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Steak au Poivre
I had my first steak (that I can remember) when I was in my mid 20's. I was a vegetarian for four years when I was younger and then didn't eat any red meat for another ten years. That aside, steak was never a big thing in my house when I was growing up. I can't recall a single time when steak was served as I sat munching my veggie alternative. Anyway, it took a few years but eventually Weepix managed to show me why such a simple meal is viewed with such reverence.
Tonight we have a couple of inch thick sirloin steaks from Isola farm (via Feather and Bone). The beef comes from grass fed Chianina cows and is hung for five weeks before sale to improve the flavour. It's not a cheap steak but you sure as hell know where the extra money went when you taste it. I'd rather eat one of these every six months than a poorer quality steak on a weekly basis. No contest.
More often than not I just cook my steak and eat it, maybe with some mustard or horseradish but often with nothing at all. Sometimes I fancy something a bit fancier and I'll get some beef stock out the freezer and make a red wine or green peppercorn sauce. This recipe (if you can call it that) is somewhere between the two.
- Steaks - fillet is traditional but I prefer cuts with a bit more fat.
- White and black peppercorns (I only have black just now)
- Salt
- Butter
- Brandy
Word of warning - this can get a little smoky so turn on the extractor and/or open the windows.
Lightly crack a couple of tablespoons of peppercorns in a mortar, just so they split apart a bit you don't need to pulverise them. Sieve the pepper to get rid of the powdery fines and tip half the cracked corns onto a plate with some flakes of salt. Lay the steaks on top and then sprinkle the rest of the cracked pepper over the top with another pinch of salt. When it looks like you've got too much pepper on there then you're about good to go. Get a pan good and hot and add a couple of spoons of sunflower oil. For steaks an inch think I do them for about two minutes on each side and they come out rare but not cold in the middle. Remove from the pan and put them on a warmed plate. If you've bothered to spend cash on decent steak then cooking it past medium is pointless. If you want well done steak then save yourself some cash and just buy the cheap stuff.
While the steaks rest a little add about 30g (two decent lumps) of butter to the pan and let it melt and froth, scraping all the tasty black bits as you go. A minute is more than enough. Now add a good slug of brandy and give the pan a final scrape. Take the pan from the heat and then return the steaks to the brandy and butter, turning them to get a good coating. Plate up the steaks with a crispy skinned baked potato and pour over the rest of the buttery sauce. If you're throwing caution to the wind you can put some sour cream on the potato but it doesn't really need it and it means you have to run twice as far the next day. A few lettuce leaves on the side are also pretty good.....especially when they get covered in the butter and brandy.
Grab a decent bottle of cab or shiraz to go with it and you're sorted.
Spaghetti alla Puttanesca
It's been a busy week so here's another quick recipe for when you've had no time to hit the shops. It's easy to keep all of the ingredients in the cupboard so you can throw it together when nothing else presents itself. The name translates as 'whore's style spaghetti' and apparently originated because ladies of the night couldn't make it to the morning market for fresh ingredients. Sounds pretty dubious but if it is true then those ladies were onto something as it's cheap, quick and damn tasty.
- Two cloves of garlic, chopped up fine
- Tablespoon of capers, chopped a little
- 8-12 anchovy fillets diced
- 1 tsp dried chili flakes
- handful of olives chopped
- 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
- Spaghetti
Word of warning; for some reason passata doesn't really work here, at least it doesn't for me, so best use the chopped tomatoes.
Put the water on to boil for the spaghetti. Add a little olive oil to a pan big enough to accommodate everything and heat. Add the chopped anchovies and leave them, stirring occasionally, until they sort of melt into the oil. Add the garlic and cook for a minute or two. Add everything else to the pan, give it a stir and reduce the heat to low. Let it heat through so all the flavours amalgamate and it sits just below a simmer. Set aside about half a cup of the water the spaghetti was cooked in and add it a little at a time to the sauce just to loosen it up a bit (this really makes a difference). Drain the spaghetti and add it to the pan with the sauce, stirring to coat everything nicely.
The whole thing takes about 15 minutes and, with a little practice to get the balance to your liking, it's a great meal. It's not fancy but there is something really satisfying and a little chic in it's simplicity. It's also really good for lunch during summer while sitting outside in the sun with a glass of wine and some fresh bread. I guess you could add prawns or clams if you want, but I like it just as it is.
