Beef Strips with Worchester Sauce Coating and Oven Baked Vegetables

Talk about a long title. Nonetheless, it was the only (reasonable) title that I could think of without sounding silly (not that is a genuine concern of mine). Again, this dish is one that represents one of my core beliefs about cooking: versatility. This meat you can cook and use for salads, serving as steaks, sandwiches or wraps and it’s super easy to make (you can also cook it in advance and store it for a day or two), and the vegetables make it justice with a simple saffron yogurt dressing (oh, yeah, the title could have been longer).

So, the meat, use a 3-4 cm thick piece of beef, that would be nice to be flat and even. Season your meat with some pepper, toss it in your dried herbs of choice (you can use rosemary, thyme, parsley, coriander, tarragon) and pop it in a preheated pan with 2 tbs of olive oil. The reason for using a less thick piece of meat is because we are gonna turn it once every minute or so for about 5 minutes, so we kinda make sure that the heat stays in all the time and it doesn’t dissipate through the meat. 

So, on high heat, meat in, turn it every minute for 5-6 minutes, depending on your desired taste and meat size and then add a generous amount of Worchester sauce (4-5 tbs). The thing is the sauce will caramelize very fast, and you need to make sure you coat the meat with it on both sides. After that, take the meat out and let it rest. 

For the veggies, it’s a matter of choice, I went with carrots, courgette (both diced), onion (sliced in rings), and I also used 3 garlic heads (I used a sort of baby garlic, not that it was small in size, but it was very young, without all of layers formed, it has a much sweeter taste with a bit of a green, grassy take). Mix everything (except the garlic) with some olive oil, salt and pepper and put them (including the garlic) in an oven, on high heat, for 20-25 minutes, after which you just have to put the veggies on a plate and sprinkle some chopped parsley on top. 

For the sauce, heat a up a tiny amount of water (couple of tbs), put in a pinch of saffron and let it infuse for 3-4 minutes. Then, in a pestle squish and bash with a mortar the contents of a baked garlic head (you’ll have a sort of a baked garlic puree, one of the most delicious things ever discovered), then put in the saffron infusion (condiments included), 1tbs olive oil, 150 grams of yogurt (I used the greek type, with 10% fat) and mix everything into a beautiful dressing for the meat.

And, hey, if you don’t feel like sitting at the table for this dish, then don’t: just grab yourselves a tortilla wrap, put the meat, veggies and sauce in and take it on the go, either way, it’s delicious. 

Enjoy,

Mr. G.

Farfalle with Bacon, Peas and Ricotta

You may recognize this recipe as it was shown by Gordon Ramsay in one of his shows and, after trying it myself, I have to say it’s a very nice, very easy pasta dish that you can cook up with minimum effort. 

• For 250-300 grams of farfalle (3 portions) I used 
• 300 grams of bacon (go for pancetta if you have it, I used bacon because, in my opinion, this dish is about great results with minimum fuss)
• 175-200 grams of peas
• 150 grams ricotta
• 1 garlic clove 
• 75 grams cream
• salt
• pepper 
• olive oil

Cut your bacon into cubes and drop them in preheated pan for about 5 minutes, until they get a golden brown color. 

Add the finely chopped garlic and cook for another minute. 

Meanwhile, prepare the pasta according to the package instructions and, with 4 minutes before them being done put the peas in the water (I used canned peas that proved quite easy to cook). 

Drain your pasta-peas mix (keep a couple of tbs of cooking water just in case) and drop it on the bacon-garlic combo, then put in the cream and mix until everything starts simmering. 

Cook this whole combo to thicken it up (or add cooking water if you think it’s too thick), serve it on a plate and add small portions of the ricotta on the pasta. 

Drizzle some olive oil on top, mix in the cheese and enjoy. 

I’m not really sure if this was exactly the way Ramsay did the recipe (am I allowed to say his name on the internet? I feel like he knows… Chuck Norris style….), but you can always try and mix it up (try some sage or parsley, maybe some pine nuts). 

