Eye fillet

Sous vide eye fillet and duxelles wrapped in puff pastry—Beef Wellington

Posted by Gary

Dear Reader,

How has your week been? I’ve had a fabulous one. Work has been busy with some unexpected challenges. Such challenges, however; accentuate the amazing skills and nature of the marvellous group of people I have the honour of working with.

Personally, life has been pretty good too. Feeling joy and happiness is wonderful.

Angas Park Australian Pitted Prunes. Great for constipation 😉

Ingredients

  • Eye fillet steak (beef)
  • Dijon mustard
  • Brown mushrooms (chopped)
  • White onion (chopped)
  • Parsley (chopped)
  • Sage (chopped)
  • Pitted prunes (chopped)
  • Pâté
  • Puff pastry (store bought)
  • Instant gravy
  • Broccolini

Instructions

  1. Truss a piece of eye fillet steak with butcher’s twine.
  2. Season the beef liberally with salt.
  3. Put the meat into a plastic vacuum bag and seal it.
  4. Refrigerate the meat for a few hours and let the salt penetrate the meat.
  5. Cook the beef in a water bath at 54 °C for about 2 hours.
  6. Refrigerate the meat in the bag overnight (this isn’t necessary but I cooked the meat on Saturday and cooked this meal today [Sunday]).
  7. Remove the meat from the bag and dry the surface of the steak with kitchen paper and snip the butcher’s twine and remove the string.
  8. Rub some Dijon mustard over the beef.
  9. Sauté the onions in a little rice bran oil or vegetable oil.
  10. Once the onions have become translucent, add the mushrooms and sauté until the schroom juices exude freely.
  11. Once the bulk of the water has become vapour, add in the prunes, sage, and parsley. Mix everything well and turn off the heat.
  12. Transfer the duxelles to the bowl to cool down. Have some absorbent paper in the bottom of the bowl to tamponade any free juices. I don’t want the duxelles bone dry, I want it to start off moist and once it gets hot again, it’ll get wet.
  13. One a sheet of puff pastry trowel a thin layer of pâté and then a thin layer of the duxelles.
  14. Place the meat on this and trowel some more pâté on the beef plus a layer of duxelles.
  15. Brush some melted butter on the exposed surface of the puff pastry.
  16. Add a sheet of puff pastry on top and press around the edges so the two sheets bind.
  17. Cut away the excess pastry with a blade and if you feel up to it, use the excess pastry to make some weird looking shapes to add on top of the pastry casing.
  18. Brush the pastry with some beaten egg and add a little flaky salt.
  19. Place the meat and pastry creation into a moderate oven and cook until the pastry is a golden brown.
  20. While the Beef Wellington is cooking, steam some broccolini and make the instant gravy.
  21. When the pastry looks good, remove the Beef Wellington from the oven and allow it to rest for about ten minutes.
  22. Slice the Beef Wellington in half and place one half on a dinner plate. Keep the other half in the refrigerator for a meal the next day.
  23. Put the broccolini on the plate next to the meat and then spoon over some gravy.
  24. Give thanks to the Lord for the meal and tuck in.

Spoilers | Have you watched any good movies lately? | Spoilers

Last night a friend and I watched Pig. It stars Nicolas Cage and a pig. It was released in 2021 we really enjoyed it.

The pig is a truffle pig, and Nicolas Cage plays a former chef with a dark personality.

When I say the movie stars the pig, it’s not like the movie, Babe. The pig is only seen in the first few minutes of the movie, but the pig forms a large part of the movie without being seen.

Final Thoughts

  • Do you like Beef Wellington?
  • How was your week?
  • Have you seen Pig?
White onion Brown mushrooms Pitted prunes Parsley Sage
White onion Brown mushrooms Pitted prunes Parsley Sage
Beef Wellington
Sous vide eye fillet and duxelles wrapped in puff pastry. Beef wellington.
Sous vide eye fillet and duxelles wrapped in puff pastry. Beef wellington.

Steak, prawns and salad

Posted 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
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

  1. Buy some steak from the supermarket or the butcher.
  2. Unwrap the steak and dry the surface with kitchen paper.
  3. Place the steak on a wire rack over a tray.
  4. Season the steak with generous amounts of salt.
  5. Truss the eye fillet with cooking twine, so your meat keeps its shape and doesn’t fall apart.
  6. Place the steak into the refrigerator overnight to dry brine.
  7. When you’re ready to cook the steak, put them into a vacuum bag and vacuum seal the bag.
  8. Set up a water bath and raise the temperature to 54 °C.
  9. Cook the steak at this temperature for 2 hours and 10 minutes.
  10. Remove the steak from the bag and dry the surface of the steak with kitchen paper.
  11. Coat the surface of the steak with horseradish cream.
  12. Pound some whole black peppercorns with your pestle in a mortar and clad the exterior of your creamed meat with the pepper.
  13. 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.
  14. 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 😉
  15. Toss in the prawn meat and cook quickly. Avoid overcooking.

