Sunday 20 April 2008

Chinese In


Chicken Walnut Bon Bons, Barbecued Pork and noodles. Unfortunately the Baramundi we had planned to steam had gone off. Nevertheless even without it, this was a feast.

Sunday 13 April 2008

Decadence Part Dieu

The assembled ingredients for last night's dinner.


Starter of Crab Salad.

Followed by possibly my favourite dish ever Tournedoes Rossini. Mrs tnr has normally been the cook when this has been on the menu but this time I was.

Start off with a mirepoix of 3 shallots, 1 carrot and 1 stick of celery. Add a couple of tablespoons of chopped mushrooms and gently fry in half an ounce of butter for 20 mins and put it aside.

Then melt half an ounce of butter in a frying pan, stirring in an ounce of plain flour. Cook until it turns a light biscuity colour, no darker. Add some good quality beef stock (even better if you can get veal stock) and stir together to amalgamate. Keep adding the beef stock slowly and stir until you have used about a litre. Put your mirepoix back into the stock and let it gently simmer for a couple of hours. Then strain it, squeezing as much liquid as you can into a pan. Add a quartter of a pint of Marsala and let it simmer for a while until it reduces to a nice thick brown Espagnole sauce.


When this is ready, fry a nice big round crouton of bread for each serving. Spread with fresh gently fried Foie Gras if you can get it, we used a tin. If you can't any goose pate will probably need to do.

Top with a lovely Tournedo of Beef Fillet. Thank you very much Auguste Escoffier.

For pudding, Pain Perdu with roasted rhubarb and a wee drizzle of cream. Awfully delicious.