Gravy

Oven porterhouse steak

Posted by Gary

Hello Readers,

Tonight’s post is a follow-up from last night’s sous vide porterhouse steak.

I bought a large piece of meat yesterday and split it into two halves.

I cooked in a water bath last night, and tonight I’m cooking half in a toaster oven.

Cream cheese and last night’s sous vide porterhouse steak

Recipe

Equipment

  • Wireless thermometer
  • Toaster oven
  • Microwave radiation oven
  • Stainless steel skillet

Ingredients

  • Steak
  • Salt
  • Rice bran oil
  • Leftover gravy (see last night’s post)
  • Packet potato mash (microwave radiation necessary)
  • Spring onions

Instructions

Steak

  1. Dry brine the steak with salt overnight.
  2. Heat the toaster oven to 180 °C.
  3. Heat a skillet and then lubricate the hot surface with oil.
  4. Sear the steak until each surface is caramelised.
  5. Insert a wireless thermometer.
  6. The aim is to achieve an internal temperature of about 53 to 54 °C.
  7. Place the steak in the oven and monitor the temperature.
  8. When the desired temperature is reached, turn off the oven and remove the meat.
  9. Allow the meat to rest.
  10. Once rested, the steak can be sliced with a sharp knife and served as you wish.

Leftover gravy

  • Reheat the gravy with microwave radiation.

Potato mash

  • Prepare according to the packet instructions.

Plating up

  1. Spoon the potato mash into the bowl.
  2. Pour the gravy into a dinner bowl.
  3. Arrange the slices of steak over the gravy.
  4. Garnish with spring onions.

Thoughts on the meal

I like cooking steak in different ways. For example, when I want to, I’ll just sear each side of a steak and let it rest and eat it like that. Sometimes, like last night, I’ll cook the meat in a water bath. Tonight I went for the oven.

Photographs

This section is a gallery of photographs.

Coles beef porterhouse steak
Coles beef porterhouse steak
Coles beef porterhouse steak
Coles beef porterhouse steak
Coles beef porterhouse steak seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
Porterhouse steak
Porterhouse steak, potato mash, and gravy
Porterhouse steak, potato mash, and gravy

Sous vide porterhouse steak

Posted by Gary

Hello readers,

How has your week been? I had a wonderful week. Work has been steady, and the weather has been mild.

I haven’t had much food inspiration this week. However, today, I read a couple of reports of food-borne infections associated with beef. That’s why I chose steak for dinner.

I like a large piece of beef because a large portion of the muscle is always safer than meat minced (ground in North America) or served in a manner that increases risk.

Many people never have any ill effects, but others experience severe infections, and there are some who die. The morbidity and mortality are why public health practitioners are necessary.

I feel fortunate because I enjoy eating beef on the rare side. Cooking the meat with knowledge of temperature control ensures pasteurisation and food safety.

Sous vide porterhouse steak and salad.

Recipe

Equipment

  • Immersion circulator
  • Water bath
  • Cast iron skillet

Ingredients

  • Steak
  • Salt
  • Garlic powder
  • Pepper
  • Lettuce
  • Cherry tomatoes
  • Avocado
  • Mayonnaise
  • Butter
  • Flour
  • Beef stock
  • Mushrooms

Instructions

Steak

  1. Season the steak with iodised salt, freshly ground peppercorns, and garlic powder.
  2. Place the seasoned steak into a vacuum bag and seal it in a vacuum chamber.
  3. Cook the steak at 54 °C for 3 hours and 10 minutes in the water bath.
  4. Remove the steak from the bag and dry the surface with absorbent paper.
  5. Keep the juices for the gravy.
  6. Heat a cast iron skillet and sear the steak.
  7. Allow the steak to rest a little before carving the meat from the bone and then slicing the meat.

Mushrooms

  1. Quarter some mushrooms.
  2. Sauté the mushrooms in butter.

Gravy

  1. Make a roux with butter and flour.
  2. Whisk in some beef stock and cooked meat juices.
  3. Season the gravy with salt and pepper.

Salad

  1. Place some washed lettuce leaves in a bowl.
  2. Cut some cherry tomatoes into quarters and add them to the salad bowl.
  3. Dice half an avocado and add to the salad bowl.
  4. Stir through some mayonnaise as a salad dressing.

Plating up

  1. Arrange the steak on a warmed dinner plate.
  2. Place the salad next to the steak.
  3. Place the mushrooms between the steak and the salad and spoon some of the butter onto the meat.
  4. Pour the gravy into a small bowl and serve it on the dinner plate so the steak can be dipped.

