I missed a post last week because I spent the weekend with my girlfriend, so you get two posts this weekend. Yesterday I cooked some lamb.
One of the benefits of replacing the old microwave oven is I can now use my microwave radiation pressure cooker again.
Ingredients
Pork belly
Iodised salt
Ground white pepper
Ground Chinese five-spice
Ground coriander seeds
Ground cardamom
Ground cinnamon
Ground rosemary leaves
Ground nutmeg
Star anise
Instant noodles
Peanut oil
Sesame oil
Monosodium glutamate (MSG)
Shallots
Garlic
Spring onions
Red chillies
Ginger
Laksa paste
Instructions
Before cooking the dish, season the belly pork with salt, pepper, Chinese five-spice, ground cardamom, ground coriander seeds, ground rosemary leaves, ground cinnamon, and ground nutmeg, seal the meat in a vacuum bag and refrigerate overnight.
On the day you cook the dish, place the pork belly into the pressure cooker.
Add about a litre of water and add some laksa paste, crushed ginger, and star anise.
Cook in the pressure cooker using microwave radiation for twenty minutes.
Open the vessel and remove the meat when the pressure cooker has reached atmospheric pressure.
Transfer the cooking liquor to a saucepan and bring it to a boil.
Add the noodles and cook for a couple of minutes.
Drain the noodles and use chopsticks to ensure the noodles aren’t sticking.
Dice the cooked pork belly.
Heat the wok.
Add some peanut oil.
Add chopped shallots and garlic. Stir fry until fragrant.
Add in the diced pork belly pieces and stir fry.
Add in some sesame oil and then the noodles.
Stir through the noodles to absorb the oily garlic and shallot flavours. Get the noodles and pork entangled in each other.
Sprinkle in a good pinch of MSG to enhance the flavour. Keep stir-frying.
Turn off the heat and add in the spring onions and chillies.
Give thanks to the Lord.
Serve in a bowl and eat with chopsticks and a spoon.
Final thoughts
This post is a quickie; please let me know what you think.
How are you this week? I had a fabulous week. Spiritually, personally, and professionally, it’s been a great week.
It’s been a weird week weather-wise in Canberra. Some days have been warmer than expected, and other days it’s been windy and cold. My gut is telling me we’re really into the autumn run and temperatures and humidity are about to plummet.
Sous vide lamb backstrap with pomegranate, mint, and coriander pumpkin mash plus curry roast cauliflower
Ingredients
Lamb backstrap (eye of the tenderloin)
Salt
White pepper
Ground cinnamon
Ground cardamom
Ground rosemary leaves
Ground nutmeg
Ground coriander seeds
Fresh coriander leaves
Fresh mint leaves
Frozen pomegranate arils
Kent pumpkin
Sour cream
Vegetable oil
Olive oil
Cauliflower
Curry powder
Instructions
Go to the supermarket or butcher and buy a piece of lambstrap.
When you get home dry the surface of the meat with absorbent kitchen paper.
In a small bowl or ramekin make a spice mix with the salt, pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, rosemary leaves, nutmeg, and coriander seeds. I mix with chopsticks because I’m Asian. 😉
Pour the spice mix onto a small tray and then season the meat by pressing the meat into the spice mix and cover the entire surface.
Place the seasoned meat into a vacuum bag and vacuum slea the bag.
Store the meat in the refrigerator for a few hours. Overnight storage would be better, but it’s not essential.
When it’s time to cook, turn the oven on to 180 °C (fan forced).
With a Chinese cleaver cut the pumpkin into chunks about the size of a squash ball or perhaps a little smaller.
With a paring knife, trim the stalk of the cauliflower but don’t remove it. The stalk is good. There’s nothing wrong with a firm stalk, it’ll be fresh and good to eat. If the stalk is limp then it’s probably not very good and no amount of paring will help.
Pour a little vegetable oil into the palm of your hand and rub your hands together and then rub each piece of pumpkin. Place the pumpkin onto a baking sheet.
