Recipes

Recipes blog posts

Chicken tray-bake

Posted by Gary

If you don’t like reading the silly story and want the recipe, it is here.

Hello Reader,

It’s a wet Saturday in Canberra. It’s a long weekend here because Monday is Reconciliation Day. In Canberra, Reconciliation Day is on the first Monday after the twenty-seventh day of May.

In 1993, a week of prayer by some religious groups focused on reconciliation with Indigenous Australians. Reconciliation Week begins each year on the 27th of May.

The rain and the colder weather make me think I want something warm, easy, and comforting. Lorraine, aka, Not Quite Nigella, posted a traybake early in the week. While I don’t plan to replicate her recipe, I thought I’d throw some things in a tray, bung it into the oven, and hope for the best. If you don’t know of Lorraine, check out her blog. In my opinion, Lorraine is the most consistent and best food blogger in Australia. She’s scaled back a little from posting every day to every week-day. In each post, Lorraine tells a little story related to the food she’s sharing. I find the stories about her partner and her immediate family fascinating and compelling. Lorraine is of East Asian heritage, and we have a common bond through that. I often find myself commenting on her posts. I wish her blog had a setting to know if she ever responds to comments because I don’t receive a notification.

I chose chicken wings for my tray-bake because I’m a lazy slob at heart, and I plan to sit in front of the TV on my worn couch and eat dinner with my hands to lick all the fatty juices from my fingers. I have this coffee table thing in front of my dilapidated couch, and it sits between me and the TV. My girlfriend mentioned a TV show she thought I might like. It’s called Made for Love. I thought I’d watch it while enjoying dinner. If you’re in Australia, you can watch it on Stan. No spoilers, suffice to say, my girlfriend has amazing taste in everything including TV. She’s amazing.

When I say I’m lazy, I mean I’m not the greatest fan of washing dishes. I do it and happily do it because it’s hygienic; however, if I can make a meal in one vessel and eat it from that vessel and not need any tools, I’m a happy yella fella.

Recipe

Ingredients

  • Chicken wings
  • MSG
  • Brown sugar
  • Salt
  • Worcestershire sauce
  • Red wine
  • Capsicums
  • White onion
  • Red onion
  • Red Royale potato
  • Golden sweet potato
  • Kent pumpkin
  • Eggplant 🍆
  • Cream
  • Dijon mustard
  • Cheddar cheese
  • Monterey Jack cheese slices
  • Spring onion

Instructions

Chicken

  1. Remove the chicken wings from the plastic packaging. I usually wash out the plastic container, dry it, and then cut the plastic into smaller pieces and place it into a rubbish bin. I am lazy, so repeated trips to the rubbish bins outside the block of flats feel like a chore. I’d rather be warm in ugg boots and a flannelette shirt, more so in winter.
  2. Lay the chicken pieces over the bottom of the oven tray.
  3. Add brown sugar, MSG, salt, Worcestershire sauce, and red wine to a jar. Shake the bottle to mix everything. Of course, close the bottle with the lid first; otherwise, the mess will be horrendous with sugar and red wine. Mind you, licking the floor would be full of sweet, salty, umami flavours.
  4. Pour the liquid over the chicken pieces.
  5. The following steps are alternatives.
  6. You could cover the tray with some plastic wrap and refrigerate, or you can do as I did and put the chicken and liquid into plastic bags and seal them. I used two bags and will use one bag later in the week.1
  7. Allow the chicken to absorb the flavours from the liquid in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight.

