Thursday 27 December 2007

Now the steaks have been raised ...

Of course, now I've had the delicious fillet steaks with stroganoff, my tastebuds are all excited and I'm finding it hard to imagine a day when I'll want to go back to an honest sirloin.

I found myself veering towards the beef section in Tesco, lingering over the fillets and, almost against my control, sliding a particularly nice-looking specimen into my trolley. I'd seen a recipe in Delicious magazine that was crying out to be tested and I'd filed it in the back of my mind ... but clearly not far back enough!

So: my fillet medallions would be cooked the same as before (if it ain't broke ... ) and seved on a bed of creamy mashed potato. But they'd be topped with a yummy-looking green olive tapenade. It's very simple to make, as long as you have a small food blender/mixer/chopper of some kind.

Throw in a handful of pitted green olives with some lemon juice, flatleaf parsley and olive oil, and blitz it. That's all! Just keep tasting it as you go along to check the flavours are all balancing nicely. Then serve a liberal dollop on top of the steaks. I thoroughly enjoyed it - the steak didn't really need any accompaniment, but this sharp, salty tapenade worked fabulously and brightened a fairly standard dinner into something quite different and refreshing.

I think I'd also like to try it with fish sometime - cod or tuna steaks, probably. I've also discovered (at a Christmas party) that it works very well as a stand-alone tapenade served on cocktail blinis too. At least, they went quickly enough and people went "mmm" ... !

No comments:

Get updates from me: