Archive for » November 25th, 2007«
Here is a dish that is elegant tastes great and guests would think it must have taken you hours to prepare, when in reality it is very simple and hardly any effort, with the end result tasting great.
Ingredients
olive oil
800g piece beef eye fillet
Redcurrant sauce
30g Butter
1 onion, finely chopped
3 Cloves garlic, crushed
200g Sliced mushrooms
1/2 Cup dry red wine
2 Teaspoonfuls green peppercorns
1/2 Teaspoon beef stock powder (I use quite a dense stock so adjust for what you use and personal taste.)
21/2 Tablespoons redcurrant jelly
11/2 Tablespoons port
25g Butter extra
Method
1. Tie beef several times, at different intervals with kitchen string so it maintains shape during cooking.
2. Heat oil in a pan add beef, cook over medium high heat until well browned all over.
3. Remove and transfer to oven dish, bake uncovered in moderately hot oven (190-200c approx) for 20 Min’s for medium rare or until desired doneness.
Redcurrant Sauce
1. Heat butter in pan add onion and garlic, cook a couple of Min’s, add mushrooms and cook until onions and mushrooms are soft.
2. Add peppercorns and wine, simmer uncovered, 2-3 minutes.
3. Add jelly, stock powder and port stir until jelly has dissolved, simmer for a further 4 Min’s or until mixture has thickened slightly.
4. Whisk in extra butter over a low heat.
Serve immediately.
Salad with Berry Dressing
150g Baby spinach leaves
100g Mixed lettuce leaves
50g Snow peas, chopped
30g Watercress
Dressing
1 Cup strawberries
2-3 Teaspoons balsamic vinegar
2 Teaspoons olive oil
3/4 Teaspoon redcurrant jelly
Method
1. Combine spinach, lettuce leaves and peas, top with watercress and drizzle with dressing.
2. Dressing: blend or process all ingredients until smooth, strain and serve.
Parsnip mash recipe : You can find this under alternative mash recipes, same recipe except for putting it in pastry shells.
To serve: Either leave beef whole and serve on serving platter with a little of the sauce with parsnip mash in pastry shells, and bowl of salad.
Or slice beef and place on individual serving plates topped with sauce, with 2 parsnip shells per person. Place Salad bowl on table drizzle a little dressing over and serve the rest in a jug.
All photo’s taken by me unless otherwise stated.
I haven’t posted any sweet recipes yet and since I was baking all day the other day for my sons school fete, I thought I would post my cheesecake recipe. I will be posting more sweet recipes as I start baking getting ready for Christmas. My family and I are not the biggest sweet tooth’s in the world so I don’t cook that many cakes and goodies. I usually go mad around Christmas time, we always end up with way to many cakes, cookies and pies and also for birthdays.
Ingredients 
11/2 Cups digestive biscuit crumbs
2 Teaspoons sugar
11/2 Tablespoons butter, melted
11/2 Tablespoons strawberry jam, melted
500g Cream cheese (can be a mix of non fat, light or full fat whatever way you want to split it up if you want to watch the fat content.)
1 can (397g) sweetened condensed milk (whatever you can buy close to that weight in your country that just happens to be what weight they sell here.)
3 Egg whites
1 Egg
11/2 Tablespoons lemon
1 Punnet fresh strawberries
3/4-1 Cup strawberry jam melted
Method
1. Preheat oven to 170c. Coat a 9 inch springform pan with butter or nonstick spray.
2. In a medium bowl mix Crumbs, sugar, melted butter and the 11/2 Tablespoons of jam, Press crumb mixture into the bottom of the pan.
3. In a large bowl use an electric mixer to beat the cream cheese together until light and fluffy, add milk, egg whites, egg and lemon juice mix until smooth. Pour mixture into pan.
4. Place the pan inside a larger one filed with approximately 1 inch of water.
5. Bake cake until edges and top are slightly browned and it nearly set when you insert a skewer into the centre of it, about 55-60 min’s.
6. Remove cake from oven and allow to cool for 30 minutes then refrigerate overnight.
7. The next day arrange strawberries on the top of chilled cheesecake, brush strawberries with melted jam and refrigerate again until set.
Cheesecake is best served chilled not cold to allow all the subtle flavours to come through, it is best to remove cheesecake from fridge, 15-30 Min’s before serving.
Now it is ready to serve yum, yum. Enjoy, cheesecake will keep several days in the fridge, not that it ever lasts that long in our house.
All photo’s taken by me unless otherwise stated.
