This might seem ludicrously simple, but I think it still needs saying.
The first step is to choose your meat. If you like your meat rare then there's no point in getting a minute steak as it will be half cooked as soon as it's out the fridge. I go for rump, out of preference (ooh-er), but I wouldn't say no to a rib-eye. Fillet is lovely and tender, but a bit expensive and flavourless. Leave the meat to warm to room temperature as it helps reduce cooking time.
The most important thing is to get a nice char on the outside but still be juicy and bloody in the middle. To do this your pan needs to be hot. Hot hot hot. Put some oil in the pan and leave it on a high heat for a good couple of minutes.
Not pictured: Heat. You'll just have to trust me.
Once the oil starts to smoke, carefully lay the steaks in it. It will start spluttering. Leave it for no more than 30 seconds. Turn it over, remembering to always turn it away from you. Now (and this is very important so pay attention), this is the point where your right hand should slip, liberally covering your left hand with insanely hot oil. Remember how hot I said the oil should be? This is the point where you should be cursing your adherence to that.
You may now remove the steaks. See, it seems simple, but not nearly enough people follow that penultimate step. Incidentally, you'll be pleased to know that after the initial stinging and throbbing stops (about one day) and before the maddening itching of blistering and skin regrowth starts, (about 3 days), you'll have a good 24 hours of your hand hardly bothering you at all.
Addendum: Deep fried squid rings follow a very similar recipe.
I mentioned I had gone to a cheese and wine tasting the other day, and I think some more detail is required.
I came to wine a little late in the day. I think I was too young to appreciate it when I first tried it, and then when I started buying wine for myself it was in an overly cautious way. My logic was that since I didn’t know if I was going to like it I probably shouldn’t spend much money on it in case it went to waste. Naturally, cheap wine tastes like balls, so I didn’t like it.
Through the hard work of my parents and friends with more sophisticated tastes who helpfully provided me with samples of decent booze to try, I slowly came round to the idea that wine could be pretty tasty.
Cheese, on the other hand, is something I have always been a fan of. It always played a big part in our partially vegetarian household, and more recently I’ve got into artisanal cheeses in a big way. Pete got me this book as a birthday present a couple of years ago, and it’s just a thing of beauty.
This dude catalogues a list of his favourite cheeses, goes to meet the best producers, sees how they’re made, and then matches them with the most appropriate wine. His passion for cheese would be funny if I didn’t almost entirely agree with him. My favourite thing about this book is that it is so clearly a labour of love that things like formatting and spellchecking have been slightly left by the wayside. The photos look like holiday snaps and even the paper feels cheap. It feels like a homemade book. I like it.
Anyway, so this guy used to run Paxton and Whitfield the Cheesemongers. This is a very good cheesemongers. The best, in fact. And it’s close by in Stratford-upon-Avon, so I regularly pop along if I fancy a particularly posh cheese. You know what else is in Stratford? Vinology, which is a lovely little wine and spirit shop with a tasting room upstairs. They make sure they taste every wine they buy so you know you’re not going to get a duff bottle, and it’s run by an enthusiastic chap called Matt who properly knows his stuff. And what’s more, sometimes he gets together with Ross from Paxton and Whitfield and they have a Cheese and Wine evening. If I was a child I would say ‘Yippee’, but I am a grown-up so I only say ‘Well that does sound like a nice idea. I shall certainly sign up to the mailing list’.
The latest evening was based on the theme of ‘Summer Softs’, and I was accompanied by the excellent ‘Cheese’ Louise and Pete ‘The Meat’. I don’t think I have a food based nickname yet. Suggestions in the comments, please.
There were six cheese and wine pairings. Here’s some of my notes.
Buchette Cendre with Domaine Pascal Bellier Cheverny Blanc 2009. Buchette Cendre is a goat cheese in the shape of a thin log and coated in a fine dusting of ash. It had a strong ‘goaty’ taste with a sticky texture. It starts off feeling creamy in your mouth but ends with a powdery finish. The flavour accumulates until it feels almost peppery. The wine cuts through the stickiness admirably. It’s crisp and floral but also has a hard edge to it. Notes of blossom and apple, but also has a peppery quality, like rocket.
