02-03-2005, 03:47 PM
Howzit Bean
First and foremost... you have too much cream coming through in all your menu items:
Creamy soup, creamy mash, cream ice cream
This would make it a rather rich meal to eat and if they're watching their weight then it might seem a trifle overdone
Secondly: for ease of cooking try having a 'cold' starter, hot main course and cold dessert. It makes the cooking and plating times a lot easier.
As an idea (keeping the mussels and shrimps in the menu) do a salad of autumn greens, baby corn and serve with a mustard vinaigrette. Toss the deshelled mussels and shrimps in some smoking garlic oil and serve warm astride the salad with a little Cape Seed loaf. A decent Sauvignon blanc or unwooded Chardonnay might do the trick. For red wine try a light pinot noir or a youngish Beaujolais.
For the mains:
Using the pepper theme. Crush some white peppercorns and coat your fillet steak in this. Pan fry and reserve to one side.
Roast your peppers off (you can use red, orange and yellow peppers), skin them and then place them in the bottom of a ramekin for moulding.
Bring some new potatoes (preferably ANYA potatoes - from Sainsbury) to the boil, drain them and crush them lightly with a fork. Add some of the oil from the roasting tray, some seasoning and a couple of egg yolks to 'cream' the consistency.
Serve with the natural juices and a little basil/roquette pesto.
A decent full-bodied Shiraz should offset the spicyness of the peppercorns.
For the dessert:
Make the crepes as per recipe. Ball your melon with a Parisienne scoop and leave in a sugar syrup. Drain when required.
Toss them in a little clarified butter, over a high heat, flambe with a little gold tequila and add some juice of the melon to create a sauce. Serve warm with the vanilla pod ice cream.
A decent dessert wine/ Sauternes/ Mombazilac (Spl) should do the trick.
Best of all have fun and keep it simple
First and foremost... you have too much cream coming through in all your menu items:
Creamy soup, creamy mash, cream ice cream
This would make it a rather rich meal to eat and if they're watching their weight then it might seem a trifle overdone
Secondly: for ease of cooking try having a 'cold' starter, hot main course and cold dessert. It makes the cooking and plating times a lot easier.
As an idea (keeping the mussels and shrimps in the menu) do a salad of autumn greens, baby corn and serve with a mustard vinaigrette. Toss the deshelled mussels and shrimps in some smoking garlic oil and serve warm astride the salad with a little Cape Seed loaf. A decent Sauvignon blanc or unwooded Chardonnay might do the trick. For red wine try a light pinot noir or a youngish Beaujolais.
For the mains:
Using the pepper theme. Crush some white peppercorns and coat your fillet steak in this. Pan fry and reserve to one side.
Roast your peppers off (you can use red, orange and yellow peppers), skin them and then place them in the bottom of a ramekin for moulding.
Bring some new potatoes (preferably ANYA potatoes - from Sainsbury) to the boil, drain them and crush them lightly with a fork. Add some of the oil from the roasting tray, some seasoning and a couple of egg yolks to 'cream' the consistency.
Serve with the natural juices and a little basil/roquette pesto.
A decent full-bodied Shiraz should offset the spicyness of the peppercorns.
For the dessert:
Make the crepes as per recipe. Ball your melon with a Parisienne scoop and leave in a sugar syrup. Drain when required.
Toss them in a little clarified butter, over a high heat, flambe with a little gold tequila and add some juice of the melon to create a sauce. Serve warm with the vanilla pod ice cream.
A decent dessert wine/ Sauternes/ Mombazilac (Spl) should do the trick.
Best of all have fun and keep it simple