Reply to: Fillet Steaks!

[Money Money Money]

take them out the fridge so they're not too cold.

get the pan up to heat, add tbsp oil & large knob butter.

rub clove of garlic around pan

season steaks (maldon salt & cracked black pepper) just before adding to pan (or the salt draws the juices out)

cooking depend on thickness of steak but should be rare ( or "á point" if your Froggie!)

let pan cool

eat steak.

later on..

wipe pan with lumps of crusty bread and eat! yummy!

Robnjc,

Cooked this last night, Thanks for the tips it was absolutely beautiful!

[Lucifer Box]

Some good finds there, dude69 - thanks. I especially like the French and Italian sites. A whole parma ham for £120-odd is a bargain.

Obviously as a contractor my man will be getting in the Fortnum & Mason Imperial Hamper this Christmas.

[dude69]

I have had good meat from

www.caleyco.com (Scottish - the bacon, Ramsays of Carluke, is particularly excellent)
and
www.natoora.com (French)

I have not quite got around to ordering from

www.nifeislife.com (Italian)

but it looks nice, I quite fancy some whole Parma ham hanging in my larder.

I also get my meat (in person) from James Elliott in Islington: http://www.urbanpath.com/london/butc...es-elliott.htm

If anyone wants to know what to get me for Christmas, then this sounds good:

WELLRIGGS HAMPER
2.3Kg Joint of Smoked Ayrshire Gigot
4 x 200gm Smoked Ayrshire Middle
2 x 200gm Ayrshire Back
2 x 400gm Pork Links
2 x 280gm Black Pudding
1 x 280gm White Pudding
1 x 280gm Fruit Pudding
1 x 500gm Haggis Ball
4 x ll3gm Bacon Grills
2 x 200gm Smoked Streaky Bacon
4 x l70gm Smoked Gammon Steaks

[Lucifer Box]

Sadly LB, our neighbour's daughter has cut short our voyeuristic pleasures by booggering off to her London den of iniquity where she satisfies the sexual urges of elderly, portly judges and fair maidens clad in tight leather. I can but imagine...

Meat hung for 28 days is indeed the best way - it smells so refined with a bouquet as interesting as a great full bodied Chateauneuf.

Looking to find a new preserve to make - any suggestions?

Thanks for filling me in, hyperD, that will provide some vivid thinking for me in the occasional dull moment.

How about making some quince cheese? They are in season right now and it's not difficult. People will truly gasp in amazement when you whip that out to accompany the cheese board. Alternatively you can charge a small fortune for tiny slices of it from a stall at your local farmers' market.

[Lucifer Box]

LB not sure there are many reputable butchers around

Sandy, it is sadly true that in some areas a decent butcher or, indeed, any butcher at all is as rare as rocking horse manure. Huge swathes of the country only know tasteless plastic meat shrinkwrapped in plastic trays from plastic supermarkets (of which the Competition Commission bizarrely says there aren't enough).

However, if you don't have a decent local butcher, you can deal with these people who will ship the best quality meat in cool boxes direct to your door. The whole lamb boxes are especially fine and good value for top quality Jurassic coast lamb.

[hyperD]

Well done, Sandy, you know it makes sense.

SallyAnne, that's the one thing the pan to oven method won't give you if you like it, the cripsy outside. Unless as Churchill suggests you do the pan to oven to pan method. As I like it rare anyway, just the pan to mouth method does me.

Hello hyperD, my old friend. You are right, the quality of the ingredients is the key. Listen to hyperD, he is wise beyond his years.* If you buy a steak on the way home from a reputable butcher that is a good matured on the bone for 28 days steak you will do a better steak yourself than ANY restaurant would - I guarantee it. Anything less than 28 days matured will fail to deliver on the palate and any steak at all from a supermarket, even fancy packaged Jamie Oliver "premium" steak, will be tulipe.


* P.S. Got any more pictures of your neighbour's daughter?

Sadly LB, our neighbour's daughter has cut short our voyeuristic pleasures by booggering off to her London den of iniquity where she satisfies the sexual urges of elderly, portly judges and fair maidens clad in tight leather. I can but imagine...

Meat hung for 28 days is indeed the best way - it smells so refined with a bouquet as interesting as a great full bodied Chateauneuf.

Looking to find a new preserve to make - any suggestions?

If anyone wondered why supermarket meat sometimes has grey/brown areas on it - it is because the meat has not been allowed to cool and mature before being packaged i.e. a very efficient process from live cow to shrink wrap.

Also, be careful of bacon, ham and salami from supermarkets - stuffed full of sodium nitrite preservatives and aspartame/saccharine where my in-laws make all this without any of the nasties.

I'm a firm believer that these synthetics have an adverse effect on the immune system over time and hopefully will be banned for good.

[SandyDown]

Well done, Sandy, you know it makes sense.

SallyAnne, that's the one thing the pan to oven method won't give you if you like it, the cripsy outside. Unless as Churchill suggests you do the pan to oven to pan method. As I like it rare anyway, just the pan to mouth method does me.