Thoughts on the steak

This thick cut of porterhouse was good. I’m saving the other half to cook by reverse searing it.

As much as I am a fan of instant gravy, making a roux and using the cooked meat juices from the vacuum bag gives a flavour and consistency, which is just as good, if not better.

Photographs

This is a gallery of photographs.

Coles beef porterhouse steak
Coles beef porterhouse steak
Coles beef porterhouse steak
Coles beef porterhouse steak
Coles beef porterhouse steak
Coles beef porterhouse steak seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
Coles beef porterhouse steak. Vacuum sealed and seasoned.
Cooked porterhouse steak
Cooked porterhouse steak and mushrooms
Cooked porterhouse steak and mushrooms
Sous vide porterhouse steak and salad
Sous vide porterhouse steak and salad
Sous vide porterhouse steak and salad

Pressure cooker duck breast and crispy skin

Posted by Gary

Dear Reader,

Happy New Year for 2022.

Pressure cooker duck breast with crispy skin served with peppercorn instant gravy and a red onion, red cabbage, fennel, and cucumber salad.

This post is a quickie. While in Brisbane, I gave my eldest daughter and her partner a fast, slow cooker. We got talking, and I wondered out loud how autoclave cooked duck breast might taste.

I chose two nice plump breasts and skinned them with a boning blade because it is sharp, and the distance between the knife back and the edge is short.

I made a mistake not flattening the skin between two heavy pieces of metal while cooking in the oven. Oh well, I’ll know next time. I think the way it turned out was okay. What do you think? Do the curly skin bits look okay?

Rather than a regular recipe post, I’ll share how this came together.

I cooked the breasts sans skin and fat in a pressure cooker for 20 minutes, along with some master stock and black peppercorns.

I put the duck skin on a baking sheet, rubbed it dry with some kitchen paper, and seasoned it with coarse iodised sea salt flakes. I cooked the skin for about 30 minutes on low heat to dehydrate it and get it crispy. The skin curled, but they didn’t turn out too badly, as you can see in the photos.

I made some instant gravy stirred through the cooked peppercorns.

I made a salad with red cabbage, red onion, and fennel. I dressed the salad with lime juice and olive oil.

Check out the photos and let me know what you think.

Happy new year, and may 2022 be better than any you’ve experienced thus far.

  • Duck breasts
  • Dick Boning kinife
  • Dick Boning kinife
  • Duck breasts sans skin
  • Duck breast skin
  • Pressure cooker duck breast with crispy skin served with peppercorn instant gravy and a red onion, red cabbage, fennel, and cucumber salad.
  • Pressure cooker duck breast with crispy skin served with peppercorn instant gravy and a red onion, red cabbage, fennel, and cucumber salad.

Steak, prawns and salad

Posted by Gary

Dear Reader,

It feels like it’s been ages since I’ve cooked steak for dinner. The last six months have seen me working out my pressure cooker “muscles”.

I was sharing text messages with a dear friend last night about simple pleasures. You know, looking out on a pleasantly warm evening, snacking and chatting, and then enjoying a steak and salad dinner.

It got me thinking; I want to get my lips around a nice juicy steak.

How have you been feeling lately with the news of the Omicron Variant? The case number predictions have kept me on the edge of my seat. At present, we’re seeing doubling rates of 2 days and intracellular viral replication rates an order of magnitude higher than other lineages. 

It’s a great time to be alive if you’re a microbiologist. I wish, however, this was just a laboratory experiment and not real life. Please stay safe. Stay home if you feel unwell. Keep yourself distant from others by at least 1.5 metres. Wash your hands with soap and water as often as you need to. If soap and water are not available, carry and use an alcohol-based hand rub. Observe respiratory hygiene and if you feel comfortable, wear a face covering, preferably a surgical mask. Get immunised. It looks like everyone will need a booster for any real protection against severe disease caused by infection with SARS-COV-2 Omicron Variant.

Sous vide eye fillet pepper steak, prawns and green peppercorn gravy
Sous vide eye fillet pepper steak, prawns and green peppercorn gravy

Ingredients

  • Eye fillet steak
  • Raw prawn meat
  • Cherry tomatoes
  • Baby cucumbers
  • Capsicum
  • Iodised salt
  • Black pepper (coarsely ground)
  • Green peppercorns
  • Horseradish cream
  • Beef stock
  • Butter
  • Plain flour

