Bobby’s Romantic Valentine’s Day Recipe For Two

400g fillet of beef

Two local ½ shell scallops

Two Porthilly rock oysters

Cornish crab fritter

Crab Bearnaise

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Rock samphire

Selection of seasonally available vegetables

Rich red wine jus

Ask your preferred butcher to cut you a double fillet, approximately 400g. Ideally you want it cut from the ‘chateau’, this being the key to the cut of meat. We recommend a medium-rare finish but this is dependent on your liking. For a medium-rare finish we advise sealing in a hot pan, add a little garlic, thyme, rosemary and seasoning, and add a knob of butter when fully seared. Pop it in the oven, set at 200°C for 5 – 6 minutes, and let it rest for a good 5 minutes. Keep the juices, to pour into your sauce.

Again, speak to your chosen supplier or fish shop, and ask for ½ shell scallops, preferably hand dived to ensure quality. If you can access Cornish produce Falmouth Bay’s native Porthilly oysters are the best when in season.

We simply grill each shell with a knob of butter and a pinch of seasoning. If you like your oysters natural this of course will work beautifully. If you can buy your seafood on the day, ask your fish monger to open and clean it for you, leaving the meat in the shells.

50g gram flour

20g handpicked white crab

20g brown crab

5 g coriander powder

1 lemon, zest and juice

30g water

2 banana shallots, finely diced

Pinch of sea salt, cracked pepper

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. It will produce a dough just like a bhaji. Divide into small balls and place on a plate ready to pop into a deep fryer – they take 2 minutes at 180°C to cook.

20g handpicked white crab

20g brown crab

Chopped dill

2 banana shallots, finely diced

Pinch of sea salt, cracked pepper

Lemon juice

100g hollandaise sauce

You can make a fresh bearnaise sauce as the base to this indulgent accompaniment, but you can purchase really great quality hollandaise sauce, with the latter in mind to keep things as simple as possible simply mix all the ingredients together, pop in a jug and set to one side, ready to serve.

Prepare all the vegetables – blanch and/or precook everything ready to be reheated at the last minute.

Prepare the jus or beef sauce – you can make a fresh beef gravy or use a good quality premade gravy product. If you use a ready-to-go product, prepare as the instructions suggest and add a good quality glass of red wine with a generous spoon of redcurrant jelly. Reduce it a little and this will give you a rich silky jus.

When preparing the samphire, simply pick the harder stalk ends away from the soft fingers, and you can pop in boiling water or sauté in a little butter and sea salt to serve later.

The classic plating of this amazing dish is to always use the beef as the centre piece.

Pop it on a small board for carving at the table. When the beef is resting (this should be in the oven) grill or bake the oysters and scallops, pop the fritter down and reheat the vegetables and jus. You have plenty of time as the beef needs to rest.

Place all the other ingredients around the beef, and mix the colours to create your showstopping centre piece.