What's your fave entree and main?

rascal

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My family come for dinner every Sunday, I try and make something nice, normally entree and main, and something like cheesecake for dessert. When someone has a birthday they get to choose their dinner.
Here's some of their choices that I make.
Entrees
Chicken croquettes,tandoori lamb cutlets, samosas, cheesy garlic bread, pate, and a few others they like.

Mains
Smoked chicken and mushroom fettucine, fillet steak with choice of sides, roast chicken, roast lamb,roast beef,fish n chips, Thai chicken salad, a curry of their choice, crayfish and salad, BBQ night, beer can chicken Texas style, butter milk fried chicken Texas style, steak sammich night, and a few other things that they all know I make.

What's your fave entree and main?

Mine is chicken croquettes and fillet steak with potato dauphinois and seasonal veges.

Russ
 
Main has to be steak - but I'm not a lover of fillet. I find it is often too 'dry' [I like my steak well done and as I have said before far too many 'chefs' use this as an excuse to provide 'boot leather' steak] and it has to be carefully chosen even when doing it yourself. Quite apart from this the cost alone is a big problem - fillet is expensive stuff
 
Hmm - we have a word confusion potentially. 'Entrée' means main course in America. I'd probably say 'starter' and main in the UK. So in NZ, entrée means starter? It does in classic French table service - it ought to really because after all it literally translates to 'entrance'. I wonder how it came to mean main course in America?

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My favourite first course would be something with vegetables for preference - or possibly including egg of some sort. The recent forays in the Cookalong have inspired me to serve deep fried eggs as a fine-dining starter next time I have a dinner party.

Best main course if no fish course is included in the menu would be something with fish. Or if meat then something slow-cooked in advance.
 
Yes, it can be a little confusing here with our nomenclature deriving from so many different cultural influences, such as French, Italian, Spanish, and others.

In a 3 course meal, the first course is either called an appetizer or starter (add a salad before or after that to make it 4 courses), then the main or entree course - which usually includes a protein, starch (including pasta), and veggie. Then there's the final course of dessert.

To answer the question, I have way too many that I like but only make occasionally.

But for today, I'm craving steamed Ipswich clams with broth and clarified butter for dipping, a mixed green and garden veggie salad in balsamic vinegar and evoo dressing for the "starters".

Then, surf and turf for the man/entree. A nice hunk of rare prime rib with grated horseradish on the side, paired with a steamed lobster tail with more clarified butter, a baked spud with chive sour cream, and garlic sauteed asparagas or broccoli.

Finally, a slice of Tiramisu with a double espresso for dessert.
 
But for today, I'm craving steamed Ipswich clams with broth and clarified butter for dipping, a mixed green and garden veggie salad in balsamic vinegar and evoo dressing for the "starters".

Then, surf and turf for the man/entree. A nice hunk of rare prime rib with grated horseradish on the side, paired with a steamed lobster tail with more clarified butter, a baked spud with chive sour cream, and garlic sauteed asparagas or broccoli.

Finally, a slice of Tiramisu with a double espresso for dessert.

I'll be over as soon as I can get a flight.... (swoon).
 
Yes, it can be a little confusing here with our nomenclature deriving from so many different cultural influences, such as French, Italian, Spanish, and others.

In a 3 course meal, the first course is either called an appetizer or starter (add a salad before or after that to make it 4 courses), then the main or entree course - which usually includes a protein, starch (including pasta), and veggie. Then there's the final course of dessert.

To answer the question, I have way too many that I like but only make occasionally.

But for today, I'm craving steamed Ipswich clams with broth and clarified butter for dipping, a mixed green and garden veggie salad in balsamic vinegar and evoo dressing for the "starters".

Then, surf and turf for the man/entree. A nice hunk of rare prime rib with grated horseradish on the side, paired with a steamed lobster tail with more clarified butter, a baked spud with chive sour cream, and garlic sauteed asparagas or broccoli.

Finally, a slice of Tiramisu with a double espresso for dessert.

