Tournedos Rossini

La Sirene is one of my favorite restaurants, so I tried to recreate their wonderful Tournedos. I made them with some frites and asparagus for Jamie for Valentine's Day, then made them again with Alice the next week. (I've been teaching her to cook, and she's been so good!) They're very impressive and not very hard to make. Jamie can't wait to serve them at a dinner party. For the french fries, I just use Trader Joe's frozen fries, serve them in a newspaper cone with some aioli, and sprinkle truffle salt on them. You have to try it! It also looks adorable.

Serves 2
Ingredients:
2 filet mignon
2 slices of French bread about the size of the filets
2 slices foie gras
2 tbsp red wine
salt and pepper
1/4 cup beef stock
1/4 tsp truffle oil
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp vegetable oil

Directions:
When you buy the filets, season them liberally with salt and pepper. If you're eating them later, wrap them up and put them in fridge.

Prune-Stuffed Gnocchi with Foie Gras Sauce

This is another one from Barbara Lynch. She wrote it up as being kind of hard to do but worth it for special occasions. For my New Year's dinner, I wanted something special and had the luxury of time for making these. It is a lot of work, but if you have a free Saturday and have friends coming over, this is a very indulgent appetizer (or entree if you give everyone a few more gnocchis). The dough is extremely light and fluffy, the prune filling is tart, and sweet, and the earthy, rich foie gras sauce is amazingly decadent. The crunch of the almonds on top is also a nice contrast. Yum!

I had to make a few changes because it's really hard to find 8oz of foie gras, so I used a foie gras spread which worked fine. This has also inspired me to try stuffing other things into gnocchi. Any suggestions? Maybe a pureed bitter green?

Serves 6
Ingredients:
For the Gnocchi:
22 pitted prunes
1 cup Madeira (or Vin Santo, but Madeira's cheaper)
2-2 1/4 lb Idaho or Yukon Gold potatoes (I used 2 Idaho, 1 Yukon gold) unpeeled
1 1/2 - 2 cups all purpose flour, plus more as needed
2 large eggs
kosher salt and fresh ground pepper
1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

For the Sauce:
8 oz foie gras spread
1 stick butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup finely chopped shallots (about 2 large)
15 sprigs thyme
15 black peppercorns
15 coriander seeds
2 cups Madeira