Recipes

Recipes blog posts

Roast chicken tray bake

Posted by Gary

If you’re not interested in the story, here’s the recipe.

Roast chicken vegetable tray bake

Hello reader,

How are you? I hope you have enjoyed a good week in food and life.

My week has been good. New things cropped up at work which added to the excitement of what I do in the office. I like how we have become better at detecting signs of imminent change, and we act more quickly. Ideally, we would be able to both pre-empt potential incidents and prevent them from worsening.

In terms of food, my week has been dominated by an incessant desire for chocolate. I am craving it every day; especially while behind my desk at work and in the evening after I have washed the dishes.

I do not seem to be able to get enough, yet each morning when I stand on the scales the feelings of regret and guilt are powerful. Not powerful enough though to elicit change in my chocolate-seeking behaviour. There will be some amateur psychologists who will tell me to focus on superior quality chocolate or to bring more fruit and vegetable snacks to work. I do these things already!

Recipe

Ingredients

  • Chicken
  • Potato
  • Pumpkin
  • Shallots
  • Brussels sprouts [1]
  • Fennel
  • Lebanese eggplant (aubergine)
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • MSG [2, 3]
  • Neutral oil, I use rice bran oil
  • Grated cheese, I prefer a hard cheese for this with good melting qualities

Instructions

Tools and equipment

  • Cooking shears
  • Knives
  • Cutting boards
  • Baking tray
  • Baking paper

Initial preparation

  1. Turn the oven on to 180 °C.
  2. Make sure your cutting boards are clean and dry.
  3. Sharpen your knives because a sharp knife is a safe knife.
  4. Lay some baking paper on a baking tray or what American cooks tend to call a baking sheet.

Chicken

Content warning! [old medical school anatomy story depicting graphic scenes]

  1. Lay your chicken on a cutting board and take a pair of cooking shears and cut the vertebral column out. This reminds me of year two in medicine. At the end of the year prior to examinations some of us ventured back to the anatomy laboratory to revise some anatomy on our cadavers. I was shocked to find all the cadavers were lying prone and prosectors with circular saws were harvesting vertebral columns for the professor of neuroanatomy. It would be fun to use a circular saw on my chicken, however, all I had were cooking shears. [4]
  2. The next step is the fun bit, splay out the chicken with the fingers of both hands under the bird and press down on its breast with your thumbs. You can confirm the job by using the heel of your palm and pressing down to flatten the chicken onto the cutting board. [5]
  3. Season the bird on all sides and if you like poke your fingers between the skin and muscle and get some salt up between the two layers. Gently work your hand in there and have a good feel around and spread that salt. Be gentle though, you don’t want to damage your bird.
  4. Sprinkle a little neutral oil on the skin, and gently massage the skin.
  5. Lay the bird on one side of a baking sheet.

Vegetables

  1. Cut the potato and pumpkin into bite-sized pieces. Place them into a large bowl.
  2. Quarter the shallots and shred the Brussels sprouts. Put them into the bowl with the potato and pumpkin.
  3. Slice some shallots and red onion and put them into the bowl.
  4. Slice the fennel and put it into the bowl too.
  5. Peel the eggplant and slice it.
  6. Add a generous slug of neutral oil to the bowl and enough salt for your taste and with your hands mix all those vegetables and coat them with oil and salt.
  7. Feel free to add things like grated cheese and herbs to suit your taste.
  8. Spread the lubricated and salty vegetables on the baking sheet next to the chicken.
  9. Insert a meat thermometer into the thigh and put the baking sheet into the oven.

Cooking in one baking tray

  1. Put the baking tray into the oven and use the thermometer’s app to monitor the cooking.
  2. When the app signals it’s time to remove the baking tray, take the tray out of the oven and allow the chicken to rest.

Plating and serving

  1. Once the chicken has rested, transfer the vegetables to another tray and put the chicken onto a cutting board.
  2. Use a sharp knife to break down the chicken and separate the legs and wings and dissect the breasts.
  3. Keep one thigh and drumstick for dinner and a portion of the vegetables too.
  4. Place the rest of the chicken pieces and vegetables into vacuum bags.
  5. Seal the bags and place them into the refrigerator or freezer for meals later.
  6. Place the remaining chicken and vegetables onto a dinner plate.
  7. If you want, you could make some instant gravy for the meal. I didn’t want to tonight.
  8. Give thanks to the Lord for His many blessings.
  9. Eat with a knife and fork.

