Saturday 5 October - Fillet of Beef

We visited our favourite butchers in Titchfield, and came home with the most expensive piece of meat we've ever bought - on investigation when we got home we realised we had bought far too much for 3 people so half of it went straight into the freezer.


We found a recipe in one of the Masterchef books for Beef with leek and cheese souffles, wilted spinach and watercress, potato rosti and a madeira jus. This is what it should look like

 

First stage was to roll the beef in chopped rosemary and thyme, then wrap it in bacon - we used pancetta for this - a layer of cooked mushrooms and ceps was also added to the meat.

The souffles were made with baby leeks, goats cheese and some Lancashire (which was rather hard to come by in Gosport) and were twice baked - so the first cooking was in ramekins in a water bath

 

They were then turned out, sprinkled with cheese and baked quickly a second time while the meat was resting - at this stage we reheated the rostis that we had made earlier, and also made some jus from madeira and beef stock .

The meat was roasted for 12 minutes - for my taste I would have done it for a few more minutes, but it went down very well with every one else.

Friday 4 October - Chicken Kiev and Bread and Butter Pudding

Chicken Kiev was requested by George - seemed like good Friday night food to me!

The filling was butter, garlic, parsley and grated lemon rind - Bob used his special method to fill a slit in the trimmed chicken breasts.

These were dipped in flour, egg, and panko and left in the fridge for an hour or so to chill down.

They were shallow fried, then finished in the oven, and served with roasted vine tomatoes, mashed potatoes and some very out of season asaparagus.

For afters we messed about with bread and butter pudding - and came up with Black Forest Brioche and Butter Pudding.

Made in the usual way, but using chocolate chip brioche in place of the bread, and dried cherries and chocolate chunks in the layers

I cooked this in a bain marie to keep the custard a little bit softer.

Enough left over to eat out of the fridge when no one is looking too!