Ah Meat, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

So as most of you know (as most of my readers are actually just my friends in real life) I’m going away for 5 weeks tomorrow.  Two weeks in N. Ireland with Himself and three weeks in Italy with the Wee Girl – I’m still pinching myself.  I’ll try to do some blogs while I’m away – I’m sure the food in N. Ireland will be worthy of a post – the battered chicken fillet burgers and curry chip are meant to be second to none.

But of course I’m currently cooking stocks low so that there’s no food languishing in the freezer etc. while we’re away.  On Sunday night I decided to cook the Chianina rib eye that was in the Chest Freezer from our last Big Box Bonanza from F&B.  This was the piece of meat I was saving for a Super Special Occasion.  I took it out the day before and left it in the fridge to defrost as I didn’t want to rush it.  An hour or so before cooking I put it on the bench (covered in foil to foil any attempts by the cat to make off with a 1 kg piece of meat*) to bring it to room temperature.  The plan was to brown nicely then finish in the oven.

As it was the perfect piece of meat it needed the perfect accompaniment.  Both on that night and also the next day served in a salad**.  So I bought some fresh broad beans (yum!) and also grabbed a zucchini from the garden.  I also had on hand leeks, potatoes, bone marrow, frozen hollandaise and brown Turkish.  Ahh bone marrow, how confronting you are to prepare.  First it must be scooped from the bone and then sit there looking slightly icky until you can transform it into deliciousness.  It’s always a bit of a struggle, but I just switch the brain off while I’m doing it.

Ahh Marrow - thou dost confront me

While it sounds like a lot of work up there, it wasn’t really.  I put on the oven, split the leek in two, drizzled with oil, sprinkled with salt and sugar and dotted with Dijon mustard.  Now, when I mention salt and sugar, it’s not a whole lot of either, just to bring out the flavour and help with caramalisation.

About 45 minutes before I wanted to serve I browned the meat which I’d rubbed with olive oil and salt and popped it in the oven for 30 min.  I reckon in hindsight 25 would have been enough but it wasn’t underdone, just more on the medium side than medium rare.

I steamed the broad beans and zucchini for 3 minutes and decided to leave the skins on the broad beans – more taste, and they’re new season so still tender.  I then put them aside.  At the same time I boiled the potatoes for mash.  Once the meat was finished I pulled it out to rest for 10 minutes or so. I removed the potatoes from the water and carefully floated the bowl with the frozen hollandaise sauce in it to carefully defrost it.  I didn’t know you could freeze hollandaise – my BFF assured me you could so this was my first attempt.  Win!

Marrow crumble now looking acceptable
and delicious

In the frypan that had been in the oven (careful, it’s hot!) I added a bit more butter and oil and fried up my blended marrow, bread, garlic, parsley and salt.  Once it was brown(er) and crispy I moved it to some absorbent paper and then threw the beans, zucchini, rest-of-garlic and a bit more butter in the frypan to finish them off.  Mashed the potatoes and then was ready to serve.

For some reason I thought I’d go with the stack-meat-on-potato method.  I was serving slices of the rib eye for ease of snaffling.  So leek on the side; potato topped with meat topped with hollandaise topped with crumble***.  Then Beans and zucchini on the side of the (warmed) plate.

Here’s a pic.  Looks like a car crash right? TASTED AMAZING.  I think I’ve spoilt meat for us forever, we weren’t impressed in NYC, and we resent buying steak for $30 in a bistro when it can be this amazing at home.  Officially, I think we’re meat snobs…  Who cares right?  You too can be a meat snob, just go to Feather and Bone and see the light brothers and sisters (ahhh).

The salad for the next day was simply the sliced meat, sprouted legumes, celery leaves and broad beans.  I made a honey mustard dressing which was then added just before eating (adding it any earlier can cook the meat due to the lemon juice).  Himself reckons there was too much meat – I disagree, there can NEVER be too much meat…

*Ha! Homophone!

**You didn’t think we’d eat a kilo of meat between the two of us in one sitting did you??

***hmmmm this maybe be aesthetically not-so-good

(Extra)Ordinary Meals

So one of my constant goals in cooking is to take ordinary meals and make them extraordinary.  Himself likes this a lot, feeling in his heart that my love for him drives me to keep producing works for food art for his enjoyment and consumption.*

Take Cottage Pie for example? Delicious, comforting and simple.  Now I don’t want to make food so fancy and so gourmet it no longer in any way resembles the original,**  I just want it to be the best it can possibly be.

