Marion and I had planned a long relaxed weekend with lots of doing nothing. But sadly the weekend was very short for both of us.
Due the bad weather Marion arrived here in Heemskerk begin of the Saturday afternoon and will have to leave again early in the evening of Sunday. Not exactly the way we had planned it.
So to make up for this all, we decided to have a very nice dinner together on Sunday. And that means making something very nice.
After Marion finally arrived she longed badly for a shower. So while she was enjoying a hot shower I did some groceries. To my surprise I saw some very good looking ostrich steaks…. and around that I tried to make a nice dinner.
The steaks were gently rubbed in with salt and paper. I baked the steaks in a mixture of olive oil and a little butter (the special kind for preparing meat). The olive oil will give a better taste as the butter will make the steak a nice brown look (this is what Miranda once told me and she was right with that). Marion and I love our steak medium done, so that makes live more easy.
On the ostrich steaks I poured a little cranberry sauce (of which I admit I bought in a store all ready :P).
To a steak belongs something with mushroom in my humble opinion. So I sliced some big chestnut mushrooms. I baked this for only a minute or three in olive oil.
The sauce for the mushrooms I made of flour, butter, garlic, parsley, pepper, salt, a little milk and fine cut chestnut mushrooms.
With steaks I always love mashed potatoes. Through the mashed potatoes I mixed fine cut shallots and thym. Once served on the plate I decorated the mashed potatoes with fine cut (but fresh) parsley.
To that a mixed salad of different kinds of lettuce as iceberg lettuce, lamb’s lettuce and red leaves chicory. The mixture of salad was cut in small pieces. To that herbs as parsley, chive, black & white pepper and paprika was added (all as powder). Fine cut paprika, pickles, silverskin unions “Amsterdamse uitjes” (which I assume is something typical Dutch as I cannot find a reference to it in Engels) and garlic cannot be missed in a nice salad. A strong bodied olive oil to make the salad complete,
I think we both enjoyed it really. It makes me feel good when something like turns out well and this time it turned out very well.
Only thing when I look at the picture the salad looks like endive. Must be the olive oil on it. Ah well, not everything can be perfect :P.
It really tasted very good, Rob. It has been some time since I had ostrich for the last time.
I always love to watch you being busy in the kitchen. When things are going well a bottle of beer appears of which you take a taste every now and that while looking at all the pots and pans.
And yes, the weekend was really short. And next weekend with be a busy one again. Maybe we should plan a long weekend together somewhere in January. Just you and me…
Looks and sounds really good.
If the “strong bodied olive oil” is that one I am thinking of then I can explain the effect of the salad on the pictures. The olive oil I am thinking of has a very high density and covers the lettuce as a thin film. It will reflect more in your camera.
What you can do the next time is to chop the lettuce even finer… but I rather would use some bigger leaves of each kind of lettuce you have used :).