Brique de Brebis with Quinta da Avelada Vinho Verde 2008. Brique de brebis is a sheep’s milk cheese in the shape of a thin brick – hence the name. It is a mould ripened cheese and the first thing you taste is the rind. It’s like a very strong camembert. The paste is yellow and sticky, with a remarkable farmyard taste. It was like eating the soil from a petting farm, but in a good way. The wine, I thought, emphasised this taste. It was pale, light and grassy but oddly seemed to make the cheese taste stronger rather than cutting through it. It also had a slightly numbing sensation in the mouth – Louise called it anaesthetic and I have to agree. I quite liked the pairing but I don’t think I’d be crazy about the wine on its own.
Cerney and Familia Zuccardi “Q” Chardonnay 2006. This was my favourite pairing. Cerney is another goat cheese, but you can hardly tell as the traditional ‘goat’ taste was very faint. It was creamy and moussey. I think it tasted of sour cream with hints of lemon and herbs, but with a sweet honeyed finish. The wine was caramel on the nose, and tasted of a clean version of honey on toast. Notes of hazelnut, butter and lemon. Despite the flavours it wasn’t overly sweet but light, clean and refreshing.
Mahon with Quinta de Ventozelo Tinta Roriz 2003. Mahon is a semi-soft cheese, yellow iwth a washed orange rind. It’s fruity and nutty, but a little overly salty for me. The flavour grows in strength until it’s a lot like a peppery mature cheddar. The wine (the only red of the evening) had notes of fruit-wood (cherry wood, maybe) vanilla, and cassis. Perfectly pleasant and drinkable, and very nice with the cheese, but it had quite simple flavours. I would have preferred a bit more punch to it.
Beenleigh Blue with Domaine des Trottieres Cotteaux du layon 2008. Another very good pairing. The cheese is a soft blue sheep’s milk affair, very powerful to start off with but mellows in your mouth. Very similar to Roqufort, but less salty and slightly firmer. Sweet, grassy and herby. The wine is the sweetest unfortified wine I’ve ever had, as (like many dessert wines) it uses grapes affected with Botrytis or noble rot. This one is lighter and much more quaffable than a traditional dessert wine. Strong, warm honey and flowers. I’m not usually a fan of sweet wines but with a salty blue cheese this is lovely.
Perl Las with Weingut Lang Chardonnay Beerenauslese 2006. Another soft blue, full fat cow’s milk this time. This was more moist than Beenleigh Blue, but I think more powerful as well. Strong savoury, meaty taste. Lot’s of umami. The wine is a dessert wine, another Botrytized one (Botrytized is the correct term, by the way. I looked it up special). It’s more complicated than I initially thought. Strong honey flavours again, but also notes of butter, mango, maybe cherry pie.
There’s a ‘Summer Spectacular’ all evening wine tasting coming up at which I intend to further my winey education. As a consequence, I may become, as they say, “squiffy”, but it is all in the name of learning and therefore absolutely necessary.
After a rather disturbing conversation with a certain person I know, it has come to my attention that some people don't think cheese on crumpets is a good idea. This is quite obviously nonsense. I am now going to explain why.
This is a crumpet with butter on it. That's fine. Perfectly alright. Here's a picture of me eating it.
I'm content.The butter is nice and melted, it is stodgy, warm and comforting. It's a lovely early evening snack and I'm quite happy with the state of my crumpet. But, and this is the important part, it's just a crumpet. To really make this worthwhile you're going to need something on top of that crumpet. Something with enough saltiness to cut through the stodge but enough fat and creaminess to keep the whole thing in the comfort food arena. That something is cheese.
Cheddar is good, but a soft cheese or a nice stringy melting cheese would be best. Beaufort is my favourite, as it's quite fruity but mild and very stringy. In the picture I've gone for Munster on the left and Taleggio on the right. Once the crumpets are toasted put a generous slice of cheese on the top and pop under the grill for 30 seconds so it starts to melt but doesn't go too crispy.
If you want to go in a slightly different direction, take a hot crumpet and spread on a thick portion of a creamy goats cheese. The heat of the crumpet will warm it slightly, but the variation in temperature is very satisfying. Boursin works well for this, but I went to a cheese and wine tasting the other day where I tried a cheese called Cerney. I think this would work very well. This is a young ash-covered goats cheese in the shape of a pyramid. It's sweet and tastes of sour cream with a hint of goatiness. I intend to try it on crumpets as soon as I can get my hands on some.
For the sake of scientific comparison, this is a picture of me eating the crumpet with cheese.
Do you see? Do you see how much better that is? I hope that this clears up any confusion on the subject. Bronners out.
