Valentine’s day is here and why not make a delicious meal for that special someone in your life. Here is a Chinese meal that is easy to put together and will leave a lasting impression on your loved one.

Start the meal with some wonton soup
as an appetizer. This recipe can be made the day before and stored in the refrigerator. That way you can simply reheat it either in the microwave or on the stove top before serving and your valentine will think you’ve been slaving in the kitchen all day long. If he or she does not have a very big appetite, you can simply skip this and start with the main meal.

For the main dish serve steamed Chinese apricot fish.


This is a whole fish that is butterflied and steamed, and then topped with a delicious apricot sauce. Though it may seem difficult to make it is actually quite simple. When you purchase the fish, which is trout, make sure to buy one whole fish for each person. Then have your fishmonger clean and butterfly it. That way all you have to do is simply place it on a plate, steam it, and top it with the sauce; which can be made the night before and reheated before pouring on the fish. For the side dishes serve stir fried snow peas, and white rice. The rice can be made the night before and then reheated.

Finally for dessert serve a delicious mandarin orange cake.
This needs to be made the night before as well because it requires overnight refrigeration.



The Plan
Plan to purchase all of your ingredients, except for the fish, two days before Valentine’s Day. While shopping, check to see where you can find the fish and ask your fishmonger to have it ready (cleaned and butterflied) for you on Valentine’s Day morning.

The day before Valentine’s Day, make the wonton soup, the apricot sauce for the fish, the white rice, and the mandarin orange cake. Then for the snow pea recipe clean and trim the snow peas and cut the ginger. Store these in plastic bags in the refrigerator.

Then on Valentine’s Day you can simply reheat all of the premade dishes, while you steam the fish (which take about 7 minutes,) and stir fry the snow peas (another 5 minutes.) Then you can sit and enjoy your meal, enjoy!