Meal Help?

Hello all,

I'm going to be creating a meal for my girlfriend and mother next week and would just like some tips or suggestions on my idea.

I was thinking of making fondant potatoes, sirloin steak in a homemade peppercorn sauce and then some type of vegetables possibly mangetout how does this sound?

If anyone has any recipes, techniques or suggestion on the above then please feel free to let me know.

Cheers!

reply to post by Death_Kron


Try this, works an absolute treat, well, in my experience it seems too

The meals will take literally 5 - 10 minutes each and if done right are delicious, can be a tad on the expensive side however if you buy your ingredients from big supermarkets as they overcharge and supermarket ingredients tend to be fairly poor quality as opposed to fishmongers and butchers...

Scallops with salsa salad

Ingredients

12 or 9 scallops depending on portions you want to serve (can get them from stores or fishmongers, ask if they will remove the muscle or make sure you do it yourself, its the orange part if you are doing it yourself) Put them in a bowl and season with sea salt and ground pepper on both sides of each one individually before you begin cooking.

Half bunch of coriander leaves, shave the leaves off before you begin cooking using kitchen knife

Half bunch of basil leaves shave the leaves off before you being cooking using kitchen knife

1 lemon

olive oil

2 frying pans, one for the salad and one for the scallops, dont need to be massive either, small will do.

A decent bunch of cherry tomatoes, roughly 200 grams which need to be chopped into halves ready before you begin cooking.

How to cook..

To make the starter first begin pre heating a frying pan with a small amount of olive oil for roughly 1 minute before adding the cherry tomatoes along with the coriander and basil leaves, once the salad begins to cook, take one half of the lemon and squeeze the juices over the salad, make sure you keep shaking the pan constantly along with stirring to prevent the salad sticking and to make sure it is cooked evenly!!
After a few minutes it will shrink drastically and thats when its ready, take it off the head and set it aside as it is.

Take the other frying pan and heat it on full heat with a small amount, roughly 1 or two teaspoons of olive oil and heat until there is a small amount of smoke coming from the pan. Add the scallops and cook each side for roughly 1 minute or until golden brown, should take no longer than 3 minutes in total, during cooking squeeze the other half of the lemon over the scallops evenly.

Add the scallops to a small starter plate then top or arrange to your pleasing with the salad from the other pan.

This is a small starter but it tastes really good.


For a main course that goes well with the starter....

Steak with parmesan salad

Ingredients

3 Sirloin steaks around 8 ounces, bit bigger or just a little smaller will do

About 100g of rocket salad

White wine vinger

(Salad bowl will help with making the salad otherwise a large bowl)

Groundnut oil

Parmesan cheese that has been shaved by yourself using a knife, into small shaving strips. Roughly 50g of this will do.

How to cook....

(if your are trying this for the first time its best to make the salad on its own then cook the steaks but once you get the hang of it or feel confident enough you can do it while the steaks are cooking)

Add 1 to two tablespoons of white wine vinegar to salad bowl along with 3 tablespoons of olive oil then season with sea salt and ground black pepper, put the rocket salad over the dressing (I use two mixer spoons to mix the dressing through the rocket salad) add the parmesan as you are mixing and then immediately place each portion of the salad over one half of the plate or corner.

Depending on how you like your steak ie rare or well done etc. Use a rolling pin to flatten it out, the more well done it needs to be the thinner you should make it. Season both sides with sea salt and black pepper.

Pre heat a frying pan on full heat with either a small amount of olive oil or groundnut oil (I use olive oil but groundnut gives a different taste to the steak). Once the pan is heated to full and still on full heat, add the steaks (if you cannot get the three on at one time, cook them one by one but make sure the plates are warm or the first steak might be cold by the time you finish the third). While each steak or steaks are cooking, repeatedly shake the frying pan back and forth to make sure it does not stick and after 2 - 3 mins turn over to other side then cook other side for the same.

Add steak to each plate and allow to sit for 1 minute before serving it and if its done right it should be very tasty indeed.

You can add chips if you want to but I prefer to have a salad alone with the steak.

A good dessert to go with this would be anything chocolate based but I am not a big fan of desserts

Hope that helps you and if you do cook it, let me know how it goes.

Let me know if any of that makes no sense to you and I will clear it up.

If you end up falling out with your partner or get your head spinning to much from all the fuss, this will do the trick for the meal...



Kidding of course

Cheers.

[edit on 13-11-2009 by XXXN3O]

reply to post by XXXN3O


Thanks for that mate, both dishes sound really nice.

The only problem with the starter is that I don't like scallops, tried them last Christmas and they nearly made me sick! I'll admit they wernt fresh from the fishmonger but I don't like anything that comes from the sea.

However, the salad part sounds good and I suppose I could always substitute the scallops for something else.

