Steak

Ah, steak - its finally your turn. Well, one of your turns.

The man's been working late, as of, well, late - finishing up a chapter of his PhD. (I like how bougie this sounds) Last night he got home at about half-past ten, tired and hungry, I imagined. So I decided to cook him a late-night steak feast.

First, I got out a regular old frying pan (plenty of 'stick'), put a bit of oil into it and put it on the front-left burner. Old front-lefty, I call him. He is so reliable - one temperature only: SMOKE-ALARM HOT. Really, really hot.

I cracked a bunch of pepper and salt in a bowl. That way I don't have to worry about meaty hands on my salt and pepper thingies. Though, to be fair, I'm about to eat the meat, so I wonder what kind of magical evil could be on the meat that needs avoiding to such levels. I would like to do more research into the supposed evils of raw meat handling in one's own home.

Back to the steak: I patted the popeseye dry with paper towel, and made a few slices in the fat that bordered the one side of it.



Slice perpendicular to the ring of fat: this way, the steak doesn't curl up, and when you flip it over it stays flat and browns more evenly. And the brown-y bits are the best.

Then I rubbed both sides down with salt and pepper. I turned the oven on to a low setting and put a (okay, just left the existing, mostly-clean) baking tray in the oven . When the oil was REALLY FREAKIN' HOT I put the steak in the pan.

Sizzzzzzzle. Leave the steak in the pan until it moves on its own. That way, the delicious brown bits stay on the steak and fewer bits stick to the pan. When it looks brown and tasty, flip it.

While the steak is cooking, I chopped up some veg. I had some roast potatoes left over from the chicken on Monday, so I chopped those up. I also sliced an onion and a lovely big-capped mushroom.

When the other side of the steak is browned, pop it in the oven. Then, dump the veg in the pan and turn down the heat (which, in my case, means turn on another burner and move the pan over there). Let the veg cook, but not too much - the onions should still have a bit of bite. Shake some Worcestershire sauce into the pan, along with some water, and scrape up the browned bits - not enough to make a sauce, just enough to kind of coat the veg. Just before you think its ready, put a bit of butter in and melt it through. Slide the veg onto your plate.

So, that all sounds tasty to me, but I am feeding a MAN, so bring on the additions. An egg, he suggested. Egg? Ladies don't eat meat with meat. One meat is enough. But men, MEN, eat meatS. So, a bit more oil went in the pan (this is a diet meal, as you can tell) and an egg was cracked. Meanwhile, I put two potato scones in the toaster.

And that's about it. I took the steak out of the oven and put it on the plate with the veg.



I slid the fried egg on the the steak and popped the tattie scones out of the toaster.





Annnnnnnd, I think that's about it! A quick, simple man-feast from stuff I had in the house already!

Apple Clafouti

Well, I bought two steaks today, faithfully remembering that I live with a man and men must have meat. I love cooking for him every night. I feel appreciated and creative and like I'm making a positive use of my time. These last two nights the man's been at work at its amazing for me to see how quickly I'm reverting back to old habits. Its just not as fun to cook for just me. I even tried to convince a friend to come over for tea tonight, but alas, she couldn't.

i thought it was my turn tonight. i am sad. left here, in the refrigerator. unrealised potential.

So, while the steaks sit in the fridge, I'm making apple clafouti and nibbling on roast chicken leftovers and olives straight from the jar.

For the Clafouti, I'm vaguely referencing this recipe: http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Apple-Clafouti , though lately I've become more comfortable with measuring by eye or hand, and I've always been okay with modifying recipes depending on what I've got in the house.

I made this recipe with Bramley apples, which is the type of apple I most often use in cooking. I'm giving this one a try after falling a tiny bit out of love with my pudding standard, recipe to be found here: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/easy-batter-fruit-cobbler/Detail.aspx I've loved this recipe, and had success with it in the past using (I think) peaches, in a high sided dish (its heart-shaped, so lovely).

But recently, when smashing out simple, no-fuss puddings with apple, I've never been able to get it fully cooked in the centre before the top became burnt. Even with all sorts of messing with it, I haven't been able to get it to work. So I've decided to try this clafouti, as it's a very similar recipe, bar the addition of eggs.

Lovely apples cooking down a bit on the stove (a variant from the batter cobbler recipe):



Mixing up the batter:



If you make this you will look at your batter at this point and go OH CRAP. Because it will have gotten LUMPY. Which obviously means bad kitchen chemistry, DISEASE and CONTAMINATION.
But don't worry. Its just the butter hardening back up into lumps as it mixes with the cold egg and milk. Its a good thing. Do not worry.

This is the Clafouti when its two-thirds ready.



Half of the batter goes on the bottom of the hot pan, then on go all the apples, and then you pour the rest of the batter on top.

!DISCLAIMER! George Bush was just on the television and I have gone temporarily insane. !DISCLAIMER!

Here is the Clafouti just before it was popped into a hothot oven:



That's cinnamon and demerrara sugar on top.

...

Clafouti, I am not pleased with you. 30mins in the oven, maybe a few minutes more - why, then WHY are you not DONE? But also why are you BURNT in someplaces and seemingly RAW in others? I shake you, you jiggle nicely like egg things should but you are still PALE AND UNDELICIOUS LOOKING. I shall PUT YOU UNDER THE GRILL and you BETTER COOK UP NICE.

see how it is BURNT but also RAW in some places?

...


Well, I put the Clafouti under the broiler and it did wonders. First it looked like this:



THEN, it looked like this:



Nice work, Clafouti.

