Filet Menu

Well – the menu this week switched itself up at the last minute due to laziness in finding some ingredients – so instead, I came up with this 3 course ditty on the fly.

Beverages: Czechvar Beer
First Course: Butternut squash soup with Toasted Walnuts
Second Course: Filet Mignon with Mushrooms & Red Wine Reduction, Cajun Sweet Potato ‘Fries’
Third Course: Banana Cream with Chocolate – light Chunky Monkey if you will.

Was a bit excited about dessert. Simple to make and was really good! Took 2 frozen ripe bananas, half a container of sugar free cool whip and whipped the two together. Then added some crumbs from ’superbowl bars’ below and whallah – almost banana ice cream. Chocolate and bananas go so well together, don’t you think?

Czech Menu

Obviously, the menu this week was inspired by Nick’s ancestry.

The customary Czech main course usually consists of meat and a side dish. Most dishes are pork, or beef, mainly served with some kind of sauce. Dumplings are the most common side dish in traditional Czech cuisine. There are two types of dumplings – bread or potato dumplings made of either wheat or potato flour that is boiled as a roll of dough, then cut into slices.

Tonight’s meal name mirrors the traditional Czech main dish named “Svickova” which is pork meat with dumplings and gravy.

As Czechs say before any meal “Dobrou chut!” which can be translated as “I wish you to enjoy your meal!”

First Course: Mushrooms Stuffed with Spinach
Second Course: Pork Roast (Vepoova Peeeni) with Red Cabbage (Eervene Zeli) and Dumplings
Third Course: Apricot Kolache and Strawberry Kolache Cookies

Beverage is not the standard Pilsner from the Czech Republic, but a new Computer-Sciency beer called “Czechvar”. Nick could code a czech var. Haha.

Random Menu

The goal for this weeks menu was to create a meal using pretty much the ingredients that we had in the house. Turned out pretty well

First Course: Mushroom Orzo Soup (Finally, a chance to use some exotic mushrooms!)
Second Course: Marinated Pork Tenderloins with Balsamic Reduction, Moroccan Carrot Salad & Buttermilk Biscuits
Third Course: Coconut Custard Pie
Beverages: Mediterranean Cellars Chambourcin, purchased during our VA wine trip last summer

Italian Menu

This weeks menu comes from “The Silver Spoon” which I’m told is the “Joy of Cooking” of Italy. Flipping through the cookbook, I came to some menus by celebrated chefs in the back and lo and behold, one was from the chef at Harry’s Bar in Venice. Though I don’t believe this was visited during our trip last summer, the memory of the trip made this menu a no-brainer. Though, when all was said and done, I was disappointed by it. It was just ‘OK’- each course just seemed to be missing something. Aaah well. Maybe I should have stuck to the mainstream recipes.

I am forgetting what these are actually called, so my names are more of just a description…
1st Course: Thinly sliced raw beef with a creamy sauce (Creamy sauce was really good with beef roast the next day)
2nd Course: Spring Risotto and Jumbo Shrimp (Shrimp were good. Risotto had fresh artichokes in there which were really tough despite being fully cooked. Ended up pureeing it in an attempt to salvage the leftovers, and still ended up tossing them.)
3rd Course: Custard filled Crepes with a Cointreau sauce (Lighting the crepes on fire with the Cointreau was fun. It made a lot, and I’m not so sure how well crepes keep…. but the custard filling was good even though it was made with skim milk. I liked the hint of lemon, Nick wasn’t a big fan.)

Wine was an Italian red. We had some Italian bread and oil dipping sauce with it too.

Next week, I’m playing it safe. Not sure how yet, but after spending a few hours in the kitchen to pull that together and then having it just be missing something sort of took me down a few notches on the ladder.

Indian Menu

This weeks menu made quite a lot of food – hooray to Indian leftovers!

Appetizer: Chicken Tikka - a new recipe
First Course: Baked Potato with Spicy Cottage Cheese - very good!
Second Course: Saag Goshth (Lamb with Spinach) – always wanted to make this one at home
Courgettes with Mushrooms in a Creamy Sauce - good!
Naan - Homemade was a bit crispier than usual
White Rice
Dessert: Ground Rice Pudding - mmmm, rice pudding – a great use for cardamom

Beverages: Mango Lassis & Kingfisher Beer

Greek Menu

This weeks fancy dinner was inspired by the trip to Greece that we’ll be (hopefully) making next year, a new-ish Greek cookbook, the Retina wine we purchased at Mediterrainian Cellars last summer and last but certainly not least, the bottle of Boutari wine that Josh and Ilana brought us back from Santorini. Actually, everything except dessert is supposedly local to Santorini (so excited to go!), and dessert came from Cyprus.

Amouse Bouche: Santorini Tomato Fritters
First Course: Mushroom Soup
Second Course: Mushroom Salad
Third Course: Pork Shank in Foil with Mushrooms and Onions
Dessert: Sweet Bananas

Beverages: Boutari wine from Santorini & Retina wine

We enjoyed.

Our Inn at Little Washington

The menu for our fancy dinner this second week of January consisted of 4 courses from Patrick O’Connell’s Refined American Cuisine (The Inn at Little Washington), which happens to be celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Eventually, the Mr. and I will make our way to this 5 star haven outside of DC, and if tonights meal could be considered a preview, then we are both looking forward to it.

