Dinner for two. Part 1

Living with a blonde version of Nigella Lawson has it's benefits. Firstly, I never go hungry, and secondly, I get to sample some amazing recipes from around the world. The downside, being that cookery programs never seem to be off the TV, whether it be yet another master chef or 'come dine with me' .

I must be the only man that complains about getting too much good food, which to be fair doesn't go down well with Mrs TK, but there is only so much  good food a healthy man can eat, especially being a diet controlled diabetic. 

Mrs TK is now getting extremely busy with all the paper work involved in selling property in Brittany, so it has been decided that Mr TK will cook a meal all on his tod, on Thursday evenings. 

Now you would think that with all those cookery programs which I am forced to watch that some of it would  have rubbed off, well I am pleased to say it has, but not in the way Mrs TK thought it might, as I am now a worse critic than the Master Chef judges, which I can tell you is not going down too well, but I blame the programs!

So, onto my culinary skills for the Thursday evening feasts the first week I fared quite well, because as we were walking around the supermarket, Mrs TK turned to me and said, 'Oh it's Thursday, your turn to cook, fancy  pizza?' Now even I couldn't mess that one up with a nice bottle of wine and a salad. The next week I cooked a simple tuna with a tomato salsa, and French fries of course!

The following week I managed to get out of cooking by going out for dinner, but to me it still counts, as Mrs TK didn't have to cook, which is what it is all about. 

This week Mrs TK had a business meeting to go to for most of the day on Thursday, so she said it would be the perfect opportunity for me to browse through her wall of cookery books and  cook a proper meal for a change. Well she called it a business meeting with her work colleagues, but basically they all meet at someones house for a chat, and stuff themselves with cake that Mrs TK has made the day before. 

To me there are two types of cooking, the first is where you just cook a meal, i,e, basically heat things up. The second type is where you spend hours using many ingredients to create a masterpiece that would  not look out of place at the Tate Gallery.
OK, there is a third, this is when you buy some nice fresh ingredients to conjure up a few dishes, which are simple to make, but seem lavish. Luckily, here in France, some lavish food is not too expensive, if it is at the right time of the year.

STARTERS; Grilled Oysters

Open your oysters with a special knife, paying particular attention not to insert the knife in the palm of your hand, as washing the blood from an open oyster really taints the taste of the open sea. Place your open oysters on a baking tray, spoon 1/2 a teaspoon of cream on each, season with a little black pepper, then sprinkle over some Parmesan cheese and drizzle with melted butter. A few minutes under the grill and you have a  simple tasty starter. We washed these down with a nice chilled Chardonnay.

SECOND COURSE  Lobster, prawn and avocado cocktail.

Well I was in the supermarket, and this tiny little frozen Canadian Lobster said 'buy me, she will be impressed' so at 3.99 euros it didn't break the bank, how could I resist!

I already had some prawns to go with our main coure,  so it was easy to knock up a home made Marie Rose sauce, and add a little salad and avocado. I am still working on the presentation of this dish!!!!

MAIN COURSE 

 The vegetarian option for Mrs TK was Baked Cod with Avocado, Prawns, Cream and Cheese.

Luckily there was a Jamie Oliver book on the shelf to help me with this one, which is just so simple, but looks quite impressive, well for someone with my skills it did. 

Drizzle some olive oil into a baking tray, then lay a nice piece of fillet of cod in the  tray, add some peeled prawns and slices of avocado. Drizzle over some cream, then grate some cheddar cheese on top. Add some seasoning and  bake for about 20  Mins. 'Lovely jubbly' as Jamie would say.

Mr TK's main course Surf & Turf, what else! It's my favourite meal.

OK the presentation needs working on again, and I do have somewhere a recipe that was cooked for me by a Portuguese friend, that stuffed the steak with a crab and whiskey filling, which I will try to recreate one day. 

Please note that I am cutting the chip portions down, and there was a nice healthy salad and some grilled mushrooms to accompany my meal .

WINE   The wine I had chosen  to go with my steak from my vast cellar, OK its a wine rack in the lounge, was a Bordeaux Chateaux Haut Beyzac, a 2008 Haut Medoc, which for about 3 to 4 Euros was superb.

Just in case Mrs TK reads my blog, I only have one message.

'Its the pizza van again next week darling. X X X'

I was awarded 8 out of 10  for this meal.