Weight loss

Lamb rump steak

Dear Reader,

Today, Thursday, 20230126, is a gazetted public holiday in Australia. I’m on-call and doing some work, but I have time to post something here.

I didn’t post last weekend because I was in Brisbane to see my daughters and parents.

I ate well while in Brisbane and managed to bear in mind the principles of the CSIRO Total Wellness Diet.

Before I get to what I have cooked today, let’s run through what I enjoyed last weekend.

Qantas 1710

On the flight to Brisbane, Qantas served zucchini and corn fritters. These morsels were tasty.

On Saturday morning, I went with eggs Benedict. On the menu, it looked like bacon was an optional extra. I didn’t ask for it and didn’t pay for it. I did receive bacon, and I did eat it. I didn’t eat the bread.

The Gunshop Cafe Eggs Benedict

I took my family to Sandgate for lunch at the Sandgate Fishmonger. While some asked for battered cod and others asked for crumbed cod, a few of us enjoyed grilled cod.

Two pieces of grilled cod and a bottle of ginger beer from the Sandgate Fishmonger

Dinner was a lovely event. Rather than a gift for Christmas, I asked my daughters to take me to dinner somewhere in January. They know their father, so they chose an “all-you-can-eat” joint. When I was morbidly obese, my favourite four words were “all you can eat”.

We went to Shabu House, which specialises in Japanese hotpot, sushi, and Japanese-style fried chicken.

While I was mindful of the principles of the CSIRO TWD, I did enjoy lots of vegetables plus lots of meat and fish. I think the octopus was the best element. The pork and beef were okay, and the white fish (whatever it was) was good, but the baby octopus was the best element for flavour and mouthfeel.

It was difficult to resist the fried chicken, and I succumbed to the temptation. Regarding the sushi, I ate a little raw fish but didn’t eat the rice.

After the meal, we walked south across the Brisbane River and enjoyed gelato at Messina on Melbourne Street.

Sunday breakfast was poached eggs, a little hollandaise sauce, plus wilted spinach leaves. I didn’t eat the bread.

Poached eggs Hollandaise sauce Wilted spinach

By the time I weighed myself on Monday morning, I’d not gained weight when I had compared the number to what I had measured on Friday morning.

This week has gone well in terms of how I feel physically. The initial hunger associated with changing the ratios of carbohydrates, protein, and fat seems to have diminished. I’m in a steady rhythm of measuring and tracking the food I consume and the steps I walk.

The CSIRO TWD app works seamlessly across my smartphone, tablet, and desktop. It synchronises with my app for blood pressure, steps, and weight. The positive feedback from seeing the energy balance plus the values of various parameters at the end of each day provides psychological assurance, which is a significant part of this process.

Recipe

The recipes here will be simple and plain for the foreseeable future. They may not be that interesting. If you want to see large joints of meat and other recipes, scroll to earlier posts and find all manner of recipes.

Equipment

No special equipment is necessary

Ingredients

  • Lamb rump steak. I saw these small fillets of lamb rump in the supermarket, which are about the right portion size.
  • Mixed lettuce leaves
  • Cherry tomatoes
  • Baby cucumbers
  • Lemon juice
  • Lemon zest
  • Olive oil

Instructions

  1. The night before cooking, I recommend dry brining the meat. Dry brining means drying the surface of the flesh and seasoning it with salt. Place it on a rack and refrigerate it uncovered overnight. It can remain like this for one or two days. As the meat dries, the salt penetrates. The flesh doesn’t dehydrate, but the surface remains dry to assist with searing on a hot pan.
  2. When it’s time to cook dinner, remove the meat from the refrigerator.
  3. Heat a pan until it’s hot.
  4. Add some neutral, high-vapour point oil. I like to use rice bran oil or peanut oil.
  5. Quickly cook the lamb rump steak.
  6. Set the meat aside to rest.
  7. Place some lettuce leaves, halved tomatoes and sliced cucumber in a bowl and dress with a mixture of lemon juice and olive oil.
  8. Put the salad on a dinner plate and garnish with lemon zest.
  9. Put the lamb next to the salad.
  10. Say thanks to the Lord.
  11. Eat with a fork.