Vegetables

  1. Cut all the vegetables into bite-size pieces. For me, that’s about the size of a squash ball. You may have a more petite mouth so basically, think of how many balls you can fit in your mouth and make the pieces the size you like.
  2. I like cutting vegetables. I like having a sharp knife in my hand. I like the feeling of the cold hard steel and the motion of the blade through the vegetables and enjoying the tactile pleasure. In medical school, tutors would ask about possible treatments. Rather than a physician-type answer, I answered surgically, “There’s nothing like the feel; the feel of cold hard surgical steel.” Some readers who know me know I’m a specialist microbiologist and might wonder why I don’t answer, “Antibiotics.” More often than not, I’d recommend managing any collection of pus with incision and drainage. It’s also fun to poke your finger in and have a good rummage around to get all the pus out. Don’t get me wrong, most of the time in medicine, surgery isn’t called for; but it’s what I think when it’s an option.
  3. Place the cut vegetables into a large bowl and then generously douse with a neutral oil. I know I’m not going to be using high heat for this meal, so it’s not about burning olive oil beyond its smoke point; it’s more about the wank of olive oil.
  4. With your hands, massage all the vegetables lightly with the oil.
  5. Mix some dried herbs and spices in a bowl and coat the vegetables. You can choose for yourself what you’d like to use. I’m not going to share what I used just in case I stumble across some phenomenal secret formula to a spectacular vegetable rub. 😳😆

Cooking the tray-bake

  1. Turn on the oven to moderate heat.
  2. Use a large baking tray so that all the items have a little room.
  3. Rub some oil over the inside surface of the tray.
  4. Spread the chicken and vegetables out on the tray.
  5. Put the tray into the oven.
  6. Cook until the tips, edges, and corners of the food has started to take on some colour. When this happens, pour a carton of cream into a bowl and add a few tablespoons of Dijon mustard. Whisk it gently, and then fold in some grated cheddar cheese and spring onion. I reckon leeks would have been good on thinking about this some more.
  7. Remove the tray from the oven and pour over the Dijon-flavoured cheese stiffened cream.
  8. Put the tray back into the oven and cook until the liquid has reduced and thickened.
  9. Pull the tray out and add a few slices of Monterrey Jack cheese on top, season with some freshly cracked black pepper, and return to the oven until the cheese slices melt.
  10. Remove the tray from the oven and allow it to rest until the food stops wobbling, and it feels a little more firm when you give the tray a little nudge.

Plating up

  1. On a large dinner plate, spoon out the contents of the tray.
  2. Allow the leftover food in the tray to cool a little more and then transfer it to a storage bag. If you’re like me, fill a vacuum bag, seal it, and refrigerate to enjoy this again later in the week. If you use a vacuum bag, you can freeze it and enjoy a freezer surprise meal some weeks or months into the future.2
  3. Set up your eating area with enough napkins and wet wipes. It may be best to lay an old towel over the coffee table, and if you’re like me, place a towel on the floor between the couch and coffee table.
  4. Turn on the TV.
  5. Put the plate of food on the dinner table.
  6. Grab a big glass of water.
  7. Wash your hands.
  8. Give thanks to the Lord.
  9. Enjoy the chicken and vegetables and finger-licking while watching TV.

Thoughts on the meal

For a one-pot meal, my dinner was pretty good. The chicken was moist and juicy, and the vegetables didn’t squeak on my teeth. The flavours were on point.

Adding a dinner roll and butter would have been suitable for sopping up the leftover juices in the tray rather than wiping my fingers through them and licking my fingers.

Your choice of TV viewing is up to you. Suppose this was happening on a Wednesday night in winter. In that case, I might watch the “greatest game of all” played by the best teams in the most magnificent sporting spectacle. If it was late in September on a Sunday night, I might watch the “greatest game of all” played by two teams which I may or may not care about, in the second-best sporting spectacle of all. The “greatest game of all” is rugby league football, for those who don’t know me. The best teams are the Queensland maroons (or cane toads) and the New South Wales blues (or cockroaches). State of Origin football is the greatest sporting spectacle of all time. The second best sporting spectacle of all time is the National Rugby League grand final played by the two teams which have won the most points during the season. These teams are not necessarily the best. The best teams are the ones I support, and they may not reach the grand final. 😆 If you’re interested, next year I’m switching allegiance from the Brisbane Broncos to the Dolphins.

Final thoughts

  1. Do you like eating and watching TV at the same time?
  2. Who is your favourite food blogger? If you answer Yummy Lummy, I’ll give you a hug.
  3. Do you like one-pot meals?