Expensive tastes,lol. A nice aged steak, cooked blue, can't go wrong.

Russ
 
Expensive tastes,lol. A nice aged steak, cooked blue, can't go wrong.

Russ

We only do it maybe once or twice a year, for Father's day, or a birthday or something. While it sounds fantastic, each element is pretty easy to pull off.


Main has to be steak - but I'm not a lover of fillet. I find it is often too 'dry' [I like my steak well done and as I have said before far too many 'chefs' use this as an excuse to provide 'boot leather' steak] and it has to be carefully chosen even when doing it yourself. Quite apart from this the cost alone is a big problem - fillet is expensive stuff


Getting a steak well done properly is probably as difficult a thing as most cooks will face. To not let it dry out, and not cause it to toughen up is real skill..
 
Hmm - we have a word confusion potentially. 'Entrée' means main course in America.

No clue as to how that started, but you're right. Even someone with a rudimentary understanding of French knows that "entree" is related to "enter", so it should mean the first course.

Getting a steak well done properly is probably as difficult a thing as most cooks will face. To not let it dry out, and not cause it to toughen up is real skill..
As chef once told me that most chain restaurants on this side of the pond will get a char on the outside, then microwave the steak partway to get it to well-done. This is done particularly when there are other diners who want medium rare (my preference), so everyone gets served at the same time. But, he added that the right way to do it is to char the outside, then slowly finish in the oven...this should take about half an hour in total. But, most diners don't want to wait that long, so they get what they get.
 
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So..my perfect meal would have scallops as what we're calling an entree:

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...then have this (New York Strip) as a main course:

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Mind you, in my opinion, most steakhouses screw up the New York Strip: it's usually too fatty at Texas Roadhouse (an excellent chain where we eat at least once a month), so I go with sirloin. But, the top-end places (like Michael Symon's Roast) do a flawless strip steak.
 
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So..my perfect meal would have scallops as what we're calling an entree:

4e2d1d34ba87a4b513da2bbd668bbaa5.jpg


...then have this (New York Strip) as a main course:

th?id=OIP.jpg


Mind you, in my opinion, most steakhouses screw up the New York Strip: it's usually too fatty at Texas Roadhouse (an excellent chain where we eat at least once a month), so I go with sirloin. But, the top-end places (like Michael Symon's Roast) do a flawless strip steak.

We don't have any cut called New York strip in the UK - I wonder what the equivalent would be...
 
We don't have any cut called New York strip in the UK - I wonder what the equivalent would be...
This is the short loin of the cow; here's what wikipedia had to say about that:

According to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the steak is marketed in the United States under various names, including Ambassador Steak, Boneless Club Steak, Hotel-Style Steak, Kansas City Steak, New York Steak, Top Loin, and Veiny Steak.[2]

In New Zealand and Australia, it is known as Porterhouse and Sirloin (striploin steak)[3] and can be found in the Handbook of Australian Meat under codes 2140 to 2143.[4]

In the UK and Ireland it is called sirloin.

In Canada, most meat purveyors refer to this cut as a strip loin;[5] in French it is known as contre-filet.
 
This is the short loin of the cow; here's what wikipedia had to say about that:

According to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the steak is marketed in the United States under various names, including Ambassador Steak, Boneless Club Steak, Hotel-Style Steak, Kansas City Steak, New York Steak, Top Loin, and Veiny Steak.[2]

In New Zealand and Australia, it is known as Porterhouse and Sirloin (striploin steak)[3] and can be found in the Handbook of Australian Meat under codes 2140 to 2143.[4]

In the UK and Ireland it is called sirloin.

In Canada, most meat purveyors refer to this cut as a strip loin;[5] in French it is known as contre-filet.


Its sirloin! A good meaty flavoursome cut. And easily obtained here.
 
In truth, my favourite entrée is oysters. I can't get enough of them. But I only serve them if I'm sure others like them. A lot of folk don't. I'd eat oysters until they came out of my ears! This was the last 'hit' I had. A combo of Whitstable Pearls and Whitstable Natives:

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