Home cooking

Steak, prawns and salad

Posted 2021-12-18 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

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

Buy some steak from the supermarket or the butcher.
Unwrap the steak and dry the surface with kitchen paper.
Place the steak on a wire rack over a tray.
Season the steak with generous amounts of salt.
Truss the eye fillet with cooking twine, so your meat keeps its shape and doesn’t fall apart.
Place the steak into the refrigerator overnight to dry brine.
When you’re ready to cook the steak, put them into a vacuum bag and vacuum seal the bag.
Set up a water bath and raise the temperature to 54 °C.
Cook the steak at this temperature for 2 hours and 10 minutes.
Remove the steak from the bag and dry the surface of the steak with kitchen paper.
Coat the surface of the steak with horseradish cream.
Pound some whole black peppercorns with your pestle in a mortar and clad the exterior of your creamed meat with the pepper.
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.
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 😉
Toss in the prawn meat and cook quickly. Avoid overcooking.

Gravy

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

Salad

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

Plating up

If I had guests (note no one has ever visited where I live), I would heat the dinner plate.
Place the steak on the dinner plate, add a pat of butter on the steak, and then top the eye fillet with the prawns.
Add some salad next to the steak.
Spoon some gravy over the prawns and steak.
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.
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

When was the last time you cooked a steak?
Do you prefer a salad, hot chips, or potato mash with your steak?
How do you like your steak cooked in terms of doneness?

Pulled pork and leek pie with four cheeses sauce

Posted 2021-12-11 by Gary

Dear Reader,

I was chatting with a friend last night and mentioned I was thinking of making a pulled pork sausage roll tonight. As the idea developed, the cylinder of joy grew into a pie to accommodate all the extra ingredients I wanted to add.

I’m using the pork leftover from a slab of belly pork I cooked last weekend. I’m also using the adjective “pulled” euphemistically. The pork is so soft and friable, all I need to do to separate the muscle bundles is gently heat the pork in a skillet and, with a wooden spoon, poke and jab at my meat to break it up.

Ordinarily, to “pull” your meat, you’d use your fingers to prise apart the muscle bundles gently. While it’s fun to finger pull your pork, it can get tedious.

Pork belly — Female pork belly naked and ready for heat

Ingredients

Cooked pork belly (“pulled”) and cooked black peppercorns
Udder delight blue cheese (crumbled)
Gruyèye cheese (grated)
Gouda cheese (grated)
Swiss cheese (grated)
Plain flour
Butter
Full cream milk
Leek (sliced)
Fennel (diced)
Red onion (finely sliced)
Celery (thick-cut slices)
Puff pastry (bought and not homemade because I’m too lazy)

Instructions

Remove the pork belly and peppercorns from the refrigerator. You may remember this was cooked in a pressure cooker for an hour with master stock. The peppercorns will give every mouthful a bit of a kick.
Place the pork into a skillet and gently heat the meat on low heat. Wait until the pork softens to the consistency of an overripe banana.
With a wooden spoon, gently poke and prod the pork to break up the muscle bundles and, with a twisting motion, flatten out the meat in the skillet.
Set aside the “pulled” pork and keep it warm.
Make a roux with equal parts (by weight) of flour and butter. The easiest way is to gently melt the butter, stir in the flour, and cook for three minutes. Add in the milk slowly until you have a smooth slurry consistency.
While the white sauce is on a gentle heat, begin to add in the cheeses and stir until you have a thick gooey sauce.
Turn off the heat and mix in the meat, celery, leeks, red onion, and fennel. I like adding the raw vegetables at this stage, so in the finished pie, I can feel the texture of the vegetables rather than the vegetables being cooked mush.
Take some butter and wipe it over the inside surface of an oven-proof dish. I like to use the tips of my fingers for this because it’s nice feeling the slipperiness of the butter on my fingers, and then I can lick the butter off.
Layer a sheet of the thawed puff pastry into the pie dish and then gently spoon in the pie mixture. Add some spinach leaves for some extra vegetation and iron.
With another sheet of puff pastry, make a lid to the pie.
Melt a little butter with microwave radiation and brush over the surface of the pie.
Cook the pie in a moderately hot oven until the pie crust is golden and flaky.
Remove the pie from the oven and allow it to cool a little to avoid palatial blistering. The last thing I want is my buccal mucosa being scalded and lifting off the basement membrane.
Slice through the pastry with a large metal spoon, penetrate the pie, scoop out a large portion, and put it in a shallow bowl.
Next to the pie, add a large spoonful of steamed baby green peas and corn.
Drown the peas and corn with some instant gravy.
There is no need for a knife when eating this meal. I think the best utensil might be a splade.
Give thanks to God for His blessings, and then tuck in.

This week in review

It’s been a fabulous week. Work has been crazy busy, and we achieved some extraordinary things. Apart from work, though, I feel thrilled with life.

This morning my friends from bible study had a brunch. I brought some vanilla slices from Dobinsons, and when I left, look what I received? A gift of some lovely Three Mills Bakery mince pies, luscious strawberries, and fresh cherries.

