hi guys my name is asti welcome to shocaholic last thursday we celebrated andrea's 50th birthday i've made him a french classic filet mignon and what is filet mignon filet mignon is actually an expensive tender cut of beef this dish is normally quite expensive when eating out the words filet means thick slice and mignon means dante filament comes from the small end of a tenderloin which is found on the back ribcage of the cow this area of the animal is not weight-bearing thus the connective tissue is not toughest by exercise resulting in extremely tender meat so today we will show you how to cook this dish and even offer you the recipe that showcase the premium cut at its best in order to be successful in making this dish high heat is usually a method for cooking this fillet traditionally the fillets are most often served in cognac cream sauce because this cut of meat is pretty low in fat therefore bacon is often used to wrap around the fillet if you use a high quality bacon this will add a lot of flavors to the fillet and this will help to prevent the fillet from drying out while cooking usually the meat is cooked in high heat for short time and then later transferred to a lower heat to cook the meat all the way through this is a classic french technique called birding to further enhance this special occasion i made a special potato mousse the mousse will be stuffed with saute mushrooms and onions accompanied by buttered green and yellow beans as for today's cook and chat topics i will share with you my view about sweet how they celebrate their birthdays and if you are ready let's get started i don't know if you are aware but the recipe is below this video so there's no need for you to take note just sit back and enjoy the show here are the ingredients we need after staying here for 18 years i find that one of the sweden sweetest birthday tradition is that the family members wake up early on the person's birthday and surprise them by bringing them a breakfast in bed the birthday girl or boy will be woken by their family who will carry a tray full of candles cakes breakfast and presents family members will also be singing while marching towards the bedroom to congratulate the persons so this means that if it's your birthday make sure you don't sleep naked the night before put on a nice pajamas instead this is just in case people might take photograph of you waking up and next you need to be mentally prepared for a bunch of people singing in front of you and the birthday songs sound like this and what do you gift a sweet for birthday if you are invited to a sweet birthday party the swedish gift-giving custom is to bring the hosts or the holsters gifts like chocolate flowers wine or a cake when personally receiving a gift it should be opened immediately upon receipt in our case andrea's family and friends gave him a surprise with a big bunch of beautiful flowers being sent to our doorsteps he was really touched by the thought and he almost cried i remember asking him what he want for his birthday he told me all he ever wanted is me by his side forever unfortunately i couldn't promise him that because i do not know exactly when i will expire so in order to show him my love and appreciation i made him a short video with lots of thoughts and consideration this video took me one and a half day to produce and i'm glad he really liked it and he told me after watching the video he locked himself up in the office and cried for half an hour i know this sweet are not so sentimental and emotional so a fancy birthday card or a big present is not really a big deal for sweet they prefer something practical like a gift card from a departmental store so that they can then decide the present later it's only bigger deal when someone turns 30 40 50. the older they get the more common it is to celebrate with an open house a open house is usually a full day thing from morning till late night and each guest may stay a couple of hours the tricky part is that you never know exactly how many guests will be coming so make sure you prepare enough cookies cakes so that you have enough to serve the guests there is a salty coke cake called smargos total is usually served on the day it is usually made from shrimps liver pate ham cheese egg and it is beautifully garnished with colorful vegetables unfortunately we were unable to have an open house this time because andrea's family and friends is living very far away so we decided to bring forward the celebration until we visit them in sunsval in the summer there is another tradition is that a lot of swede have their own flagpole in the garden and for every official flag day in sweden the flag needed to be hist but this you can also bring it up during the private day like a birthday for example honestly i still do not know why they do that but maybe it's because they want to announce that hey it's my birthday come visit me or give me some presents and since andreas turned 50 he get an off day from work to celebrate his big day and how did we celebrate his birthday we preferred to celebrate it privately within the family so we kept it really simple my daughter came to join us for dinner while i was busy shooting and cooking in the kitchen the whole day andreas on the other hand was busy talking to his friends and family on the phone he also received over 100 greetings from his facebook friends eventually he was busy responding to all the greetings i would love to organize an open house party for him this summer in his hometown i personally feel that 50th birthday is supposed to be the biggest part of life that is to celebrate the achievement and the journey your life has taken you on i heard that in some country turning 40 is uncomfortable and 50 oh my god it's like a nightmare overall i think this day was beautiful and peaceful we enjoy the flowers the food and the company and to end the evening we celebrate with a bottle of champagne i have made a batch of garlic parsley butter early on and kept it in the freezer until i need it this flavored butter is very nice and very handy with sticks potato and vegetables it took me just 5 minutes to make and i shall include this recipe attached with this video overall i think this dish is perfect for valentine and anniversary i make this dish because andreas loves meat he cooks dick most of the time and this time he told me honey you beat me i was really happy and felt really proud for once i think what i learned from this dish is how to preserve the juice in the meat as for presentation i think i suck at making the potato well maybe i should have tried using a less starchy potato instead and to that it's a matter of practice and maybe i was a bit nervous because these pieces of meat are so expensive and i don't want to screw up everything on a scale based on skin i think from 1 to 10 i give myself 6. i hope you enjoyed today's video feel free to comment tell me what you think about this recipe and my view about swedish birthday in my next tutorial i will show you how to make this super moist and delicious pineapple and coconut cake this is an upside down cake made from fresh ripe pineapple and coconut milk this cake is so yummy andreas add almost half of it himself and nalina my daughter gone nuts with it too if you love pineapples and coconut do not miss this tutorial till then i'll see you on sunday take care bye you