I stepped out of my comfort zone with this theme, because I pretty much only make Italian/Asian food (I also wasn't 100% sure how I was going to pull off making the room look good, to follow on from Beth's Greek night the previous week) but it went better than I thought!
Dress code: French chic/classy
Food:
I kept it quite simple because previously we'd made absolute feasts and had so much leftover.
Appetizer: Camembert fondue with some toasted baguette (I only used quarter of a camembert and a few thin slices of toasted baguette each).
Starters: Mussels in white wine sauce (bought ready-made from the shop) and French onion soup. I'd never had French onion soup or made it before, so had to google the recipe... it was so bloody good!
Main: Steak au poivre with grilled asparagus. This was so easy! I bought two sirloin steaks and rubbed a lot of black pepper on both sides, let it rest on the side for 30 minutes and then fried (medium rare for both) then left it on the side in tin foil til I was ready to plate. Don't wash out the pan, and just add 60ml of brandy (I didn't have this or want to buy it so I substituted for bourbon, haha) 150ml cream, about 60g of unsalted butter and salt to taste). French people will say I butchered the recipe, and I did, but it still tasted good!
Dessert: I can't bake/make desserts to save my life - I'm much more of an experimenter/throw everything in and adjust to taste kind of gal, whereas baking and desserts is way more of a science. I attempted to make French chocolate mousse - I melted 160g of dark chocolate, set aside and separated 4 room temperature eggs (keeping both parts), I attempted to whip up the egg whites but it wasn't having any of it - so I got it as frothy as it would go and gave up, added a bit of lemon juice and set it to the side. Then I mixed in the yolks with the chocolate, poured in a bit of the egg white mixture, mixed it all up and then poured the chocolate mixture with the rest of the egg whites. I put it in the freezer in the hope it would set, but only the top layer did - when I served it (in two champagne saucers) I topped it with fresh raspberries and basil. Tasted good, but yeah, desserts are not my strong point!
Drinks:
I bought a Bordeaux Rosé wine that was on sale for £6 in Sainsbury's, and a Côtes du Rhône red that was also on sale. The rosé went well with the cheese and mussels, and the red went well with the steak. Look at me, trying to pair wine with food!
The room and music:
This was way more understated, but I set it up like a cafe/restaurant with a white tablecloth on our table, a candle in the middle, and some flowers. We had a marble chopping board which I put at the back of the table with the red wine, garlic bulbs (because for some reason this feels French), the Camembert box (it looked French), the little fondue set, and some pink roses that I pulled out of a bouquet we'd been sent for Valentines. I wrapped some fairylights around the chopping board, and created a little menu, hung up our existing French framed pictures next to the table, and that was pretty much it. We still had the fairylights hanging from the walls, and I put a big red scarf across the coffee table, with a little plate of croissants and a tea light either side, some Paris scenery on YouTube (sound off) on the TV and searched French cafe jazz on Spotify. It really felt like we were in a restaurant, so I think this would make a really cute date night.
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