I've lost my cooking mojo. My Coojo, if you will. He's in the Pet Sematary. (Well, at least I haven't lost my sense of humour.)
It started with an epic fail. The 2nd of April was my birthday as well as my parents' wedding anniversary so I planned a particularly ambitious menu to bulk package that with an early Easter celebration. I've often failed. Nothing new there. But this was the biggest cooking WTF ever. Everything I touched went to hell.
My parents were supportive and, with amazing restraint, managed not to fall apart laughing. Or puking. I tried to shrug it off, I really did. Until the chocolate mousse melted its way through the grid it was cooling on. It looked like Barbapapa had slipped and fallen through a sewage grill. It was awful.
It didn't help that I don't like birthdays. Every birthday all I hear at full volume is my biological clock tick tick TICKING away. Not the one wanting children. (Bleh, that clock never even struck one). No, the clock that's ticking away year by year is the one waiting and wishing and wanting me to get my shit together. Every birthday all I can think is: "Another year gone and you STILL don't have it together? Really? REALLY??"
The recipes below are from 2 weeks ago. (Tested and repaired subsequently, obviously). I'm still licking my post-birthday wounds so I'm not cooking. You know what I had for dinner on Friday night, my traditional cooking-up-a-storm-night? County Fair Frozen Chicken Nuggets.
Or as they're otherwise known - Misery.
xx
J
PS - Hey Stephen King, get outta my head!!
INDIVIDUAL BEEF WELLINGTONS
It started with an epic fail. The 2nd of April was my birthday as well as my parents' wedding anniversary so I planned a particularly ambitious menu to bulk package that with an early Easter celebration. I've often failed. Nothing new there. But this was the biggest cooking WTF ever. Everything I touched went to hell.
My parents were supportive and, with amazing restraint, managed not to fall apart laughing. Or puking. I tried to shrug it off, I really did. Until the chocolate mousse melted its way through the grid it was cooling on. It looked like Barbapapa had slipped and fallen through a sewage grill. It was awful.
It didn't help that I don't like birthdays. Every birthday all I hear at full volume is my biological clock tick tick TICKING away. Not the one wanting children. (Bleh, that clock never even struck one). No, the clock that's ticking away year by year is the one waiting and wishing and wanting me to get my shit together. Every birthday all I can think is: "Another year gone and you STILL don't have it together? Really? REALLY??"
The recipes below are from 2 weeks ago. (Tested and repaired subsequently, obviously). I'm still licking my post-birthday wounds so I'm not cooking. You know what I had for dinner on Friday night, my traditional cooking-up-a-storm-night? County Fair Frozen Chicken Nuggets.
Or as they're otherwise known - Misery.
xx
J
PS - Hey Stephen King, get outta my head!!
INDIVIDUAL BEEF WELLINGTONS
Beef Wellington doesn't exactly fall in the quick 'n easy category, but you can follow any recipe for a whole fillet and do a fairly good job. The problem was that I wanted to create individual portions. It's not a new concept, there are lots of recipes out there. But I researched them to hell and back and tried all the tips. Subsequent to that tragic night I even made another 7. If anyone ever tried to make these buggers work it was me. (And my poor parents who probably never want to eat another fillet ever again).
So trust me, if you want to make individual Beef Wellingtons and you don't want big fat unattractive parcels with a choice between undercooked pastry or overcooked beef, this is the only way to go. And I know 130g seems small but it's very filling. If you want to go a little bit bigger, allow to defrost a little longer, but not fully or you're screwed.
4 x 130g Fillet
2T Vegetable oil
2T Olive oil
2T Butter
2T Dijon mustard
2 Shallots finely chopped
350g Mushrooms finely chopped (you can go fancy but button is fine)
1T Thyme
2 Cloves garlic crushed
120ml Sherry
1/2t Truffle oil
400g Puff pastry
1 Egg
Poppy seeds
Season the fillet. Heat the vegetable oil until smoking then quickly sear the steaks and remove from the pan to cool completely. Wrap each one in plastic wrap and freeze. Remove 15 minutes before wrapping in the pastry. (Freezing was my dad's brilliant idea. It's the only way to prevent a small piece of fillet from overcooking while you wait for the pastry to get done).
Melt the butter and olive oil and fry the shallot and garlic until transparent. Add the mushrooms and thyme and continue frying until everything is softened. Turn up the heat, add the sherry and stir until the liquid has evaporated completely. Season then zap it a little with a stick blender but don't pulp it too much. Add the truffle oil and leave to cool completely.
Brush a baking tray with oil. Without washing it use it to brush mustard all over the steaks. Cut the pastry out into four pieces and roll out to about 3 mm thick. Put a quarter of the mushroom mix (duxelle to you fancies out there) in the middle of the pastry. You can wrap it anyway you want but I found it easiest to cut a cross around it, like so:
2T Butter
2T Dijon mustard
2 Shallots finely chopped
350g Mushrooms finely chopped (you can go fancy but button is fine)
1T Thyme
2 Cloves garlic crushed
120ml Sherry
1/2t Truffle oil
400g Puff pastry
1 Egg
Poppy seeds
Season the fillet. Heat the vegetable oil until smoking then quickly sear the steaks and remove from the pan to cool completely. Wrap each one in plastic wrap and freeze. Remove 15 minutes before wrapping in the pastry. (Freezing was my dad's brilliant idea. It's the only way to prevent a small piece of fillet from overcooking while you wait for the pastry to get done).
Melt the butter and olive oil and fry the shallot and garlic until transparent. Add the mushrooms and thyme and continue frying until everything is softened. Turn up the heat, add the sherry and stir until the liquid has evaporated completely. Season then zap it a little with a stick blender but don't pulp it too much. Add the truffle oil and leave to cool completely.
Brush a baking tray with oil. Without washing it use it to brush mustard all over the steaks. Cut the pastry out into four pieces and roll out to about 3 mm thick. Put a quarter of the mushroom mix (duxelle to you fancies out there) in the middle of the pastry. You can wrap it anyway you want but I found it easiest to cut a cross around it, like so:
Wrap firmly but not tightly, brush with egg and sprinkle with poppy seeds. Bake at 180C for 25-30 minutes. Allow to rest for 10 minutes before cutting.
GRATIN DAUPHINOIS
I've loved this wonderful dish since I first learnt it in Home Ec in Std 6. (Sorry about the photo. It was the Beef Wellington night. Photography wasn't high on my list of priorities.)
1kg Potatoes peeled
300ml Milk
250ml Double Cream
2T Butter
2 Cloves of garlic roughly chopped
2T Thyme
1/2t Nutmeg
300ml Milk
250ml Double Cream
2T Butter
2 Cloves of garlic roughly chopped
2T Thyme
1/2t Nutmeg
Heat the milk and cream gently - don't allow it to boil. Add the garlic and 1.5T thyme. Simmer on a low heat for about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and leave to infuse for 20 minutes. Strain, stir in nutmeg and season. Slice the potatoes thinly - about 3mm thick then dry them on a dish towel. Keep a few of the prettier ones aside for the top of the dish. Layer half of the potatoes in a buttered dish. Dot with some butter, season a little and pour over half the milk mixture. Layer the rest of the potatoes, ending with your pretty layer. Pour over the rest of the milk mixture. Season and sprinkle over the rest of the thyme. Bake for 1-1.5 hours at 160C. Keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't get too dark. I covered mine with foil after the first half an hour, then removed the foil again for the last 15 minutes.
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