Salad

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

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

Porterhouse steak and salad

Posted by Gary
The Yummy Lummy Cooking for one podcast
The Yummy Lummy Cooking for one podcast
Porterhouse steak and salad
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There is nothing special about tonight’s meal or this post. I’ve been so busy I’ve not been able to find inspiration in anything I want to cook so when I went grocery shopping I picked up a steak and some salad stuff.

The Random Yummy podcast is now available in the Apple Podcast App, Stitcher, Pocket Casts, and Anchor.fm Please subscribe.

Close up. Porterhouse steak and radicchio salad. Gary Lum.
Close up. Porterhouse steak and radicchio salad.
Continue reading →

When Twitter confounds @NotQuiteNigella

Posted by Gary

On Sunday, Lorraine Elliott, aka, NotQuiteNigella, posted about “Salmon and Bear” in Zetland.

Her first food photograph on that NotQuiteNigella post (apart from a photograph of a deer mounted on a wall) was a salmon burger. I managed to beat all the fans of NQN and get the first comment in and mentioned I would make a salmon burger.

Well yesterday, I was thinking of said salmon burger. Being Monday and being a salmon day I pondered the burger and all the yeasty foods I’d enjoyed over the weekend. Should I go with more bread or just salmon and a salad?

Ask Twitter and your questions will be answered

So I asked Twitter. Salmon burger or salmon salad?

 


 

I received a 3:1 response, salad over a burger. It was also a three women to one man response with the bloke from England suggesting I make a salmon burger.

This is the link to the full Twitter conversation Have a read

Well, last night I made a quick and simple salmon salad.

Salmon and mango avocado limey lummy salad Gary Lum
Salmon and mango avocado limey lummy salad

Salmon burger

Tonight I still had a piece of salmon, so a burger it is.

Because my bread roll was three days old I thought I should toast it, and rather than just shoving it into my little benchtop oven for a browning, I put some olive oil into a frying pan, heated it up and then liberally coated one side of the bread roll with warm oil. I then took both halves off and allowed them to cool while I cleaned off the frying pan.

Lash that roll

Then I applied a good lashing of garlic aioli to each half of the bread roll. On the bottom half I then added some rings of red onion.

Fill the hole in the roll

I then built the sandwich with the salmon that I’d baked for 13 minutes at 200 °C in my benchtop oven, some crispy iceberg lettuce and a couple of slices of vine ripened tomato.

I added a pinch of curry powder to the tomato as well as a good grinding of black pepper.

Which is better?

The burger of course. What could be better than a burger?

Baked salmon burger with lettuce, curry tomato, red onion, and aioli Gary Lum
Baked salmon burger with lettuce, curry tomato, red onion, and aioli

Can anyone tell me what a quoll tastes like?

Do Canberra quolls taste better?

I wonder what Canberra quolls taste like on a toasted ham, cheese, and tomato roll with Dijon mustard Gary Lum
I wonder what Canberra quolls taste like on a toasted ham, cheese, and tomato roll with Dijon mustard

What do you think of when you see the word pussy?

 

Last night’s podcast was on pus. Go on, have a listen. Let me know what you think. You can also read it on the blog. 

 

My weekend in food

Posted by Gary

Hello there. It’s been a while since I last wrote. I feel like I haven’t had much to share. My time is now pretty divided. Work is getting busier and I’m enjoying blogging and podcasting Medical Fun Facts.

This weekend was pretty quiet for me. On Friday I had a good day at the hospital and ate a simple dinner of bacon with avocado on toast. 

TGIF dinner. Bacon and avocado on toast. Gary Lum
TGIF dinner. Bacon and avocado on toast.

On Saturday morning I decided to make a grilled cheese toastie with bacon. 

 

 

This will soon have #bacon added

A video posted by Yummy Lummy Gary Lum Food Blog (@yummylummyblog) on

Streaky Bacon, Swiss cheese and Dijon mustard grilled toastie. Gary Lum
Streaky Bacon, Swiss cheese and Dijon mustard grilled toastie

Before I started grocery shopping I had a double shot latte to get me going.

For lunch, I had a pulled pork burrito with guacamole, sour cream, jalapeño peppers and salsa from Guzman Y Gomez. It was huge. It’s a good thing I have a big mouth. I needed two hands to hold it. 

Pulled pork burrito with ginger beer. Gary Lum
Pulled pork burrito with ginger beer

For dinner, on Saturday night I made a light meal. A prawn salad.

Saturday dinner. Prawns and summer salad. Gary Lum
Saturday dinner. Prawns and summer salad.

I slept well Saturday night and woke up thinking I’d poach an egg and have some bacon. Sadly, I fail at poaching eggs.

Poached egg fail with crispy streaky bacon, Gary Lum
Poached egg fail with crispy streaky bacon

I went for a walk. I love the coloured buoys at Yerra Beach on Lake Ginninderra. 

Colourful buoys on Lake Ginninderra at Yerra Beach, Gary Lum
Colourful buoys on Lake Ginninderra at Yerra Beach

For lunch, I made myself a mango salad.

Kensington pride mango salad, Gary Lum
Kensington pride mango salad

And, finally, for Sunday dinner, I made a chicken schnitzel cheeseburger. It was delicious.

 

 

Making my chicken schnitzel cheeseburger #dinner #iphone #yummylummy #canberra

A video posted by Yummy Lummy Gary Lum Food Blog (@yummylummyblog) on

 

Hello Sunday. Chicken schnitzel cheeseburger. Gary Lum
Hello! Sunday. Chicken schnitzel cheeseburger.

Parting words

I regularly post photographs of food to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Please feel free to connect with me on any social media platform.
I also have a podcast. It’s not food related but each show is short and it’s named Medical Fun Facts. You can find it in the iTunes podcast store as well as Stitcher. A show drops every Monday and Tuesday. It has a little cynicism, a little scepticism and occasionally some sarcasm.