Tag Archives: Pâté

Australia Day and other thoughts

Yesterday was Australia Day. It’s a day that most Australians celebrate to remember the landing of the first fleet in what would become Sydney in 1788. When I say most Australians there are many Indigenous Australians who refer to 26 January as Invasion Day. Australia Day is a national day and a public holiday is always gazetted. Given this year 26 January falls on a Saturday all the celebrations occurred yesterday yet we get Monday as a public holiday. I love Australia. We get so many public holidays and everyone receives four weeks of recreation leave a year as a basic employment entitlement. That said, statistics show that Australians work longer hours per week than most member countries of the OECD so while we get plenty of holidays, we also know how to work hard.

English: Dick Smith (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On Australia Day, I always think about how fortunate I am to have been born in Australia and to be Australian. For many Australians the celebration revolves around food and alcohol. As a non-drinker (which is pretty uncommon in Australia), I focus on food. In recent years the lamb industry has invested significantly in advertising that real Australians eat lamb on Australia Day. While I don’t believe it’s unpatriotic not to eat lamb on Australia Day, I do like lamb so that’s what I had.

There was also a very cheeky YouTube and television video played this Australia Day by Dick Smith who is an entrepreneur, business man and advocate for buying Australian made.

WARNING It’s a little rude.
YouTube video http://youtu.be/VHP-znJv9ps

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So for my Australia Day lunch I had some very nice Maggie Beer products, viz., some pâté and quince paste.

For dinner I pan fried some lamb cutlets and served them with a salad.

I’m taking a break from work soon and a book I plan to read is Food Photography for Bloggers. David Lebovitz did a nice blog post on it with the author.

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English: Maggie Beer at the Australia Day citizenship ceremony at Commonwealth Park in Canberra. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I feel fat but I’m full of goodness from today

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I had two meals today. I know that’s not ideal but each was quite filling. Not as filling as yesterday’s but filling just the same. I woke up this morning without much of an appetite and then I remembered Bron was going to make Crème Brûlée French toast this morning and my appetite came back with a vengeance.

This recipe also calls for drunken strawberries which were really nice. we also elected to add some whipped cream from a can.

Crème Brûlée French toast naked

Adding whipped cream is fun

Crème Brûlée French toast with whipped cream from a can

Crème Brûlée French toast with cream and drunken strawberries

My second helping of Crème Brûlée French toast

I went for a decent walk this afternoon but I don’t know that I burned enough emergy

Check out the walk at http://runkeeper.com/user/garydlum/activity/74679324

This afternoon after a little ironing I started preparing dinner. I still had a piece of New York strip steak left and I thought it would make a nice Beef Wellington.

Beef Wellington is one of my favourite meals. It is so rich and unctuous especially when made with Pâté and mushroom Duxelles.

New york strip steak, butter, onion, prunes, mushrooms, and parsley

Laid out I have almost everything ready. New york strip steak, butter, onion, prunes, mushrooms, and parsley.

Browned steak resting and cooling

Browned steak resting and cooling until room temperature.

Duxelles being prepared. Onions sautéed with prunes, and mushrooms (The secret ingredient is anchovies)

Duxelles being prepared. Onions sautéed with prunes, and mushrooms (The secret ingredient is anchovies) You can’t taste them in the finished product but they add a richness to the dish.

Duxelles being prepared. Onions sautéed with prunes, mushrooms and parsley

Lots of parsley is required

Nearly ready to prepare. Puff pastry laid out.

A sheet of Pampas puff pastry.

Steak coated with Pâté

The steak needs to be coated with Pâté.

Duxelles on the puff pastry

Cooled Duxelles in the puff pastry.

Beef on the pastry

Everything ready to be wrapped.

Wrapped and egg washed

The beef is wrapped and the pastry egg washed.

Plated up sans sauce

Plated up with carrots, asparagus and beans. Sauce to come.

With a pepper sauce

I love making pepper sauce with green pepper corns in brine.

On my dining table with a bottle of ginger beer

Plated up on my dining table with a bottle of ginger beer and my MacBook Air ready to eat.

After yesterday’s meal and with the steak and Pâté today I hope I don’t have a gout attack this week.

I really enjoyed making this meal and eating it.

Crème brûlée French toast for breakfast (garydavidlum.com)
Classic Crème Brûlée (garydavidlum.com)
Did someone say pie? (garydavidlum.com)
My weekend in food and ‘health’ (garydavidlum.com)
Brioche French Toast with Caramelized Apples (munchomom.com)
Beef Wellington: A New Old Traditon? (journeymancook.com)
Crème brûlée from Costco (conniekitchen.wordpress.com)
How to Whip French Cream (daysontheclaise.blogspot.com)

My first Yorkshire pudding with Jamie Oliver’s smoked ocean trout, horseradish and cream filling

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Over the years I’ve seen many cooking programs and many recipes for Yorkshire pudding. I’ve never had a Yorkie before. Around Christmas we watched an episode of Jamie Oliver’s Great Britain where he cooked baby yorkies with ocean trout, and thought that looked amazing.

Tonight Bron made this dish. It was awesome.

Pouring the batter was easier than we’d expected.