Heat Up Your Valentine's Day

Chef Tim Love — His Real Name! — And Wife Share Spicy Recipes

(CBS)  Braised Colorado Lamb Shank

4 Colorado lamb fore shanks
1 cup diced onions
1 cup diced carrots
1 cup diced celery
6 cloves of garlic
3 sprigs rosemary
2 sprigs thyme
1/4 cup guajillo chile powder
1 cup white wine
2 bay leaves
2T butter
1 cup flour
1 T salt
1 T black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
4 cups veal stock

Method:
1. Mix flour, chile powder, salt, and pepper together. Roll the shanks in the flour mixture.
2. In a large roasting pan heat up the oil. Sear all shanks on both sides (you should be able to fit all shanks in the pan at the same time).
3. Add onion carrot, celery, and garlic to pan and continue to sear.
4. Once meat is browned on all sides, add wine, stock, thyme, rosemary and bay leaves. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Cover and cook for 2 ½ hours, turning the shanks every 15 minutes. Meat should be very tender but stay on the bone.
5. Remove meat from pan, keep warm. Strain the sauce in the pan, discarding solids. Reduce sauce by half and stir in butter.
6. Divide shanks between two plates and top with a little of the pan sauce. Serve with fennel daube, recipe below.

Fennel Daube

4 fennel bulbs
1 sweet potato
1/2 white onion
1 sprig Thyme
1 sprig Rosemary
2 pieces smoked bacon
1 piece of celery stalk
1/2 gallon chicken stock
2 bay leaves
2 cups white wine

Method:
1. Sauté onion and celery in olive oil over medium heat.
2. Add bacon to pan and brown. Deglaze the pan with white wine, scraping the bottom of the pan to loosen any pieces of bacon.
3. Cut fennel into 1/4 pieces. Cut sweet potato into 1/4 inch cubes.
4. Add chicken stock and all other ingredients to the bacon mixture. Bring to a boil then reduce temperature to a simmer until vegetables are tender, about 8 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Aji Chocolate Cake

1/4 cup orange juice
1 cup sugar
6 oz. butter
2 cups chocolate chips
2 Aji chilies
4 large eggs
2 tsp. Flour
1/4 cup simple syrup
pinch of salt

Method:
1. Roast chilies over fire of gas burners or under the broiler. Peel and seed chilies.
2. Puree chilies in a food processor with the simple syrup.
3. Transfer mixture to a sauce pan. Add juice and sugar and bring to a boil. Pour hot mixture over chocolate chips.
4. Mix butter into the chocolate. Add eggs, one at a time. Add flour and salt and mix well.
5. Divide batter between 6 5-oz soufflé cups. Place cups in a baking pan and fill the pan with water so that the water reaches halfway up the sides of the soufflé cups.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Serve warm with the salted almond ice cream.

Salted Almond Ice Cream

1 1/2 cups salted almonds
1 quart heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
2 cups sugar
4 whole eggs
5 egg yolks
2 T. amaretto
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped out

Method:
1. Bring cream, milk, amaretto, sugar and vanilla seeds to a boil in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan.
2. Crack eggs and whisk lightly. Stir a few spoonfuls of hot cream mixture into eggs and then pour eggs into sauce pan.
3. Rough chop the almonds.
4. Combine all ingredients into an ice cream machine and follow manufacturer's instructions for freezing.