Steak with Mushroom Red Wine Sauce, Sweet Corn Puree & Duck Fat Chips - Ryan Cooks

        It's been a while since Ryan has cooked for me and even longer since I've posted about him doing so. The last post on Ryan cooking was when he made the loin of lamb with broad beans. It's nice to know he doesn't need some overcomercialised day in the calendar to spoil me ;). He's working tonight anyway so there is no romantic dinner for two or anything 'special'. We did catch up for afternoon tea before he went to work as we usually would, and watched all the male species of the world queue up at the florist for last minute roses/flowers.

        I did bake him some cupcakes as a 'Valentine' present yesterday. I would have baked them either way just to cheer him up a bit from the weekend's events. Oh and to think I knew everything there was to know after 10 and a half years, I only recently discovered his favourite cake as a kid was banana cake, especially the cream cheese frosting. No wonder he absolutely demolished my hummingbird cake! So I whipped up a batch of banana cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and had some frosted especially for him. He absolutely loved them! =)

        If you've followed me for a while you'll know that I love watching Ryan in the kitchen. Look at the concentration =). I had absolutely no idea what he was going to cook for me before he showed up at my place a few weeks ago. He just said 'beef'. I spied Matt Moran's book which I bought for him in his car on the weekend, which I can safely assume is where he got his inspiration from (he would have taken it to go shopping with).

        I thought I would get away without having to lift a finger in the kitchen but I have to help him peel the potatoes. The peeler which we use at home is not to his liking, but it's one that I am used to using.

Lurveee sweet corn!

        Cooking the corn in milk and cream, was wondering what the white streaks are in the top left corner and realised I must have taken this while he was seasoning it with salt =D.

        He wanted to make some fat chips and I remembered that I had some duck fat in the freezer (saved from when I made duck a l'orange (backlogged post) so I pulled it out so he could fry the potatoes in it.

Blender, best kitchen applicance next to the food processer.

Ryan frying the fat chips in the duck fat - YUMM.

Steaks resting.

Mmm corn puree!

He makes a mushroom and red wine sauce to go with the steak.

And dinner is served!

        The steak was nice and pink. Ryan said he was a little disappointed by the quality of the steaks he was given at the local butchers but I was totally happy with it. I loved all the flavours on the plate.

        The potato chips were really tasty straight out of the pan but quickly lost their crispiness. He was meant to finish them off in the oven but we ran out of time - too hungry to wait!

        Being a pair of sweet tooth's that we are we got the munchies later that night so decided to whip up some dessert. I've had a hankering for a souffle for a while and was about to give up when I discovered my electric beater had still not been returned but Ryan volunteered to whisk the egg whites by hand. It was all very impromptu and made up as we went along but I can say that we had Nutella and corn infused cream/milk (from the corn puree) in this souffle (was originally meant to be white chocolate & grand marnier, but the white chocolate didnt melt properly and we actually ran out of milk).

        It turned out to be the most spectacular looking souffle that we have made so far and the flavour of it, well I can say it was very interesting. It was not too sweet, and a little nutty according to Ryan. The souffle stood for what seemed like forever before it started deflating ever so slowly. We were mightly impressed, and even did a bit of a high five =D.