spiceblog: September 2003

Steak Sandwich

This was done a while ago and went MIA

Monstrously good when done well and my servo favourite. Haven't had a great one for a while. This may be the effect of no longer thinking Fried Meat thing in a Wonton Wrapper called a Dim Sum and Cheese Sausage is great servo food either. A steak sandwich has two things: steak and onions, and bread which is three but anyway two ingredients and nostalgia makes it pretty hard to replicate. A bit like reliving a Spring day in Paris with a piece of cheese and a bottle of red. Worth a try though.
Thought I'd try to push the flavour of the steak a bit with a marinade. The marinade was 2tbs oil, a tbs soy, and a splash of worcestershire, I also added a tablespoon of water with cornstarch for no other reason than I think Chinese do it to make the beef "velvety".

Onions sliced and fried until softened. Seta aside. Steak, which had been cut into strips for quicker cooking. Seared on one side, turned, and the onions placed on top. Once cooked, placed between two buttered bits of toast.

The marinade made a small difference. The biggest one was, that for not having the steaks pounded down to their last existential thickness, there was a faint tang of blood. Good

Porterhouse with a Red Wine Sauce on Garlic Mashed Potato with Broccolini

Sunday night. Nothing on telly and a severe weather warning outside so home cooking it was. It was a top up between scotch fillet and porterhouse and porterhouse won purely on looks.

The sauce.

- Reduced a cup of beef stock by half and set aside.
- Cooked finely chopped field mushrooms in a dab of butter with a splash of the stock until soft and set aside.
- put a glass of leftover sparkling shiraz and reduced it with a couple of inches of rosemary and some peppercorns. Added the mushrooms and the stock and then reduced a bit further.

The Mash

Chopped up three big spuds and microwaved them until soft. Meanwhile I sauteed 3 cloves of minced garlic mourning that these ostensibly healthy things were drenched in fungicide. So much for colds but at it may at least give my tinea a run for its money. Poured garlic and butter over the spuds, added some milk and then pureed. I then mixed in some garden fresh chopped parsley.

The steak.
Sprinkled with pepper and then cooked quickly in a fry pan with some olive oil.

Broccolini
Steamed.

Mash went on one side of the plate, broccolini on the other, steak on top of the mash and then the sauce went over the steak and into the mash.

Enjoyed a great deal with a bottle of Goundrey's cabernet shiraz.

Champagne Moussaka

Not enough gorgeousness in these recipes and not enough use of the verb swirl. I was at the supermarket and apropos of nothing, decided moussaka was the go. I guessed well enough that it had minced lamb, eggplant and nutmeg. A white sauce just needed milk. Several parts: eggplant, white sauce, meatsauce and cheese. The Womans Weekly cookbook from the time of ounces provided the basics.

Meat sauce:
A chopped onion, some minced garlic and half a kilo of beef, sauteed until the rawness. In then went a jar of italian tomato sauce, a tbs of tomato paste, a cup of champagne left over from the weekend in lieu of white wine, a tsp of nutmeg, salt and pepper, all left to simmer away.

White sauce:
50gm of butter, melted, taken off heat and then half a cup of flour whisked in. Salt, pepper and half a tsp of nutmeg. Returned to heat for a minute and stirred. Taken off heat 400ml of milk slowly mixed in . Returned to heat and to boil, stirred until thickened. Then a beaten egg was whisked in. Put aside.

Eggplants:
Salted, rinsed, dried, sliced, and then fried in olive oil.

Cheese:
Cheddar grated with some boccocini.

Potato:
Thinly sliced and microwaved until cooked.

Assembly:
In a greased casserole dish, the potato and eggplant is placed on the bottom. Half the cheese over that. The the meat sauce. Then the white sauce, followed by the rest of the cheese. Bunged in a hot oven for 20 minutes. Marvellous