instead of spending hundreds of dollars going out to eat at a 2-3 hat restaurant, i made my own gourmet bday dinner at cafe LF!
it was amazing what a clean up, a table cloth (refashioned form an IKEA AS IS item), candles and more candles and dim lighting could achieve - the ambience of a 3 hatter!
as to the meal itself... it took abit more time...
there were 3 courses to make... i started with the dessert - white chocolate parfait paired with poach anjou pear with red wine syrup
the parfait part started life as a mousse first, but it ended up being a frozen mousse, more like a parfait...
i didn't follow any recipe... i did that just last week making a chocolate mousse without one and it turned out ok, so i thought i would be alright... 3 beaten egg whites passing the upsidedown test...
beaten double cream about 300mL with just a tiny bit of sugar
melted white chocolate, yes the entire block of 220g and 3 egg yolks, beaten together... the yolks really emulsified the mix and made it v stiff... then i mixed some beaten cream gradually and the mixture became loose again...
the last thing to do was to fold in the egg whites...
puff pastry biscuits for the dessert base...
pounded almonds to mix into the parfait...
clingfilm lined cups to set the parfait in the freeze... took a couple of hours to set...
the poaching pear part was done abit later... 1/2 bottle of red wine, sugar to taste... anjou pears were skinned, cored and poached for about 40 min... red wine syrup reduction was made with the left over poachign liquid...
sides for the main included - peas, carrot and sweet potato mash - ladened with butter, cream etc... (think two fat ladies)
all laid out ready to serve...
the main was - slow cooked roast beef on puff pastry biscuit, sweet potato mash and crispy hash dressed with red wine reduction
what a long description! it was inspired by tournedos rossini on "the cook and the chef"... i had to make a few changes as pate and mcduck would not go together...
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/cookandchef/txt/s2554976.htm
first i got some eye fillet (not the most extravagant kind of fillet, but still on the pricey side at $30+/kg)... then i had to trim the sinew...
with my trusty aritsugu knife of course!
then i had to make a roll out of it...
not as neat as simon's, but did its job...
the recipe called for 90 degree celcius oven for 2 hours! (yes only a low 90 degrees and for 2 whole hours for 600g of beef)... i really wanted the just pink, melt in the mouth result as promised on "the cook and the chef"... so to be on the safe side, to make sure the inner meat would reach 60-70 degrees, i stuck in a themometer! the best thing i had done! (one should do so for all roasts)
after one hour of cooking the outer meat was still pink... i started to panick, but the themometer had gone up... so i persisted
it came out at around 66 degrees inner after 2 hours... the outer part still shouted "PINK" - so how did it turn out?
back in cafe LF, the candles were still burning...
the first course - cauliflower and pumpkin puree with a dash of cream (a thick soup)
verdict: sweet, creamy, smooth and v filling! perfect on a cold night
the main - slow roast beef fillet on puff pastry biscuit, sweet potato mash & crispy hash with red wine reduction
verdict: melt in the mouth! (thanks TCATC) sour note on the red wine reduction was able to cut through the creamy sweetness of the mash & beef... crispy bits of potato and puff pastry biscuit were good textural contrasts
sides: peas, carrot, more sweet potato mash with crispy potato hash bits - buttered and creamed...
dessert - poached anjou pear on puff pastry biscuit, red wine syrup and white chocolate and almond parfaitverdict: slightly burnt taste of red wine syrup actually worked v well... the acidity of the syrup and the pear complemented the creamy rich parfait...
overall: a success!
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