Tête à tête – a complete menu for two!
Sometimes, it’s just the two of you – and what could be better than a beautifully set table, some pink champagne and some delicious, extravagant food?
All these recipes are just for 2!
Love Nibbles
Smooth some cream cheese onto 2 rectangular slices of pumpernickel or dark rye bread. Then cut the bread into quarters, making 8, and onto each piece spoon a half teaspoonful of caviar or lumpfish roe. Add a sprig of dill and serve chilled.
For our second canapé suggestion, cut 4 slices of French bread and toast them. Butter with some lemon and parsley butter and set a freshly schucked oyster or a canned, smoked oyster on each. Garnish with some curly or flat-leaf parsley and serve chilled.
Finally, cut 4 small heart-shapes from 2 slices of white bread. Toast or sauté the hearts until browned and then use 2 slices of smoked salmon to cover each heart. Criss-cross some chives on top of each and add coarse-crushed black pepper. Serve chilled.
Love Bunny Cocktail
Take 2 champagne glasses, add a shot (2 tablespoons) of Amaretto liqueur. Shake some Angostura bitters onto 2 sugar cubes and add. Top up with rosé champagne and drink chilled.
Fillet Steak with Mustard Mash and Baby Vegetables
You will need:
2 x 200g fillet steaks
1 teaspoon cracked black peppercorns
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
200g assorted wild and cultivated mushrooms, trimmed and halved
100ml robust red wine
Sea salt flakes
Chopped herbs of choice
Rub the cut surfaces of the beef with pepper and garlic and then put 1 teaspoon of the oil into a non-stick frying pan and heat strongly. Sauté the beef on a high heat for 2 minutes each side and then remove, but keep warm. Now add the remaining oil and the mushrooms and sauté over a medium heat for 2 minutes. Add the wine and push the mushrooms to the side of the pan. Stir what is left in the pan to create a deglazed, reduced sauce, adding salt to taste. Server the sauce and mushrooms with the beef, mounted on its bed of mash. Garnish with chopped herbs, if liked.
Mustard and Horseradish Mash
You will need:
500g potatoes suitable for mash, peeled
25g salted butter
2 tablespoons creamed horseradish
2 tablespoons grainy mustard
Boil, drain and mash the potato, adding the butter, horseradish and mustard to create a rough puree. Keep this hot and then use as a base for the steaks.
Steamed Baby Vegetables
You will need:
100g (8) tiny baby carrots, scrubbed with trimmed green tops
100g French beans, trimmed
1 teaspoon butter
Put 10cm boiling water into the bottom of a steamer. In the lower layer of the steamer place the beans and in the top layer, set the carrots. Cover and steam for 8-10 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Serve with the steaks.
Lemon Rum Drizzle Cake
You will need:
125g soft spread butter
125g caster sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 tablespoons dark rum
Shredded zest and squeezed juice of 2 lemons
150g self-raising flour
50g chopped mixed nuts
50-75g sifted icing sugar
Pre-heat the over to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Rub a heart-shaped cake tin (20x22cm) with some butter. Line the base with greaseproof paper.Whisk together the butter and sugar until light, in a medium bowl. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating between additions. Stir in the essence, half of the rum and half the zest and lemon juice and then add the flour and nuts and stir to make an even batter. Then pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 35 minutes or until risen and shrinking from the sides. Cool for 10 minutes and turn out. Drizzle the remaining rum all over the cake. Mix the icing sugar with just enough of the remaining lemon juice to create a trickly icing. Drip this all over the cake and sprinkle with remaining zest. Eat this cake within 2 days.
Thank you to Meyer for this menu which is taken from their regular Prestige Customer Magazine. You can find more details on this by clicking on www.prestige.co.uk.