Instructions

Steak

  1. Buy some steak from the supermarket or the butcher.
  2. Unwrap the steak and dry the surface with kitchen paper.
  3. Place the steak on a wire rack over a tray.
  4. Season the steak with generous amounts of salt.
  5. Truss the eye fillet with cooking twine, so your meat keeps its shape and doesn’t fall apart.
  6. Place the steak into the refrigerator overnight to dry brine.
  7. When you’re ready to cook the steak, put them into a vacuum bag and vacuum seal the bag.
  8. Set up a water bath and raise the temperature to 54 °C.
  9. Cook the steak at this temperature for 2 hours and 10 minutes.
  10. Remove the steak from the bag and dry the surface of the steak with kitchen paper.
  11. Coat the surface of the steak with horseradish cream.
  12. Pound some whole black peppercorns with your pestle in a mortar and clad the exterior of your creamed meat with the pepper.
  13. To avoid burning the pepper and creating an acrid mess, heat a generous amount of butter into a cast-iron skillet and sear the surface of the pepper-crusted steak quickly.
  14. Allow the eye fillet to rest. You may wonder, why does steak cooked in a water bath (sous vide) need to rest? It doesn’t; however, it does give the person cooking dinner sufficient time to attend to other things. I mean, if I drank wine, I’d probably have a sip or two. The same would apply if I drank beer 😉
  15. Toss in the prawn meat and cook quickly. Avoid overcooking.

Gravy

  1. When you open the vacuum bag, retain the juices from your meat in a small jug.
  2. To your juices, add some beef stock.
  3. Make a roux with some butter and flour.
  4. Once the roux is ready, add the meat-juice augmented stock.
  5. If you want a little more kick, add some green peppercorns.
  6. Make the gravy to the consistency you desire.
  7. Transfer the sauce to a jug or, if you’re fancy, a gravy boat.

Salad

  1. Do I need to explain how to make a salad?
  2. I cut some vegetables and put them in a bowl.
  3. I drizzled over some extra virgin olive oil and seasoned it with freshly ground iodised salt.

Plating up

  1. If I had guests (note no one has ever visited where I live), I would heat the dinner plate.
  2. Place the steak on the dinner plate, add a pat of butter on the steak, and then top the eye fillet with the prawns.
  3. Add some salad next to the steak.
  4. Spoon some gravy over the prawns and steak.
  5. Give thanks to God for, amongst other things, great friends, wages to buy food, and the skills to prepare and cook food. Plead with Him to use the food to nourish your body and mind and seek His assistance to be a better person.
  6. While the steak is tender enough to cut with a blunt spoon, use a steak knife to cut your meat. 

Last post for the year

I think this will be the last post for the year. Next weekend is Christmas Day and Boxing Day. I plan to be elsewhere.

If you’re a regular reader, I want to thank you for taking the time most weeks to read my food musings. I’m grateful for the friends I’ve made in the blogging world, especially those who regularly comment on my posts.

Not a regular reader? Thanks for reading this post. Please feel free to leave a comment. 

If I know you in real life, thanks for reading and getting to know me better, I’m grateful for your time.

Final thoughts

  1. When was the last time you cooked a steak?
  2. Do you prefer a salad, hot chips, or potato mash with your steak?
  3. How do you like your steak cooked in terms of doneness?
  • Dry brined eye fillet in bondage
    Dry brined eye fillet in bondage
  • Dry brined eye fillet in bondage
    Dry brined eye fillet in bondage
  • Pepper Steak ready to be seared
    Pepper Steak ready to be seared
  • Sous vide eye fillet pepper steak, prawns and salad with peppercorn gravy
    Sous vide eye fillet pepper steak, prawns and salad with peppercorn gravy
  • Sous vide eye fillet pepper steak, prawns and salad with peppercorn gravy
    Sous vide eye fillet pepper steak, prawns and salad with peppercorn gravy
  • Sous vide eye fillet pepper steak, prawns and salad with peppercorn gravy
    Sous vide eye fillet pepper steak, prawns and salad with peppercorn gravy
  • Sous vide eye fillet pepper steak, prawns and salad with peppercorn gravy
    Sous vide eye fillet pepper steak, prawns and salad with peppercorn gravy
  • Sous vide eye fillet pepper steak, prawns and green peppercorn gravy
    Sous vide eye fillet pepper steak, prawns and green peppercorn gravy

Sous vide steak and mashed potatoes

Posted by Gary

Sous vide steak and mashed potatoes

Sous vide steak again! I have nothing new or exciting this week. This is a simple meal for one. Granted it’s not a frugal meal, and I’m not cooking everything from scratch. I just want to demonstrate that cooking for one, doesn’t have to be from scratch and there’s nothing to be ashamed of or embarrassed about by using prepared products like mashed potato and gravy.

Life’s too short to be mucking around if you’re short of time and you want something tasty and simple to prepare.

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