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.

Friday night is steak night.

Macken Bros.

Friday night in the Mair household is otherwise known as ‘Friday night is steak night’. Sadly my wife does not let me eat beef every night of the week. But come Friday I am always guarateed a decent meal – and I never waste the opportunity.

My local butcher is called Macken Brothers – and unless I’ve remembered to defrost something from the freezer or have visited another of my favourite butchers, I usually end up picking up my meat from them. Macken Brothers is a very good local butcher and they’ve been my saviour on many an occasion. My only gripe are the long queues and slightly inflated prices. But that’s an occupational hazard of buying your groceries from Turnham Green Terrace.

Tonight is a steak night. The ingredients were purchased from Macken this morning by Tillie before she departed to Liverpool for the weekend, leaving me home alone with Freddie, our 3 month old son. Freddie is not yet old enough to enjoy ‘Friday night is steak night’ with his daddy. Currently he prefers the milk of cows rather than the cows themselves. All that will change soon though.

Sirloin and snap peas

This evening I cooked 400g of Macken’s finest sirloin. Unfortunately they came as 2 x 200g pieces rather than one larger piece of beef. I much prefer cooking sirloin in thick cuts as you can grill it for some time – releasing loads of flavour from the fat – but without cooking the meat through. When sirloin is cooked in smaller portions it can only stand a couple of minutes on either side before cooking through, which is not enough time for the fat to release much flavour at all. If you’re buying good quality beef however, the flavour of the meat itself will usually be sufficient enough.

I cooked the steaks on my griddle pan and piled a packet of snap peas on top of them. No more than two minutes on either side were enough to cook the beef to how I like it. I blob of Dijon and a side salad with an Olive Oil & Balsamic dressing to accompany. The perfect ‘Friday night is steak night’.

To accompany the meal I cracked open a bottle of Chateau Macquin 2005, which I recently bought from the Sunday Times Wine Club. The list price for this wine is £11.99 a bottle, however if you make your purchase as a part of a club member offer and use voucher codes available from a site such as My Voucher Codes, you can pick it up for closer to £6 a bottle. An absolute bargain.

Verdict: You wouldn’t ask the wife to buy a pair of your shoes and you shouldn’t ask her to buy the steak either.