Final thoughts

How do you usually pull your meat?
How many cheeses are too many for a pie?
Is mouthfeel necessary for your oral enjoyment?
Do you lick your fingers?

Female pork belly naked and ready for heat

Pork belly, beef cheeks, and pumpkin mash with blue cheese sauce

Posted 2021-12-05 by Gary

Dear Reader

Two posts in a weekend! I hope you’re well. Last night’s post about the dates, cheese, and prosciutto was quick.

As I type this, it is Sunday. It’s been a good one. Yesterday was gloriously warm and sunny and perfect weather for thongs, shorts, and a T-shirt. Today has been cloudy and colder. I woke up feeling a little out of sorts, but chatting with a friend and then attending online church had me in better spirits.

This week has seen much of my work thinking about the SARS-COV-2 Omicron Variant. While I won’t discuss work on the blog, personally, my hope is focused on being able to spend Christmas with my daughters, parents, and brothers in Brisbane.

Mixing pork and beef may seem odd, I know. With work being so busy, I’m relying more and more on leftover meat from the weekend to form the basis of evening meals and lunches. The slab of pork and the cheeks of beef will be more than enough to see me through the week.

Pork belly Beef cheeks Peppercorns Pumpkin mash Blue cheese sauce — Pressure cooker pork belly, beef cheeks, and pumpkin mash with blue cheese sauce

Ingredients

Pork belly
Beef cheeks
Master stock
Soy sauce
Worcestershire sauce
Pumpkin
Sour cream
Iodised salt
Pepper
Blue cheese
Butter
Flour
Milk

Instructions

Pork and beef

Lovingly sharpen your cook’s knife (as iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend Proverbs 27:17 NLT).
Cut the slab of pork into three parts.
In a metal basket insert the pork and beef.
Place the basket into the pressure cooker.
In a jug add the congealed master stock (after removing the solidified layer of fat). Liquefy the jellied stock with microwave radiation and add a good slug of soy sauce and an equally good slug of Worcestershire sauce. Mix and pour the flavour concoction over the basket of meat.
Cook your meat in the pressure cooker for one hour.
At the end of the cooking time, allow the pressure to equalise and then give the meat another 20 minutes to rest in the juices and stock. I’m told this is for maxium moistness and maximum tenderness. My aim is to be able to push my finger through the flesh.
Open the pressure cooker and remove the meat basket.
Pass the liquid through a sieve and keep it as the new master stock.
Keep some of the meat aside for dinner and store the rest in containers and refrigerate.

Dick butchers knife — My butcher’s knife

Pumpkin mash

With a sharp knife cut the pumpkin into pieces. I like to keep the skin on. It’s added fibre. It’s edible and with a stick blender you won’t know the mash has pumpkin skin in it.
Put the pumpkin in a large mixing bowl and add some salt, sugar, and oil.
Using your hands, pick up each piece of pumpkin and caress each surface ensuring a smooth even coating of the sweet salty oiliness. The point of the sugar is to aid caramelisation of the pumpkin flesh.
Transfer the pumpkin to a baking sheet and out into a 180 °C oven until you can take a sharp paring knife and penetrate the flesh with no resistance.
Place the pumpkin into a jug and add a good dollop of sour cream.
Process with a stick blender for a rough mash.
As optional extras you could add some chopped chives.
I think freshly cracked black peppercorns are a must.

Blue cheese sauce

Make a roux with even weights of butter and plain flour. I gently melt the butter first and then add all the flour and with a whick mix it and cook it in a saucier pan (or whatever you have) for a full three minutes.
Then add a little milk at a time until you get a consistency of your sauce which is a little more runny than you’d like.
Add in the cheese which will add a little stiffness to your creamy buttery sauce.
Whisk to a smooth consistency.

Plating up

Trowl the pumpkin mash to the bottom of a plate. You could do this with a flourish like a cook with some artistic ability. You could also just plonk the mash into the middle of the plate and flatten it a little like I do given I am artistically bereft.
Next add your meat. Given how soft and friable your meat will be, pinch off pieces and place them on the pumpkin mash.
Next take spoonfuls of sauce and from a great height drizzle sauce over the meat and pumpkin. Of course you could just pour it over. The reality is once you’ve masticated it all becomes chyme in your stomach and emerges past the pyloric valve for digestion in your small bowel where the nutrients are removed and then onto the large bowel for the recovery of the water. At that point, you know what comes next!
Anyway, give thanks to the Lord for the food and tuck in to this good tucker.

Final thoughts

How has your week been?
Are you worried about SARS-COV-2 Omicron Variant?
Have you made plans for Christmas yet?

Feel free to leave a comment. I like hearing from readers. Have a good week.

Pork belly (Female) — Beef cheeks in plastic

Warm prosciutto wrapped Medjool dates stuffed with Udder delights blue cheese

Posted 2021-12-04 by Gary

Dear Reader,

During the week, I was chatting with a friend about food. No surprise! Food forms a large part of my consciousness.

My friend, who I have known for more than ten years, described how she enjoyed the taste sensation and flavours of dates, blue cheese, and prosciutto. I know I’ve eaten dates wrapped in streaky bacon before, but I’ve not eaten prosciutto much.

