Steak and How to Cook it.

 

This week I thought I’d tackle one of the classics again so I turned my attention to the staple of so many men’s diets. The Steak! The humble steak, so easy, and yet so easy to do it wrong. All too easy to over or undercook, depending on your taste. But also fairly interesting once you take into account what kind of steak you are cooking.

 

The main ones in the shops these days are the cheap as chips Sirloin, the slightly fancier Rib-Eye and the Fillet which is so upper class it has more servants than it knows what to do with. Now don’t get me wrong, all three of these cuts will give you a damn good meal however I personally prefer the Rib-Eye myself. It tends to have the best meat-to-fat ratio and it’s also the biggest… which is important… ya’know,.. just saying.

 

Anyways the type of steak you get will ultimately determine how it should be cooked. Generally speaking the more fat and marbling the longer it should be cooked for. For a rib-eye or sirloin the most you want to cook it is medium, any more and you are ruining a perfectly decent piece of meat. Why would you do that? Shame on you!

 

Fillet on the other hand is, by the fact of where it comes from in the cow, incredibly tender and free of any marbling. This means it needs little or no cooking whatsoever. Carpaccio is a dish the Italians do with raw fillet steak and should definitely be tried by everyone at least once.

 

I think the thing people find most difficult with steak is cooking times. The easiest way I find to test it is to touch your thumb and pointy finger together and press the bulge of flesh between them, that’s what a rare steak feels like. Now do it with thumb and middle, that’s medium. Then thumb and ring, well done. Then thumb and baby, that’s why-the-fuck-have-you-cooked-your-steak-for-so-long-get-out-of-the-kitchen. I’m not sure the culinary industry has a word for that yet, but they should.

 

So, taking into account everything we have learned about steaks and how not to overcook them (I’m looking at you; thumb and baby finger guy) lets put all this info to good use. And then stick the result in a sandwich. That’s always fun.

 

The Steak Sandwich

1 large rib eye steak

Salt and pepper

1 tsp fennel seed

1 large ciabatta

1 large tbsp of sweet and tangy chutney (My previous recipies for Red Onion Marmalade or Fig Chutney would be great here but use whatever you have lying around)

2 buffalo mozzarella

1 large handful of rocket

 

-Heat a non-stick pan on a high heat. You want this pan to be Really Fucking Hot (RFH)*

-Preheat your oven to about 150 degrees. Dampen some kitchen paper and wrap it around you ciabatta then put it in the oven. (This is to stop it drying out)

-On a decent sized chopping board lay out your steak and season well with salt and pepper.

-In a pestle and mortar (use a bowl and the end of a rolling pin if you haven’t got one) crush the fennel seeds until you are left with a reasonably fine powder.

-Pour these over the steak. Now its time for the elbow grease. Work all those seasonings into the meat; make sure every inch of the steak gets some tough love. The more you handle the meat (snigger) now the more tender it will be when it’s cooked.

 

-Once you are sure the meat is well seasoned, place the steak on the pan. You must remember not to use any oil as there is enough fat in the steak to do the job.

-I usually give the steak 2 minutes on the first side and then one minute on the other side. This is perfect medium rare territory. Don’t move the steak about too much either; let it do its own thing.

-When you are happy with how it’s cooked (don’t forget the finger test) place it back onto the chopping board again. Now, leave it alone again.

 

 

-Seriously, walk away from it for five minutes. This will allow the meat time to relax and release all the lovely juices stored up inside it, which will make it beautifully tender.

-While this is going on, get your ciabatta out of the oven and cut it down the middle.

-On the bottom, graciously spoon on your chutney of choice. (Most people use mustard but personally I prefer to use red onion marmalade or something like that for the sweet contrast)

-Now it’s almost time to go back to your steak. Trying not to man-handle it too much and using long knife strokes, gently cut the steak into 1 cm ribbons.

 

 

 

-Without letting any juices drop, bring the steak to the bread and lay it all out on the bottom slice.