Hello hyperD, my old friend. You are right, the quality of the ingredients is the key. Listen to hyperD, he is wise beyond his years.* If you buy a steak on the way home from a reputable butcher that is a good matured on the bone for 28 days steak you will do a better steak yourself than ANY restaurant would - I guarantee it. Anything less than 28 days matured will fail to deliver on the palate and any steak at all from a supermarket, even fancy packaged Jamie Oliver "premium" steak, will be tulipe.


* P.S. Got any more pictures of your neighbour's daughter?

LB not sure there are many reputable butchers around, I found a butcher/grocery which is Moroccan, and I find them very clean, the butcher is more than happy to oblige with my order – he even prepared sausages for me with no bread-crumbs/wheat in it, I also love getting my groceries from there, he has plenty of cooking veg. I sort of stopped going to supermarkets.

As for the Steak/Lamb/Chicken I can ask him to cut it in a certain way, cut all the fat out, size of pieces etc, with without bones- and he is excellent doing this. However I don’t think he is sophisticated enough to hang the steak.. I will try to look around for another butcher, I know there is one in the covered market in Oxford (they also sell Kangaroo and Ostrich steaks – someone told me there’s nothing like a Kangaroo steak, but I haven’t tasted it) However I always thought that butcher was a rip-off, but they seem to be extremely busy before Xmas.. so perhaps they are worth the extra money..
Moose/Bogyman, have you tried that butcher? Also DimPrawn you are from Wiltshire/Swindon which is not far from Oxford, used to sometimes get groceries and meat from Millets farm, what do you think?

[Lucifer Box]

had a steak for dinner, flashed fried it ala LB method... yummmmie

Well done, Sandy, you know it makes sense.

SallyAnne, that's the one thing the pan to oven method won't give you if you like it, the cripsy outside. Unless as Churchill suggests you do the pan to oven to pan method. As I like it rare anyway, just the pan to mouth method does me.

Hello hyperD, my old friend. You are right, the quality of the ingredients is the key. Listen to hyperD, he is wise beyond his years.* If you buy a steak on the way home from a reputable butcher that is a good matured on the bone for 28 days steak you will do a better steak yourself than ANY restaurant would - I guarantee it. Anything less than 28 days matured will fail to deliver on the palate and any steak at all from a supermarket, even fancy packaged Jamie Oliver "premium" steak, will be sh1te.


* P.S. Got any more pictures of your neighbour's daughter?

[Churchill]

Hi LB! Welcome back.

I had a lovely steak in the Latymer restaurant at the Pennyhill park. I think it was slow cooked “Aberdeen Angus” where they cook it for 3 hours in an over at around 60°C. The sides are flash seared to retain the moisture.

Very juicy, full of flavour and completely red throughout apart from a mm thin brown coat.

Never come close with trying that at home, but always get your steak from a proper butchers: Graham Turner's in Horsell, Surrey is an example. They do a lovely salt marsh lamb there and can get me wild boar steaks.

Couldn't agree more. A quality product needs quality ingredients.

[Weltchy]

Place boiling water into a large saucepan with vinegar to allow the eggs to bind and salt to raise the temperature of the water. Bring water to the boil. I always use the shallow method, so the depth of the water in the saucepan should be about 1.5 to 2 inches, depending on how confident/good you are with the next bit.

I always have the eggs already prepared by breaking all four into separate cups, small ones ideally.

Stir the water so it starts circling in the pan and drop the first cup into the pan. The egg should swirl inside the cup and start to bind. Leave the cup in the water for maybe 5 seconds and the allow the egg to fall out of the cup. Take your wooden spoon and fold the drifting parts of the egg back in on itself, therefore shaping the egg.

Repeat this for all four eggs, cooking time per egg should be around 3-4 minutes. This does take quite a bit of practise to get right!!!!!

[hyperD]

Hi LB! Welcome back.

I had a lovely steak in the Latymer restaurant at the Pennyhill park. I think it was slow cooked “Aberdeen Angus” where they cook it for 3 hours in an over at around 60°C. The sides are flash seared to retain the moisture.

Very juicy, full of flavour and completely red throughout apart from a mm thin brown coat.

Never come close with trying that at home, but always get your steak from a proper butchers: Graham Turner's in Horsell, Surrey is an example. They do a lovely salt marsh lamb there and can get me wild boar steaks.

[robnjc]

take them out the fridge so they're not too cold.

get the pan up to heat, add tbsp oil & large knob butter.

rub clove of garlic around pan

season steaks (maldon salt & cracked black pepper) just before adding to pan (or the salt draws the juices out)

cooking depend on thickness of steak but should be rare ( or "á point" if your Froggie!)

let pan cool

eat steak.

later on..

wipe pan with lumps of crusty bread and eat! yummy!

[Churchill]

I must admit to loving poached eggs. I can quite happily poach 4 eggs in a single saucepan at the same time and each one comes out perfect

How?

And this is a serious question.

I use the cup and clingfilm method.

[Weltchy]

I must admit to loving poached eggs. I can quite happily poach 4 eggs in a single saucepan at the same time and each one comes out perfect

[Bear]

An egg contains less fat than a steak, so you're lowering the overall fat content.

[pedant]

No you're not. an egg would need to have negative fat to do that.

You're lowering the proportional amount of fat in the whole meal. so instead of the meal being for example 20% fat is only 15% fat. There would actually be more fat as a whole.

[/pedant]