To Biftek or not to Biftek. C'est la question.

It was another glorious sunny day yesterday here in Nottinghamshire and for most of the day I had the kitchen door open to let in some fresh air and to give me easy access to the bench outside. Why struggle at the door trying to open it with a chilled bottle of Warsteiner beer and food in your hands when the open door provides instant access? Besides, I don't want to be found crying over spilt beer. Do I?

For a complete change and inspired by a beautifully illustrated book 'French Food Safari' I went out to the shops to get some thin chips to cook in the oven and a bottle of Mayonnaise. I wanted to cook the classic French dish Biftek. Guillaume Brahini one of the authors of the pre-mentioned book suggests sirloin, rump or filet steaks. I happened to have some rump in the fridge.

Brahini describes Biftek et Pommes Frites as classic bistro cooking that takes no more than thirty minutes (assuming the chips are cooked at the recommended twenty minutes in the oven.)

My steak was done medium rare. You can tell it is done this way because it feels slightly springy when you press on it. It gives a little resistance maybe even French resistance! For your knowledge a rare steak would feel soft and yield to the touch whilst a well done steak feels firm. Brahini cooks his in olive oil but I find it to rich for my tastes and prefer a light sunflower oil.

Enjoy the sunshine.

Beef stir fry with sticky Hoisin sauce

I have been so busy with my theatre writing lately and my full time Tesco job combined that I have started to look at tasty things I can cook in a hurry so I have more time to devote to my play and reviews and interviews. It never seems to stop but I love it.

On that note I purchased a nice big rump steak the other day (perfect for stir fry - you could also try the slightly more expensive fillet ends) and sliced it up for two stir fries. I added one lot to the wok for five minutes, added some chopped haricot vertes for a fresh crunch for another two or three minutes, tasted for meaty juiciness and turned the heat down. Then as a final part of the stir fry I threw in half a bag of Chinese stir fry leaves followed by a single bag of Amoy straight to wok noodles and lastly added and warmed through a sachet of hoisin stir fry sauce.

A nice cold beer to go with it and I was very happy, replete, and ready to start writing again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

To give the stir fry something extra I picked some fresh mint from the garden and added a few leaves to the top. Scrummy!

 



 



 

 

A simple rump steak cooked in butter

I actually cooked this a little while ago when rump steak was on a 'third off' special offer at Tesco and decided to fry the steak in butter rather than fat or oil. I have a particular fondness for salty butter and I like the delicate rounded taste it can give to the meat, fish or vegetable it is cooked in. Of course a shake or two of black pepper near the end of the cooking process gives it another level of flavour. My mouth was watering even before it went into the pan!

I had prepared and mostly cooked some new potatoes, carrots and green beans before I gently fried the steak (twelve minutes) with a few button mushrooms. A succulent and perfect simple evening meal. It melted in the mouth!

Juicy beef steaks and properly done pork chops.

As I write up this blogpost today it will form the last entry to finish off my just about to be published book 'Tales from the Block'. I have spent the morning editing and proof reading the text and making a few image changes. And so to my subject today – beef steaks and pork chops.

My butchery opinion is often sought on my recommendation for a juicy beef steak and I believe that properly aged beef tastes so much better than that under twenty one days in the hanging. In an ideal world the beef should be hung for at least twenty eight days and some butchers like The Ginger Pig Company hang theirs for thirty five to forty days. Simply put, beef cannot be eaten straight from the slaughtering process. Hanging it in a temperature controlled refrigerated walk in cold room environment allows the meat to mature and develop flavour and become more tender.

Which then are the tastiest beef steak types?

Well in chef's listings the rump steak comes out at number one, sirloin at number two, rib eye practically joint second and fillet steak the last. There are other types of beef steak that can mostly be purchased from a traditional butcher. These are feather blade, T-bone/Porterhouse, onglet steaks and point steaks. Goose skirt or bavette style steaks can be purchased if you want to experience a more continental way of cooking steak. Naturally on all of the steaks the cooking method and skill employed will also affect the end result.

Rump steak joint and cut steaks

Rump steak: Full of flavour this steak comes from the hind quarter of the beef carcass and should be well hung. The steak joint is quite a wide joint and usually cut across three muscle groups for a long kidney shaped steak. Should the butcher slice the rump the wrong way the steak will be very chewy or in butcher's parlance “Tough as ode boots”. Although modern eating trends tend to shy away from eating the fat that surrounds some steaks if you can find rump with the fat on and no gristle buy it and you won't go wrong.

 

Sirloin steaks

Sirloin steak: A middle back cut, this can be boned and rolled by the butcher as a prime beef roasting joint or cooked as steaks. I would suggest that because the muscle is smaller than say rump this steak can benefit the customer by being sliced that bit thicker. A sirloin cut about an inch and a half thick would make the perfect juicy steak because cut too thin (less than a finger thick) the meat can dry out quickly in the cooking.

