Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Day Three - Gordon Ramsay Makes It Easy - Steamed Asparagus with Blood Orange Hollandaise Sauce, Chateaubriand for Two, Fondant Potatoes

Today my hat goes off to Gordon!  I was very surprised by the results of the above noted recipes. 

As I confessed yesterday, I killed my hollandaise sauce.  I could have revived it, but time was tight.  However, today I followed my own method for the hollandaise sauce and just added Gordon's touch " reduced blood orange juice” It turned out great!

Now for the Chateaubriand....lets just say that the cow died a worthy death and would have been proud of its contribution to this dish. It was touch and go for awhile though.  Instead of using my trusty oven timer, I chose to ask my husband to let me know when 15 minutes passed so I could take the meat out of the oven.  Of course he used his new toy, his cell phone.  As time went by my instincts told me to ask him if 15 minutes was up yet.  He then realized that he set the phone for 15 hours, so needless to say follow your instincts and keep you husband out of the kitchen unless he's pouring you a glass of wine or he can cook LOL! Long story short. The meat was saved and this dish was memorable...in a good way. 

A while back my husband asked if we could just have meat and potatoes for dinner. NOT!  Variety is good for the soul I told him.  I was also concerned since in my world potatoes have their limitations, mashed, baked, boiled, scalloped.  Okay in my taste bud world these are limitations to me.  But let me say for the record the Fondant Potatoes were by far the most scrumptious spuds I've had in a longtime, not to mention the least work.

So if I haven't made myself clear yet, this meal was effortless, speedy to make and tasted fantastic.  Just one thing to keep in mind.  Season, season, season.  Gordon really leaves it up to you to balance the dish with salt and pepper and sometimes with one extra ingredient, which maybe listed without a measurement.  So in some small way, you are making these recipes your own.


The Cookbook Addict

1 comments:

Susan said...

Tell me more about the potatoes. I live with a 'meat and potatoes' guy as well....