FLOWER POT KITCHEN: FILLET STEAK WITH CREAMY MUSHROOM & WHITE WINE SAUCE AND COLLARED GREENS

7 Apr 2012

FILLET STEAK WITH CREAMY MUSHROOM & WHITE WINE SAUCE AND COLLARED GREENS

INGREDIENTS

8-10oz aged fillet steaks

2 bunches of greens

100g butter

Dash ooil

10 chestnut mushrooms

1 shallot fine diced

1 clove garlic fine chopped

300ml double cream

Salt & pepper

50ml dry white wine

1 sliced chilli for taste

CREAMY MUSHROOM SAUCE

In some ooil and half the butter pan fry the shallot, garlic and mushrooms for approx 7 minutes until soft, add the white wine and reduce too almost nothing, add the cream and simmer for a few minutes then take off the heat and leave too one side to improve, this sauce tastes so much better if made a few hours in advance, taste and season.

COLLARD GREENS

Rough slice the greens and steam for a couple of minutes, meanwhile melt the butter in a saucepan and just before serving toss the greens in the butter and season with sea salt.

FILLET STEAK

Leave the steaks out for a couple of hours to come up to room temperature before cooking. Heat the plancher or frying pan, ooil the steaks and season well, cook to your likin, I prefer a blue steak so I just sear on each side for one minute and rest, for rare sear on each side for 2-3minutes, for medium 3 minutes on each side and for well done just leave it till you happy. Resting is so important i learnt that if you sat your bottom on a burning hot bbq you would jump off and clench your check so hard and as the heat and pain dropped so would your bottom and it would relax, that really helped me understand how meat has tension and needs to relax, allowing all the juices to return back equally to the whole meat.

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.