Thoughts on the meal

It’s not like I haven’t cooked a chicken and vegetable tray bake recently. This remains a simple “pot” meal that is both easy and convenient.

I also added some kale sprouts for extra kale flavour.

Final thoughts

  1. Do you like cooking a whole chicken and keeping it for later meals?
  2. Do you like flattening the chicken first to make cooking faster?
  3. What are your favourite vegetables to eat with chicken?

References

  1. Kapusta-Duch, J., et al., The beneficial effects of Brassica vegetables on human health. Rocz Panstw Zakl Hig, 2012. 63(4): p. 389-95.
  2. Obayashi, Y. and Y. Nagamura, Does monosodium glutamate really cause headache? : a systematic review of human studies. J Headache Pain, 2016. 17: p. 54.
  3. FSANZ, MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE A Safety Assessment TECHNICAL REPORT SERIES NO. 20, A.G.D.o. Health, Editor. 2003: Canberra.
  4. Bogduk, N., W. Tynan, and A.S. Wilson, The nerve supply to the human lumbar intervertebral discs. J Anat, 1981. 132(Pt 1): p. 39-56.
  5. Publications, H.H., How To Avoid Foodborne Illnesses. 2017, Harvard Health Publications: Boston.
Chicken’s head end
Chicken’s rear end
Chicken sans vertebral column
Chicken with vertebral column dissected out
Chicken with vertebral column dissected out
Chicken laid flat
Chicken laid flat
Chicken
Chicken laid flat
Chicken laid flat
Chicken laid flat with salt
Brussels sprouts, Fennel, Shallots, Red onion, Pumpkin, Potato, Kale sprouts, and Lebanese eggplant (Aubergine)
Chicken with Brussels sprouts Fennel Shallots Red onion Pumpkin Potato Kale sprouts Lebanese eggplant Aubergine
Chicken with Brussels sprouts Fennel Shallots Red onion Pumpkin Potato Kale sprouts Lebanese eggplant Aubergine
Chicken with Brussels sprouts Fennel Shallots Red onion Pumpkin Potato Kale sprouts Lebanese eggplant Aubergine
MEATER™ whole chicken cook summary
MEATER™ whole chicken cook summary
Roast chicken vegetable tray bake out of the oven
Roast chicken vegetable tray bake out of the oven
Roast chicken vegetable tray bake
Roast chicken vegetable tray bake
Roast chicken vegetable tray bake

Corn and chicken soup

Posted by Gary

Want to skip the story? Here’s the recipe.

Corn and chicken soup

Hello Reader,

I’m posting again this weekend. 😊

I hope you enjoyed last night’s pork chop, pickled vegetables, and crispy capers.

Tonight, I made Mum’s sweet corn and chicken soup. It is the first time I’ve made this soup.

Mum made this soup when I was a boy, and while I’ve lived away from home since 1993, I know she continues to cook it for Dad, my brothers when they’re visiting, and my daughters. It’s one of Mum’s better-known soups.

I decided to cook it a little differently.

Recipe

Ingredients

Instructions

Chicken

  1. Dice the chicken thigh meat into bite-sized chunks.
  2. Please place them in a bowl and add salt, pepper, MSG, and sesame oil.
  3. Massage the chicken pieces with the seasoning and oil.
  4. Place the seasoned and lubricated chicken pieces into a vacuum bag.
  5. Seal the bag.
  6. Cook for 2 hours at 76 °C in a water bath.
  7. Open the bag and empty the chicken and juices into the soup broth.

Corn soup broth with chicken pieces

  1. Empty the cans of corn into a saucepan with the stock.
  2. Bring to a slow simmer and cook for twenty minutes.
  3. Add the chicken to the saucepan and simmer for about 10 minutes.
  4. Break the eggs into a bowl, and beat them lightly, leaving white visible.
  5. Blend cornflour with some water to make a slurry. Pour the slurry into the egg mixture.
  6. While the soup is at a slow boil, pour the egg mixture in and stir until strands of coagulated white egg appear.
  7. Before serving, add cream and reheat slightly.