Rack of Lamb
Generally speaking, I'm not an impatient person. I can happily bide my time. I'm content enjoying the anticipation whilst the good things in life meander toward me. I usually save up rather than bash the credit card. I drive like an old man because I'm never in that much of a rush to get anywhere. I'm learning to play the banjo and I've allowed myself ten years to become competent. No sense rushing these things.
And then there is resting roasted meat, which is where I go from patient to pacing and anxious. I don't want to wait even longer, I want to eat it now!
Often times I've spent days or even weeks planning that roast and hours preparing it. The smells coming from the kitchen are driving me mad and it looks glorious! Finally, it's done. And now I have to wait another twenty minutes before I can tuck in? It seems.....well, to be honest, it seems mental and more than a little masochistic. Hard as it may be, it is a worthwhile exercise and here's why.
As you heat meat the proteins in the cells begin to denature and squeeze out some of the water molecules that separate them. This denaturing process starts to happen at about 50 degrees C, which is the equivalent of rare. Continue up to 65 degrees C and the denaturing turns to coagulation and you lose a lot more moisture. So, as you cook you lose moisture, it's unavoidable and necessary assuming you want the outside of the meat to be brown and tasty (Maillard reaction). Generally speaking after cooking you'll end up with a piece of meat that is hot and dry on the outside and cooler and moist in the middle. As the meat rests it continues to cook a little, which means that moisture continues to be forced out albeit at a slower pace. The net result is that some of the moisture in the centre makes it's way toward the outside and the meat seems less dry due to the more even distribution.
Steaks and chops can benefit from a minute or two, large roast ribs of beef or a turkey can easily rest for an hour.
What got me thinking about all this was a simple rack of lamb. This recipe isn't really much of a recipe at all as all you have to do is slather a basic marinade on a rack of lamb and cook it for 18-20 minutes at 200 degrees C (or on the bbq). It's good enough to serve up at the poshest dinner parties (where all will declare you genius!) and yet quick enough to make on a Wednesday night after a long day at work.
Don't let the anchovy put you off. The end result does not taste at all fishy and anchovy and lamb have an affinity that, in my opinion, can't really be beaten.
- Rack of lamb (half a rack, four cutlets, per person is generous)
- 10-12 anchovy fillets chopped
- 3 cloves of garlic finely chopped
- some thyme and/or rosemary chopped
- a splash of Worcestershire sauce
- a splash of olive oil
Mix all of the marinade ingredients together in a cup or bowl until you have a thick paste and slather it over the rack of lamb. It will be sloppy and make a bit of a mess so do it on a plate or board. You can let it stand for as long as you want or cook it straight away. I cook mine for about 18 minutes at 200 degrees C......let it rest for a few minutes......and serve it rare. Often times I have it with mashed potatoes or roasted squash, but it's great and a bit lighter with just a green salad.
I'm not sure exactly what it is that does it, but this dish makes all seem right with the world. You get four (or more) little individual servings of meat on the bone, each one the perfect size. The sweetness of the lamb and the salty, savoury marinade are just sensational together. The marinade burns a bit in places and forms a partial crust over the lamb, which is tender and juicy. Maybe the flavour and texture contrast is the secret? I don't know for sure but's one of by favourite meals.
The Wine
Pepper Tree 14 Shores Merlot 2008 - $29.50 from the vineyard
Strawberries and rhubarb (little bit of red pepper maybe) on the nose with a little vanilla and oak. The strawberry was surprisingly pronounced for a merlot. We got thyme as well but that's possibly due to the thyme in the lamb marinade. A light and silky mouth feel and the fruit really carries through. Decent length on the finish and gentle tannins as you'd expect.
We bought a lot of this last time we were at the vineyard and that was the last one. We'll be buying more.
Fish noodle soup
The search for tasty, quick mid week meals continues and this one is fantastic. It's dead easy to make, tastes incredible and goes from the fridge to the bowl in about 20 minutes. You need a few specialist things in the store cupboard, like mirin and sake, but if you buy them in a big bottle you'll be able to make this a dozen times before you need a refill.
It's a Nigel Slater recipe originally but I've adapted it a little bit and rarely make it the same way twice. As long as you get the marinade sorted then you can do what you want with the rest of it. As with many things I cook there is nothing authentic about it, but I guarantee you can make it quickly and it'll taste great.