Footnotes

  1. You may notice in the photo that the bag is vacuum-sealed and contains the marinade; if you have a vacuum sealer, I’d be careful. Vacuum sealers are not great with liquid in the bags. You could use a zip bag and displace the air by putting the bagged food in water, gradually lowering and forcing the air out, and then zipping the bag shut. The alternative is to use a chamber sealer.
  2. The benefit of placing the leftovers into a vacuum bag is you can reheat the food in a water bath. It only takes between 30 and 45 minutes, and with little effort, you have a meal ready to eat after a busy day. I’ve been doing this during the week because work has been quite busy, and I’ve been spending about 11 hours in the office each day and coming home and working a few more hours each night.
Chicken wings sans marinade
Chicken wings with marinade
Chicken wings with marinade in a vacuum bag
Chicken and vegetables prior to the oven
Chicken traybake watching TV
Chicken traybake watching TV
Chicken traybake watching TV
Chicken traybake

Laksa flavoured cauliflower and gorgonzola soup

Posted by Gary

Hello Reader,

How are you? I hope you had a brilliant week. Life for me is going splendidly. I am loving life. I couldn’t be happier, personally. Professionally, it’s excellent and exciting. The last couple of days have been exceptional at work.

Want to avoid the silly sausage story? Here’s the recipe!

Democracy sausage (roll)

Democracy sausage (roll)! Spicy corned beef fried rice rolled in puff pastry.

Today we get an opportunity to exercise our right to a free and fair vote for members of the House of Representatives and jurisdictional senators in the Australian Senate.

It’s become a ‘thing’, almost a tradition, for voters to consume a democracy sausage while lined up waiting to vote or after they’ve done the deed.

In its most basic form, a democracy sausage is a snag1 cooked on an outdoor hotplate and served in a folded slice of the cheapest white bread. There is no butter, the fat from the sausage being sufficient to lubricate the snag and offer some moisture to the dry bread. Some people will provide tomato or barbecue sauce. I’ve seen some people combine both the tomato and barbecue sauces and have it with their sausage. I will not judge them.

Democracy sausage (roll)! Spicy corned beef fried rice rolled in puff pastry.

We now see all manner of diversity in terms of the sausage sandwiches. There are vegetarian and vegan sausages. The bread can be gluten-free or sourdough or multi-grain, or any other type of bread.

Apart from the sauce, extras often include cooked onions, and we get the debate of onions under or over the sausage2. Some people have kimchi, others sauerkraut, and others also have cheese.

My democracy sausage was a sausage roll because that’s how I roll 😉

Last night, I got home late and felt like making fried rice with tinned corned beef. I made it spicy with some Bird’s-eye chillies.

Corned beef fried rice
Corned beef fried rice

My democracy sausage (roll) is leftover spicy corned beef fried rice in puff pastry.

While I’m having a little fun here, I’m conscious that there are foreign governments that do not hold free and fair elections. I respect the right of a foreign government to conduct itself sovereignly. While not a fan of the United Nations nor any of its derivative organisations, I hope that humankind will enjoy total freedom and an abundance of life.

Democracy sausage (roll)! Spicy corned beef fried rice rolled in puff pastry.

Back to the soup!

Cauliflower

Ingredients

  • Cauliflower
  • Potato
  • White onion
  • Leek
  • Bacon
  • Laksa paste (a commercial paste because life is too short)
  • White peppercorns
  • Vegetable stock
  • White wine
  • Gorgonzola

Instructions

  1. Dissect a cauliflower into florets.
  2. Roughly slice a leek. You can be rough with this leek. In the end, it’s all blended.
  3. Dice an onion.
  4. Dice the spud.
  5. Dice the bacon.
  6. Pound the white peppercorns in a mortar with a heavy hard pestle. Please give it a good pounding because you don’t want a gritty result from your pounding.
  7. Crumble the gorgonzola.
  8. Heat a saucepan on a hob.
  9. Sauté the bacon to render some fat, and then add the onion and leek to get the aromas in the air, so your kitchen area is rich with fragrance. If you like, you could add garlic too.
  10. Add the cauliflower and potato to the cooked bacon, onion, and leek.
  11. Cover everything with wine and vegetable stock and add a tablespoon of the laksa paste.
  12. Bring the soup to a boil and then simmer until the potato and cauliflower are soft.
  13. Turn off the heat and process the soup with a stick blender until smooth.
  14. Turn the heat back on to low.
  15. Add in the crumbled gorgonzola cheese and season with the pepper to taste.
  16. Ladle the soup to a bowl.
  17. Place the rest in vacuum bags and, using a vacuum chamber sealing device, seal the bags and freeze for another day.
  18. Give thanks to the Lord.
  19. Enjoy the soup and ponder life and love and how everything seems to fit together. Each part complements the other elements in life.
Vacuum sealed cauliflower soup Laksa paste Gorgonzola cheese