Plating up and serving

  1. Ladle soup into vacuum bags for meals later in the week. Vacuum seal the bags and refrigerate or freeze them.
  2. Spoon the remaining soup into a bowl.
  3. Give thanks to the Lord.
  4. Enjoy with a spoon.

Thoughts on the meal

The advantage of separately cooking the chicken means it can be cooked days in advance.

The soup was as good as Mum’s. I’m going to do this again and again and again.

Final thoughts

  1. Do you like corn and chicken soup?
  2. Do you ever modify family recipes?

Footnotes

Sous vide cooking the chicken allowed me to ensure the chicken’s pasteurisation and achieving tenderness. It’s a bit of a faff for people who don’t have a water bath and water heater circulator. You can cook the chicken in the soup broth. That’s how Mum does it, and it’s always delicious. I like to do things differently when I can.

Corn kernels are the fruit, and there are roughly 800 kernels in 16 rows per ear of corn.

Creamed corn combines corn kernels with the residue from pulped corn kernels scraped from the cob.

Corn and chicken soup
Corn and chicken soup
Corn and chicken soup

Pork chop and pickles

Posted by Gary

If you don’t care for the story, you can skip to the recipe here.

Sous vide pork chop seared

Hello reader,

I hope you’re well. I didn’t post last week because Katie and I enjoyed a weekend together, and while I did cook and shoot photographs, I didn’t have the desire to post.

How has your week been? My work week has been more ordered. After about four weeks, I was able to return to my honorary role at Canberra Health Services on Friday. CHS is my Friday happy place.

In my paid job, I’ve been working with a graduate, who, like me is very keen on Microsoft SharePoint as a platform for work collaboration. It’s a terrific tool to bring order and convenience to the work we need to accomplish.

I don’t know if you work in an environment where people collaborate on a task, and you end up with multiple copies with everyone’s versions. Trying to get them all together coherently is time-consuming. Being able to have one document and have from a few to dozens of people working on it at the same time makes more sense.

When coupled with a piece of referencing software like EndNote™, work becomes so much easier.

The collaboration extends into non-work environments too. This week, I participated in a church committee meeting, and we’re all using Google Drive to work on a document for our fellowship.

For my loved ones, as an Apple enthusiast, I use the MacOS and iOS operating systems and tools for collaboration like shared calendars, notes, and photos. Living in the 21st century is cool.

Recipe

Ingredients

  • Pork loin chop
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Brussels sprouts
  • Savoy cabbage
  • Red cabbage
  • Red onion
  • Bird’s-eye chillies*
  • Shallots
  • Ginger
  • Cloves
  • White vinegar
  • Sugar
  • Capers

Instructions

Pork

  1. Season the pork with salt and pepper and vacuum seal.
  2. Cook in a water bath at 54 °C for 2 hours and 10 minutes.
  3. Remove the pork from the bag and dry the surfaces with kitchen paper.
  4. Sear the pork in a hot frying pan.
  5. Allow the pork to rest for about 10 minutes.
  6. Slice the pork with a sharp knife for presentation purposes.

Pickles

  1. Slice the two types of cabbage.
  2. Cut the onion and shallots into slices.
  3. Slice the Brussels sprouts.
  4. Mince the ginger.
  5. In a jar dissolve sugar and salt in some vinegar.
  6. Add the cabbage, onion, shallots, Brussels sprouts, ginger, and cloves to a vacuum bag.
  7. Pour the vinegar solution into the bag.
  8. Vacuum seal the bag.
  9. Halfway through the pork cook, add the pickles to the water bath.
  10. Remove the vegetables and pick out the cloves.
  11. Drain the vegetables.

Capers

  1. Add rice bran oil into a small saucepan and heat until it reaches 180 °C.
  2. Add the capers (once rinsed and dried on some paper towel) and cook until crisp (around 30 seconds).
  3. Remove the capers from the oil and transfer them to a plate covered in a few sheets of paper towel.

Plating up and serving

  1. Place the drained pickles on a dinner plate and lay the pork on top.
  2. Top the pork with the crispy capers.
  3. Give thanks to the Lord.
  4. Eat with a fork.

Thoughts on the meal

Because of the effects of Japanese encephalitis in Australian piggeries, prices for pork will likely rise. I’m trying to get as much pork in my mouth as possible.

I’ve been enjoying pickles a lot more lately.

