Valentines Day Dinner

with a starter of Naan Bread grilled with Cilantro Pesto!

I made this delicious dinner for Robin for Valentines day!

I love dinners like this, they seem to fancy and decadent, but are actually

very simple to make, they just take a little timing and technique.

Ingredients

2 rounds of beef tenderloin (the better the quality the better the outcome)

1 container cherry toms

1 head kale

1 head cilantro

1 package of Naan Bread (or pita)

any potatoes you want

shallots

thyme

butter

olive oil

S&P

almonds

sesame oil

a little white wine

1. Start by doing all of your prep so that you can have everything ready to cook

at the right times. 

Chop potatoes, peel and halve shallots, coat beef in S&P and place in bowl,

rip up Kale and toss with sesame oil and salt and place on baking sheet.

Toss cilantro, a few glugs of olive oil, s&p, and some almonds into a food processor

and blend. Then spread onto Naan bread.

2. Parboil Potatoes for 5 min, then drain, and toss in S&P, shallots and thyme,

and with the lid on the pot give a good shake (i took this technique from the blooms

poutine post, and it works amazingly for wonderful crispy potatoes)

Put a few big spoonfuls of butter and olive oil on a baking sheet and heat at 400 degrees

in oven. Then dump the potatoes onto the sheet and toss in the hot oil.

Bake for about 45 min.

3. Once the potatoes have been in the oven for about 15 min start heating an overproof

frying pan for the beef. Get it nice and hot, then pour in little olive oil.

Using tongs, put in both pieces of tenderloin, they should sizzle the second they hit the pan.

Sear on both sides for about 3-4 min, Then dump in cherry tomatoes and splash of white wine.

Put frying pan in oven.

4. WHen there is about 10 min left, turn oven down to 350, and put kale chips in,

and put the naan bread right on one of the oven racks.

5. The naan only takes about 5 min, so you can take it out and eat slice it up

to serve while you are waiting for the rest to finish up.

6. First you can take the pan with beef out, use a meat thermometer to check for doneness.

I like mine rare (about 140). Take the beef out and place on cutting board and cover

with a little tinfoil to rest and stay warm. Put pan on burner and high and reduce the

cherry tomatoes and liquid for a few min.

7. Take out potatoes and kale chips (they should be really crispy, if not, leave them in

for a few more min, but keep and eye on them, they burn fast)

8. Plate up the beef and top with cherry tom reduction, a pile the potatoes and

kale chips on the plate!

Enjoy!