Fridge that meat

Fridge that meat, a recent post on another blog bought this back into mind and raised a couple more questions about salting, I had in fact done just the thing a couple days prior and tend to do it when I have steak, I’m a fan of rump and this does wonders to that cut. The principle is simple, place the meat, steak, on a rack and place it in the fridge uncovered for 18-24 hours. Now you can salt the meat before you refrigerate it, it will draw out moisture and work it’s way into the meat seasoning it, I like to do this if I want a more cured meat flavour, works great for steak sliced up and served on a roll with lashings of horseradish. If you choose not to season the steak before the fridge, moisture will still be drawn out, the exterior will dry and will make for far superior crust when cooked, I usually don’t season first if it’s a steak to be plated, I’ll season it in the pan and as I baste with foaming melted butter.

My usual cooking method is to bring the meat out of the fridge at least half an hour before cooking, heat a heavy cast iron pan over a medium high heat, place the fat cap side down and cook for one minute, before placing a meat side down move the fat around the pan, place the first side down, season the upside, cook for one minute, flip and season the upside. Keep cooking for one minute and flipping until almost at your desired temperature. For the last two flips add in a healthy tablespoon or three of butter, this will cool the pan slightly, when melted and foaming slightly tilt the pan and baste, using a spoon, with the butter for a minute, flip and repeat. Place the cooked steak aside to rest for five minutes or so.

Cauliflower and Flank

Cauliflower sliced into quarters and tossed in Ras El Hanout with a little olive oil to help the spice mixture stick, placed on a roasting pan and cooked at 180ºC until the thickest part of the stem is tender (about 30-40 minutes). Then divided into bite-sized florets served whole and larger pieces passed through a mouli resulting in a coarse mash and then given a little body with some olive oil and seasoned.

Flank steak is simply seasoned with salt and pepper, roasted in a hot pan with an appropriate amount of butter (read: large amount), cooked over a high heat, constantly basted, turned every 30-60 seconds until it reaches a medium-rare temperature, then covered and left to rest for at least 10 minutes.

Salsa verde is made by finely chopping parsley, basil and capers together, then mixing in a bowl with some olive oil, cider vinegar and dijon mustard. Season with salt to taste.

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I had the pleasure of attending the Visa Wellington on Plate launch and this year looks like it's going to be a cracker so make sure to get in and book your place in the limited seat functions, and take advantage of the other great deals that are going to be around, I'll be found guzzling down oysters on Cuba St.

Steak butter heaven

I went a little overboard for lunch and was far too full for dinner, but if you're going to over do something nothing beats a good slab of beef and lashings of butter.


I whipped up a quick herb butter by blending butter, grated garlic, lemon rind, a splash of cider vinegar, oregano and parsley.


Roll it in to a log and put it in the freezer (it should keep a good few months in there)


Next grill that big piece of beef (as you can see above I like mine rare). I used rump, I really like the rump cut for a good flavoured juicy steak.


Seeing as there is an abundance of asparagus available at the moment. I sautéed some in the same pan as the beef and then deglazed it with some wine and then reduced until the stalks were cooked.

Then all I need to do was assemble it and devour.

Meat!

Well aged piece of rump.


Very hot pan cooked med-rare seasoned, and a simple salad.

Simple dinner

Sautéed potatoes.


Rump with red wine mushroom sauce.

Past couple of days in the kitchen

Burgers for dinner




Plaited bread


Steak with sautéed mushrooms and pepper sauce served with endive and roast potatoes


Steak marinating with bit of olive oil, paprika and garlic


Chicken vindaloo

Steak!

Pretty simple meal tonight, rump steak and brandy mustard cream sauce, with fennel salad and sautéed potatoes.


Rump steak just out of the vacuum bag, it got sealed with olive oil fennel tops, sliced garlic, and thyme. Room-temperature and ready for the pan.


Two items this time saw the vacuum machine. Thinly sliced fennel and onion got vacuumed with grapefruit juice and supremes. It was left for about 20 minutes, by then the fennel and onion had softened.


All gone, very tasty, and glad I have some fennel salad left over.

Sirloin and sun-choke

Sirloin marinating with garlic, bay leaf and lemon peel (in a vacuum bag, yay to new toys)

Served medium rare, with crushed potato and sunchoke (Jerusalem artichoke), sauteed green beans and finished with a Calvados sauce

Best steak for a long time, melted in the mouth and had a great taste, totally in love with the vacuum sealer.

Wrapped up...

Had some tasty skirt steak last night, coated in white pepper, coriander, garlic and chili powder. Grilled it on the stove and finished in the oven. We had it in tortillas with a raw beetroot salad and sour cream.

Beetroot Salad: Peel and julianne Beets, grate in carrot, thinly sliced spinach, dress with oil, lemon and mustard.

Catch-up

Well I've been a little lazy about getting my posts up here, Internet is dreadfully slow at home at the moment, so am "borrowing" works bandwidth. I thought I'd do a little photo essay type thing over a couple of post, so enjoy...