Thoughts on the soup

I know cauliflower soup isn’t a favourite for one of my daughters. She dislikes it intensely. For me, though, it has flavour, and the cheese gives it a thickness almost like a sauce. It’s rich and flavourful.

Combining something distinctly Asian and European seems to be a thing with me. Laksa paste and gorgonzola cheese. Who knew?

Final thoughts

  1. Is combining laksa paste and gorgonzola cheese an abomination or brilliance on my part? I liked it. You might like it too. Please give it a go and let me know.
  2. Does cauliflower give you flatus? I reckon tonight, my freshly laundered sheets will take on a new aroma 😆
  3. How do you feel about the democracy sausage? If you’re not Australian, do you have any election traditions?
  4. A workmate who saw my sausage roll asked if it counts as a democracy sausage. What do you think?

Footnotes

  1. The snag is slang for sausage
  2. A local hardware chain, viz., Bunnings, created controversy when it directed all sausage sandwiches sold at its stores not to have onions over the sausage. The management deemed the risk of slipping on dropped onions to be a safety hazard. The direction is to tuck the onion under the meat sac.
Cauliflower
Cauliflower soup Laksa paste Gorgonzola cheese
Cauliflower soup Laksa paste Gorgonzola cheese

Pig trotters, vinegar, and ginger

Posted by Gary

Hello Reader,

One of my fondest childhood meals was braised pig trotters in vinegar with ginger. Mum made it once every year or so when I was a boy.

Pig trotters Choice pork
Pig trotters

It wasn’t until I was an adult that Mum explained the purpose of this dish. It was to nourish new mothers after their bodies were depleted of essential life force associated with gestation, confinement, and the postpartum demands of a newborn infant. I don’t know if there is any scientific evidence to support this. I don’t care. I like the taste of the dish. It has the sharpness of the vinegar, the sweetness of the sugar, and the refreshing heat of the ginger. It would make my mouth tingle and feel fresh.

I’d only had this dish made with white vinegar as a child and teenager. Up until my 30s, I had no idea that black vinegar was a thing. I recall going to Hong Kong for a work trip in the early 2000s. It was a one-night stay, and for lunch, we went to a local café, and I saw pig trotters in ginger and black vinegar on the menu. I wondered if it might be like the dish Mum made. It wasn’t like Mum’s at all. (In my humble opinion) black vinegar pig trotters aren’t as enjoyable as Mum’s. Since then, I’ve had pig trotters in ginger and vinegar in other restaurants, and they were all black vinegar dishes. They all had a hint of Mum’s dish but not the essential essence.

I was chatting with Mum during the week and asked if she could share her recipe with me.

“Gary, it’s been so long since I’ve made that dish. I never had a recipe; I just threw things into a pot. We never had fancy Chinese vinegar, so we’d substitute with whatever we had.”

Mum uses Johnnie Walker red and black label whisky for cooking because she doesn’t have Chinese cooking wine. Dad would get bottles of whiskey as gifts from patients every Christmas. My parents, like me, don’t drink alcohol; Mum would cook with it. Like the wine, rather than Chinese vinegar, Mum used cheap white vinegar.

It turns out it’s been close to 25 years since Mum has made this dish.

So, dear reader, this is an experiment; I will toss in a pressure cooker the things Mum can remember and see what happens.

