When I'm planning a romantic meal, I want the best of both worlds. I want the food to be spectacular, but I also want to spend time with my beloved, and not be in the kitchen all night.

Over the years, I've come up with a go-to menu that achieves those goals, and I'm sharing the recipes today.

The meal starts with a simple, palate-awakening salad, which in this case includes tender lettuce, crisp apple, rich walnuts and cubes of creamy Brie cheese. You could ready the lettuce, make the dressing and cube the cheese in the morning and refrigerate all until needed. When you're ready to serve, mound the lettuce on plates, artfully top with the other ingredients and drizzle with the dressing.

The main course sounds — and is — fantastic: sumptuous seafood for two. It's similar to a style of preparation I've featured in past columns. I like the technique because all you do is arrange fine seafood in a baking dish, top with a pleasing wine mixture and bake. No flipping required and in about 10 minutes you'll have a splendid seafood feast with juices you can dunk sliced baguette in.

In the morning, you could put the seafood in the baking dish and cover and refrigerate until ready to bake.

You could also put the wine, butter and flavourings in its own pot, cover and refrigerate until ready to heat and pour over the seafood.

The side dishes I chose were saffron rice and asparagus. You could cook the rice in the morning, cool it to room temperature, transfer it to a serving dish and refrigerate until needed. To reheat, simply pop it in the microwave for a minute or two. You could also get the asparagus oven-ready in the morning and cover and refrigerate. When it's needed, top it with the olive oil, vinegar and seasonings and finish in the oven.

My dessert course is sublime and ultra-easy. The preparation involves going to your favourite bakery and getting two squares or wedges of decadent brownie. For each plated dessert, set one of those brownies on a bed of sliced and sweetened strawberries, spiked, if desired, with orange liqueur. The brownie is then topped with a scoop of store-bought mango sorbet and a mint sprig.

You could flavour the berries an hour or so before they're needed and keep them refrigerated. If you're a real keener, you could also line a small plate with plastic wrap, set the scoops of sorbet on it, and keep them frozen until you're ready to serve dessert.

In terms of timing, just before sitting down to enjoy the salad, I would preheat the oven to cook the main course. When the salad is done, put the seafood and asparagus in the oven, tidy the salad plates, and get the table ready for the main course by getting out hot mats, serving plates and utensils. When the main course is done, serve the dessert whenever you're ready for it.

With regard to wine, brut sparkling wine would work with all courses. Or, you could start with a glass of bubbly, perhaps have a glass of chardonnay with the main course, and then have a splash of orange liqueur with dessert.

Salad Greens with Apples, Walnuts and Brie

Start a romantic meal with this palate-awakening salad topped with crisp apple, creamy cheese and nuts.

Preparation time:

10 minutes

Cooking time: None

Makes: 2 servings

1 Tbsp cider vinegar

3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp Dijon mustard

2 tsp honey, or taste

• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

4 cups baby salad greens, washed and dried

12 to 16 thin, half slices of red apple

2 to 3 Tbsp walnut pieces

75 grams Brie cheese, cut into small cubes

Combine the first four ingredients in a small bowl. Season the dressing with salt and pepper. Divide and mound the salad greens on two salad plates. Top with the apples, nuts and cheese. Drizzle with salad dressing and serve.

Sumptuous Seafood for Two

Here's an easy-to-make mix of delicious seafood that serves two. Seafood is naturally salty, so I've not added any salt in this recipe.

Preparation time:

15 minutes

Cooking time:

11 to 13 minutes

Makes: 2 servings

1/4 cup white wine

2 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 garlic clove, minced

• pinches paprika, cayenne pepper and dried tarragon

1 (3 1/2 to 4 oz.) lobster tail (thawed if frozen), split in half lengthwise

4 large scallops

4 large shrimp or prawns, peeled with tail portion intact

1 (6 oz.) fish fillet, such as halibut, cod or salmon, cut in half

1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Preheat the oven to

450 F. Place the butter, wine, lemon juice, garlic, spices and tarragon in a small pot. Set over medium heat and heat 3 to 4 minutes, just until the butter is melted. Remove pot from heat. Use a paper towel to pat and remove any excess moisture on the seafood. Arrange seafood, setting the lobster cut-side up, in a single layer in a shallow-sided baking dish (my round dish was 10 inches wide). Drizzle seafood with wine/butter mixture. Bake 11 to 13 minutes, or until the shellfish and fish are just cooked (see Note). Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Note: When cooked, fish and shellfish should feel slightly firm, not hard and not soft. The flesh will also lose its translucency and become opaque. Fish will also slightly separate into flakes when it's cooked. With some oily fish, such as salmon, white deposits of fat will seep out between the flakes when it's cooked.

Saffron Rice

Golden rice to serve with the seafood.

Preparation time: 2 minutes, plus steeping time

Cooking time: About 18 minutes

Makes: 2 servings

1/2 tsp saffron threads (see Note)

2 Tbsp very hot water

1 Tbsp olive oil

3/4 cup long grain white rice

1 1/4 cups cold water

• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Crumble the saffron into a small bowl. Pour in the hot water. Let saffron steep 10 minutes. Heat the oil in a small pot set over medium-high heat. Add the rice and cook and stir 1 minute.

Add saffron and its liquid, 1 1/4 cups cold water and salt and pepper. Bring the rice to a boil. Now cover, reduce heat to its lowest setting and cook 15 minutes, or until rice is tender. Fluff rice with a fork and serve.

Note: Saffron threads are sold in small bottles or containers in the herb and spice aisle of most supermarkets.

You'll also find it at fine-food stores. Keep leftover saffron stored in an airtight container in a cool, dark and dry place. It will keep for many months.

Once in the oven, the asparagus has the same cooking time as the seafood, so you can start cooking both at the same time.

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 11 to 13 minutes

Makes: 2 servings

12 to 14 asparagus spears, stems trimmed

1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 450 F. Bring a wide skillet of water to a boil. Add the asparagus and cook 2 minutes, until bright green, but not quite cooked through. Drain well, cool asparagus in cold water, and then drain well again. Place the asparagus in a casserole dish just large enough to hold it in a single layer. Drizzle with olive oil and vinegar; season with salt and pepper. Roast 11 to 13 minutes, or until hot and delicious.

Deluxe Brownie Dessert

This easy-to-make deluxe dessert sees store-bought brownies plated and adorned with sweetened strawberries and sorbet.

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: None

Makes: 2 servings

8 small to medium fresh or frozen (thawed) strawberries, sliced

1 Tbsp icing sugar

1/2 oz. orange liqueur, or to taste (optional)

2 squares or wedges of brownie

2 scoops mango or other fruit sorbet

2 fresh mint sprigs

Place strawberries and icing sugar in a small bowl and toss to combine. Flavour with orange liqueur, if using. Divide and spread the strawberries on two dessert plates. Set a brownie on each plate. Set a scoop of sorbet on top of each brownie. Garnish each plate with a mint sprig and enjoy.

eakis@timescolonist.com

Eric Akis is the author of the best-selling Everyone Can Cook series of cookbooks. His columns appear in the Life section Wednesday and Sunday.