Final thoughts

The lamb was rare to medium rare and perfect, in my opinion. I know some people don’t like the flavour of lamb, but I love it. This meal was an ideal light lunch for a public holiday.

Photographs

Would you like some gentleman’s relish on your roast beef? Gentleman’s relish and slow cooked beef

Would you like some gentleman’s relish on your roast beef? Gentleman’s relish and slow cooked beef

Two weeks ago I slowly cooked lamb and then last week I slowly cooked pork (ham hock). This week, I’m slowly cooking beef.

Earlier in the week, I was watching the “Sorted” program on YouTube, and the hosts were doing a chef versus chef sandwich challenge. One of the chefs made and used some gentleman’s relish. I’d never heard of gentleman’s relish before so I went to Google and discovered it’s an anchovy and butter paste. It sounded right up my alley.

Just the thought of the savoury buttery taste and consistency had my mouth watering. I thought it might taste really good on some beef along with some raw vegetables.

I did some searching online and discovered that apart from the anchovies and butter, gentleman’s relish also requires breadcrumbs. Given my desire to minimise my carbohydrate (CHO) intake, I thought about what I could use instead of breadcrumbs.

I’ll take any opportunity to exploit one of my favourite foods, viz., the Queensland nut (genus Macadamia).

As far as I know, this is an original Yummy Lummy recipe.

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Yummy Lummy Pumpkin and cream of coconut soup

Yummy Lummy Pumpkin and cream of coconut soup

I don’t often have a meat-free meal, but I was prompted by a comment from Canberra blogging friend Sue on my diary blog. Pumpkin soup is a wonderful winter comfort food. Normally I cook it along with some bacon and cream. I wondered how to make a nice flavourful soup without the meat products so when I saw some coconut cream on special I thought I’d use it along with some sesame oil and some other spices like Sichuan seasoning, cumin and coriander seeds as well as some curry powder.

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Yummy Lummy Sous vide scotch fillet steak

Sous vide scotch fillet steak

Yummy Lummy Sous vide scotch fillet steak

Sous vide scotch fillet steak has appeared on this blog before and it’s likely to appear again. Yummy Lummy isn’t about putting up just one example of a recipe, it’s partly recipe sharing cooking meals for one and partly food diary. A more complete food diary can be found at the blog’s Instagram account, but this blog records the important meals I’ve eaten.

I’m busy this Saturday night so I thought I would share something I cooked last weekend.

I’ve been cooking sous vide since the beginning of 2018 and I remain enamoured by it. The beef, lamb, pork, kangaroo, chicken and salmon I’ve cooked have all been tender and moist.

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Good Friday 2018 Beef short ribs

Good Friday dinner. Slow roasted beef short ribs dissected and muscle exposed on a bed of cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, peas, corn, cheese and cream flavoured with chilli flakes, iodised salt and freshly cracked pepper.
Good Friday dinner. Slow roasted beef short ribs dissected and muscle exposed on a bed of cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, peas, corn, cheese and cream flavoured with chilli flakes, iodised salt and freshly cracked pepper.

Good Friday slow roasted beef short ribs

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Okay, I’ve put the Anova Culinary Precision Cooker away for this cook. Don’t get me wrong, I did think about sous vide beef short ribs, but I couldn’t be arsed cooking them for either 24 or 48 hours. I just don’t like the idea of electrical appliances like that being turned on while I’m away. I know, I know, the refrigerator is always on. I can’t explain it, but even when my slow cooker is on I don’t go out. I think, in part, my concern stems from an incident with a bread maker bursting into flames about 25 years ago.

I cooked beef short ribs on Good Friday 2017 and broke a tooth when I was eating it. I was hoping not to have any dental disasters this year.

I bought everything from Coles.

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