NEW YEAR'S EVE DINNER

Happy New Year/Bonne Annee!

This year we celebrated New Year's Eve at home with a lovely meal.

To start with we had bought a box of 24 oysters, so being really piggy had 12 each, what better way to start off the evening!

To follow we decided to have a lobster each, although Mr TK had 'surf and turf' which he cooked outside on the bbq, I also did a herb butter with his.

The steak was seasoned beforehand and then cooked for a few minutes each side on the bbq, with the lobster then quickly grilled to warm up, adding a slice of the herb butter to each side.

For the butter:

Chopped shallot with finely chopped parsley - but you can use any herbs, mix with softened butter and seasoned and then rolled into a sausage shape before placing in cling film and put into the fridge until needed.

For myself, I did lobster thermidor:

Ingredients:

1 lobster, cooked

20g/¾oz fresh parmesan, grated

For the sauce

25g butter

1 small shallot, finely chopped

275ml fish stock

55ml white wine

110ml double cream

½ tsp English mustard

2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Juice of ½ lemon

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the grill to a medium heat.

Cut the lobster in half and remove the meat from the claws, tail and head.

Chop the meat into pieces and place back into the shell.

To make the sauce, place the butter into a pan over a medium heat. Add the chopped shallots and cook until softened. Pour in the stock, wine and cream and bring to the boil.  Reduce by half, stirring occasionally. Add the mustard, herbs, lemon juice and season to taste.

Spoon the sauce over the lobster meat. Sprinkle with Parmesan. Grill for 3–4 minutes until golden brown.

Both dishes were served with chips!

BONNE ANNEE!