If you don’t want to read the introduction, click here for the recipe. 

Dear Reader, 

Introduction 

My inspiration for this week is last Sunday’s sermon from church. If a month has five Sundays, the church has a guest preacher with a missionary focus. Last week, we had a Royal Australian Navy chaplain preach. Although he’s not a visitor – a regular at our church – he dressed up in his uniform for the service. 

The passage he expounded on was 2 Samuel 23:8–39. As a warfighter in the ADF with deployments to combat zones, this is an excellent passage for him to preach. 

For me, a home cook, though, the relevant verse was 11. “And after him was Shammah, the son of Agee the Hararite. And the Philistines were gathered together into a troop, where was a piece of ground full of lentiles: and the people fled from the Philistines.” 

Tonight, I’m using lentils. I also added some meat. Feel free to ignore the meat for a vegetable-only dish.  

Recipe

Equipment

• Pressure cooker 
• Saucepan 

Ingredients

• Olive oil
• Oyster blade steak – diced 
• Flour
• Garlic powder
• Garlic clove
• Salt
• One stalk celery 
• A diced carrot 
• Swiss brown mushrooms
• One small onion – chopped 
• One clove of garlic – chopped 
• 200 g canned Borlotti beans 
• 200 g canned lentils 
• 750 mL vegetable stock 
• 100 g crushed canned tomatoes 
• Fresh rosemary, to taste 
• 2–3 teaspoons curry powder, to taste 
• Salt to taste 

Instructions 

1. Add the oil into a high-sided saucepan, then add the chopped celery, carrot, onion and garlic clove. 
2. Sauté together over medium heat. Add the curry powder and rosemary leaves when the onion has become translucent. 
3. Place some flour, garlic powder, and salt into a bag.
4. Add the steak and shake the bag to coat the meat with the dry ingredients.
5. Transfer the sautéd vegetables to the pressure cooker vessel, add more oil, and then add the steak. 
6. Get the steak caramelised and transfer it to the pressure cooker vessel. 
7. Fry off the mushrooms and then add them to the pressure cooker.
8. Pour some stock into the saucepan to remove the fond and then decant to the pressure cooker. 
9. Add all the legumes, tomatoes, and remaining stock, and mix with a wooden spoon. 
10. To add a kick, grind some rock salt and whole peppercorns with a pestle in a mortar, and add to the pressure cooker before sealing the lid. 
11. Cook under pressure for about 30 minutes. 
12. Allow the pressure to equalise naturally, and open the cover. 
13. Spoon into a bowl along with some rice.
14. Give thanks to the Lord. 
15. Eat with a spoon.  

Thoughts on the meal 

A cold front from the southern ocean has been moving north across the southern parts of Australia. Snow is falling in some areas, and we’ve already had subzero mornings this week. 

This meal with some rice helped warm me from the inside. 

I will have enough leftover for the week. 

Final thoughts 

Church life has changed a lot over the last few decades. Rather than turning up with old-fashioned bibles, we open an app on our smartphone or tablet. Smart devices are the appurtenances of church culture. I’ve already started using artificial intelligence to assist in gathering information for bible study. 

I ate this meal while watching the Dolphins play the Sharks. This weekend, all the NRL games are being played in Brisbane. It was a magnificent win (36–16) for the Dolphins and their coach, Mr Bennett who has now coached 900 NRL games.

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Photographs 

What is oyster blade steak?

Oyster blade steak is a meat cut from an animal’s shoulder blade. It’s under the shoulder blade and has a tough line of connective tissue running through the middle. It is a tough and chewy muscle. 

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