Heart-Shaped Foods Make Meals Special

Even if you can’t afford to splurge on lobster dinners for two, hire a string quartet or jet to Paris for a romantic weekend, Valentine’s Day can still be celebrated in a heartfelt manner.

All you need is a heart-shaped form - made of metal, plastic, glass or ceramics - to lift your menu out of the ordinary.

These heart shapes are available in cookware stores in the form of cookie cutters, tiny hors d’oeuvre cutters, cake and tart pans, and gelatin molds. There are even special molds to make the most appropriate of desserts: the velvety-textured Coeur a la Creme, packed into a ceramic heart-shaped mold with holes in the bottom for draining.

Begin with breakfast, using heart-shaped cookie cutters to transform slices of square bread into heart shapes. Toast the bread to accompany a platter of sizzling ham and eggs.

Or dip bread slices into whipped eggs spiked with aromatic Grand Marnier to make golden French toast. Add bright red napkins, red roses in a vase and colorful ruby-red strawberry or raspberry jam or syrup.

The same cookie cutters can be used to cut hearts out of sheets of puff pastry. Bake and fill them with hot chicken or seafood fillings, or sweetened chilled custards or ice cream for dessert.

Or use the cutters to make Curry or Garlic Toast Hearts, a beguiling offering as an appetizer or with luncheon soups and salads.

If you’re serving cherry pie for dessert, add a dramatic touch by cutting a heart out of the top crust before placing it on the filling and baking.

Heart-shaped cookies, frosted with pink icing and decorated with red sprinkles, will go a long way toward pleasing loved ones throughout the day - in lunch boxes for children, for a sneak attack during a lull in the afternoon, or set on a lace paper doily for a surprise nighttime nibble.

To express your affection for that person at the center of your universe, make a fine-textured cake in a heartshaped cake pan or serve a shimmering, heart-shaped red gelatin salad.

Heart-shaped meatloaf might be a bit much, but you can still surprise and delight at other points in the menu. Pack hot, cooked rice into a large heart pan or mold (or use small molds for individual servings) and press down firmly with the back of a spoon; level top. Place a serving platter on top and invert, removing mold, for a stylish expression of your devotion.

For dessert, pack softened ice cream into a heart mold and refreeze it until firm. When ready to serve, run a knife around the edges, dip the mold quickly into a pan of warm water and invert onto a serving platter. Depending on the flavor of the ice cream, garnish with strawberries, maraschino cherries, chocolate hearts, toasted nuts, candied violets, fresh pansies or mint sprigs, or serve in a pool of bright berry sauce.

Other provocative touches can be added with small (1- to 1-1/2-inch) heart-shaped cutters for hors d’oeuvres. Cut hearts out of whole pimientos and set them afloat on soups or scatter them over garden-fresh salads. Or cut small hearts out of cold cuts and cheese slices, or from slices of jicama, carrots, cucumbers or other vegetables to add a special flourish to salads and vegetable dishes. Cut butter into 1/4-inch pats and then use the tiny cutter to make small butter hearts.

Martha Stewart (you knew, of course, that she would have something to contribute) cuts small hearts out of cooked root vegetables. She uses peeled carrots and turnips, although almost any root vegetable will work. Cut 1/4-inch slices of peeled vegetables into heart shapes, parboil in boiling water 1 minute, then plunge into ice-cold water to stop the cooking. Drain and set aside. When ready to serve, saute vegetables in unsalted butter over medium heat until tender-crisp, about 5 minutes.

For chocolate lovers, make Chocolate Hearts to serve with espresso or after-dinner liqueurs for a luxurious finale.

Too much trouble? You can still scale maybe not the culinary heights, but at least the romantic lowlands, by strewing store-bought valentine candies - such as red-hots, chocolate kisses or wafer hearts - onto store-bought cakes, ice creams and pies.

Coeur a la Creme

From “The Gourmet Cookbook.”

1 pound cottage cheese

1 pound cream cheese

2 cups whipping cream

Salt

Maraschino cherries and mint sprigs for garnish

Halved fresh strawberries or raspberries sweetened with sugar

Beat together cottage cheese and cream cheese until smooth. Gradually add whipping cream until well blended. Season to taste with salt.

Line heart-shaped basket with cheesecloth and fill with the cheese mixture or use Coeur a la Creme ceramic mold with holes. Stand basket or mold on plate in refrigerator overnight to drain off whey. If heart-shaped mold is not available, let cheese mixture drain overnight in colander. Next day pack mixture into heart-shaped metal mold lined with cheesecloth.

When ready to serve, unmold onto serving platter and remove cheesecloth. Decorate with cut pieces of maraschino cherries and sprigs of mint. Surround with halved and fresh strawberries that have been sugared and marinated 3 hours.

Yield: 6 servings.

Curry or Garlic Toast Hearts

From “Marlene Sorosky’s Year-Round Holiday Cookbook” (Harper & Row).

4 slices good-quality white or egg bread

Curry butter:

1/4 cup butter

1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon curry powder Garlic butter:

1/4 cup butter

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley

Salt, optional

Remove crusts and cut bread into hearts, using 2-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter. (You should get 3 to 4 hearts per slice.)

Make curry butter or garlic butter. For curry butter, melt butter and curry powder in small skillet until bubbling. For garlic butter, melt butter in small skillet. Add garlic and cook over low heat 2 minutes. Add parsley and salt to taste. Dip bread cut-outs into butter, coating each side.

Place hearts on baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees 10 minutes, then turn slices and bake 5 minutes longer or until golden (watch carefully, as timing varies with oven). Drain on paper towels. Serve as appetizers or with soup.

Yield: 12 to 16 hearts.

Chocolate Hearts

From “Sunset Recipe Annual, 1988 Edition” (Land Publishing).

6 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped, or baking chips (about 1 cup)

1/4 cup whipping cream

2 tablespoons creme de menthe (or 1/2 teaspoon mint flavoring and 2 tablespoons whipping cream)

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Combine chocolate and cream in 1- to 2-quart pan. Cook and stir over lowest possible heat until chocolate melts and is blended with cream, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in creme de menthe.

Line bottom and about 1 inch up sides of 4- by 8-inch pan with foil. Pour chocolate mixture into pan. Cover and freeze until firm enough to cut, 45 to 60 minutes. Lift out of pan and peel off foil.

Place chocolate slab on piece of waxed paper dusted with cocoa powder. With small (1- to 1-1/2-inch) heart-shaped cookie cutter, quickly cut chocolate, spacing hearts close together and wiping cutter often. Cut excess chocolate into bite-size pieces.

Roll each chocolate piece in cocoa powder to coat heavily. (If made ahead, arrange chocolates in single layer in shallow pan. Cover and freeze up to 2 weeks.)