-Rip up your mozzarella and lay it on top of the steak. Do the same with the rocket.

-Here’s where the magic is, using the top part of the ciabatta, mop up all the lovely juices off your chopping board, and make sure not to miss any because that is some serious flavour.

-Press the top half down over the rest of the sandwich, stand back and observe the greatness you have created.

 

Optional Extra: Cut it in half, tell your friend he can have half, don’t let him have it and it all in front of him. I’m not sure why but this always makes it taste that little bit better.

 

 

*trademark Dermot O’ Brien

 

Easy Bake Brownies

 

The rain seems to be back so I think it best to journey back to the kitchen with eggs, flour and enough chocolate to give a fasting priest a heart attack.

 

Brownies, possibly the only thing that makes people feel better than cookies. Though it’s difficult to tell with most people. This is one of the simplest recipies i have found for Brownies and personally I think it works a treat. I use a combination of white and dark chocolate but you can use whichever type or combination you want.

 

This would be a great opportunity to use the auld food processor. Just chuck all the ingredients in and give it a whiz for a few minutes. That or give the arms a workout and use a good old fashioned bowl 😀

 

2 packs of chocolate

200g of sugar

250g of Butter

6 Tbs of hot chocolate powder

150g of self raising flour

4 eggs

 

-Chop up the two packs of chocolate, measure out all the rest of the ingredients and load them all into your bowl or magi mix.

-Mix until it’s smooth (and delicious, no-one I know can resist a bit of  brownie batter) Then lay it out onto a non stick tray until it’s about an inch or so think.

-Pop it into the middle of an oven pre-heated to 170 degrees.

-At that temperature it should take between 15 to 20 minutes depending on your oven.

-Once they have risen and are starting to look done take them out and stick a knife in the middle, if it comes out reasonably clean then they are done. Leave them to cool then cut them up and enjoy with ice-cream, cream or whatever tickles your fantasy 😛

 

Rainy Days and Baking Cookies

 

            So I have been bound in the apartment for the last few days, so I thought to myself how best to pass the time? And then the answer came to me,.. Cookies.

          This is a simple recipe a friend of mine Mia gave me many a year ago and I have tweaked over the last while to my own taste. Personally I love them with white chocolate chips but you can adapt the flavour to anything you like, dark chocolate, mint, peanut butter, oatmeal and raisen or lemon and lime juice.

125g Butter

120g Unrefiened cane sugar

1 Egg

160g Semolina Flour

1/2 Tsp Baking Soda

1 large bar of white chocolate.

-Preheat the oven to about 160 or 170 degrees.

-Mix the butter, egg and sugar together in a large mixing bowl.

-Mix the baking soda and the flour together and then add it to the mix.

-Bash the bar while it is still in the pack then pour it out onto a chopping board. Then with a large knife run through it a few times untill you get the chips the size you want. Mix these in and you are good to go.

-You can either spoon small portions straight onto a non stick tray. Or lay out a sheet of cling film and spoon some of the batter out onto the sheet. Then mould it out into a tube about the diameter of a golf ball. Wrap it up tight and pop it in the fridge for an hour or two. Then take it out and chop it into 2cm thick rings and bung it in the preheated oven.

-For cookies that are still sticky in the middle cook for about 11 minutes, a few more if you like them crunchier.

-Leave them to cool, then enjoy.

 

The Dublin Market and Fig Chutney

As you have probably guessed by now, I really love sauces. Don’t worry though this is going to be my last one for a while, then I’ll get back to real food, Promise.

 

I took a stroll down to the Fruit and Veg market in Dublin there this morning to have a browse. I must admit I was pretty nervous on my way in the first time as I wasn’t full sure on how open to Joe Public it actually was. After a few minutes of walking around as if I knew where I was going I started talking to one of the vendors and I couldn’t have felt more welcome. After all, to them, business is business. Since then I have made it a regular stop on my shopping trips and would recommend anyone to do the same, not only for the experience but the price and quality can’t be beaten.

