Cooking and other procrastinations

I have been lazy this week. No posts. Well, as I have the feeling that no one is reading me, there doesn't seem too much of a point in writing, right? But I decided that I'd stick to it and I will. Hopefully not the same way I do with my diet...
I'm supposed to be working on an article (and I am, but not too much and certainly not enough): it's tough work and I'm a bit fed up with it, as I have been working on it for months. So I try to find other things that I 'need' to do and leave the doc file open for later inspiration.
Today, for example, I decided I had to cook. Actually it started the day before yesterday, when some of my friends who were supposed to come to luch yesterday, took a rain check because one of them got sick. So we'll be having the lunch next saturday, which is also good. The problem was that I had already started the preparations for that lunch. I had started thawing the meat I needed to prepare the steak tartare and obviously I couldn't put it back in the freezer. I decided to leave it in the fridge and prepare it the next day (ie. yesterday), so I could comfortably go to the shop and buy the few ingredients I didn't have ready at home.
The steak tartare is a very fine, tasty meat pate' and I thought I'd share the recipe we use in our family with you. The important thing is not to try and save money with it. It is an expensive thing and if you don't want to spend the money, don't even start.
First you need to buy the right cut of meat: filet mignon is the best, even if the price is hefty. Then you need as much as 15 other ingredients:

• onion
• garlic
• salt
• pepper
• sweet paprika
• one raw egg
• mayonnaise
• mustard
• cognac
• pickled cucumbers
• pickled capers
• anchovies
• parsely
• oil
• butter

About the quantities: well, it is really hard to say, because I go by feeling. My mother's principle is quite useful if not very exact: you should put as much of any of the ingredients as you feel would suit the quantity of meat you would like to use. To give you an idea, you should put the salt you would put on the meat if you prepared it in any familiar way. The same for the pepper and the rest. It comes out delicious. And if you are unsure, put less and then taste it and add more if needed. I put everything in the porcessing machine and mix till it becomes smooth. Then I keep it in the fridge for at least half a day so the tastes mix and settle. No actual cooking involved here, that's right. But it's not ickey at all, the spices season and 'cook' the meat and it tastes delicious.

Anyway, today, when I was thinking what to prepare for lunch, I realized we had to have some of the steak tartar - oh, what a pity... - so I wanted to make something vegetarian for the rest of the meal. There were some nice champignons in the fridge so risotto it was.
I used a lot of garlic, thinly sliced and some sunflower oil. When the garlic changed colour a little, I added the sliced mushrooms (I don't slice them too thin because I like to taste the chunks in my mouth and if you cut them very small you loose the taste), some freshly ground black pepper (not too little), salt, mustard seeds, coriander and quite a bit of fenugreek. After a while I added the rice (the vialone nano kind) and after it simmered a little without liquid, I added a couple of glasses of water (I didn't have any soup ready so I had to make do). Stirring freqently, I added water as needed being careful that when the rice was cooked, there wasn't almost any liquid left. And that's it. My husband said that the fenugreek really brought out the taste of the champignons so I guess it was a good meal.

Next time I'll take pictures, today I forgot, sorry...

So, yeah, after cleaning the kitchen, ironing and keeping house in general, I kind of didn't have any energy left for the article... or much else either. A wasted day? Nah.