Classic Surf & Turf & Fig Parcels

Main: Classic Surf & Turf with Green Peppercorn Sauce
Australian Seafood Magazine from your fish monger

Dessert: Fig, Goat’s Cheese & Honey Parcels
Greenfeast (spring/summer) by Nigel Slater

“The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook.” – Julia Child

Hello everyone,

Don’t you just love this quote from Julia Child? I know most of us have to diet at some stage or other in our lives, but gosh it’s boring. I’m a great believer in all things in moderation. Our once a week Wine Wednesday’s are not about dieting and as you would have gathered, often involve a lot of cream but we have the rest of the week to make up for it.

I was in the fish monger’s buying some flathead fillets and saw their little recipe magazine that is free on the counter. It contains a number of lovely things to try but the surf and turf caught my eye. Now, the reason I decided to do this is because my numbers this week were very low for one reason and another. When you have a large group cooking steaks is too cumbersome so this was the perfect opportunity to try this. The original recipe is for two people but I just doubled it. I served it with a simple green salad (vinaigrette dressing) and string fries. The dressing, I am pleased to say was made by one of my guests who is currently doing a cooking course and loving it. I’m learning so much too from their experience even though it is a course for beginners it has offered so many valuable tips to me even though I’ve been cooking for over 40 years. I have decided to do the intermediate course with him when he has finished the beginners so I will let you know how that goes.

Of course the MAV was happy this week because it was steak and the sauce was heavenly. The one thing I would do though next time (and there will be a next time) is not use T-bones and just use a beautiful small eye fillet instead. The sauce is rich and with the prawns as well the T-bones, although smallish, were just too much meat for me. Have all your ingredients ready to go so that making the sauce is a simple process.

I used frozen string fries and they were just great. This is an easy meal and yet very impressive when presented. Definitely one you could pull off after a long day at work. This main receive 10/10!!

I recently acquired yet another cook book because I re-subscribed to Delicious Magazine. It was sent as a freebie and I got so stupidly excited. I really have to get out more. So today’s dessert is from that. I’m not familiar with Nigel Slater (is that terrible? I don’t know). Anyway, the recipes are very unusual and it’s always great to get out of our comfort zone. Visually this dessert has everything going for it. The flavours are a very unusual mix of sweet and savoury. There is fig and goat’s cheese with honey and thyme leaves all wrapped in filo.

In the description it says that you could serve this after a meal OR for a light lunch perhaps with a salad of bitter leaves. It was so interesting and was well received. 6/10. However, here is what I am going to do – in the next couple of weeks I am going to use the same principal but use pear & mascarpone but keep the thyme and honey. This will, I think, give a sweet dessert rather than a savoury/sweet one. Look, it may flop but what the heck, it’s worth a try. The little parcels are wrapped with just two layers of filo and I heated a pizza stone in the oven first and then placed the baking tray on top with the parcels so that the base of the pastry wasn’t soggy. So standby for a slightly altered repeat of this next week.

So, until next week….

From my table to yours with love.x

Surf & Turf with Green Peppercorn Sauce

2 500 g t-steaks
25 g butter
1 garlic clove (finely chopped)
1 eschallot (peeled and finely chopped)
2 tbsp green peppercorns
500 g green prawns (peeled, tails intact)
1 tbsp brandy
½ c thickened cream
2 tbsp dill or parsley (chopped)
salt & pepper for seasoning

Remove steaks from the fridge 20 minutes before needed. Preheat a char-grill pan or BBQ to high heat.
Drizzle the steaks with olive oil and season well with S & P. Char grill for 5-6 minutes each side to medium-rare or until cooked to your liking. Set aside to rest for 5 minutes.
Heat butter in a non stick frying pan over medium high heat. Add garlic, eschallot, peppercorns and prawns, cook stirring occasionally for 1-2 minutes or until the prawns are golden. Add the brandy and cream and simmer for another 1-2 minutes or until sauce has thickened, add dill or parsley and season with salt, stir to combine. Spoon the prawns and peppercorn sauce over steaks and serve with green salad and string fries.

Fig, Goat's Cheese & Honey Parcels

100 g butter (melted)
4 tsp pine nuts (toasted and crushed)
8 small figs (each sliced horizontally into four)
4 sheets filo pastry
300 g goats cheese (sliced into four)
4 tsp honey
2 tsp thyme leaves
4 thyme sprigs

Place a baking sheet or pizza stone in the oven and set the heat to 200°c.
Lay one sheet of pastry flat on a chopping board, longest edge towards you, then cut in half to give two pieces measuring 15 x 22 cm. Brush one half generously with some of the warm, melted butter, then scatter over a teaspoon of the toasted pine kernels.
Place the other half sheet on top and brush it with more melted butter. Lay a piece of goat's cheese in the middle of the pastry, add two of the sliced figs, a teaspoon of the honey and half a teaspoon of the thyme leaves. Bring the sides of the pastry together, folding the edges to make a parcel, as neatly or as randomly as you wish. Press the buttered edges together tightly to seal.
Continue with the remaining pastry, pine kernels, cheese, figs, honey and herbs, making four parcels in all. Place them on a baking sheet, put the thyme sprigs on top, brush with more butter, place the baking sheet on top of the preheated pizza stone or metal baking sheet and bake for about ten to fifteen minutes till crisp.