Richmond rump

First steak from the new local here in TW1.

Heston Blumenthal’s 24 hour steak recipe

I was lucky enough to catch the below on TV last weekend. It’s taken a while to figure out how to steal it from BBC’s iPlayer, but fortunately for you I got there in the end.

The recipe looks quite amazing and I am wasting no time in trying it out myself. In fact I have already bought the meat and it’s cooking away as I write. Check back soon to see how it went.

Steak+ (part 1)

It’s fair to say that I have had more than my share of steak this weekend. After being berated by my brother for what he described as a weak blog entry last week, I was determined to eat plenty to write about for this weeks entry.

On Friday I received a call from Dave Cosgrave of the Cosgrave clan, inquiring about what I had planned for ‘Friday night is steak night’. He happened to be passing through Chiswick so I invited him to join me to feast. I popped out to pick up some meat from Macken Bros. And as Dave was joining me I opted for something a little special. I requested the butcher to hack me off a couple of T-bones, to which he gladly obliged. The man put considerable effort into cutting the pair of 900g steaks and I informed him that his effort would be rewarded with a mention on the blog. Sadly this did not seem to impress him. The Philistine.

Loot at the effort

As well as the T-bones I also bought a small rib-eye for Tillie. And when Dave arrived in the evening he presented me with even more steaks.  On his way up from Dorset he’d stopped off at a place called Griffs Traditional Butchers in Broadstone, Poole and purchased two healthy well-aged (35 days) sirloins from the Isles of Orkney. So in total we had almost 3.5 kilos of beef to play with. Whilst I like my beef 3.5 kilos between two gents and a lady is greedy by anyone’s standards. So I kept one of the T-bones aside and cooked only 2.5 kilos instead.

Satisfactory selection of steak

We grilled the meat in the normal fashion and served with a healthy Rocket & cherry tomato salad dripping in Olive Oil & Balsamic Vinegar. We also griddled a pack of Asparagus that I picked up from the green grocers on the High Road.

Sadly I cooked the sirloins a little too much for my liking, though the T-bone was grilled to perfection. Needless to say we polished off the lot and even Tillie managed to empty her plate.

We rinsed down the grade-A Aberdeen Angus with a couple of delicious bottles of Mauvinon Bellevue Saint Emilion Grand Cru (2005) and a Cadbury Dairy Milk with Crunchy bits.

Dave & Tillie

Unnecessary steak? (I think not)

500g of pure Sirloin. No problem.

Last Friday Tillie was kind enough to pick up my steak from Macken Bros in Turnham Green. I requested a thick cut of Sirloin weighing no less than 500g. She called me from the shop saying that the butcher was refusing to cut me such a large steak as it was gross and unecesary. When I replied asking him to keep his opinion to himself and cut my steak as I requested, he said to Tillie “I bet your husband doesn’t have a 32 inch waist”. “No I don’t, it’s 34 inches” I lied back to him.

Needless to say I got my steak the way I wanted it. We ate round Saggy’s in the evening and I cooked the meat on her barbecue on the balcony. I nearly killed myself in the process however, as her little man Rafa had switched on the gas beforehand, so when I threw a match into the grill a flame the size of a small car erupted from within it, singeing my facial hair and initiating the Maillard reaction in some style.

The meal was delicious nonetheless and despite the warnings from the butcher I nailed the meat in record time. Easy peasy.

Steak sausages!

Steak sausage

We had dinner with my sister & brother-in-law last week. They’d been raving about these beef sausages they bought from a local South African butcher – called St Marcus - and had promised to give us a sample for some time.

Ben cooked them up and served with the usual trimmings of baked potato and beans. They were delicious, although when cooked looked decidedly smaller than beforehand. Lack of meat is something that makes Ben quite an angry man and I could tell he was not best pleased.

I loved them though and will certainly be purchasing some steak sausages for myself very shortly.

Depressing steaks

A Mountain of Meat

What should have been a very pleasant evening – munching through a mountain of meat with my brother – turned into a quite depressing experience when we began contemplating the future of our country. We were both in agreement that the future is quite bleak for (Great) Britain and hence our children.

Frederick Mair has my eyes. His mothers smile. And Gordon Browns debts. (Quality advertising that).

Sad steaks

Despite the doom and gloom, we did our best to eat our way through over 1.8 kilo of Cornish steak, comprising 2 rumps weighing about 300g each and a pair of T-bones.

Ross slow-cooked an onion & parsley sauce and I prepared some oven roasted potatoes with garlic and rosemary. We served it with a couple of lovely bottles of Pinot Noir.

