Cooking with Ward: Valentine's Day
So I had Cindy over for dinner for Valentine's day and did my second night of major cooking in as many weeks.
I began preparing dessert the night before. I decided to make the same ice cream cake sort of thing that I had made for July 4 last summer. I'll go ahead and give away the secret here, though I'm afraid it might detract somewhat once you know how simple it is.
Buy a couple of boxes of ice cream sandwiches. Put down a layer of them in a pan that's a couple of inches tall. Work fast to keep melting to a minimum. Next, spread a layer of some kind of ice cream topping on top; I used Dove hot fudge for this one. You then poor some liquid over, which will help hold the layers together when it freezes. The original recipe calls for flavored coffee creamer; I chose instead to mix 2 parts plain creamer (I used Coffee Mate) with 1 part liquor; in this case, kahlua. Mine ended up a bit heavy on the alcohol, so I'd probably do 3 parts/1 part next time around. A cup should be enough to cover a layer of 12 sandwiches; adjust accordingly if you're doing a different-size recipe.
Once that's poured over the first sandwich/topping layer, put down the next layer of sandwiches. Again follow up with the topping layer, and then again with more of the creamer mixture. Finally, put a nice thick layer of cool whip on top; you'll probably use up a regular-sized tub up doing so. If you want to get fancy, decorate the top a bit. I used toasted almond slivers and coffee grounds and was pleased with the result.
Moving onto the dinner, the main course was filet mignon on a bed of asparagus topped with mushrooms. I started out sautéing the mushrooms in butter and garlic, adding some garlic salt to get them appropriately salty. Put those aside somewhere where they'll stay warm. I did the asparagus next. I bought white and green asparagus because I thought it would help the presentation. Again, I sautéd in garlic and butter and salted with garlic salt, but also added the juice of one lemon, which ties things in with the steak. Once it's sautéd, put it aside and keep it warm just like the mushrooms.
Now onto the steak. I picked up the filets from Central Market and was pleased with the quality of the meet. They were nice, thick cuts. You probably pay an extra $5 to $10 to get a filet instead of another cut, but hell, it's totally worth it to get the best. There's no reason to fuck around when it comes to steak. Life's just too short.
I sprinkled the top and bottom liberally with steak seasoning and lemon pepper in the traditional Robert Ward fashion. Because I lack a grill, I cooked them in the skillet, again with butter and garlic. It's a little tricky doing them on the grill. Once they're just a little rarer than what you want, take them off. The garlic in the skillet should have browned nicely by this point and can be spread on top of the steak.
Get your plates, put down a layer of asparagus, and then put the steak on top, and cover with mushrooms, and scatter any remaining mushrooms around the plate.
The white asparagus turned out to be fairly bitter; I'd think twice about using it again. But it sure looked pretty. It also needed a little more salt. The lemon worked well on it, though.
The steak ended up more rare than medium, espcially in the thicker parts, but Cindy was happy with hers and I was lazy, so I didn't bother trying to get them a little more done.
Too rare or not, damn, that was good steak. Like eating meat in butter form (or is that the other way around?). For a first attempt, it turned out quite well.
Cindy contributed bread with roasted garlic; a nice spinache/mixed green salad with roasted peppers, feta, and a seasame ginger dressing; and some kind of empanada-ish Indian appetizer served with mint chutney and mango chutney. Everything was great.
I grabbed a bottle of Bordeaux off the rack to serve with dinner. It was fairly dry, but smooth, and not so complex as to get in the way of the flavor of the food. It was a 2001 bottle I'd been saving for a special occasion for a while, and this qulaified.
All in all, my portion of the meal was probably around $50. It saved me quite a bit of money, let me give things a personal touch, and, additionally, I had fun cooking. Good stuff.
I began preparing dessert the night before. I decided to make the same ice cream cake sort of thing that I had made for July 4 last summer. I'll go ahead and give away the secret here, though I'm afraid it might detract somewhat once you know how simple it is.
Buy a couple of boxes of ice cream sandwiches. Put down a layer of them in a pan that's a couple of inches tall. Work fast to keep melting to a minimum. Next, spread a layer of some kind of ice cream topping on top; I used Dove hot fudge for this one. You then poor some liquid over, which will help hold the layers together when it freezes. The original recipe calls for flavored coffee creamer; I chose instead to mix 2 parts plain creamer (I used Coffee Mate) with 1 part liquor; in this case, kahlua. Mine ended up a bit heavy on the alcohol, so I'd probably do 3 parts/1 part next time around. A cup should be enough to cover a layer of 12 sandwiches; adjust accordingly if you're doing a different-size recipe.
Once that's poured over the first sandwich/topping layer, put down the next layer of sandwiches. Again follow up with the topping layer, and then again with more of the creamer mixture. Finally, put a nice thick layer of cool whip on top; you'll probably use up a regular-sized tub up doing so. If you want to get fancy, decorate the top a bit. I used toasted almond slivers and coffee grounds and was pleased with the result.
Moving onto the dinner, the main course was filet mignon on a bed of asparagus topped with mushrooms. I started out sautéing the mushrooms in butter and garlic, adding some garlic salt to get them appropriately salty. Put those aside somewhere where they'll stay warm. I did the asparagus next. I bought white and green asparagus because I thought it would help the presentation. Again, I sautéd in garlic and butter and salted with garlic salt, but also added the juice of one lemon, which ties things in with the steak. Once it's sautéd, put it aside and keep it warm just like the mushrooms.
Now onto the steak. I picked up the filets from Central Market and was pleased with the quality of the meet. They were nice, thick cuts. You probably pay an extra $5 to $10 to get a filet instead of another cut, but hell, it's totally worth it to get the best. There's no reason to fuck around when it comes to steak. Life's just too short.
I sprinkled the top and bottom liberally with steak seasoning and lemon pepper in the traditional Robert Ward fashion. Because I lack a grill, I cooked them in the skillet, again with butter and garlic. It's a little tricky doing them on the grill. Once they're just a little rarer than what you want, take them off. The garlic in the skillet should have browned nicely by this point and can be spread on top of the steak.
Get your plates, put down a layer of asparagus, and then put the steak on top, and cover with mushrooms, and scatter any remaining mushrooms around the plate.
The white asparagus turned out to be fairly bitter; I'd think twice about using it again. But it sure looked pretty. It also needed a little more salt. The lemon worked well on it, though.
The steak ended up more rare than medium, espcially in the thicker parts, but Cindy was happy with hers and I was lazy, so I didn't bother trying to get them a little more done.
Too rare or not, damn, that was good steak. Like eating meat in butter form (or is that the other way around?). For a first attempt, it turned out quite well.
Cindy contributed bread with roasted garlic; a nice spinache/mixed green salad with roasted peppers, feta, and a seasame ginger dressing; and some kind of empanada-ish Indian appetizer served with mint chutney and mango chutney. Everything was great.
I grabbed a bottle of Bordeaux off the rack to serve with dinner. It was fairly dry, but smooth, and not so complex as to get in the way of the flavor of the food. It was a 2001 bottle I'd been saving for a special occasion for a while, and this qulaified.
All in all, my portion of the meal was probably around $50. It saved me quite a bit of money, let me give things a personal touch, and, additionally, I had fun cooking. Good stuff.
posted by L. Maxwell Ward at 1:44 AM