 

So today my search was for fresh figs for this seriously good fig chutney. Figs aren’t something we see enough of in supermarkets and the like these days, they are beautifully sweet and delectably moreish, especially baked in the oven served with a little honey and a scoop of ice cream for dessert. Anyway I digress, this is a great little recipe and the chutney goes so well with so many things. Cheese, crackers, meats, salads you name it.

 

12 fresh figs
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
60ml dark spirits (I use spiced rum but any port or whiskey will do)
100g sultanas
1 star anise
50g dark sugar

 

-Cut your figs into eighths (or small if you like but I like it kind of chunky) and put them in a large heavy based saucepan
-Add the rest of the ingredients (don’t be temped to overdo the vinegar if it seems dry, as soon as the heat comes on all the juice will rush out of the figs)
-Leave the pot on a medium heat until the mixture turns to a kind of jammy consistency. (This usually takes about 45mins to an hour for me)
-Taste it at the end and add a little sugar or vinegar if it’s a little sweet or bitter.
-Jar it up while it’s still warm and then enjoy.

 

Vegetarians Beware! (Lets talk about meat)

 

           Let’s talk for a second about meat. The common conception among people is that there are good and bad cuts of meat in an animal. Untrue, there are just very different cuts. For instance there’s leg, shoulder, thigh, neck, fillet, rib, the list goes on. The main difference between all of these is the amount of fat running through it. The more work a body part does the more fat it will have and the longer it will need to be cooked for.

 

Knowing this we can now be a bit of a better meat shopper. When most people think of roast lamb we think of leg. Lamb leg doesn’t have much fat as it hasn’t had to do too much work so it is a good deal more expensive in a butchers shop (I’ll talk more about why to buy at a butcher not a supermarket another day kids) as it is quicker to cook. However a great alternative and personal favourite of mine is Shoulder. It is often less than a third of the price of a leg and even tastier. The compromise is that it must be cooked long and slow to melt all of that b-e-a-utiful fat out of it. By the end you will have fantastically moist and melt in your mouth meat that will make you never go back to leg again.

 

These principles apply to any meat; ask your butcher for lesser cuts that just need a bit more TLC and you, your pocket and your taste buds will definitely be rewarded. And just to get you started here’s  a simple recipe for lamb shoulder.

 

1 lamb shoulder,
Stalk of rosemary,
Salt and pepper,
Sunflower oil,
Fennel seeds,

 

-Preheat your oven as high as it’ll go (turn it up to 11)
-In a pestle and mortar grind up about a tsp of fennel seeds.
-Take the rosemary off the stalk and give it a quick rough chop then add it to the pestle.
-Add a pinch of salt and pepper, give it another grind and add some sunflower oil.
-Once you have your flavoured oil done, put your meat into a small baking tray and pour the oil over it.
-This is where the fun begins, work the oil into the meat with your hands, making sure to get it in all the cracks and crevices. It ain’t pretty but flavour isn’t an accident, it’s got to be earned!
-Wrap the tray in tin foil and bung it in the oven for four hours. The meat is ready when it can be pulled apart with a fork.

 

Enjoy,

 

Pesto

 

Pesto is one of the easiest pantry items to make and is the one where you will probably notice the biggest distance between the flavour of the store stuff and the real stuff. Most of the ingredients cost under a fiver all-together, the only expensive part is the pine nuts (Tesco do a small bag for €4 which is the perfect size). It’s definitely something I recommend you try your hand at, trust me, you’ll never go back.

 

A good bunch of nice and fresh Basil, (go good quality here, it will pay dividends),
4/5 cloves of garlic,
100g of Parmesan cheese,
Small bag of pine nuts,
Salt and pepper,
Extra Virgin Olive Oil,
-Take the basil leaves off the stalks, finely dice the stalks and add all of the basil to the food processor.
-Peel  the garlic and slice the parmesan roughly then add to the food processor.
-Turn it on and keep adding the olive oil until you get a thick put pasty consistency.
-Add salt and pepper to taste, then pour it carefully into your jars.