Just a note for the fair dinkum East Asian food aficionados, I’m not adding the boiled eggs because it’s too much faffing about. All I care about is the meat and fat, and flavour. If I’d given birth and was breastfeeding, I still doubt I’d faff with the eggs.

Hairy pig trotters, vinegar, and ginger

Ingredients

  • Pig trotters (I bought mine from the local butcher)1
  • Pork belly (I bought two trotters, so I thought I’d add some pork belly because I wanted more meat. I think hocks would have been better.)
  • White or rice vinegar (not sure if rice vinegar would work)
  • Dry sherry2
  • Ginger (a big girthy rhizome3, long with good weight [technically, ginger isn’t a root, it’s a rhizome] Big girthy rhizome sounds better than a big girthy root too)
  • Sugar (white)
  • Salt (iodised)
  • Pepper (freshly pounded white and black peppercorns in a mortar with a pestle)
  • MSG (as much as you want)4
  • Cloves (a few)
  • Rice (I used jasmine rice because that’s all I had)
  • Bok choi (this is optional, but I know there will be readers who will tsk and wonder about my bowel health)
  • Spring onions (this as garnish)
Breville Fast Slow cooker
Breville Fast Slow cooker

Instructions

  1. Remove the bristles from the pig trotters. Unless you like the mouthfeel of some hairs as you mouth and suck on the skin and gelatinous fat off the pig’s trotter. It might be like mouthing and sucking someone’s toes. How do you feel about toe jam5? Do you like sucking toes? I could have used a disposable razor to shave off the hairs but I didn’t because I’m lazy and I don’t mind hairy.
  2. Peel a few thick girthy thumbs of ginger. I like a lot of ginger but use as much or as little as you like.
  3. Cut the ginger into bite-size pieces and give them a good whack with a Chinese cleaver to help release flavour.
  4. Add the trotters, vinegar, dry sherry, sugar, ginger, salt, MSG, cloves, and pepper into the cooking vessel of a pressure cooker. Mum didn’t give me weights and volumes, so I guessed based on intuition. If you really want to know, it was a couple of cups of vinegar, a cup of dry sherry, a cup of sugar, a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of MSG, maybe half a dozen or so cloves, and a tablespoon each of the white and black peppercorns.
  5. Cook for 40 minutes. Again, this duration is a guess based on feelings. The time starts when the pressure is reached not when you turn it on.
  6. Cook rice. Use a rice cooker if you have one, or microwave a packet and try to avoid criticism from purists.
  7. Allow the pressure cooker to equilibrate and leave it for at least 15 minutes. Taking the lid off a pressure prematurely can leave your meat dry. It’s like most things that happen prematurely, you want to give things time and do it slowly.6
  8. Gently remove the pig trotters and pork belly from the cooking vessel and pass the liquor through a sieve.
  9. Place the filtered liquor into a saucepan and reduce it to a slightly sticky syrup.
  10. Place the fluffy rice into a bowl and add the pork and reduced liquor into another bowl.
  11. As an option, if you like green things, you could steam some Chinese vegetables like Bok choi or something similar.
  12. Garnish the pig trotters with some spring onions. I also like garnishing with bird’s-eye chillies. While this dish doesn’t need the heat of the chilli, I like keeping my mucous membranes and nerve endings excited.
  13. Give thanks to the Lord.
  14. Eat with chopsticks and a spoon.

Thoughts

It turns out I did a thing! It tasted okay. It may not be authentic, but I’m happy. Now I need to practice this dish; perhaps Mum may like it.

To be fair, I think I may have used too much pepper and ginger. While not lingering, my mouth especially my lips were tingling like I’d had a mouthful of Sichuan pepper. The Bird’s-eye chillies which I used as garnish reinforced the heat on my lips and tongue.

Unlike most meals I write about, this one had a bit of thought behind it. I didn’t know if it would work. It could have been awful. I’m grateful it wasn’t.

The current outbreak of Japanese encephalitis which is affecting the Australian pork industry will likely cause the prices of pork to escalate. I’m savouring this dish as I plan to eat more chicken and vegetables.