- One salmon steak per person - other fish will work too so try what you fancy and see how it goes
- 2 tbsp of dark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 2 tbsp sake
- 2 tbsp mirin
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 tsp sugar
- Piece of ginger cut into thin sticks
- 2 spring onions sliced
- Noodles - whatever type you fancy
- 500ml of chicken, fish or veggie stock - cubes/liquid are fine
- couple of handfuls of greens - spinach, bok choy, pak choy etc
- Any other toppings you fancy - snow peas, green beans, corn, beansprouts, bamboo shoots, pickled ginger
Take the skin off the salmon and marinade it in the soy sauce, sake, mirin, garlic and sugar. You can leave this as long as you want, but it still tastes good if you use it straight away. Put the stock on to simmer in a pan and cook, drain and rinse the noodles. I usually steam the greens over the noodles while they are cooking because I like them more just warm as opposed to cooked. Make up a couple of bowls with noodles in the bottom and some of the greens on top.
Now heat some peanut oil in a pan and stir fry the ginger and spring onions for a minute. Then add cook fish and a couple of tablespoons of the marinade. Generally speaking I like my fish pretty rare so, depending on thickness, a minute or two on each side is plenty. You can add as much or as little of the marinade as you like at this stage; leave it at a couple of tablespoons and the final dish is pretty light, add the whole lot in and it's dense and rich.
Add the fish to your bowl, pour over the stock and finish it off with the rest of the toppings. Perfect with a cold beer.
If you are organised enough you can do almost all the prep the night before and throw it together in the time it takes to cook the fish and heat up some stock. It doesn't get much faster than that.
Chicken with basil and chili
I first had this dish five years ago in a restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms in Bangkok. It was mind bendingly hot and it's the first time in my life that chilli made me feel.....well....a little odd. The strangeness was compounded by thousands of fairy lights festooned around the place and by the giant snail and chorus of frogs that had taken up residence on the wall next to our table. It was all a bit Lewis Carroll. I digress; the dish was incredible. The chili was an essential part of the flavour and not just there for heat, something that I didn't really appreciate prior to that night. I've never had a better version to this day.
There seem to be hundreds of 'authentic' recipes for chicken with basil and chili and I have no idea (and don't especially care) which is correct as long as the end result tastes good. My recipe is a hodge podge of various online versions and David Thompson's version, although he includes coriander root and doesn't add any oyster sauce or kecap manis. My version was a mix of what I had sitting in the fridge and cupboard. The whole thing takes about half an hour and you can cut that further by chopping up the chicken and veg the night before.
The essential base is the chili, thai basil and fish sauce. The rest can be altered within reason according to taste.
- Chicken thighs (breast if you must, but it's not as good)
- 4-8 large red chillies coarsely chopped
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 2-3 small red birds eye chillies
- 1 large bunch of Thai basil, leaves picked off and left whole
- 1 red pepper - chopped
- 1 large onion - chopped into wedges and the layers separated
- 1 tbsp palm sugar - easy to buy in blocks
- 3 tbsp of fish sauce (maybe more)
- 2 tbsp of kecap manis (thick, sweet Indonesian soy sauce) or oyster sauce. I used kecap manis this time.
- Salt
Before we start I've got a couple of kitchen tips that may be obvious but have saved me a lot of time;
- the easiest way to peel garlic is to first crush it a little with the flat of the knife, after which the skin will fall away; and
- to de-seed a large chili just chop of the fat end, turn it upside down and roll it between your hands like your trying to make a snake out of plasticine. The seeds will fall right out.
Put two or three of the chilies, the peeled garlic and a teaspoon of salt into a mortar and pestle (or electric blitzer) and mash them up to a coarse paste. Turn the hob on high and put some peanut oil in the wok if you have one, which I don't just now, but a saute pan works just as well. When the oil is hot add in the chili/garlic paste and fry for a minute or two. Now add the chicken and onion and stir fry for a few minutes. Next up add the peppers, fish sauce, palm sugar (just bung it in, it'll melt down) and kecap manis/oyster sauce. Give it a good stir, add half the basil and let it cook for a minute. Turn the heat off and add the rest of the basil and the coarsely chopped chilies. Taste and add more fish sauce depending on preference. Serve with rice and, if like me you're chasing the perfect chili high, a dish of freshly chopped bird's eye chilies. Serve with some jasmine rice and a cold beer.
Quick, easy and incredibly tasty.