As I mentioned my father's rejection of meaty funtimes in my last post, I thought I would tell you a little about my own thoughts on the subject.
I like to think of myself as a fairly ethically minded person, and I’m certainly horrified by many of the farming practices that supply us with meat, but I’ve never been able to bring myself to give it up. I can’t even argue that it’s all part of the circle of life and it’s ‘natural’ to eat meat. Not because I don’t believe it, but our food has developed to a stage where what was or is intended by nature has become rather beside the point. If I had to stick with what was natural then I’d probably have to give up Prawn Cocktail flavour Skips, and I’m afraid I’m just not prepared to do that. If there is a healthy way to cut meat out of your diet (and my father is proof that there is), then is there really any justification in continuing to eat it?
Well, mayhaps there is and mayhaps there ain't, as Mother Abigail says (and she still bakes her own biscuits). I am full of admiration for vegetarians as it requires a level of self discipline that I don't believe I'm capable of. I reconcile my moral vanity with my carnal (in the food sense) desires by trying to avoid intensively farmed meats. Fortunately I am lucky enough to live close to what is probably the best butcher’s in the country.
Aubrey Allens in Warwick Street bases its reputation on getting the best meat possible. Yes, it’s more expensive, but it’s also a lot better, and you can sleep easy on a bellyful of happy meat. Also, if you don’t buy meat too often (vegetarian meals are meals too, remember), the price works out about the same as cheap meat every day. I know I'm coming off as a touch on the snobby side here, and I can't promise to never touch farmed meat again (a girl's got needs, you know). I just likes it, is all.
I can highly recommend the pork rolls served here at lunchtime. I had to stop eating them if I had to go back to work in the afternoon as they’re so big they made me a little sleepy. Aubrey Allen’s is also right next door to Richard Clarke’s greengrocers, which means a bi weekly shop down Warwick Street and I can more or less stop going to the supermarket entirely. Which is AWESOME.
On Mondays they have some decent offers on, and recently I bought a big ole load of chicken legs for a lot cheaper than I was expecting. I'm usually not too fussed about chgicken as I find it a little bland, but this was the good shit. I squashed them into a roasting tin and poured over a marinade of honey, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, crushed garlic and grated ginger. I left the whole lot in the fridge for a day and cooked them for 45 min at Gas Mark 6. I'd show you a picture, but I forgot to take one, so here is a picture of a chicken.
My father was born at a time when his parents had decided to give up meat for ethical reasons. They later changed their minds after remembering that meat is tasty and delicious, and gave Dad the choice to switch to meat eating or stick with being a veggie. He was so unaccustomed to eating meat that it made him feel ill, and he’s been vegetarian his whole life as a result.
As tragic as his story is, growing up with a vegetarian father meant that our dinners would often be vegetarian to save having to cook two different meals. A lot of people are shocked when I tell them this, as if a meal can’t possibly be complete without meat in it. I remember I once had a choice between eating a chicken tikka sandwich, or a cheese and pickle sandwich. I chose the cheese. A friend of mine then asked if I was vegetarian, because he couldn’t understand why I might choose not to eat meat out of a personal preference rather than an ethically enforced choice.
Even these days when going veggie is a much more acceptable lifestyle choice, people seem to focus on finding a replacement for meat in a meaty dish rather than one that just doesn’t contain meat. After re-reading that sentence I can see how that may not make much sense, but I’m not editing it because, dammit, I know what I’m talking about. This is a nice light dinner I made the other day. You’ll notice there is no meat in it, but it is still a proper meal.
Feta Cheese Pie 1 block of feta 1 tub of ricotta 2 eggs Pepper Choice of herbs (I would recommend just sticking to one type. Mint, thyme or rosemary all work well) 2 -3 large sheets filo pastry
Oil the bottom of a terracotta pot or small casserole dish. Place the filo pastry in the bottom leaving plenty of pastry overlapping the sides.
Mix the cheeses, eggs and herbs in a bowl, and pour into the pastry dish. Flip the excess pastry over so it covers the pie. Sprinkle olive oil over the top and season with salt and pepper.
Put in a preheated oven at around GM 6-7. Cook for 30 min, then take out and flip upside down onto a baking tray. Put back in the oven for a further 5-10 min. This will ensure its cooked all the way through and make the pastry at the bottom extra crispy.
This is great as a light lunch or supper. I add the ricotta to keep the filling smooth and make the feta stretch further, but if you have enough feta you can leave the ricotta out completely. Just make sure that the consistency of the pie filling is about the same as thick cake batter. If it’s too thin it will take ages to cook through properly.