First Course: “A Burst of Camembert on Baby Greens” was used as inspiration, though I made my own vinaigrette and wrapped the camembert with puff pastry rather than phillo
Second Course: “Macaroni and Cheese with Virginia County Ham” with “Lacy Parmesan Wafers” and prosciutto instead of ham (good!)….this mac and cheese uses more heavy cream than any I’ve had before, and the addition of aged gouda made it really tasty!
Third Course: “Rack of Lamb with Minted Tomato and Cucumber Relish” as well as “Shoestring Potatoes” mmmm….minted relish was great with the lamb…even the potatoes were decent despite my terrible deep frying skills
Fourth Course: “Caramelized Banana Tart” Yum. 6 individual banana tarts, each with a layer of puff pastry, banana cream custard, and caramelized bananas with macadamia nut accents. Very excited to have leftovers of this to work through this weekend!

Beverages of Choice: Tommasi Viticoltori “Ripasso” Valpolicella 2004, from our Italian wine stash…red enough to complement the lamb, yet smooth enough to go with all of the courses. A good choice I would have to say!

It will be hard to come up with a menu that compares in the coming weeks!

Fancy Meat & Potatoes with Sweet Potato Custard

Mmmm….what better to watch football playoffs that meat and potatoes, fancied up a bit? Our menu tonight consisted of marinated lamb tips, pan cooked, along with roasted fingerling potatoes (with olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme) and peas. Guiness and Piekney were our beers of choice, and we wrapped everything up with this healthy dessert, courtesty of NIH:

Sweet Potato Custard
Ingredients
1 cup mashed cooked sweet potato
½ cup mashed banana, about 2 small
1 cup evaporated skim milk
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
2 egg yolks, beaten (or 1/3 cup egg substitute)
½ teaspoon salt
cooking spray
¼ cup raisins
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Method
In a medium bowl, stir together sweet potato and banana. Add milk, blending well. Add brown sugar, egg yolks and salt, mixing thoroughly.

Spray a 1 quart casserole with nonstick cooking spray. Transfer sweet potato mixture to casserole dish.

Combine raisins, sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over the top of the sweet potato mixture.

Bake in a preheated 325 oven for 40-45 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.

Source: NIH | (Servings: 6)

Food Network-ish Menu

Inspired by food network while Gazelling, thru a menu together tonight that was inspired by 30 Minute Meals…. minus the dessert.

Appetizer – Toasted ravioli with roasted red pepper dip
Main – pepper crusted steak with roasted asparagus

Steak and asparagus like recipe, courtesy of Food Network & Rachael Ray, below:

Pepper Crusted Tenderloin with Mushroom Cream and Roast Asparagus
Ingredients
¾ lbs. asparagus, trimmed at stem (fat stems should be peeled down a bit as well)
Extra-virgin olive oil, for liberal drizzling plus 2 tablespoons
Salt
4 (1-inch thick, 3 to 4-inch round) beef tenderloin steaks, about 1 pound total
4 teaspoons coarse black pepper, a rounded palm full
2 tablespoons butter
6 white mushroom caps, very thinly sliced
¼ cup cognac or brandy, eyeball it
¾ cup cream, eyeball it
Chopped parsley leaves or chives, for garnish

Method
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Spread asparagus on small baking sheet and dress with a liberal drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil and season with salt. Roast the spears in a hot oven until tender and ends are crisp and slightly brown at edges, about 10 to 12 minutes. Asparagus should remain bright green.
Take the chill off the meat then pour the black pepper onto a small plate. Heat the extra-virgin olive oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high to high heat. When oil smokes, press each steak into pepper to coat then place peppered side down in the skillet. Sear and caramelize the meat 3 to 4 minutes, turn and cook 2 minutes more for rare, 3 minutes for pink.

While the meat cooks, heat a small skillet over medium flame and melt then butter. Add mushrooms and lightly saute them for 4 to 5 minutes. Season the mushrooms with salt and pepper and add cognac or brandy to the pan. Be careful of flare ups. You may want to add the liquor off the stove top then return the skillet to the heat. Reduce the liquid by half, cooking off the alcohol and concentrating the flavor, then stir in the cream and warm it through. Reduce heat a bit and let sauce thicken 2 to 3 minutes.

Spoon sauce over meat and serve with asparagus alongside.

My Notes
Yum – easy, would make again. Cooking time adjusted of thickness. Used barbera wine instead of brandy in sauce.

Thai Menu

First week of January, first week of fun fancy-ish dinners. We kicked the year off last night with a Thai menu. To accompany the sweet/spicy combination of flavors was our last bottle of mango wine, which we bought from the vineyard outside of Cairnes, Australia back in 2006. The wine kept very well!

1st Course = Omlette Soup (easy, healthy, tasty)
2nd Course = Chicken Basil (very, very good! as if you were eating at a restaurant)
Tofu Curry with Green Beans (eh…maybe because we had it without rice and I ran out of fish sauce…)
3rd Course = Coconut Custard (easy, good – fairly healthy because my ramkins are small, so the recipe made 6 instead of 4)

Wine = Golden Drop Mango Wine, Sweet