I pondered the flavours and taste and feel on my tongue and in my mouth in my imagination.

The cheese would be soft and creamy yet salty. I imagine it would be warm and oozy on the tip of my tongue. The salted pork would be slightly abrasive on my tongue. As my teeth penetrate through the dry-cured ham, I’d know this was leg meat and not the unctuous fatty belly. The date, which is ‘fleshy’ and folded around the cheese, forms a groove through which the tip of my tongue can scoop the creamy melting cheese. The date is sweet and contrasts the saltiness of the cheese and the pork delightfully.

Poachers prosciutto, Medjool dates, and Udder delights blue cheese

Ingredients

Medjool dates
Udder delight blue cheese
Prosciutto

Instructions

Hold a pitted date between your thumb and your forefinger in your non-dominant hand.
Insert the tip of a sharpened paring knife through the base of the date and longitudinally slit the date open. Gently prise apart the folds of the date with your thumbs.
Pinch off a bit of the cheese and firmly push it into the groove you’ve made in the date, and gently close the lips of the date.
Hold the date firmly to prevent it from opening and wrap a length of the prosciutto around the date.
Secure the pork, date, and cheese with the cocktail pick.
Gently warm the little nugs of goodness in a warm oven until the cheese begins to melt.

Dedication

My friend gave me the idea for this Hors d’oeuvre because it formed a delightful sensation in my mouth.

Warm prosciutto-wrapped Medjool dates stuffed with Udder delights blue cheese

The pie you make when the shepherd comes home to the cottage and has a party.

Posted 2021-11-13 by Gary

Dear reader,

Last week I cooked a rolled lamb shoulder and still have some of it left in the refrigerator. I thought I’d make a shepherds pie with a difference. It’s traditional to use lamb in a shepherds pie and beef in a cottage pie.

I have no idea what to call this pie apart from lamb and beef pie topped with mashed potato.

I hope the title of this post gives you an idea of what was going through my mind.

The reference to a party reflects all the peppercorns I cooked with the lamb last week. I love the way peppercorns create a party in my mouth when I add them to a dish.

I find the almost numbing feeling of the mucosa of my buccal cavity and the soft sensitive epithelium of my lips exciting. Yes, I know I’m a bit of an oddball.

Now you could be asking yourself, it’s November, and I live in Australia, why am I cooking pie when I should be making a salad!

Check out the Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology for what’s going on http://www.bom.gov.au/.

Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology Bureau National Operations Centre

Satellite Notes for 0000UTC Chart Issued at 1433 AEDT Saturday on 13 November 2021

A complex low system is present just off the southeast of the continent. The low-level to middle-level cloud band associated with this system is visible over NSW, Vic and Tas.

A trough extends parallel to the eastern coast of Qld. Thunderstorms also, for northern tropics.

The remainder of the continent is primarily cloud-free, aside from low-level clouds from onshore flow over much of the continent’s southern coast.

Ingredients

Leftover pressure cooker lamb and peppercorns
Tin of corned beef
Celery
Carrot
Onion
Worcestershire sauce
Flour
Cooking sherry
Instant mashed potato
Grated cheese

Instructions

Lovingly sharpen your cook’s knife (as iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend Proverbs 27:17 NLT).
Cut the lamb into small pieces.
Place the meat into a bowl with some flour and coat the lamb with the white stuff.
Dice the celery, carrot, and onion and set aside.
Warm a skillet and add some cooking oil.
Put the floured meat and peppercorns into the skillet and gently cook to brown it off.
Add in the contents of the tin of corned beef.
Mix everything through until it’s evenly mixed.
Add in the carrot, onion, and celery and allow it all to simmer until the vegetables have cooked through.
Add a splash of cooking sherry and a good slug of Worcestershire sauce.
Evaporate the liquid by simmering everything.
Allow everything to cool in the skillet.
Add a portion to a pie dish and put the rest in another container for another time.
Make the instant potato mash according to the manufacturer’s instructions for use.
Mix some grated cheese into the potato mash and lay it across the top of the pie contents.
Put the pie into a moderate oven and cook until the surface of the potato mash has started to change colour to brown.
Serve the pie however you like and with whatever you like.
Before you eat, though, take the time to give thanks to the Lord and thank Him for his grace.

Thoughts on shepherding

Well, not really about shepherding as much as the inspiration for thinking of shepherds comes from Thursday’s verse of the day in the bible app I use. It was Psalm 23:4. If you want to read some background check out Matthew Henry.

Final thoughts

Would you mix your meats in a pie?
Do you like lots of peppercorns in your mouth?
How do you feel about instant potato mash?

Home cooking

Steak, prawns and salad

Ingredients

Instructions

Steak

Gravy

Salad

Plating up

Last post for the year

Final thoughts

Like this:

Pulled pork and leek pie with four cheeses sauce

Ingredients

Instructions

This week in review

Final thoughts

Like this:

Pork belly, beef cheeks, and pumpkin mash with blue cheese sauce

Ingredients