Birthday lunch 2016

Another birthday has come and gone. We ate it well. This year we made the traditional steak au poivre with a cut of beef we don't usually indulge in: filet. In the US, we call that cut the tenderloin or filet mignon. In France, however, the word mignon is normally used to refer to same cut of pork, not beef. Since filet is one of the more costly cuts of beef, we often use faux-filet (sirloin) or rumsteak (rump or round) for this dish.

A dish of snails, six per serving, with garlicky parsley butter.

We each had a half-dozen escargots de Bourgogne as our entrée, prepared the traditional way with a garlic and parsley butter sauce. The steaks were dry-marinated in crushed black pepper before being seared in a hot pan. The sauce was made by de-glazing the pan with Armagnac and a little beef broth, then thickening it with crème fraiche. We served the steaks with french fries. We followed that with a green salad in vinaigrette.

Lunch is served! They look like hamburgers, but they're slices of filet coated with crushed pepper.

I drank Champagne with the entrée and Ken drank sauvignon blanc (he doesn't really enjoy the bubbles). We enjoyed a Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil (from a little further down the Loire Valley) with the main course.

Birthday tart.

Dessert was an apple tart. I used Delblush-Tentation apples. First I made a compote with some of the apples, a little sugar, and some cinnamon. I pre-baked my pie shell, then spread the cooled compote inside. I layered sliced apples on top and baked the tart until it was done. Finally, I glazed the top with some of Ken's home-made apple jelly. Tasty!