The main dish is definately something I would enjoy however and is definately something I will try, once I have I'll get back to you and let the know the result.

If it goes wrong then the Micro-Chips might be the only answer

You don't possibly know any recipes/methods of making homemade peppercorn sauce by any chance?

I'm trying to start cooking different things instead of living off Chicken all the time!

Cheers for the info!

[edit on 13/11/09 by Death_Kron]

reply to post by Death_Kron


Peppercorn sauce for three?

You'll need...

Roughly 300mls Double Cream
3 Tablespoonfuls of Dijon Mustard
3 beef oxo cubes (you might be able to use gravy granules but it might mess it up, im not sure, oxo cubes are fairly easy to find anyways I guess)
3 small portions of white wine (ie splash it in from the bottle three times if that makes sense)
Similar portions of hot water as the wine
3 Teaspoons of crushed peppercorns

How to make...

Add the cream to a small saucepan and heat on low continuously. Crumble the oxo cubes into the cream, add the Dijon mustard then the peppercorns add the white wine and water stirring all together on low heat then season with salt and pepper.
Keep stirring until quite hot then its done and it should be good.

As for the salsa, ive not tried it with anything apart from scallops, not sure what would go with it as it is quite a one off taste that only seems to go with scallops if that makes sense.

Almost forgot, if your going to make the steak dish that I mentioned if you really, really want it to taste brilliant, wash it down with a bottle of Chianti red wine. Its in most supermarkets and small shops, usually sat for years as nobody notices it but trust me, the wine goes amazing with the steak and parmesan cheese.

Heres the traditional wine, en.wikipedia.org...
You can get supermarket own make of it that are just as good and much cheaper if you cant find it.

Cheers.

[edit on 13-11-2009 by XXXN3O]

reply to post by XXXN3O


Fantastic mate, cheers for that.

Nevermind about the scallops then, although I could always make them for the missus and mother.

For veg I was thinking mangetout and baby carrots maybe, hows that sound?

Originally posted by Death_Kron
reply to post by XXXN3O

 

Fantastic mate, cheers for that.

Nevermind about the scallops then, although I could always make them for the missus and mother.

For veg I was thinking mangetout and baby carrots maybe, hows that sound?

Are you meaning the veg for a steak with peppercorn meal?

Im not sure what your meaning though, I take it you mean steak with peppercorn sauce and chips with peas and carrots? That would be a treat if its done good but you cant really go wrong with veg as a side unless it was pumpkin with strawberry sauce or some form of abomination like that and by the sounds of it your not that daft On second thoughts, that would be something huh?

How were you going to do the steak, fried or grilled?

[edit on 13-11-2009 by XXXN3O]

reply to post by XXXN3O


I was thinking of doing fondant potatoes, sirloin steak with peppercorn sauce and some sort of vegetable side.

Im going to fry the steak I think unless you think it would go with the meal better if it was grilled?

As for the veg I'm unsure what will go although I was thinking mangetout and baby carrots.

Basically I want to try and cook a more up-scale version of chips and steak with peppercorn sauce.

Originally posted by Death_Kron
reply to post by XXXN3O

 

I was thinking of doing fondant potatoes, sirloin steak with peppercorn sauce and some sort of vegetable side.

Im going to fry the steak I think unless you think it would go with the meal better if it was grilled?

As for the veg I'm unsure what will go although I was thinking mangetout and baby carrots.

Basically I want to try and cook a more up-scale version of chips and steak with peppercorn sauce.

Fried is far better in my opinion. Good choice!

That sounds like a good meal, I would go for it.

Maybe have a practice beforehand if you can, with the sauce only, as disasters can happen sometimes with sauces.

Maybe its just me but I have made a few strange things when it comes to sauces not going right in the past

The peppercorn receipe worked for me plenty of times so it should be alright, just a precaution if your going to try as I dont want to be responsible for ruining a lovely dinner.

You could do home made oven chips with some chilli flakes, sea salt and black pepper to add a bit of flavour to the chips as well.

Heres a guide here that I found, its measured per person (you would need to multiply ingredients by 3 to serve 3) and its something I have used before that turned out nice...

www.oliverker.co.uk...

Might give you some ideas?

[edit on 13-11-2009 by XXXN3O]

reply to post by XXXN3O


Good point about the sauce, I'll try and get some practice in if I can. I could see the whole evening turning into a nightmare if something went wrong with it!

Oven chips done like that sounds good, I'm starting to get hungry now.

Cheers for the link, I'm away next week so its either going to be next weekend or the one after that but I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks for the help!

reply to post by Death_Kron


No worries, hope it goes well.

I made a thread that you might want to read or contribute too, was thinking about the mistakes I made when I was younger, cooking, not that I am that old mind you but....

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Cheers.

[edit on 13-11-2009 by XXXN3O]