The highlight was the fried capers. The capers were salty and crispy and could easily substitute for a packet of potato chips.

Final thoughts

  1. Do you like using collaboration tools at work?
  2. How has your week been?
  3. Do you like pickled vegetables with pork?
  4. Have you tried fried capers before?
Bird’s eye chillies
Pickled vegetables
Sous vide pork chop
Sous vide pork chop seared
Pork chop with pickled vegetables and crispy capers
Pork chop with pickled vegetables and crispy capers
Pork chop with pickled vegetables and crispy capers
Pork chop with pickled vegetables and crispy capers
Pork chop with pickled vegetables and crispy capers
Pork chop with pickled vegetables and crispy capers

Footnotes

Bird’s eye chillies are also known as Thai chillies. In Thai, the name means mouse faeces chilli because of the shape of the fruit. The Bird’s eye chilli scores between 50,000 and 100,000 Scoville heat units (SHU) on the Scoville scale. Chillies are good for my hypertension. [1]

1.         Shi, Z., et al., Chilli intake is inversely associated with hypertension among adults. Clin Nutr ESPEN, 2018. 23: p. 67-72.

Dinner from last Saturday night. Sous vide scotch fillet steak with potato mash, pickled vegetables, amd green peppercorn gravy
Dinner from last Sunday evening. Sous vide salmon and Hokkien noodles.

Crispy pork loin and pickled cabbage

Posted by Gary

If you don’t care for my silly story, you can find the recipe here.

Crispy pork loin and pickled cabbage

Hello Reader,

How are you? I hope you’ve had an edifying week. I’ve been pondering how good life is right now.

I feel happy in all areas of life, apart perhaps from the direction of my body weight. To be fair, I talk about it too much and do very little about it apart from eating more unhealthy food.1

We’re all told to balance work and our personal lives. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt joy in so many ways. The best part of every day is chatting with my girlfriend, Katie. It’s amazing how good it feels to chat and ventilate and get to know each other better. Katie and my daughters are the best part of my life.2

Work has also been rewarding in so many ways. I love the feeling of competence that comes with being able to enjoy time in the office. The best thing about my job is the people I work with. I also like applying my training to the work at hand.

How is any of this related to what I’m cooking tonight? When I’m not chatting with Katie or working, I’ve been watching cooking YouTube videos. I saw someone do a crispy pork belly and I wondered if I could do something similar with the skin and fat on a piece of pork loin. I’ve also been watching videos on pickling vegetables.

As a kid, growing up in Brisbane, I spent much of my pre-school years with my maternal grandmother, my maternal grandfather, and my grandfather’s brothers. They all lived together in a house on Hale Street. I often dream of that house. I can smell the flour bags in one of the storerooms, I can see the firecrackers in boxes, and I almost always dream of the downstairs kitchen with three gas hobs and well-seasoned carbon steel frying pans used every morning to make the flour-based wraps for the large chicken rolls which would be sold in the Golden Pagoda3 later that day. One of the distinctive smells was the odour of pickled vegetables, Chinese pickles. As a kid I don’t think I was a fan, but as an old man now, I must be getting my Chinese on because I’m wanting to eat pickles more and more.

The other great thing about that house was being able to see and hear Lang Park. I could also see Mr Fourex atop the Castlemaine Perkins Brewery. This brewery in Milton is home to XXXX beer. Contrary to popular belief that Queenslanders cannot spell beer, the Xs denote the strength of the beer. Lang Park and XXXX beer are forever linked as the home and sponsor for the Queensland Maroons (pronounced ma rones).4

Like most things I cook, I rarely follow a recipe unless it’s something Mum tells me5. Then for the first time, I will follow what she says I should do, knowing that most of the time, Mum’s recipes are more guidance rather than instruction. She cooks with feeling and that’s how I cook too. With feeling.

So my experimenting with pickling has been about the flavours and textures I’m imagining in my head. Chinese rice vinegar, salt, sugar, cloves, and ginger form the base of the pickling juices.