In case anyone is concerned, while pigs are amplifying hosts of the Japanese encephalitis virus, JEV infection of pigs has no effect on the meat which is still safe for human consumption. Unfortunately, JEV infection of sows results in fetal death in utero and mummification of piglets. We really need to get on top of the outbreak to keep pigs healthy, farmers happy, and consumers satisfied.

Final thoughts

  1. Do you have a childhood dish you’re keen to make? What is it?
  2. Do you like pig trotters? How about pig hocks?
  3. Would you like a meal like this to replenish your vital essences if you’ve recently given birth?
  4. If you try making this, please leave a comment for me to read. Thank you.

Footnotes

  1. I bought the pig trotters from The Butcher Shop at Jamison Plaza
  2. Chinese cooking wine would also be okay
  3. An underground stem that has roots and shoots from its nodes
  4. King of flavour
  5. Toe jam refers to the crud which accumulates between toes. Washing your feet is essential.
  6. When I first read about the slow food movement, I thought it was a bit poncy, however, I’ve learnt how much better my cooking and eating enjoyment is when I take things slowly and move deliberately.
Pig trotters, vinegar, and ginger
Pig trotters
A pair of pig trotters and a piece of pork belly
Pressure cooker pig trotters and pork belly
Pig trotters, vinegar, and ginger
Hairy pig trotters, vinegar, and ginger

Sous vide Sichuan kangaroo with Hokkien noodles

Posted by Gary

Dear Reader,

Greetings friends. It’s the beginning of a long weekend here in Australia (and New Zealand). Monday, 25 April 2022, is a public holiday and represents Anzac Day.

Kangaroos in a paddock near Lake Ginninderra

The weather in Canberra started dull and dreary; however, I saw a blue sky as I looked out of my balcony window.

I’ve been reading J. Kenji López-Alt’s new book on the wok, which has inspired me to cook more Asian style meals. To give this meal an Australian flavour, I went with Kangaroo.

Broccoli, Carrot, Chillies, Coriander, Coriander seeds, Daikon radish, Ginger, Red chillies, Shallots, Sichuan peppercorns, Sodium bicarbonate, Soy sauce, Spring onions, White peppercorns

Ingredients

  • Kangaroo steak. I picked up a packet of kangaroo steaks from the supermarket. I don’t know what cut of the kangaroo this meat is.
  • Monosodium glutamate
  • Sodium bicarbonate
  • Hokkien noodles
  • Sichuan peppercorns
  • White peppercorns
  • Black peppercorns
  • Coriander seeds
  • Coriander seeds
  • Chilli powder
  • Chillies
  • Coriander roots
  • Coriander stems
  • Coriander leaves
  • Broccolini
  • Shallots
  • Spring onions
  • Ginger
  • Garlic
  • Daikon radish
  • Carrot
  • Peanut oil
  • Sesame oil
  • Dry sherry
  • Soy sauce
  • Corn flour

