Sunday, 14th May, 2023. Every year we have a special dinner on Mother’s Day to honour, remember and reflect on our wonderful Mum’s who have both now passed. This year, 2023 was no different… Here’s a special Happy Soul Food post to share what we did this year… enjoy !
Puff Pastry Bites
Firstly using 2 sheets of puff pastry, cut little triangles (or squares), with a cutter. Place 2 sheets on top of each other, brush with milk and cook in a 180 oven until cooked and slightly brown on top. I made about 18 all up.
Once cooled, split in half and fill 9 with chicken pate, pop their lids back on and top with a beetroot jam. Fill the other 9 with your favourite soft blue cheese and top the lids with some room temperature fig paste.
You can chose whatever fillings you like for these but these are two of my favourites and we know our Mum’s would also enjoy. We shared them with a beautiful bubbles and a little cheers to remember both our angel Mums.
Smoked salmon and avocado with kewpie mustard chive dressing
For the smoked salmon, I used one of our local favourites, Bellarine Smokehouse.
I simply arranged this on the plate with half a sliced avocado each, and a little bit of lettuce and tomato salad, with a drizzle of lemon olive oil for dressing – and yes one of my all time favourite, simple and easy entrees but it never gets old to be honest 💕😁
The dressing is a variation of similar I’ve used previously. This time, just a couple of Tbs of Kewpie Mayo, half tsp of French Dijon mustard, some salt and squeeze of lemon. Stir all together and keep tasting and adjusting (bit more mustard, bit more lemon juice and/or bit more salt) until you like the flavour, then add the chives. If you add a bit much of one thing, you can always add a bit more mayo to soften it.
Drizzle mayo, spinkle some chopped chives over the top and serve, voila ! Easy but yummy and special entree, served of course, with a glass of Charddy. A favourite of the Mum’s for sure.
Wagyu on roasted cauli purée served with red wine jus and mushroom and thyme ragu
For Roast Cauliflower Puree:
Cut up half a cauliflower into florets, place in a roasting pan and drizzle generously with olive oil. Cook in the oven at about 180 for about 20-30 minutes – check at 20″ to see if tender and some pieces are browned on the edges.
Add cooked cauli, 2 tsp of fresh thyme leaves, 1 small clove garlic (or half a larger one), with good splash of oil and blitz with about 3-4 tbs cream, 1 tsp of truffle Dijon mustard and pinch of salt. Once smooth, taste and adjust accordingly to your preferred taste. This will make enough for the main dish and will have leftovers for something else.
Note: I got the truffle Dijon mustard from a local speciality deli. If you cant find it, just use plain Dijon mustard and could add some truffle oil or just leave the truffle oil out.
For Red Wine Jus:
4-5 Chicken necks, 1 each of carrot and onion and 1 stick of celery, chopped. 2 cups Sangiovese wine, 1-2 (big splash) of brandy 1 bay leaf, 2-3 sprigs of thyme, 1 tbs each of tarragon, oregano and rosemary, 2 cups stock, pinch salt. Butter to finish off.
Brown the chicken necks in a fry pan, add the vegies and allow to soften. Add the wine, brandy and let cook off (2-3 minutes), add the herbs and set to simmer gently. Allow to reduce to about 2 cups of liquid. Once at that stage, strain off the liquid and return to the pan.
Just before serving, add 1 tbs butter and whisk through until sauce thickens. If still a little runny add a little extra butter. Be careful at this point not to add too much butter as the sauce can split – this happened to me this time.
For the Wild Mushroom and Thyme Ragu:
I used a punnet of wild mushroom from the supermarket – which is about 250g. If don’t have garlic butter, just use 2tbs plain butter and 1 small (or half a larger clove) of garlic, 1 tbs of thyme leaves and chopper fresh tarragon leaves and zest of 1 lemon.
Grill mushrooms in the garlic butter, add the herbs and zest and cook until mushrooms nice and soft. My suggestion is to cook the mushrooms whilst the steak is being cooked.
For the Steak:
We cooked the steak on the BBQ to medium rare and once rested for about 5 minutes, sliced up to serve up. We noted that we could have done with 1 steak to share between two, given the multi-course dinner (they were about 280-300g porterhouses), just depends how hungry you are…
Serving up:
Put a good dob of purée in the plate and swipe across the plate to create a bed to place the sliced steak on. Lay the steak on top, add the jus and finish with the mushroom ragu and voila…