Pour some oil over the cauliflower. You’ll need more oil because of all the added surface area on the cauliflower. Rubbing it on with your hands will help but don’t be stingy with the oil.
Sprinkle a generous amount of curry powder over the cauliflower and rub it on the cauliflower to smooth out any oily lumpy bits.
Put the cauliflower on the baking tray next to the pumpkin chunks.
Cook the vegetables until you can penetrate the pumpkin with the tip of a sharp paring knife and it slides in and out without any resistance. It should feel tight and not loose. Loose and sloppy means you’ve gone too far.
Heat the water bath to 55 °C (131 °F) and cook the lamb for 40 minutes.
Remove the lamb when it’s finished cooking.
Remove the meat from the vacuum bag and dry the surface with absorbent kitchen paper.
Heat a cast iron skillet and wipe the hot surface with some rice bran oil and sear the lamb.
Let the meat rest while attending to the vegetables.
Place the hot pumpkin into a bowl and mash them roughly with a fork.
Mix through some sour cream to make the mash a little more creamy.
Slice the meat to the thickness you desire.
Smear the mash over the dinner plate and place the slices of lamb on one side of the mash. On the other side, garnish the mash with some roughly torn mint leaves and coriander leaves. Add some pomegranate arils which will add a lovely sweetness to the mash. I think pomegranate arils also add an amazing visual appeal. It’s almost sensual. I wish I had got some dried flower petals to add but I didn’t want to drive to Kingston to buy some.
Place the roast cauliflower on the plate.
I would use a decent steak knife with this meal rather than a standard dinner knife.
Give thanks to the Lord.
Enjoy the meal.
How was the meal?
This dish was inspired by my girlfriend. She loves pomegranate and last weekend we enjoyed a slow-roasted lamb rump served with a pomegranate and mint salad. That dish was superior to what I cooked tonight. The slow-roasting process produces firmer yet still tender flesh. It also had more flavour through the meat itself.
The seasoning I used was distinctive and I could taste it with each mouthful but I think I prefer last weekend’s rump over the backstrap.
All that said, this was still pretty good and I’ve sequestered half of it to the refrigerator for another meal.
Final thoughts
Do you like pemegranate arils in a dish?
How thick do you like to slice your meat?
How was your week?
Sous vide lamb backstrap with pomegranate, mint, and coriander pumpkin mash plus curry roast cauliflowerSous vide lamb backstrap with pomegranate, mint, and coriander pumpkin mash plus curry roast cauliflowerSous vide lamb backstrap with pomegranate, mint, and coriander pumpkin mash plus curry roast cauliflower
Happy Canberra Day! Canberra is 109 today. We get a public holiday on Monday, but I’m on-call this weekend, so I’m hoping for not too many calls.
I planned to complete my annual CPDP submission today, but I had a huge lunch, and I’ve felt bloated all afternoon. It’s also stimulated the gas-forming bacteria in my microbiota. There’s a lot of gas formed from glucose metabolism in my enteric bacteria, especially those in the Order: Enterobacterales.
I’m just a simple bloke, so focussing and farting is not something I can do together. I elected instead to watch a movie on Netflix called The Ice Road starring Liam Neeson. If you like suspenseful drama, it’s worth viewing.
In other news today, I bought a new oven which cooks with microwave radiation. The old model was only 13 years old and developed a problem. The only keys I could use were the number 3 and the start cook button. I’ve been cooking things for 33 seconds, 3 minutes and 33 seconds for the last few months. The new oven is a 1000 W Samsung. Appliances don’t last very long these days.
Ingredients
Chicken thigh
Sourdough bread
White onion
Tinned tomatoes (Mutti)
Capers
Olives
Pickled jalapeño peppers
Olive oil
Worcestershire sauce
Cooking sherry
Red wine
Basil
Instructions
Ideally the chicken thigh has been seasoned with salt and freshly ground black pepper and then vacuum sealed to flavours at least hours beforehand.