 

Green Curry Paste

Thai Green Curry Paste[/caption]

 

Thai green curry is something I have always loved when we go to an Thai place for dinner, however my love for it pales in comparison to my lil’ sisters obsession. So when her birthday rolled around this year and she asked me to cook for her there seemed only one option. And here it is; my take on a classic Green Curry. This is a fair bit rougher and a bit stronger than your average curry but I guarantee it will blow your mind.

 

For serving this, marinade a few pieces of chicken/lamb/beef in about half a jar of the sauce for 2/3 hours. Chop up some veg and heat your wok. Stir-fry the veg and the meat together then add the other half of the jar of paste and a tin of coconut cream. Serve with fluffy basmati rice. Pure Joy.

 

6 scallions,
4/5 cloves of garlic,
1 large thumb sized lump of ginger,
One large bunch of coriander,
5 stalks of lemongrass,
6 lime leaves,
5/6 green chillies (depending on taste),
Juice and zest of two limes,
Salt and pepper,
Extra virgin olive oil,

 

-Peel the ginger, garlic and remove the outer layer on the scallions and lemongrass. Add to the food processor along with the coriander stalks, deseeded chillies and the lime leaves.
-Whiz for a minute then add the coriander leaves, lime juice and zest, salt and pepper and turn the processor on again.
-Add the oil bit by bit until you get a thick pasty consistency.
-Once it’s finished, pour the sauce into a jar (this recipe should make enough for two jars), Seal it and leave it in the fridge for some lazy night where you get that itch for a curry.

 

Enjoy

 

Red Onion Marmalade

Red Onion Marmalade

 

One of my best mates got me a pretty cool collection of Kilner style jars for my birthday a few weeks ago, so I thought I would give a jarred recipe a go. This is an incredible accompaniment to any dish. Smothered over a bagel, a burger, a sandwich or it is especially good with some strong cheese on a cracker. It makes a fair amount so make sure you have a few clean jars at the ready. It should last a few months if it is sealed properly in the jars while it’s still hot.

 

About 2kg of red onions,
3 tbs olive oil,
1 ½ cups of sugar (this can be any combination of white, brown, demerara, muscovado or anything. But in general the darker the sugar the better.)
1 cup of balsamic vinegar,

 

-Peel the onions and slice them as thinly as you can.
-In a large stainless steel pot, heat the oil. Once it’s hot chuck in the onions and add a good pinch of salt to start bringing out the moisture from the onions.
-Cook on a medium heat until the onions start to brown and melt.  This should take about 30/40 mins and they should half in size.
-In another pot heat the sugar and balsamic vinegar until it starts to simmer. Add the onions and cook until the sauce starts to thicken.
-The only thing left to do is jar it up and then enjoy.

Stupidly Simple Couscous Salad

 

This salad again is really easy and if you are in the middle of making a big dinner can pretty much be whipped up in the time it takes them to get off the couch and to the table. It is a very basic recipe and can be adapted to whatever you have to hand, like if you don’t have coriander, use basil or any other herb you happen to have.
100g couscous,
2 Jarred roasted red peppers,
Handful of fresh coriander,
1 tin of sweetcorn,
1 red onion,
1 lemon,
Olive oil,
-Pour the couscous in a bowl and cover by about a centimeter with warm water.
-Chop up the peppers,  coriander and red onion. Make sure the onion is finely chopped because the last thing you want is someone getting the mouth knocked off them with a big chunk of onion.
-After about 5-10 mins the couscous should have absorbed all of the water, give it a bit of a mix up and then add all your chopped ingredients
-Give the bowl a generous lug of good olive oil, and then squeeze in the juice of the lemon.
-Give it another mix up and season to taste.
-If it is still a bit stiff add some more olive oil to loosen it up.