So as always I spend less time with my blog than I think I will the moment I pick it back up again. But there has been a lot going on lately! Irma came and really shook up reality for a week, we went on a mini vacay to Saint Augustine AND I got a promotion! So many exciting things 🙂 But before all of that, we did the Grand Finally of Game of Thrones! We were hosting this final meal, and I spent two weeks researching to put together a fun, delicious and awesome dinner. I picked a French bistro theme! So while listening to a Spotify list called French bistro – I prepped a 5 course meal for our framily. I had so many ideas and I had the drinks picked out, so I wasn’t able to do less than that. On the menu we had Coquilles St-Jacques with Champagne, Steak Tartar with Cognac, Chevre Chaud with a French red blend, Bouillabaisse with Alsace Riesling and finally Deep fried Brie cheese with cloudberry jam & vanilla ice cream.

Today, I will try to remember exactly how I made the Steak Tartar. My biggest issue whenever cooking is that I take five different recipes and combine them together so it will fit my original idea, then I spend a lot of time adjusting everything according to my own taste. So by the time I am done with a meal, 1 teaspoon of a certain ingredient may have turned into a tablespoon. I would still encourage anyone who attempts to make my recipes to adjust everything to taste, because I may love dijon mustard and you might not. So here comes a recipe for 4 appetizer sized steak tartars:

Ingredients:
12 oz beef tenderloin
1 finely chopped schallot
3 tablespoons dijon mustard
2 tablespoons chopped cornichons
4 tablespoons chopped capers
1 small garlic clove finely minced
olive oil
red wine vinegar
salt & pepper
4 quail eggs
beet sprouts or watercress
root vegetable chips
truffle mayo

Instructions:
Start by chopping all the condiments for the tartar. Leave to the side and prepare the truffle mayo. It’s easy peasy: mix Hellman’s mayo with black truffle oil and add salt and pepper. Done! Then start prepping the meat: freeze the raw piece of meat for about 20 minutes, this makes it easier to chop. Chop it as fine as you like it. Some people use grinders, I think it works just fine with a knife! That way you can pick how fine you want the meat. Mix half the schallot, half the dijon mustard (or start with 1 tablespoon!), half the cornichons, half the capers and the galic clove with the chopped meat. Add olive oil and red wine vinegar to taste. I probably did 1 tablespoon of olive oil and about 1 teaspoon of vinegar. Add salt & pepper. Once you’re satisfied with the taste of the tartar, leave in the frigde until ready for plating. Do this as close to serving as possible! At time of serving:
Brush a small round container with olive oil, use it to make a pretty shape of the tartar. Add the condiments on the side of the tartar. Dig a tiny hole with a spoon to make room for the quail egg yolk. Separate the egg whites from the yolk, and put the yolk back into the shell. It’s pretty! Decorate the plate with beet sprouts, the truffle mayo and grind fresh black pepper on top of the plate. Add some root vegetable chips for crisp and to make it look beauiful. This instruction may be a little confusing, but you can really contruct this lovely thing however you want! See picture below for reference. YUM! 🙂