Gravy

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

Salad

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

Plating up

  1. If I had guests (note no one has ever visited where I live), I would heat the dinner plate.
  2. Place the steak on the dinner plate, add a pat of butter on the steak, and then top the eye fillet with the prawns.
  3. Add some salad next to the steak.
  4. Spoon some gravy over the prawns and steak.
  5. 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.
  6. 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

  1. When was the last time you cooked a steak?
  2. Do you prefer a salad, hot chips, or potato mash with your steak?
  3. How do you like your steak cooked in terms of doneness?
  • Dry brined eye fillet in bondage
    Dry brined eye fillet in bondage
  • Dry brined eye fillet in bondage
    Dry brined eye fillet in bondage
  • Pepper Steak ready to be seared
    Pepper Steak ready to be seared
  • Sous vide eye fillet pepper steak, prawns and salad with peppercorn gravy
    Sous vide eye fillet pepper steak, prawns and salad with peppercorn gravy
  • Sous vide eye fillet pepper steak, prawns and salad with peppercorn gravy
    Sous vide eye fillet pepper steak, prawns and salad with peppercorn gravy
  • Sous vide eye fillet pepper steak, prawns and salad with peppercorn gravy
    Sous vide eye fillet pepper steak, prawns and salad with peppercorn gravy
  • Sous vide eye fillet pepper steak, prawns and salad with peppercorn gravy
    Sous vide eye fillet pepper steak, prawns and salad with peppercorn gravy
  • Sous vide eye fillet pepper steak, prawns and green peppercorn gravy
    Sous vide eye fillet pepper steak, prawns and green peppercorn gravy

Chip crusted eye fillet steak with mustard potato mash

Posted by Gary

Chip crusted eye fillet steak with mustard potato mash.

Red Rock Deli Lime & Black Pepper Potato Chips

Do you like crunchy textures in your mouth? When it comes to steak, most people want a tender bite and beefy flavour. Mum used to make crumbed steak when I was a young fella. It was so good that I would spit on the spare one which Mum always cooked, so my two younger brothers wouldn’t want it. Yes, I was a very naughty boy. Some might say, I still am! 😉

Ingredients

  • Eye fillet steak
  • Rock salt (in a grinder)
  • Whole black peppercorns (in a grinder)
  • Red Rock Deli Lime & Black Pepper potato chips (1 bag, crushed with a food processor)
  • Dijonnaise mustard
  • Birds Eye potato mash (with butter)
  • Wholegrain mustard

Instructions

Steak

  1. Go to the supermarket and look for the cheapest eye fillet you can find. There’s no point going for a super expensive steak because this meat will be cooked under a vacuum in a water bath (sous vide).
  2. When you get home, and after you’ve made an excellent strong (Atlas blend) coffee in caffettiera, season your meat with liberal quantities of freshly ground rock salt (iodised, of course) and black peppercorns.
  3. Seal your meat in a vacuum bag and refrigerate and go about your day. For example, I went for a lovely walk around Lake Ginninderra and admired God’s wonder in the beautiful autumn leaves.
  4. When you’re ready to think about dinner seriously, heat a water bath to 54 °C and put the steak into the water bath and cook for about 2 hours and 10 minutes.
  5. After cooking, remove your perfectly cooked meat from the water bath, open the bag, and dry your meat with absorbent kitchen paper.
  6. Sear your meat in a cast-iron skillet or use a torch. Avoid basting with butter (yea, I know this sounds heretical for regular readers who know my unparalleled devotion to butter, but there is a purpose to my madness). You want the seared surface to be relatively dry.
  7. With a kitchen brush (yeah, not a bathroom brush), apply a coat of dijonnaise mustard to the outer surfaces of your meat. Then dab your sticky beef into a bowl of crushed potato chips.
  8. Set aside or, if you prefer, sequester your meat to somewhere warm and moist but not too humid. You don’t want the chips to get too soggy quickly. 
Autumn trees on Lake Ginninderra

Potato mash

  1. Remove the package from the freezer.
  2. Note the instructions to cook using microwave radiation for 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Also, note the microwave radiation oven doesn’t have a functioning 1 or 2 button, so do some mental arithmetic to calculate a two-step cooking process. Make a note to buy a new microwave radiation oven, given this one is nearly 14 years old. 
  3. When you have ceased to irradiate the potato mash, allow the package to stand for one minute.
  4. Open the packet and transfer the potato mash to a warm bowl. Stir through a tablespoon of wholegrain mustard for an added bit of flair!

Plating up

  1. Transfer the mustard-flavoured potato mash to a warmed dinner plate.
  2. Place the potato chip crusted steak atop the potato mash.
  3. Serve with green vegetables.

Final thoughts

It’s not a meal to write home about, but it will do.

If you live alone, you can make a slightly pretentious and fancy meal out of steak and potato. Please give it a go and let me know what you think.

You don’t need to cook sous vide either. Eye fillet pan-fries very well and will be tender.

  • Red Rock Deli Lime & Black Pepper Potato Chips
  • Crushed Red Rock Deli Lime & Black Pepper Potato Chips
  • Dijonnaise and Wholegrain mustards
  • Chip crusted eye fillet steak with mustard potato mash
  • Chip crusted eye fillet steak with mustard potato mash
  • Chip crusted eye fillet steak with mustard potato mash