Ten days to go before Christmas! Are you in the holiday mood yet? With the festive mood around, I'm sure everyone is going crazy these days. As for me, I've yet to finalize my Christmas Eve Dinner Menu. While I've yet to accomplish that, I recently prepared a sort of Christmassy Dinner at home for a friend.
Crunchy Chopped Salad - Chop, mix and toss! That's all there is in this sure pleaser. The dressing is a combination of extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, sugar, honey and finely minced garlic.
Garlic Prawns - Season the prawns with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Pan fry until they turn pink, set aside. Melt a knob of butter on a hot pan and sauté a handful of finely chopped garlic until fragrant. Add in prawns and coat well with the garlic butter sauce. Sprinkle with chopped Italian flat parsley before serving.
Griddled Cod Fish - season the fish with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Griddle in a hot pan until tender.
Rib eye Steak with Mushroom Sauce - my favourite show stopper! Season the steak with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Allow to rest for a while before cooking. Add olive oil in a hot pan. Pan fry the steak 3 minutes per side. Add sprigs of rosemary and 2 cloves of garlic after the first 3 minutes. Transfer to a plate, cover and allow to rest for at least 5 minutes before serving.
Potato Gratin - this is Jamie Oliver's Perfect Gratin. Since I prepared it the first time, I fell in love with it completely. Hence, it's becoming a regular in my meal repertoire.
Molten Chocolate Lava Cake with Mixed Berries and Vanilla Ice Cream - another sure pleaser yet easy to prepare dessert. After a series of trials in finding the best recipe for a Molten Choco Lava Cake, I finally settled and felt satisfied with Martha Stewart's version. This is best prepared just minutes before serving it. You need about 25 minutes to have it done.
This dinner certainly warmed me up for the next important one.