It was cold enough to wear a beanie today

Recipe

Ingredients

  • Pork loin
  • Salt
  • Rice vinegar
  • Sugar
  • Cloves
  • Ginger
  • Cabbage
  • Carrot
  • Daikon
  • Brussels sprouts6
  • Bird’s-eye chillies

Instructions

Pork

  1. I bought a large slab of pork loin a week ago. It was about 30 centimetres by 20 centimetres and 5 centimetres deep. I cut it into three blocks and vacuum-packed each and then put them in the freezer.
  2. On Wednesday evening I moved one of the blocks from the freezer to the refrigerator.
  3. On Friday evening I unwrapped the meat and dried the outside surfaces with a towel. I took a sharp blade and scored the skin and fat and then rubbed salt into the skin and muscle.
  4. Place the prism of pork on a rack over a tray and place it uncovered in the refrigerator to dry brine overnight.
  5. On Saturday afternoon I removed the meat and turned the oven on to low heat, about 120 °C.
  6. I vigorously rubbed the skin while being careful not to tear the skin and fat from the meat. The objective of the vigorous rubbing was to dry the skin to prepare it for becoming crispy and crackling.
  7. To avoid drying out the meat, I wrapped aluminium foil around the muscle and left the scored fat and skin exposed.
  8. The problem with a dry brine is the amount of meat shrinkage which occurs in the cold dry environment. It suggests to me the meat was injected with water to plump it up to full tumescence prior to selling to make it look more impressive than it is. This shrinkage means I had a little trouble mounting it properly in an erect position. I wanted the skin pointing up and I didn’t want the meat at an angle while it was in the oven.
  9. I placed my prism of pork loin wrapped in aluminium foil on a rack over a tray and then into the oven for about three hours. I fashioned the aluminium so it kept my meat erect in the oven.
  10. I looked at the meat reasonably regularly in case the skin started to burn.
  11. After the oven cooking phase, I removed the meat and drained the pork fat into a stainless steel frying pan and turned on the hob to heat the fat.
  12. I placed the pork skin side down into the fat and left it there to crisp the skin.
  13. Because of the meat shrinkage, I needed to use wooden toothpicks to keep the meat upright. Nothing like a little prosthetic surgery while cooking. 🤔
  14. When the skin was crisp I moved the meat to a warm place to rest. Resting your pork is important. It’s probably more important to rest your pork than any other species of meat. I’ve heard some cooks say that pork should rest for nearly as long as it was cooking.
  15. After seeing the size of the finished product, I dissected away the skin and remaining connective tissue that used to contain the fat from the shrivelled muscle meat. I thought I’d sequester the meat for cold cuts and enjoy the crackling with the vegetables tonight.

Pickled cabbage

  1. Shred some cabbage.
  2. Shred some Brussels sprouts.
  3. Dice some peeled ginger.
  4. Slice the Bird’s-eye chillies.
  5. Julienne some carrot and daikon.
  6. Dissolve some sugar and salt into a quarter of a cup of rice vinegar.
  7. Place the vegetables plus a handful of cloves into a vacuum bag and then pour in the pickling liquid.
  8. Vacuum seal the bag in a vacuum chamber.
  9. Towards the end of the pork cooking, heat up a water bath to about 75 °C and cook the pickled vegetables for about 30 minutes.

Plating up and serving

  1. Open the bag of pickled vegetables and transfer the vegetables to a dinner plate.
  2. I know some people like drinking pickling juices. It’s not to my taste.
  3. Place the crackling on top of the vegetables.
  4. Give thanks to the Lord.
  5. Eat with a knife and fork.

Thoughts on the meal and lessons identified

  1. The crackling was good.
  2. The vegetables were good. I liked how the heat from the Bird’s-eye chillies permeated the pickling juices and every bite was hot, spicy, and sour.
  3. I will cut my pork loin into fatter chunks next time. I think this would be a better meal with a big fat lump of pork rather than a thin shrivelled remnant.

Final thoughts

  1. Do you dream about the first home you lived in?
  2. Do smells and sounds feature in your dreams?
  3. Do you like pickles?