Instructions

  1. On arriving home from the supermarket, season the kangaroo steaks with MSG and freshly cracked black pepper.
  2. Vacuum seal the meat in bags and refrigerate for a few hours.
  3. Prepare the Sichuan peppercorns by removing the black seeds and discarding them. Set the husks aside. For any whole peppercorns, crush them with your fingers and peel off the husk for use in the meal. Throw the black seeds away. This step reduces the unpleasant texture some people report when they purchase Sichuan peppercorns and add them from the container into a meal. Taking the time to do this and making an effort pays off.
  4. Cook the meat at 57 °C for 100 minutes.
  5. Once cooked, remove some of the meat and set it aside. Place the rest of the kangaroo into an airtight container and refrigerate or freeze for future use.
  6. Cut the meat into thin strips and dry with absorbent kitchen paper.
  7. With a pestle and mortar pound the peppercorns and coriander seeds. Pound them hard. Pound them until it hurts and you have a fine powder of spice.
  8. Place the meat strips into a bowl and add the ground peppercorns, ground coriander seeds, and sodium bicarbonate.
  9. Vigorously massage the meat with your fingers to coat the meat with the dry ingredients. You want to be quite physical with the meat and not delicate or gentle. The aim is to give the meat a good working over to ensure flavour and tenderness.
  10. Place diced shallots, sliced spring onions (the white bit), minced fresh ginger, and minced fresh garlic into a container.
  11. Slice the green part of the spring onions and put them into some iced water, and set them aside.
  12. Julienne some carrot and daikon radish and place onto a plate.
  13. Slice the stalks and heads of some broccoli and place them on the plate with the carrot and daikon radish.
  14. Make a slurry with water, cornflour, and soy sauce and whisk with chopsticks (like an Asian).
  15. Place the Hokkien noodles into a bowl and add boiling water. Soak the noodles for about 5 minutes. Separate the noodles with tongs and drain them with a colander or sieve.
  16. Heat your wok and add some peanut oil and sesame oil.
  17. Stir through the shallots, spring onion white bits, garlic, and minced ginger.
  18. Cook these aromatic ingredients, so they become fragrant.
  19. Move the aromatic ingredients to a dish.
  20. Add a little more oil and stir fry the carrot, radish, and broccoli until these vegetables soften. Avoid overcooking. The aim is to have some bite in the vegetables; you don’t want them soggy or limp. You want them firm with a bit of stiffness.
  21. Add some MSG and swirl some soy sauce around the sides of the wok and keep tossing the wok.
  22. Place the stir-fried vegetables into a dish.
  23. Add a bit of peanut oil and then stir-fry the meat strips.
  24. Get some colour onto the meat.
  25. Pour in some dry sherry, and add the aromatic ingredients and the vegetables.
  26. Toss in the Sichuan peppercorn husks and give everything in the wok a good stir.
  27. Thicken your juices with the slurry of cornflour and soy sauce.
  28. Place the noodles into a bowl and transfer the contents of then wok atop the noodles.
  29. Thank the Lord.
  30. Eat with chopsticks and a spoon.

How was the meal?

I’ve eaten sous vide kangaroo before. I enjoyed it then and tonight’s meal was good too.

The Sichuan peppercorn husks and the ground pepper gave me a fizz in my mouth. I’m guessing that adding the MSG also helped enhance the flavours.

I made enough for two, so I’ve set aside half for tomorrow’s lunch, which I’ll enjoy after church.

Finals thoughts

  • Have you tried kangaroo meat? What did you think?
  • The last time I shared my kangaroo meat dinner on Twitter, some Tweeps protested and shared with their Tweeps that I was not respecting native Australian fauna. I’m not saying that what I do is correct or the best way to live. It’s how I live, and I respect that not everyone agrees.
  • How do you feel about incorporating non-traditional ingredients into Asian style dishes? Macropods, i.e., kangaroos and wallabies, are not native to East Asia. Still, in my defence, Chinese people have traditionally been adventurous when eating things. Look at some of the interesting meat Chinese like to eat.
  • Have you cooked with Sichuan pepper? Do you like the fizz it creates in your mouth and on your tongue and lips?
Essential Ingredient Sichuan peppercorns White peppercorns
Broccoli, Carrot, Chillies, Coriander, Coriander seeds, Daikon radish, Ginger, Red chillies, Shallots, Sichuan peppercorns, Sodium bicarbonate, Soy sauce, Spring onions, White peppercorns
Broccoli, Carrot, Chillies, Coriander, Coriander seeds, Daikon radish, Ginger, Red chillies, Shallots, Sichuan peppercorns, Sodium bicarbonate, Soy sauce, Spring onions, White peppercorns
Sous vide Kangaroo
Hokkien noodles
Sous vide Sichuan kangaroo with Hokkien noodles
Sous vide Sichuan kangaroo with Hokkien noodles
Sous vide Sichuan kangaroo with Hokkien noodles

Coles Tomahawk Steak and cabbage

Posted by Gary

Dear Reader,

When I read “tomahawk”, I think of a small axe! This steak was more like a small hatchet.

I saw this in the supermarket yesterday while grocery shopping and my eyes shone like dinner plates.

Two weeks ago, when I went out for the chicken parmigiana dinner with workmates, I saw the Fenway Public House tomahawk steak on the menu. My friend, MG, said her husband loves a tomahawk steak. My reply was that we should all return for a meal and enjoy a steak.

