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.
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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
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