Footnotes

  1. This morning I weighed in at 75 kilograms. I’ve been eating too much chocolate every day. I’m not sure if you’ve ever experienced salted caramel peanut slab. I buy it every week from a local shop. It’s very good. I think I have an addiction problem. I know I have an addictive personality. When I get the first taste of something good or pleasurable, if I can get more I’ll go for it.
  2. Amongst the many things we chat about, food comes up regularly. For example, the other night we were talking about shaved lamb meat and chips. The morning, I had this craving. Yes, I do eat a lamb and hot chip snack pack with metal chopsticks! 😆 The tzatziki sauce was good as it oozed over the warm tasty meat.
  3. The Golden Pagoda was a café/restaurant at the truck stop in Rocklea in Brisbane. I don’t know if the trucks still stop near the markets much. The Golden Pagoda was destroyed in the 1974 Brisbane floods. At that instant, my grandparents and my granduncles all stopped working. I remember ‘working’ there as a youngster. The chicken rolls we served were basically a cross between a spring roll and a Chiko roll. Not much chicken and lots of cabbage and deep-fried. They were about 20 cm long and quite girthy. As a little boy, I needed two hands to manage one. My most entrepreneurial grand uncle told me the makers of the Chiko roll stole his idea.
  4. This Wednesday night the first State of Origin game is played. As always, I’m hoping for a Queensland victory.
  5. Following a recipe from Mum can be hilarious. Me “Mum, you know that recipe for x? I tried it and it tasted a bit odd.” Mum “Did you use the y? That’s the essential ingredient and you need to do z with it.” Me “No, Mum, you didn’t mention y or z; no wonder x tasted odd.”
  6. Do you like Brussels sprouts? If you don’t, may I suggest the next time you cook them, don’t! Just shred them finely and add them to a salad like coleslaw. I’ve also found cooking them shredded removes the bitterness. Check out this meal I cooked last night. I mixed shredded Brussels sprouts with cheese and added it to this tray bake of pumpkin and potato towards the end of the cooking process. Melted cheese and shredded Brussels sprouts make for a wonderful combination.
Crispy pork loin and pickled cabbage
Pork loin vacuum packed
Pork loin ready for dry brining
Brined pork loin on a wire rack
Brined pork loin on a wire rack over a stainless steel frying pan
Brined pork loin on a wire rack over a stainless steel frying pan wrapped in aluminium foil
Cabbage Brussels sprouts
Cabbage Brussels sprouts Fennel Carrot Daikon Bird’s-eye chilli
Pickled Bird’s-eye chillies, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrot, daikon, and fennel.
Crispy pork loin and pickled cabbage
Crispy pork loin and pickled cabbage

Surf and turf with hollandaise sauce

Posted by Gary

If you’re not interested in the preamble, here’s the recipe.

Sous vide porterhouse steak and king prawns with hollandaise sauce and peas

Hello Reader,

In last night’s post, I wrote that this weekend in Canberra is a long one because of Reconciliation Day on Monday.

Notwithstanding the public holiday, I’ll go into the office tomorrow because colleagues in the states and the Northern Territory are working. We need to get some work done. While working from home has become normative, coordinating multiple documents, and incorporating feedback from stakeholders is easier with two desktop monitors. Having leftover steak from tonight’s meal will make a wonderful lunch. I will nonetheless reflect on Reconciliation Day while I’m in the office.

Tonight, I’m cooking a steak and some prawns and serving them with hollandaise sauce. I’ve chosen a porterhouse steak and some king prawns.

Recipe

Ingredients

  • Porterhouse steak
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Garlic powder
  • Rice bran or peanut oil
  • King prawns
  • Butter
  • Eggs
  • Lemon
  • Sriracha sauce
  • Bird’s-eye chillies
  • Peas
  • Shallots
  • Fennel
  • Vegetable stock

Tools

  • Precision water heater and circulator1
  • Vacuum chamber2
  • Water bath
  • Cast iron frying pan
  • Stainless steel frying pan
  • Stick blender
  • Plastic cup
  • Microwave oven
  • Knives

Instructions

Steak

  1. Unwrap the steak and place it onto a cutting board or suitable work surface.
  2. Season the steak with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. I use iodised salt and freshly cracked black peppercorns.
  3. Put the steak in a vacuum bag. If you don’t have the tools to vacuum seal, use a sealable plastic bag and displace the air before sealing the bag.
  4. Heat the water in the water bath to 54 °C (129 °F). Suppose you don’t have a water heater and circulator. In that case, you can use a stockpot or other suitable vessel on a hob. With a thermometer, keep monitoring the temperature and keep it within a few degrees on either side for the entire cooking period.
  5. When the water reaches 54 °C, place the steak into the water bath and cook for 2 hours and 50 minutes.
  6. When the time is complete, turn off the water heater circulator and remove the steak from the water bath.
  7. Open the bag and if there are meat juices, pour them into a container.
  8. Remove the steak and dry it with a paper towel or clean dishcloth.
  9. Heat a cast-iron frying pan until it is searing hot.
  10. Add a little high smoking point neutral oil.
  11. Sear the steak to the desired amount.
  12. Allow the steak to rest under an aluminium tent.
  13. With a sharp slicing knife, slice the steak to the desired thickness. I like my steak strips to be thick, meaty, and juicy.

