11-Apr-20: I have to say, whilst we don’t eat loads of red meat, it’s something I definitely do not wish to give up and also, whilst I did enjoy our wonderful Good Friday dinner, tonight’s dinner was centred around a very lovely piece of scotch fillet from Benno’s…
Given it was a beautiful piece of meat, we kept dinner to a single course tonight, so as to be able to savour. Along with it came a rich mushroom cream sauce, roast cauliflower, steamed asparagus and Mum’s scalloped potatoes with a twist…
The wine is worthy of a special note – 2009 L.J. Shiraz we had cellared from Jones Winery, bought on one of our trips to Rutherglen. It is a magnificent long keeping shiraz worthy of the extra dollars and was incredibly smooth – luckily we have a couple more to look forward to…
Now to the cooking ! Firstly the scalloped spuds…
- The twist I did with Mum’s recipe was to add fennel into it.
- Ingredients include:
- 2 medium to large spuds, peeled and sliced on a mandolin
- 1 small or 1/2 large fennel, sliced on a mandolin, cutting out the hard bit at the base
- 3/4 cup chicken stock
- 1 or 1/2 clove of garlic – mixed into the chicken stock
- Parmesan and tasty grated cheese
- Touch of cream (I added this twist too – low fat of course – Mum did the “right” thing and avoided it 😉)
- In a small greased pie dish (as only enough for two), layer the potatoes and fennel – put a drizzle of cream on the first two layers
- When filled up the dish, pour over the chicken stock – you want it to come about half way up the sides of the dish (so you don’t have to use it all)
- Top with a mix of the cheese
- Bake in moderate oven until potatoes cooked – about 30-40 minutes (can tell by sticking a skewer through the spuds)
- This one can be done ahead of time and reheated…
The roast cauliflower only takes about 15-20 minutes – just cut up small florets, place on a greased oven tray and drizzle some olive oil over the top – can sit along side the potatoes
Mushroom Sauce: the basics…
Ingredients
- 1 Leek, sliced very finely
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- Swiss brown and white button mushrooms – about 8-10 of each – deopends how mushroomy you want it
- 1/4 cup dried procini mushrooms reconsituatied in 1/2cup of boiling water, chop finely when soft and keep the “porcini water” for use in the sauce
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- Generous splash of dru white wine – you cal alternatively use sherry or a bit of both
- Green shallots chopped finely (or chives if not available)
- 3 small sprigs of fresh thyme ( about 1 tbs) – less if using dried
- 1 desert spoon of French Dijon mustard
- 1/2 container of cream (about 150ml – or a bit more if you want it a bit extra creamy)
In a warm fry pan, with a good dollop of butter and splosh of olive oil (about 1tbs) gently cook the leek and garlic (doint have the heat too hot as will burn easily), add the mushrooms and cook until they start to sweat.
Add the chicken stock, wine/s, chopped porcinis and porcini water and thyme and cook until the alcohol cooks out and liquid reduces a little.
In the interim, the Chief Taste Tester (also known as the Head Steak Cooker) is cooking the seasoned scotch fillet rare and letting it rest.
Finishing off…
Don’t forget the asparagus – we steam it in the microwave for about 40s and let it sit for a couple of minutes so it completes cooking but doesn’t overcook
Whilst the steak is resting, add the chopped green shallots and cream, into the mushroom sauce, reduce the heat and let simmer through until it thickens slightly – don’t let it boil… and serve up
Hmmmmm… the creamy mushrooms mixing together with the rare beef, alongside the toasty cauli and potatoes, relieved by the tender steamed asparagus, washed down with the matured shiraz – Happy Soul food moment