Peel and quarter a white onion.
Sweat the onion in a skillet with some vegetable oil. As the onion takes on some colour, add some cooking sherry and then some Worcestershire sauce until the onion begins to caramelise a little.
Add in a small tin of tomatoes and simmer.
As the sauce thickens a little add in the capers, olives, and pickled jalapeño peppers.
Simmer with some stalks of basil and then add a good glug of red wine and simmer.
Turn on the toaster oven to as high as possible.
Lubricate the surface of a baking sheet with some vegetable oil.
Place a piece of sourdough bread in the middle of the baking sheet.
Pour some olive oil over the bread so in the oven it’s like it’s “frying” the bread.
Remove the seasoned chicken thigh from the vacuum sealed bag and place it on the lubricated bread.
Place the bread and chicken into the hot oven and cook on high heat for 10 minutes and then turn the heat down to a low heat and keep cooking for a further 20 minutes.
When the chicken is cooked, remove it from the oven and let it rest for about five minutes.
Place the chicken and toasted/“fried” bread in an shallow bowl and then spoon the tomato sauce around it.
Use a serrated steak knife to eat this because the bread will be stiff and hard.
Give thanks to the Lord and enjoy.
Thoughts on the meal
I cooked the chicken perfectly! It was still succulent and juicy. There was an abundance of juices oozing out from the folds of flesh as I penetrated it with my knife.
The sauce was pretty tasty; I like the acidity of the pickled jalapeño peppers along with the olives and capers. I forgot to add some Swiss brown mushrooms I’d also bought for this meal. The acid cuts through the oil and the chicken fat.
I know I said last week I was trying to reduce my meat consumption. I haven’t forgotten, and I have loved ones reminding me of my health. I’m grateful to them for looking out for me ❤️
Final thoughts
Do you ever cook meat over oil soaked bread?
Does it annoy you when you go somewhere for breakfast and they serve toasted sourdough which is stiff as a board and give you a butter knife?
How has your week been?
How long have you been using your microwave oven?
Roast chicken thigh and tomato-based sauceRoast chicken thigh and tomato-based sauce
Hi there, I hope you’ve had a good week. Mine has been massive. While I don’t write too much here about what I do, I’ll use the words; COVID-19, winter infection planning, Japanese encephalitis, floods, and Ukraine. One of the blessings of my job is diversity. I love my job and the people with whom I work. While there is always some work on weekends, I hope the people I work with won’t be overwhelmed with the volume of work they need to manage.
A few people who read the blog have mentioned from time to time a desire to see if I can write about a meal that doesn’t have meat (including bacon or speck).
I’m not the most imaginative cook. I like routine because it’s easy to live a life that way. Living alone also means there is no need for sophistication in my cooking. I think of myself as an elementary cook. My gadgets make cooking more manageable and exciting, but I’m a simple soul with simple tastes.
I was chatting with my girlfriend, who also suggested I consider some meat-free options on the blog. In my mind, the most leisurely and most delicious meal to make with enough to keep me going for a few meals is soup. I mentioned bacon a couple of paragraphs above because I often add some bacon to what may essentially be a vegetable soup. So the challenge for me this weekend is not to add meat to any meal.
Pestle and coffee tamper
Ingredients
Kent pumpkin
Crème gold washed potato
White onion
Root ginger (noun not verb)
Vegetable oil
Iodised salt
Vegetable stock
Coconut cream
Laksa paste
Lemongrass stalks
Coriander
Jalapeño sourdough bread
Lime juice
Olive oil based butter substitute to spread on the bread with plant sterols to allegedly lower serum cholesterol
Instructions
Turn on the oven and set the temperature to 180 °C (fan forced).
With a large Chinese meat cleaver, cut the pumpkin and potato into rough chunks. If your meat cleaver isn’t sharp, sharpen it first. There’s nothing like the feel of a cleaver in hand. If you don’t have one and can afford one, a Chinese meat cleaver also makes a fantastic pizza cutter, especially if it has a curved blade.