I served this with salad and rosemary flowers, because I can be fancy if I want to.
If I'm having soup I generally want it to be comfortingly stodgy, with enough substance to it to make it worth my while at dinner time. The only exception I make to that rule is with my Red Pepper Soup. It's warming but a good deal lighter and fresher tasting than most soups of my acquaintance. This is a summer soup.
Ingredients 2 Sweet red peppers 1 large (preferably red) onion 1 clove of garlic 1 can of chopped tomatoes Chilli oil or teaspoon chilli flakes Salt 1 tbsp red wine vinegar (or any light tasting vinegar)
Put the whole peppers under a hot grill until the skin is charred and blistered. Turn over to make sure they are done on both sides. Like this:
Once they are done stick them in a plastic bag to cool down. The bag helps keep the steam in and makes it easier to remove the skins.
Fry the onion and garlic in the chilli oil, or vegetable oil with added chilli flakes. Once the peppers are cool enough to handle remove the skins and roughly chop them. Stir the cooked chopped peppers into the fried onion. Add the salt and vinegar and keep stirring until the mix looks like it's all melding together.
Add the chopped tomatoes and a further can full of water. Simmer for a further 10 minutes and check for seasoning.
This makes two extra large or three regular sized portions. I'd recommend it with something lactic and creamy on top, like a dollop of creme fraiche or some mozarella.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
EDIT: I have just found out that this is also rather nice served cold with a couple of spoons of lemon pearl barley mixed in and taken in a pot as a packed lunch.
I have done SO much cooking this weekend. I got a load of groceries in on Friday to make up for all the time I’ve been away and immediately started cooking. Here are a few examples of what I’ve been up to.
Pearl Barley with lemon. You boil up a load of pearl barley along with a generous pinch of salt and the juice and rind of a lemon. It takes about 20-30 minutes to cook through. I like making up a big batch and using it for various things during the week. It’s a nice little side dish to anything meaty, but also good thrown on top of salads or added to stews or soups at the last minute. A really quick meal can be made by frying up half an onion and adding a couple of spoonfuls of the lemon pearl barley and a mug full of chicken stock. It’s not far off a pot noodle for speed, but doesn’t make you feel dirty and soulless inside.
Stewed apple and rhubarb. 3 small sticks of rhubarb and a couple of eating apples stewed with a little sugar. I’ve been having this with yoghurt and granola for breakfast the past couple of mornings, but I fully intend to make a crumble with it as well. When I do, I will be featuring cocoa nibs as part of the crumble mix.
I picked this bag up from Rococo on a recent trip to London, and I’m so glad I spotted it. I used to have a big bag of nibs that I brought back from a trip to Paris but I ran out a few months ago and hadn’t found anywhere local that supplied them. If you haven’t seen them before they are broken up pieces of the unprocessed nut, or nib, of the cocoa pod. They taste nutty and chocolatey without being sweet, and you can use them for sweet or savoury dishes. They really help a crumble topping along but I’ve been known to put them in everything from porridge to chilli. Toast them with a handful of nuts for something earthy and aromatic to snack on.
I also made some Greek Lamb Stew, but I don't have a photo of it yet, so here is an artist's impression.
This is my stand-by stew recipe. If I’m in the mood to make stuff I stew up a big batch of this and let it feed me on and off through the week. It gets better after a couple of days, so making it ahead of time is really the best way to go.
Take a about ½ - 1 pound of diced lamb. The cut of meat isn’t hugely important, but the fattier the better (in my opinion). Sear the lamb in hot oil, then remove and leave to rest. Fry up some spices in the same oil. I’ll leave the exact combination up to your own preferences, but cinnamon and cloves are essential. I also add ground coriander seeds and cracked black pepper. Add crushed garlic, 2 roughly chopped carrots, 2 peeled and chopped potatoes, and 4 – 6 small shallots or onions. Try to leave these whole or just cut in half. Stir these through the spices, then put the meat back in the pot. Add 2 tins chopped tomatoes and a little extra water so that everything is covered. Leave on the stove, lid off, on a very low heat for at least a couple of hours. By this time it should be reduced and sticky, and the meat should be falling apart.
I have lots more to write about, but I think I should pace myself. Join us for the next exciting episode of Eat It! Guest starring Dirk Benedict as Lt. Columbo.