I have a feeling it will deflate quite a lot. But that's okay.



Yes, it has fallen. But here it is in my bowl and it is DELISH. Very nice.






But I am sad. All my puddings are just a vehicle for custard, which I had in the fridge but then when I took the custard out of the fridge it had GONE BAD. But worse, it hadn't completely GONE BAD, but was just kind of funny smelling but NOT IN A BAD WAY. I even scraped the weird globby-bit off the top and tasted the under-layer. This was better but STILL NOT OKAY. I need to have more guts about my food. Probably the custard would have been great and I would have been so in love with my pudding that I'd be gobbling it down right now instead of writing this post with my uneaten pudding resting on my knees mourning over lost custard.

CarcASS or 10 Bean Soup

Hahaha...

Since the chicken was free-range and a bit more oriented towards flavour and bird-quality of life, it had less breast meat than a normal store bird. Think Pamela Anderson vs Me. To the trained eye there is a slight difference.

So when the man and I were done eating our fair share, I pick the that carcass clean of delicious meat and prepared to have my wicked way with the bones.

Into the pot when one onion, quartered, a chopped carrot and a chopped celery arm. Then went in the bones (with ease) and the carcass (with smashing). Covered it all with water, let it bubble it all for a while. How long? Hm. A long while - a telly show? I did some tidying? Hm. Just a while, I guess. Then I drained the stock through a colander into another pot, put the lid on it and left it on the stove.

OVERNIGHT.

I MAY DIE FROM THE DISEASES. INFECTION.

I also take such risks as breathing air and making sandwiches on the countertop.

This morning I took said stock, all jelly-like and wiggly and heated it up. Into it I placed some beans.

The BEANS: Waitrose 10 Bean Mix, put in a bowl, covered with water, left overnight (again, ON THE COUNTER - OMG), rinsed.

Then I placed the beans in the stock. As I write they have been bubbling away on the stove for an hour. Or two. Something. Its tasty so far, but needs something else.



Looks a bit unappealing. A wee trip to the cupboard seems to be in order.

Lets see...



Nothing. I thought there was a can of - oooooh - ginger biscuts. Don't those look tasty.
No, no. Back to the search, surely...



There you are! Friendly little can of tomatoes. You will do. You and your friend Worcestershire sauce.

I must be honest - when tasting the beans and broth, pondering the flavour additions, my mind instantly said 'cheese.' 'Add cheese, Eliza. Cheese would make this so tasty. Grate it, also chop some into chunks, then maybe some cheese on the side.' But in waiting for this soup to be done I have already broken a chunk off the block of cheese and eaten it, so I don't think I need more cheese. Me and cheese are too friendly.

So, tho I wanted to just add cheese, I thought tomatoes were a more mature option.

Plus, I remembered the tasty ginger biscuits in the cupboard so just will eat some of those instead.

:)



So, in the end, it wasn't terribly tasty. Not that there were any offensive flavours, its just that I don't find beans THAT tasty. As aforementioned, I like cheese. Or things that are gooey. I also like things that are savoury and crispy. Fruit things are nice, too. So this soup didn't really fill the bill of blowing me away.

However, I know that it is GOOD FOR ME. Which means, if I eat it I am being a GOOD GIRL. Which means that later I can EAT PUDDING AND FEEL SMUG.

And yes, that is cheese. I make no excuses.

Roast Chicken

I was at Waitrose and was easily swayed by a gimmick, and that gimmick improved my quality of life. Their chickens - both the free-range and organic, have the roasting time printed directly next to the weight and time SPECIFIC TO THE SIZE OF THE CHICKEN. Amazeballs. So I took it home and did it - roasted it for one hour and fourteen minutes at 200C and it was PERFECT. Juices running clear and all that.

So dinner last night a free-range roast chicken with stuffing (done the old-fashioned way, stuffed right up there inside the chicken) and potatoes.

Here's the base for the stuffing - I had some sage left over from a recipe the week before, and half a loaf of wholemeal bread I baked a few days before. A day earlier I sliced the bread into cubes and dried it out in a low oven. I then forgot about it and left it in the turned-off oven for a day. Two days? I can't remember.

I put some butter and a few lardons in a frying pan. Then I added a shallot, an onion and one arm of celery, chopped. Some salt, too. A few chopped up mushrooms that I had left went in next. Then some fresh sage, chopped and some dried parsley. After a bit, a half a cup or so of chicken stock (made from an organic boullion cube - still cheap) to loosen up the tasty browned bits on the bottom of the pan.



Into a big bowl went the bread crumbs, the veg mixture and one egg. I mixed it all up, and then kept adding chicken stock until the bread was quite moist.



I sliced two small pats of butter and ground a bunch of pepper and salt in a bowl. The butter went between the skin and breast, and the salt and pepper all over the skin. Then SHOVE THE STUFFING ALL UP IN THAT BIRD. FO' REAL.



I put the chicken in a tray on top of some sliced onions, a couple of potatoes chopped in bits and a carrot. Into the oven it went.

THEN I SET THE TIMER FOR 1:14 AND WATCHED TV.

THEN I ATE MY FREAKIN' DELICIOUS CHICKEN. THE END.



note: was extremely tasty - think a big part of that was its free-range-ness. it looked different than a regular chicken, less implant-sized breasts, etc. makes a difference.

Past Food

I realised that my iPhone camera has half photos of my niece and nephew and engagement ring, and half of food. That I've made. So I decided to start writing about the food I make, because I like food and I like writing. I also have a little bit of time on my hands. So, might as well.
Here is a record of some past FoodiMade.