 

Fillet steak

Fillet steak: The steak comes from a long muscle that does no work at all and is very tender and with extremely little fat. When the fillet muscle is cut in half each piece gets named and the names are in French. The long single muscle part is the Filet Mignon and the wider muscle (actually two muscles) is the Châteaubriand. All of the fillet can be cooked quickly as steaks or chopped finely for steak tartare and cooked as a joint as a Beef Wellington (filet de boeuf en croûte) for example. Fillet is said to be least flavoursome steak however.

 

Rib eye steaks with joint

Rib eye steaks: This is a very popular steak with those who enjoy a bit of fat with their beef steak and it works particularly well through cooking on the barbecue or on a hot griddle. The meat itself comes from the fore rib and marbled with an off centre piece of white fat. The rib muscle is trimmed of sinew and surplus fat and makes a compact and delicious beef roasting joint too. The inner fat element really adds to the flavour.

Pork chops come from the pig's loin and in the old days people would fight to get one or two of the pork chops that came with the pigs kidney attached. The average pig kidney is about six inches long so in reality only about six decent thickness loin chops from the whole pig would have the kidney attached still in its little protective round of fat. Alas, an EU ruling banned the sale of pork chops with the intact kidney and the meat inspectors in abattoirs slice through the kidney and surrounding fat in checking for any sign of disease in the animal.

I digress. Pork loin chops ( like all pork and chicken) need to be cooked thoroughly and if you are frying or especially grilling the pork loin chops a tip is to snip the outside edge of the loin chop a few times before cooking with some sharp kitchen scissors. This action will prevent the chop curling up in the heat and you will achieve a more even cooking result.

I do love a nice pepper seasoned loin pork chop but I would also highly recommend trying the sweeter tasting (nearer the shoulder of pork and marbled with fat) spare rib pork chops that also have very little bone. These should not be confused with the spare ribs that come from the belly. They are rectangular in shape and often have a little wad of fat on the side.

In choosing your pork recognise that the flesh should be pink and the fat always white and soft. When pork is intensely farmed it is pale and lean and outdoor reared pork will be a darker firmer meat with tastier fat.

Cooking, cooking, cooking...

I've a had a mad spate of cooking lately as there have been some good half price offers on at work and therefore I've been buying things I normally would love to eat but can't justify the cost of. Namely, bulk purchases of British lamb chops, chicken breast supremes, succulent lean rump and sirloin steaks. I must say that I have really enjoyed cooking and eating them!!

                              Chicken breast with pasta, creamy pear sauce and basil and mint leaves

This was the day I went a bit mad on the tapas front and started catering for twenty even though there was only lil old me. I didn't (couldn't) eat it all at once honest, but I thoroughly enjoyed getting inspired to create all the dishes. This was my first excursion down the route of making patatas bravas too,

One lot of tapas style food inspired me to make a reduced version later in the week along with a small three or four bite quiche I got cheap from the local Co-Op store. Nice snacky food. Tasty and easy to put together. The eggs were laid by my neighbour's hens and the home made mango chutney given to me as a gift by the local ironmongers. The tomatoes were bought at the village greengrocers and beat any Supermarket tomatoes hands down.

On another day of culinary fun I salivated at my lamb chops cooking in the oven and served them with some simple vegetables with fresh garden mint. I can't abide skinny lamb chops so I made sure the ones I bought were big and chunky.

I so rarely buy steaks that being able to get them half price in the last couple of weeks has turned me into being more of a carnivore than normal. I do like my steak quite bloody and have become addicted to Tesco's peppercorn sauce. Again simply served with a few vegetables and a glass or two of Merlot.

The other day I got inspired to make a vegetable dish (I know, shock horror! Phil does vegetable dish.) based on the French potato dish, Gratin Dauphinois; a bake of thinly sliced raw potatoes layered with cheese, crushed garlic, pepper, a flicker of nutmeg and covered with double cream and milk. In the traditional bake Gruyere cheese is used but I didn't have any so I used up what I had left of Parmesan and Brie. I also got my Dauphinois confused with a Boulanger dish and had already thinly sliced a lot of onion so I added that in the layering anyway. Didn't do any harm. The moment it comes out of the oven all bubbling hot and brown from the melted cheese is heavenly!

served with olives, peppers filled with ricotta cheese and some Spanish cured ham.

I always like to make a solid amount of food when I'm cooking but hate to waste food too. Often what I have left I will reheat the following day or offer my neighbour some. I don't know why but my neighbour's cat also seems to know exactly when the meat comes out of the fridge and he'll often get a small titbit before I start my cooking then he'll give himself a good lick all over and fall asleep contentedly by my window.