Prawns

  1. Peel the shells from the prawns and leave the tail shell in place.
  2. Some people like to remove the alimentary canal from the prawn. I’m not one of those people.
  3. Heat a stainless-steel frying pan. Use the Leidenfrost effect to determine when the frying pan is at the correct temperature.
  4. Add a small amount of neutral oil and spread it across the pan’s surface.
  5. Add some butter, and once the butter starts to foam, add in the prawns.
  6. Cook the prawns carefully to avoid overcooking.
  7. Place the cooked prawns on top of the steak and under the tent.

Hollandaise sauce

  1. Place three egg yolks into a cup.
  2. Whisk some Dijon mustard, lemon juice, and Sriracha sauce.
  3. Melt about 100 g of butter using microwave radiation.
  4. Use the stick blender to process the egg yolks and add the whisked mustard, juice, and hot sauce.
  5. Keep the blender on and slowly drip the melted butter into the cup and watch the sauce form.
  6. Transfer the sauce to a small glass pouring jug and keep it warm.

Vegetables

  1. Put some frozen peas into a heat-proof bowl.
  2. Add some diced shallots and fennel.
  3. Boil some vegetable stock and add the meat juices from the cooked steak.
  4. Cover with boiling meat-juice augmented vegetable stock.
  5. Strain when the peas are cooked. The shallots and fennel will retain flavour and crunch.

Plating up and serving

  1. Remove the aluminium tent covering the beef and prawns and transfer the meats to a warmed dinner plate.
  2. Spoon the peas onto the plate next to the meats.
  3. Spoon on the hollandaise sauce.
  4. Give thanks to the Lord
  5. Eat with a knife and fork. A steak knife isn’t necessary, but a well-weighted steak knife always feels nice in hand. As an alternative, you could put everything into a bowl and use a pair of chopsticks, given the steak has been sliced. You can “shovel” the peas into your mouth by raising the bowl to your gaping lips and sweeping the sauce-laden peas with the chopsticks.

Thoughts on the meal

When I got out of bed this morning and weighed myself, I had reached a new high for two years. You may ask why I prepare such a large meal if I want to get closer to 70 kg. I’m asking the same question. I have no answer! 🤨

The steak was beefy. The prawns were fleshy and firm. The tangy and buttery sauce accentuated the flavours of each meat element.

I did halve the steak, but I did eat all four prawns and all the peas. Sliced steak for lunch tomorrow will go down a treat.

Thoughts on blogging and work-life balance

Social media is a curious phenomenon. My engagement on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram waxes and wanes depending on how busy I am and other personal factors.

I went through and looked at how many bloggers I follow. There are some who I’ve been following since about 2010. My work and personal time are getting busier, and I’m happy about that. I’m going to spend less time on social media, and I’m going to cull the number of bloggers I follow.

I’m conscious of the privilege I have living alone and being comfortable financially. I admire and respect people who have far more hectic lives, are time-poor, and struggle financially. I blog for a hobby; I hope bloggers who derive an income from their writing continue to thrive. I will continue to support the professional bloggers whose writing and photography I enjoy.

Footnotes

  1. A precision water heater and circulator maintain the water in the water bath at a constant temperature.
  2. A vacuum chamber is used to vacuum seal food in plastic bags.
Porterhouse steak in wrapper
Porterhouse steak
Porterhouse steak with salt and pepper
Porterhouse steak with salt and pepper
Porterhouse steak with salt and pepper
Porterhouse steak vacuum wrapped
Sliced sous vide porterhouse steak
Sous vide porterhouse steak and king prawns with hollandaise sauce and peas
Sous vide porterhouse steak and king prawns with hollandaise sauce and peas
Sous vide porterhouse steak and king prawns with hollandaise sauce and peas