Sous vide tomahawk steak

When I saw this steak in the meat display cabinet, I immediately thought to cook it at a low temperature in the oven. I’d follow this by searing it in a castiron skillet. To prepare for this approach, I dry brined the meat with monosodium glutamate, also known as MSG, and King of Flavour!

Monosodium glutamate (MSG)

The more I thought about the meal; I concluded I would cook it “under vacuum” (sous vide).

Ingredients

  • Steak
  • MSG
  • Cabbage
  • Sesame oil
  • Shallots
  • Red chillies
  • Carrot
  • Parsley
  • Instant gravy

Instructions

  1. Think ahead and give yourself a day to prepare so you can dry brine the meat.
  2. Place the steak on a rack over a baking tray.
  3. Season the steak with MSG.
  4. Place the steak on the rack and then into the refrigerator and leave uncovered overnight.
  5. When you want to cook the steak, place the meat into a vacuum bag and seal it.
  6. Cook the meat in a water bath at 54 °C (129 °F) for two hours. This temperature should produce a medium-rare result.
  7. Remove the meat from the bag and pat it dry with kitchen paper.
  8. Sear the surfaces of the steak in a hot castiron skillet basting it in some butter.
  9. Allow the steak to rest for between 5 and 10 minutes.
  10. Make the instant gravy as per the maker’s instructions.
  11. Make the cabbage side dish with sliced cabbage, julienned carrot, sesame oil, shallots, and parsley.
  12. Put all the vegetables in a microwave cooking container and add some vegetable oil, MSG, and pepper. Heat with microwave radiation until it’s cooked and the cabbage still has some crunch.
  13. Carve the flesh from the rib bone, and with a sharp knife, follow the muscle bundle fascia to prise apart the principal muscle bundles.
  14. Keep the eye fillet aside for meals later in the week.
  15. Slice the fat cap meat.
  16. Place the bone plus the fat cap meat on a dinner plate alongside the cabbage side dish.
  17. Spoon over some gravy.
  18. Give thanks to the Lord.
  19. Eat with a steak knife and fork unless, like me, you live alone and eat with fingers in a primal fashion.
  20. The best part may be gnawing the meat from the rib bone.

Monosodium glutamate

Monosodium glutamate (MSG)

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ)

You can find the FSANZ technical report on their website. MSG=monosodium glutamate; CRS=Chinese restaurant syndrome. I recognise and acknowledge there are many people who prefer to avoid MSG and I’d never suggest they should try it or that they don’t have a legitimate reason not to use it or consume it.

I’ve had a few people ask me about MSG and my opinion so I thought it best to refer to a published report in which I have no concerns.

A friendly Tweep who has asked about MSG

The report concludes:

“There is no convincing evidence that MSG is a significant factor in causing systemic reactions resulting in severe illness or mortality. The studies conducted to date on CRS have largely failed to demonstrate a causal association with MSG. Symptoms resembling those of CRS may be provoked in a clinical setting in small numbers of individuals by the administration of large doses of MSG without food. However, such affects are neither persistent nor serious and are likely to be attenuated when MSG is consumed with food. In terms of more serious adverse effects such as the triggering of bronchospasm in asthmatic individuals, the evidence does not indicate that MSG is a significant trigger factor.“

Final thoughts

  • Do you like gnawing meat from the bone?
  • Do your eyes shine like dinner plates when you see something you lust after in the supermarket meat display cabinet?
  • What would you do with the leftover fillet meat?
  • What are your thoughts on MSG?
A small Coles tomahawk steak
A small Coles tomahawk steak dry brining with MSG
A small Coles tomahawk steak dry brining with MSG
A small Coles tomahawk steak dry brined with MSG
A small Coles tomahawk steak dry brined with MSG and vacuum sealed.
Sous vide tomahawk steak
Sous vide tomahawk steak
Coles Tomahawk Steak and cabbage
Coles Tomahawk Steak and cabbage
Coles Tomahawk Steak and cabbage
Coles Tomahawk Steak
Coles Tomahawk Steak and cabbage