Saturday, May 14, 2011

LOLCats, The Weekend, Books.

funny-pictures-because-itz-in-da-winter-in-da-hogwartz-loft This is especially for sinlaw Mike.

Well, the weekend has rolled round once again. Unfortunately, once you are retired, weekends don’t mean much any more. It does mean things like no mail, people don’t email as much and so on, but otherwise its very much the same as any other day of the week. The one thing Saturday means to us – we tend to have a special dinner with wine, having decided to cut down week day drinking, Saturday is the day we enjoy on of the special wines we keep in stock. As yet, I don’t know what we will be having for supper, and therefore I don’t know which wine either. We have a couple of fillet steaks in the freezer and I am toying with making a Steak Diane with them, haven’t had that in years, one of those dishes that kind of went out of fashion, don’t know why, used to be one of my favourites. Ve shall see.

I told you that I was doing a re-read of Path of DaggersRobert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series and that unfortunately my library didn’t have book 8, The Path of Daggers, someone hadn’t returned it and it was a month overdue. Nor would they consider replacing for 6 months so I finally went to Amazon, both .com and .ca and found a copy for 7¢. All of this I wrote before, what I didn’t write was that when it arrived, it was in pristine condition and guess what, it was shipped from England. I had no idea. Having ordered it from Amazon.ca I naturally assumed it would be sent from somewhere in Canada. I can neither believe the price I got it for, with shipping, but that wasn’t very much, nor the fact that it came from the UK.

Steak Diane

From Chef John J. Vyhnanek

This classic restaurant show-stopping dish is usually prepared and flamed at the table but you can easily make it at home. Tender filet mignon steaks with a rich cream sauce are perfect for a romantic dinner with your loved one.Steak Diane

Ingredients:
  • 4 (3 ounces each) center cut beef tenderloin medallions, trimmed of all fat and pounded to 1/2 inch thick, chilled
  • 1-1/2 ounces clarified butter
  • 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 tablespoons shallots, chopped fine
  • 1/8 teaspoon garlic, minced
  • 1/4 cup mushroom caps, sliced 1/8 inch thick
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice, fresh squeezed
  • 1 teaspoon dry mustard powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon thyme leaves, fresh if possible
  • 2 ounces heavy cream
  • 1 ounce brandy
  • 1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon chives, chopped
  • Salt, about 1/2 teaspoon or to taste
  • Ground black pepper, fresh ground, 1/8 teaspoon or to taste
Preparation:

In a small 8- to 10-inch sauté pan, heat 1 tablespoon butter over medium heat for 1 minute. Add the tenderloin steaks, sprinkle with a little salt and pepper, increase heat to medium-high and sauté exactly 2 minutes on each side. Remove them to a plate and chill in a refrigerator for 5 minutes. Preheat a large (12-inch) sauté pan over medium heat for 1 minute. Add clarified butter, then add the Worcestershire sauce to the butter. Place the shallots, garlic, and mushrooms in the center of the pan with the tenderloin steaks around the edges. With a spoon, stir and toss the mushroom mixture. After 2 minutes add the lemon juice and season the ingredients with salt and fresh ground black pepper. Turn the filet mignon steaks and add the thyme, chopped parsley and dried mustard powder. Cook the steaks to the doneness you like. Leave them in the pan and add the heavy cream and chives. Tilt the pan slightly, and pour the brandy into the front edge of the pan, turn the heat to high and let the flame (or if electric, light with a match) catch the brandy's vapors and ignite it. Swirl slightly, turn off the heat and let the flame go out. Place filet mignon medallions on plates and top with the sauce from the pan. Note: You may want to slightly undercook the filet mignon steaks prior to adding the cream and brandy so that the reduction process of making the sauce doesn't overcook them. Yield: 2 servings

Have a great weekend

Jo

2 comments:

  1. Nothing like giving the apartment a good clean on weekends ...

    ReplyDelete
  2. No, nothing like it LOL. I hire people to do that, neither of us is suffienctly pain free to push a vacuum etc.

    ReplyDelete