I’m also currently trying to use up all fresh food in the house in preparation for my FIVE WEEK TRIP TO IRELAND AND ITALY! EXCITED MUCH!!  So, off to the trusty chest freezer to see what’s in there.  Chianina mince you say? No pastry? (and cannot be bothered making any) but potatoes? Sounds like a Cottage Pie in the making to me!  As it was football training night (ergo we don’t eat until 9pm) I thought I could take some extra time and care with the prep.  So I finely chopped an onion and celery, plus bashed some garlic and fried over a very low heat in olive oil until it was soft and delicious.  At that time I also added a lot of fresh bay and thyme.

Once it was done I emptied the contents into a bowl, added more oil, cranked up the heat and put in the mince.  I tend to leave the mince to brown a bit before starting to break it up to get a bit of colour on it.  And I also don’t keep breaking it down to tiny bits, I leave larger pieces in for some textural excitement.

And now my friends, for the magic.  In honour of English dishes and the favourite spices used in the Tudor period to cover the taste of spoiling meat, I went with cloves and white peppercorns.  Hmm, I just realised now I should have put in a bit of mace – damn! I LOVE mace!  When the meat was properly cooked I poured in what was left in the decanter from a 2006 shiraz we’d enjoyed quite a few nights before (too old to drink, too good to waste!)  Once the wine had almost boiled off I added my sous de resistance; Worcestershire sauce, HP sauce, soy sauce, home-made ketchup and a tablespoon or so of Gravox*** mixed with water. I had the salt out but didn’t end up needing it.

I then added some very finely diced sweet potato (due to Himself having an unaccountable aversion to carrots) and let it simmer simmer for quite a while.  When it tasted super rich and delicious I stirred through some frozen peas and left it to cool.  Potatoes were boiled, mashed with lots of butter, crème fraiche (it was in the fridge) and pepper & salt.

As mentioned before I didn’t have any pastry but I DID have lots of lacha paratha in the freezer.  Have I mentioned these to you before? You get them at any Indian grocery store in the frozen section.  About twenty pieces for ten dollars, they are delicious and very similar to puff pastry.  So I partially thawed out five and used them to piece together a crust for my pie.  Then I put the sauce in, topped with potato, artfully scratched with a fork and cheffily sprinkled on some fresh thyme.

Into a moderate oven for half an hour to brown up then out to rest for fifteen.  Himself came home after an evening running around in the freezing rain and fell on said pie with loving gratitude.  Apparently his three favourite things in life; training in the rain, hot shower afterwards, then a big plate of comfort food.  Superwife.

  

*Seriously? I totally do it for my own self gratification!

**As in, Tandoori pizza, I mean, WTF right? Why??

***That’s right peeps! Just like my mummy taught me – I am utterly unrepentant!

Breakfast of (French) Champions

Himself’s favourite breakfast is Croque Madame which is great, because it’s easy (and delicious). So I thought I’d share it with you.  I’ve been to cafes where they purport to sell this French classic, but so often it’s just a toasted ham and cheese sandwich (sometimes with some lettuce added – mon dieu!).  A true Croque Madame is a thing of unctuous beauty.  Layers of smoky ham and a gruyere cheese mixture, baked in the oven and then served with a wobbly egg on top.  The egg is meant to be fried, but I tend to do poached as I find fried eggs a bit greasy and they make me queasy*.

So, for the perfect croque read on!

Start with some nice bread.  I tend to use sour dough (Sonoma Miche is fantastic as is the barley bread which I get at my local fruit shop).  I also pick up the crème fraiche and gruyere while I’m there.  If you can’t find gruyere a mix of tasty and swiss or jarlsberg cheese would work well – you want a strong cheese which melts well with a slightly nutty sweet finish.  No crème fraiche? sour cream with a tiny bit of thickened cream works a treat.

 

So for 2 peeps:

4 slices of great bread

150g crème fraiche

150g gruyere cheese, grated

1tsp Dijon mustard

Salt & pepper

Smoky pasture raised ham

2 fresh free range eggs (I only say fresh as they’re easier to poach)

Turn your oven on to about 180oC before you start to preheat.  Mix together the crème fraiche, grated cheese, Dijon mustard and salt & pepper to taste.  Smear this mixture on the top of all 4 slices of bread.  Top the bottom layer of bread with the ham.  Put the top piece of bread on WITH THE CHEESE LAYER UP.  This is important – you want that layer to go golden and melty and ooze over the top of the bread.  Pop the sandwiches on a tray with greaseproof paper into the oven for 20 minutes.

Before the oven

At about the 15 minute mark poach or fry your eggs making sure the yolk is still soft.  Triumphantly remove your croques from the oven (at this stage they’re a Croque Monsieur – the addition of the egg makes the Madame).  Let them cool a wee bit and then pop the egg on top and serve.  As you cut the egg it flows all over your croque for a moment of pure eggy, cheesy, hammy bliss.

Enjoy! Himself certainly does…  Mine were quite brown this time (which made for brown crispy deliciousness) and we enjoyed them outside in the morning sunshine.

*see what I did there?