How has your week been? I had a wonderful week. Work has been steady, and the weather has been mild.
I haven’t had much food inspiration this week. However, today, I read a couple of reports of food-borne infections associated with beef. That’s why I chose steak for dinner.
I like a large piece of beef because a large portion of the muscle is always safer than meat minced (ground in North America) or served in a manner that increases risk.
Many people never have any ill effects, but others experience severe infections, and there are some who die. The morbidity and mortality are why public health practitioners are necessary.
I feel fortunate because I enjoy eating beef on the rare side. Cooking the meat with knowledge of temperature control ensures pasteurisation and food safety.
Recipe
Equipment
Immersion circulator
Water bath
Cast iron skillet
Ingredients
Steak
Salt
Garlic powder
Pepper
Lettuce
Cherry tomatoes
Avocado
Mayonnaise
Butter
Flour
Beef stock
Mushrooms
Instructions
Steak
Season the steak with iodised salt, freshly ground peppercorns, and garlic powder.
Place the seasoned steak into a vacuum bag and seal it in a vacuum chamber.
Cook the steak at 54 °C for 3 hours and 10 minutes in the water bath.
Remove the steak from the bag and dry the surface with absorbent paper.
Keep the juices for the gravy.
Heat a cast iron skillet and sear the steak.
Allow the steak to rest a little before carving the meat from the bone and then slicing the meat.
Mushrooms
Quarter some mushrooms.
Sauté the mushrooms in butter.
Gravy
Make a roux with butter and flour.
Whisk in some beef stock and cooked meat juices.
Season the gravy with salt and pepper.
Salad
Place some washed lettuce leaves in a bowl.
Cut some cherry tomatoes into quarters and add them to the salad bowl.
Dice half an avocado and add to the salad bowl.
Stir through some mayonnaise as a salad dressing.
Plating up
Arrange the steak on a warmed dinner plate.
Place the salad next to the steak.
Place the mushrooms between the steak and the salad and spoon some of the butter onto the meat.
Pour the gravy into a small bowl and serve it on the dinner plate so the steak can be dipped.
Thoughts on the steak
This thick cut of porterhouse was good. I’m saving the other half to cook by reverse searing it.
As much as I am a fan of instant gravy, making a roux and using the cooked meat juices from the vacuum bag gives a flavour and consistency, which is just as good, if not better.
It feels like it’s been ages since I’ve cooked steak for dinner. The last six months have seen me working out my pressure cooker “muscles”.
I was sharing text messages with a dear friend last night about simple pleasures. You know, looking out on a pleasantly warm evening, snacking and chatting, and then enjoying a steak and salad dinner.
It got me thinking; I want to get my lips around a nice juicy steak.
How have you been feeling lately with the news of the Omicron Variant? The case number predictions have kept me on the edge of my seat. At present, we’re seeing doubling rates of 2 days and intracellular viral replication rates an order of magnitude higher than other lineages.
It’s a great time to be alive if you’re a microbiologist. I wish, however, this was just a laboratory experiment and not real life. Please stay safe. Stay home if you feel unwell. Keep yourself distant from others by at least 1.5 metres. Wash your hands with soap and water as often as you need to. If soap and water are not available, carry and use an alcohol-based hand rub. Observe respiratory hygiene and if you feel comfortable, wear a face covering, preferably a surgical mask. Get immunised. It looks like everyone will need a booster for any real protection against severe disease caused by infection with SARS-COV-2 Omicron Variant.
Sous vide eye fillet pepper steak, prawns and green peppercorn gravy
Ingredients
Eye fillet steak
Raw prawn meat
Cherry tomatoes
Baby cucumbers
Capsicum
Iodised salt
Black pepper (coarsely ground)
Green peppercorns
Horseradish cream
Beef stock
Butter
Plain flour
Instructions
Steak
Buy some steak from the supermarket or the butcher.
Unwrap the steak and dry the surface with kitchen paper.
Place the steak on a wire rack over a tray.
Season the steak with generous amounts of salt.
Truss the eye fillet with cooking twine, so your meat keeps its shape and doesn’t fall apart.
Place the steak into the refrigerator overnight to dry brine.
When you’re ready to cook the steak, put them into a vacuum bag and vacuum seal the bag.
Set up a water bath and raise the temperature to 54 °C.
Cook the steak at this temperature for 2 hours and 10 minutes.
Remove the steak from the bag and dry the surface of the steak with kitchen paper.
Coat the surface of the steak with horseradish cream.
Pound some whole black peppercorns with your pestle in a mortar and clad the exterior of your creamed meat with the pepper.
To avoid burning the pepper and creating an acrid mess, heat a generous amount of butter into a cast-iron skillet and sear the surface of the pepper-crusted steak quickly.
Allow the eye fillet to rest. You may wonder, why does steak cooked in a water bath (sous vide) need to rest? It doesn’t; however, it does give the person cooking dinner sufficient time to attend to other things. I mean, if I drank wine, I’d probably have a sip or two. The same would apply if I drank beer 😉
Toss in the prawn meat and cook quickly. Avoid overcooking.
Gravy
When you open the vacuum bag, retain the juices from your meat in a small jug.
To your juices, add some beef stock.
Make a roux with some butter and flour.
Once the roux is ready, add the meat-juice augmented stock.
If you want a little more kick, add some green peppercorns.
Make the gravy to the consistency you desire.
Transfer the sauce to a jug or, if you’re fancy, a gravy boat.
Salad
Do I need to explain how to make a salad?
I cut some vegetables and put them in a bowl.
I drizzled over some extra virgin olive oil and seasoned it with freshly ground iodised salt.
Plating up
If I had guests (note no one has ever visited where I live), I would heat the dinner plate.
Place the steak on the dinner plate, add a pat of butter on the steak, and then top the eye fillet with the prawns.
Add some salad next to the steak.
Spoon some gravy over the prawns and steak.
Give thanks to God for, amongst other things, great friends, wages to buy food, and the skills to prepare and cook food. Plead with Him to use the food to nourish your body and mind and seek His assistance to be a better person.
While the steak is tender enough to cut with a blunt spoon, use a steak knife to cut your meat.
Last post for the year
I think this will be the last post for the year. Next weekend is Christmas Day and Boxing Day. I plan to be elsewhere.
If you’re a regular reader, I want to thank you for taking the time most weeks to read my food musings. I’m grateful for the friends I’ve made in the blogging world, especially those who regularly comment on my posts.
Not a regular reader? Thanks for reading this post. Please feel free to leave a comment.
If I know you in real life, thanks for reading and getting to know me better, I’m grateful for your time.
Final thoughts
When was the last time you cooked a steak?
Do you prefer a salad, hot chips, or potato mash with your steak?
How do you like your steak cooked in terms of doneness?
Dry brined eye fillet in bondage
Dry brined eye fillet in bondage
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 green peppercorn gravy
There is nothing special about tonight’s meal or this post. I’ve been so busy I’ve not been able to find inspiration in anything I want to cook so when I went grocery shopping I picked up a steak and some salad stuff.
Today was the last day of my holiday. For dinner I thought back to a lunch I had in Hawaii, viz., a saimin burger and went about making a saimin salmon salad for dinner tonight.
In case you’re interested, I cooked the noodles in hot water and then fried them in egg rings. I added a little olive oil, soy sauce, Tabasco sauce and maple syrup.
Saimin burger from L&L Hawaiian Barbecue
Saimin salmon salad for dinner
I spent my last day of my holiday at home cleaning up and unpacking, washing more clothes and catching up on personal e-mails. I also went for a walk around Lake Ginninderra and shot some photographs.
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