Pour a little vegetable oil into the palm of your non-dominant hand and then rub your hands a little so you can rib some oil over the surfaces of the pumpkin and spud chunks, including the skin.
Season the spuds and pumpkin with some salt, rubbing the salt over the surfaces.
Put the pumpkin and potato onto a lubricated baking sheet and cook in the oven until the flesh is soft and if you poke the skin it breaks apart.
Pour some vegetable oil into a large saucepan and turn on the heat.
Cut an onion into quarters and put them into the saucepan and begin the long patient process of caramelising the onions.
Keep gently sautéing the onions until the have turned the colour you lust after. Keep moving them to avoid the onions from sticking to the base of the saucepan.
When the roasted and caramelised pumpkin and potato are ready add them to the saucepan over the onions and then add some vegetable stock. Use your favourite spatula to rub out the fond which has formed on the stainless steel base of the saucepan.
Add a generous tablespoon of laksa paste and a couple of bruised lemongrass stalks. Add the root ginger too. If you’re at a loss for how to bruise the lemongrass, I’d suggest using a heavy stone pestle or a heavy stainless steel coffee tamper. I’ve included a photo for you to see. I basically give the lemongrass stalks a good whack up and down the shaft.
Simmer the soup so the watery stock reduces.
Pour in a tin of coconut cream and chopped roots, stalks, and leaves of a bunch of coriander.
When everything looks like it’s been incorporated and well mixed and thickening like the consistency of thicken cream turn off the heat, remove the lemongrass stalks, and use a stick blender to process the soup. Towards the end squeeze in some lime juice for a little sourness.
With a bread knife, cut a thick slice of jalapeño sourdough bread and spread some of the “fake butter” on it.
Ladle some soup in a bowl and serve with the bread.
Give thanks to the LORD for the food as well as all the great things in life like friends, work, and family.
Enjoy the soup with a spoon and soaked up in that bread.
How was the meal?
The soup and the bread were good. I’m a happy camper. I’m also excited because my youngest child turns 21 this week.
Final thoughts
Do you like soup? Do you ever add Asian flavours to ingredients which traditionally aren’t Asian?
How has your week been? I hope it’s been fulsome and full of joy.
Do you like coriander? I heard a YouTube cook call coriander “Satan’s lettuce”. My Mum doesn’t like it and I have a few friends who also thinks it tastes soapy.
What are you planning to make next week? I’m thinking of nude wonton soup.
Pumpkin soup with jalapeño breadPumpkin soup with jalapeño breadPumpkin soup with jalapeño bread
How are you this week? I hope all is well with you and yours.
It’s a funny thing; I enter the supermarket with a notion of less meat and lots of healthful vegetables. My health concerns me because my GP recently referred me to a pathologist for some pathology tests, and it turns out, I’m still a typical middle-aged Australian bloke! 😉 If you’re interested, search for “metabolic syndrome” in any search engine.
Then, as I wander the aisles in the meat section, I see something which lures me toward it. I even turned away, averted my eyes, and tried to look at skinless chicken pieces, but this ribeye roast seemed to be calling out to me. I could hear it calling me. “Gary” “Gary, come here to me.” “Gary, pick me up, feel me, touch me, feel my weight.” “Gary, buy me and then eat me.”
As I was applying some salt for an overnight dry brine, I was drooling at the thought of chewing the meat from the bones.
Salted ribeye roast ready for overnight dry brining
Ingredients
Ribeye roast
Iodised salt
Mustard (choose what you lust after)
Vegetable oil
Cauliflower
Curry powder
Pumpkin
Brown sugar
White onion
Instant gravy
Coles Finest. Australian Angus Beef. Ribeye roast.
Instructions
Remove the meat from the packaging.
Dry off the raw meat juices with absorbent paper towel.
Generously season all surfaces of the beef with salt.
