Un soir a Paris

I am between jobs.  Really.  I start the new one on Monday.  I had planned a week of walking, gardening and cooking some of those meals I have been meaning to make at the end of a long day but there isn't the time.  But things don't always turn out.  Peter had a week of evening events at work and I ate a little more simply.  Thursday night he was in and I decided to make something I have wanted to make since I first encountered it at the Hofbrauhaus in Auckland when I was seventeen. My seventh form German class took our teacher there for dinner because we loved her and wanted to thank her for being such a great teacher.  Because of this experience I believed for many years that this classic French dish was German.  And for some reason I have never eaten it in Paris.
Often when I get an idea in my head it grows.  This was the case here.  A search on Eat your Books revealed that I have two recipes for steak tartare.  For those who don't know, Eat your Books is a recipe site that has indexed thousands of cooking books.  You add all your books and magazines then when you are looking for a recipie you type in a couple of ingredients and it tells you which book it is in.  Do investigate.  It is wonderful.  Was slightly scary to discover how many cook books I have. Does anyone care to guess?
Anyway back to my steak.  Rick Stein's French Odyssey and Sarah Woodward's The Food of France gave me the general idea.  I then thought we would start our evening with an aperitif and was thinking about accompanying this with buttered radishes, however I think this is best with freshly picked and I don't have any ready right now.  I was flicking thrrough the books and came up with seared scallops with puy lentils.  It's the scallop season so this seemed perfect.
First make a dressing for the scallops.  For a dozen scallops, heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a small saucepan and add four finely chopped cloves of garlic then four chopped tomatoes, skinned and deseeded and some finely chopped rosemary and thyme.  Simmer 10 minues or so until until it is pulpy.  In another small saucepan heat two tbsp red wine vinegar with one tsp caster sugar and reduce to about 2 tsp.  Add to the tomato sauce and season.  Set aside.  For two, cook about 1/4 cup puy lentils, season and dress with olive oil then keep warm while you enjoy your aperitif.  We had kir, which if you recall from an earlier post is creme de cassis with white wine.  When you are ready to eat finish off the tomato sauce with a tbsp of lemon juice and a tsp of chopped basil and parsley. Season and heat gently while you cook the scallops.  Heat the pan then add a litle olive oil and sear the scallops a minute or two on each side.  I don't remove the roe and I can't understand why people do that.  Serve with the lentils and pour the sauce over the scallops.
For the steak you want about 100-120g of fillet steak per person.  Trim off any fat or sinew then chop very finely. Season well with salt and pepper  This took quite a while so allow time.  You want to serve it well chilled so chop it first then put in a covered bowl in the fridge while you prepare the rest.
Accompany with with finely chopped shallots, parsley, cornichons, capers and Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, tabasco and olive oil.  You could serve it ready mixed but we did ours at the table because we wanted to do them slightly differently.  Shape the beef into neatish rounds on a plate and make an indent in the centre.  Top each round with an egg yolk and serve with shoestring fries. 
We had macarons with coffee.  Not home made, I am almost (but not quite) too ashamed to say, but locally made nonetheless.  Finish the meal with a good brandy.  To transport yourselves completely to France accompany with Django Reinhardt and Edith Piaf.