Despite the deliciousness of our meal, the sadness took its toll and unfortunately neither of us could manage to clean our plates. Not something I like to admit to very often.

Sad steak & sauce

Verdict: Don’t mix politics with steak.

Sexed up steaks

Sexed up steaks

I had a few frying steaks in the freezer that needed eating. I wouldn’t normally buy frying steaks but they arrived as a part of a batch order I made recently, so I had little choice. I find frying steaks flavourless and the texture is usually quite chewy. So I decided to sex these ones up a bit and concocted a little recipe, which I will share with you.

1. Heat some olive oil in a large frying pan and cooked the steaks for a few minutes on each side until brown. Remove them a keep aside.

2. Add a chopped onion to the pan and saute until soft.

3. Add some chopped parsley, 100ml of passata, a couple of table spoons of chutney (I used red onion chutney), a few splashes of Worcestershire sauce, a glass of red wine, a table spoon of sugar and some seasoning.

4. Simmer for about 10 minutes

5. Add the steaks to reheat

I was pretty happy with the outcome but not even the greatness of my invention could hide the fact that frying steaks are sub-standard and should be avoided at all cost.

Note to self, omit frying steaks from next order (which needs to be soon as stock is running low).

First steaks of the year

First steaks of the year

January in the Mair household is a fairly boring affair. For the past several years Tillie has insisted we have a booze free month to start the year. In 2008 I made it to the 6th. This year however I am faring better. It’s the 9th and not a drop has passed my lips*.

Steak night without a decent glass of rouge is not quite the same. Red wine is the perfect compliment to a quality piece of beef and a consuming a healthy portion of steak without washing it down with a glass of rouge somehow leaves you feeling like you’ve missed out on something, which is how I feel tonight.

The meat was great and I enjoyed it. I defrosted a couple of Sirloins left over from the recent trip to Cornwall, which were delicious still. I grilled the pair of them to perfection. Mine was about 400g worth and Tillie’s about half that. Though great as the meat was, without the plonk it wasn’t a ‘Friday night is steak night’ that’s going to stay with me.

I’m considering swapping the following three Friday’s with a few Monday’s from February. I probably won’t miss them and it’ll make for a much more enjoyable steak night for the rest of the month.

I’d welcome your thoughts on the matter.

* The two pints of Guinness and glass of bubbly on  Sunday do not count of course. I was obliged to drink as we were celebrating the engagement (finally) of Mark & Amy, who are also expecting their first child this week.

A lovely threesome.

A lovely threesome

This week I decided to do an end of year clear out of my freezer. I was pleasantly surprised as to how much beef my freezer contained. I’d guess there was at least 3 kilos of top grade beef waiting to be eaten.

With so much on offer the challenge was to not over cook it on the quantity front. I opted to defrost 3 pieces – 2 for me and 1 for Tillie. My serving included a delicious Sirloin which was left over from my September order at St.Ives beef, of approximately 250g. In the above photo this is the piece on the top left hand side. Notice the cherry red colouring of the meat – a sign of a healthy amount of Myglobin I imagine.

I also finished off the marinated rib-eye I bought from Randalls butcher a few months back. I served both on a simple rocket salad with cherry tomatoes. Delicious.

Tillie had a rib-eye, also from St. Ives beef. I had a little taste and was very impressed. I am planning a trip to Cornwall this weekend to stay with my mother. I may well stop by St. Ives beef farm to check out their set up and meet some of my future meals.

The last of the fillet.

Fillet up please

No ‘Friday night is steak night’ this weekend as I had my annual Christmas dinner with the cricket club. I play for the Chelsea Arts Club, a marvelous club founded by a truly eccentric and wonderful man named David Maddox. We are a pretty handy side and  consistently win a lot more games than we lose. We also hold the prestigious title of being the world ice-cricket champions.

Instead I planned to use the remaining fillets – sent to me from my new best friend in Dubai – to make up some single portion Beef Wellingtons. Come Sunday evening though I was feeling exhausted and lazy and sadly could not muster the energy to rush to M&S to pick up the filo pastry, a crucial ingredient.

So instead I griddle fried the remaning steaks and served with chips & curly kale together with a few spring onions. Not the mosy glamorous of Sunday lunches but still magnificent in taste. Tillie could not even magage half of hers and my appetite was not great either, so this week I’ll mostly be snacking on fillet & horseraddish sandwiches.

Things could be worse!

Sunday night is steak night