Place the roast on a rack over a tray and place in the refrigerator overnight.
Around the middle of the afternoon, cut an onion and gently saute the onion in some oil until the onion is caramelised.
About an hour before you plan to start cooking, remove the meat from the refrigerator. The surface of the meat should look dry and the colour should be darker.
Heat the oven to 230 °C (fan forced).
Pour a little neutral oil into your hand and rub the lubricant into your palms and them massage your pumpkin and cauliflower.
Season the pumpkin with some brown sugar and salt. Season the cauliflower with some curry powder and salt.
Put the pumpkin and cauliflower on a tray and put them into the oven for 15 minutes (prior to inserting the meat).
Insert the thermometer into the meat, and penetrate the eye fillet until only the root end of your probe is visible.
Open the app and set up the cook for rare knowing that from past experience the app tends to overshoot a little.
With bare hands or after donning some cooking-safe gloves, dip two fingers into a pot of mustard and liberally apply the mustard to the dry surface of the meat. Gently massage this flavour-filled lube all over your meat and even the bare bones.
Cook the meat according to the app.
When the app indicates it’s time to remove the meat, withdraw it from the warmth of the oven and cover it with an aluminium foil tent while it rests. American friends, that’s aluminium!!!
The app should indicate the resting time too.
Check the pumpkin and cauliflower. They should be soft enough to permit the easy insertion of a skewer so it easily slides in and out.
While the meat is resting, make the instant gravy according to the manufacturer’s instructions for use. Mix the caramelised onion with the gravy.
Cleave the meat between the ribs and place one piece into a container for refrigeration. With the other piece, take a boning knife, and running the blade along the bone dissect the meat from the bone.
Place the meat on the dinner plate and lay the rib over it. Place the roast vegetables next to the meat and then spoon gravy over the meat, rib, and vegetables.
This is meal when you want to use your best steak knife.
Give thanks to the LORD for every good thing you have in life, especially friends and family, as well as this meal of meaty goodness.
Gnaw the meat from the rib and feel free to add more gravy so you can suck off the bone and enjoy the salty goodness.
How did the meal taste?
The meat was juicy and tender. The crust which had formed in the oven had a fantastic flavour with the mustard and salt. Adding a little mustard to the bare rib bones added a little flavour bonus when sucking on the bones.
This week’s audio entertainment
I’ve been listening to “Killing Floor” by Lee Child. The protagonist is Jack Reacher. You may be aware of two Jack Reacher movies starring Tom Cruise. I remember there was controversy because, in the books, Jack Reacher is a giant of man, while Tom Cruise is my height. That is, he’s a short arse.
If you like a bit of action, intrigue, and crime, I can highly recommend the books and the TV show, which is now streaming.
I’ve also been listening to a new podcast, viz., What’s the History? The hosts are Claire and Fi, and they’re from Ireland. I’ve known Claire for more than a decade. She’s a blogger and a Tweep, and I also connect with her on Instagram. Claire and Fi are school teachers with skills in English and History. They’re both hilarious, very entertaining, and having listened to them, I reckon they’d be ace school teachers. Search for “What’s the History?” in your favourite podcatcher, and you will enjoy this weekly show, I’m sure.
Final thoughts
How has your week been?
Are you a fan of the Jack Reacher books? What did you think of the movies with Tom Cruise as Reacher?
Do you like history podcasts? Do you get sucked into hosts with Irish accents?
I’d love it if you left a comment or a reply in the comment box.
Coles Angus beef Rib eye roast Dry briningColes Angus beef Rib eye roastColes Angus beef Rib eye roast Dry briningDry brine Ribeye roastCaramelised onionsDry brine ribeye roast rubbed with mustard with the MEATER™ probe insertedMEATER™ ribeye roastCarved ribeye roastCarved ribeye roastStanding ribeye roast and roast vegetablesStanding ribeye roast and roast vegetablesStanding ribeye roast and roast vegetables
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