 99% of the time crab meat comes pre-cooked! They steamed or boiled the crab before removing its shell. Speaking of the shell: when you’re adding the crab meat to the mixing bowl, GENTLY finger through it to check for (and discard) any remaining bits of shell. The goal is to keep the lumps of meat as big as possible while you sift through it!
If you can’t eat or find crab, see the notes section beneath the recipe — we have lots of alternatives that will pair beautifully with this risotto and broccolini.
As written, this meal feeds four. If you’re cooking for two, see the “love your leftovers” note beneath the recipe for how to enjoy your leftover crab cakes for lunches. The crab cakes and risotto both freeze well, too!
All in, it will take you about 1 hour to make this meal.
The hands-on cook time is very short — about 20 minutes for the whole thing! But you do need to let the crab cakes refrigerate for at least 30 minutes (or up to 4 hours) before they cook, and the risotto will bake for 40 minutes before you broil the crab cakes and broccolini.
If you have kids and are trying to do a dinner date night in, you have a few options for how to time this:
If you have a baby or toddler who goes to bed early, you can put them to bed then cook the whole thing right after.
Or you could prep the crab cakes and get the risotto in the oven, do a quick bed time (if that’s a thing if your house lol), then eat alone once they’re down.
If you have older kids who will be eating with you, you can leisurely prep this meal throughout the afternoon/early evening and eat altogether.
Like we did last year, we’re sharing a step-by-step game plan for how to cook this meal with another person. We know that many of you prefer cooking alone, but take this as an invitation to mix it up and allow your spouse — or son or niece or mom or neighbor — to join you in the kitchen! It’ll be fun!
The morning of (or the day before at the earliest), go grocery shopping or have groceries delivered. Do not buy your crab meat more than a day before you plan to cook with it so it’s as fresh as possible.
Run and empty the dishwasher in the morning or early afternoon if it’s close to being full. This meal doesn’t dirty many dishes, but there is nothing worse than eating a big meal only to realize that the dishwasher is full.
If you have little kids, now’s a good time to turn on a movie. Might I suggest The Parent Trap? My boys are obsessed.
When you’re ready to cook, turn on the love-themed playlist below that my dad and I made! We’ve updated it with new songs this year! Side note, I still love my Bose speaker.
Pour a glass of wine — white wine goes great with this menu — or make a cocktail or mocktail.
OK, now it’s time to get to work!
The more skilled cook: Assemble the crab cakes. Remember to use your fingers to very gently check for any bits of hard shell (taking care not to break up the clumps of meat!) as you add the crab meat to the bowl.
The less skilled cook: Prep the risotto. It’s a dump-and-go situation, they’ve got this. Remember to drain the sun-dried tomatoes!
At roughly the same time, you all will put the risotto in the oven and set a timer for 40 minutes, and put the sheet pan with the formed crab cakes in the fridge to chill.
While you’re waiting, one of you can go check on the kids and/or refill the drinks while the other person washes, dries, and trims the rough ends off of the broccolini.
Once that’s done, set the table together. If you haven’t already, throw a pink tablecloth on there. Bring out your fancy plates, if you’ve got ‘em! Or if it’s already set, just hang!
When the timer goes off: the less experienced cook will take the risotto out of the oven and finish that recipe. Meanwhile, the more experienced cook will turn the broiler on to high, take the sheet pan with the crab cakes out of the fridge, add the butter to the crab cakes, toss the broccolini with its other ingredients on the other side of the sheet pan, and put the pan in the oven.
As soon as the crab cakes and broccolini are ready, plate the risotto with a crab cake or two on top and broccolini on the side. Add a lemon wedge for spritzing over everything.
Cheers and dig in!
We’ve also made a grocery list for you since this menu contains multiple recipes — find it in the printer-friendly PDF at the very bottom of this email/post. In it, you’ll also find the tools you need to cook this meal, the game plan for cooking it with someone, the recipes, and all the notes and subs! ❤️
Serves 4 to 6
Cook time: 50 minutes (10 minutes active, 40 minutes inactive)
Tools:
Dutch oven or another oven-safe pot
Microplane or box grater (use the smallest holes) to grate the Parm
