Since we all got laid off, we haven't been able to meet up weekly. But now that most of them found work, it's gotten even harder. This past Friday, a few of us got together for food again. Since we usually have chicken, we decided to go for beef instead. I made steak au poivre with a roasted tomato and arugula salad.
Originally I wanted to make a roasted peppered beef tenderloin, but apparently beef tenderloin is a rare commodity. Who knew? I sure didn't. I went to three different supermarkets looking for it, only to be disappointed and forced to adjust my plans to steak. I simply crushed whole peppercorns and covered the steaks with it and some salt before I pan seared the steak with some butter. This isn't a true steak au poivre, because I didn't make the sauce that called for Cognac. So, I made sure to rest the meat by tenting it with foil. I paired it with an arugula salad, which I chose for C. (she claimed not to have eaten arugula ever before). The red and yellow cherry tomatoes were roasted for about an hour with garlic, salt, pepper, and olive oil. The arugula was tossed with a simple balsamic vinaigrette and then topped with the warm tomatoes.
I finally brought my bottle of vodka to make the lychee martinis I told them about. One of the girls, E., was very disappointed when she saw my sad little half-filled bottle. I guess I should have clarified that it was a leftover bottle enough to make one drink for each of us. I'll remember to specify next time, E.
And of course there needed to be dessert. I made this in advance and brought it over.
A chocolate cake layered with coffee mousse and covered in a salted caramel ganache. The chocolate was for C. When asked for a request, you can always be sure she'll say, "chocolate." The coffee was for me and E. (we love our coffee, especially Vietnamese coffee). I adapted recipes from Cannelle et Vanille and formed my own combination of flavors. I was going for a caramel/mocha coffee drink accented with a bit of sea salt.
I adapted Cannelle et Vanille's chocolate genoise, and used a cookie cutter to cut out rings. The coffee mousse was made with whipped cream steeped with coffee beans until infused, strained, chilled, and then whipped to soft peaks and folded with some bloomed gelatin and pâte à bombe (I froze leftovers from my previous recipe and thawed it before use). As you can see, I don't have any real rings for forming the individual cakes. I actually went to Michaels to look for some, but left empty handed. I used my cookie cutter and some parchment paper in its place. Pretty easy to assemble by layering a circle of chocolate cake, then piping the mousse on top and alternating until your desired height. I froze this overnight to prepare for the salted caramel ganache.
The next day, I made the salted caramel ganache, but changing the chocolate to about 75 grams of bittersweet and 75 grams of dark. Thank goodness I covered my work area with paper towels. Look at that mess! I topped each cake with a sprinkle of pink sea salt for decoration and to add that extra little savory oomph to enhance the salted caramel ganache. They went back into the freezer until about 15 minutes before ready to serve, that way the ganache and mousse can have a chance to come back to room temperature.
To be honest, I was a bit worried that the flavors would get lost and a bit muddled. To my happy surprise, you could really taste the complexities, starting with coffee, then the salted caramel, and finished by the sweetness of the chocolate.
Dinner was great, as usual; would've been better if everyone could have made it. I'm going to miss these dinners. Hopefully we can still meet at least once a month with everyone.
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