In all, one great easy recipe for a relaxing afternoon. Good job Mr. Ramsay! (I feel the sudden urge to shut down my computer and pull the internet cable out……)

See ya next time,
Mr. G

Strawberry Crumble

Apparently this year was a great one for strawberries, growers obtained both quality and quantity and the markets were full with these flavorsome fruits. Thing is, when I can find something in abundance, I tend to forget about making dishes that require those/that ingredient(s). 

This was the case with this crumble, that was planned for a couple of weeks, but always postponed on the consideration that the strawberries aren’t going anywhere. 

Unfortunately, they did and I could only get my hands on some berries that were not quite ripe, but packed enough flavor for this desert. I’m not much of a dessert man, if you don’t count melting sugar and spreading honey on a piece of bread, this is only my second dessert recipe (the first one being this).

I saw this being done by Nigella Lawson and I thought this is way too simple not to give it a go. Ingredients wise: about 500 grams of strawberries (cleaned and cut in half – only if you want to, depends on their size), 200 grams of almonds (50 grams diced with a kitchen knife and the other 150 grams grinded to a flour-like consistency), 75-100 grams of caster sugar (you can add more if you feel the fruit needs it), 50 grams of muscovado, 75 grams of butter, 130 grams of flour, vanilla extract, 1 tsp baking powder.

I used 2 ceramic dishes for this recipe, you can go for a tray, but I liked the look on the crumble and it was nice to have separate portions. So, put the fruit in your oven proof dish, sprinkle the caster sugar, vanilla and crumbled almonds on top, give it a bit of a whack to make sure the ingredients are even spread. Now, mix your cold butter with the flour and baking powder, using the tip of your fingers to create something that looks like oatmeal cereals. Put that on top of the strawberries, and try to seal in the margins. Mix the almond flour with the muscovado sugar and sprinkle that on top. 

Pop that in the oven until it turns to a golden color in the center and on the edges the strawberries begin to bubble. We served this with some whipped cream and it was delicious. Now, there could be some changes to the original recipe and I think I’m gonna try doing this next time with a little kick form some balsamic vinegar, see how it goes. 

Enjoy,

Mr. G

Jamon Serrano Covered Turkey Roulade

I’m not a fan of cooking roulades, rolls or whatever you wanna call them. But I have to admit that they look nice on a plate and they give the possibility of pairing some interesting options as filling. In this case, I chose turkey meat because it is basically flavorless and thus, great for choosing strong spices or other ingredients to improve the dish. So the ingredients: about 400 grams of turkey meat, 4-5 mushrooms finely sliced (I used champignon), 1 medium onion, finely diced, 3-4 cloves garlic, 200 grams bacon, asparagus, jamon slices for covering the meat rolls, I used about 100 grams, thyme, olive oil, salt pepper.

So, about the turkey, I had an almost square piece of breast meat, that I cut in 2. For each piece, I cut it in the middle, but not all the way through (think it like it’s a book), then I tenderized the meat (to be read: beat it with a meat hammer which is also to be read rolling pin), reducing its thickness and creating 2 sheets of meat. 

For the filling, I diced the bacon, fried for 6-7 minutes on high heat, then added the onion, mushrooms and garlic, salt (taste your bacon, it may not be necessary) and pepper.

Cook this until the mushrooms have lost almost all their water (10-15 minutes). This is important because, otherwise, the water will come out of the roulade and flood the tray you’re cooking it in (or you can just cook the roll on a grill on top of the tray). Bacon wise, I diced the meat into medium chunks, you can try with a smaller size, it should give you a crispier outcome.

Before putting the filling in, I used the mortar and pestle to mash a couple tbs of thyme leaves into a paste to which I added some olive oil, and I rubbed the inside of the turkey meat with the resulting paste. After that, I put some filling on the meat (leave it to cool before this, it will make handling it a lot easier), and, in the middle, an asparagus spear that has decorative value when you slice the roll (I used the white type, green works better me thinks). Roll your turkey meat, and the cover it with some thin jamon slices (you could use prosciutto, pancetta, spek, or any other cured ham smoked or not) all the way around.

 Put this in the oven for 30- 40 minutes on high heat, and leave it to cool for 10 minutes when getting it out.
 We served it with tabbouleh, as shown in the previous post you can enjoy here. 

Have a great day,
Mr. G.