Steak with Red Wine Gravy

Here's a meat-feast as promised. I think a good steak meal, no matter how cultured or refined you may think you are, is still one of the most complete and balanced dishes possible. The accompaniment can be almost anything you like, though I find that good old-fashioned potato wedges work very nicely, especially with a big dollop of ketchup on the plate. After years of trying and failing to grill the perfect steak, I used a cast-iron grill pan, the type with lines on it, and was amazed at the results. If you are looking for a reliable way to cook steak and other meats, I highly recommend one of these babies!

PREPARE THE STEAK AND WEDGES

Steak cuts are very much a personal thing, though my favourite for cooking in this way for both flavour and price is sirloin. Avoid fillet steak, it's too lean and won't give you nearly as much of a charred, BBQ taste on the griddle. To prepare the meat, I generally keep it simple. Follow the steps below for a nice, tender steak which is not masked by additional flavours.

1. Use a meat tenderizer to give the steaks a good bashing, but try not to flatten them too much or they will cook too quickly and be dry and tough, rather than soft and juicy.
2. Rub the steak with some olive oil, salt, pepper and a little Tabasco if you want them to have an interesting zing to them.
3. Leave the skins on the potatoes and cut them in half. Slice each of these halves into thick wedges and place on an oven tray. 

COOK THE STEAK

1. Allow you pan to become searingly hot, then add your oiled and salted steak and cook the first side quickly, for about 3 minutes.
2. Turn the heat down a touch and flip the steak, cook it on this side for the remainder of the time. Keep checking the texture of the steak. The harder it is, the better it is cooked.

COOK THE WEDGES

1. Take your boiled potato wedges and pop them into a roasting tin. Pour oil all over them and toss them with salt and pepper. Bake for approximately 45 minutes at 200 Celsius until golden brown and crunchy. 
2. Remove from the tin and drop into a large bowl lined with kitchen towel to soak up any excess oil.

PREPARE THE GRAVY & SERVE

1. Remove the steak and the pan and leave it somewhere to rest. Pour a few glasses of red wine into the pan and scrape the bottom with a wooden spoon to remove all the beefy bits from the metal. Reduce the wine and season with salt, pepper and add a touch of water and some gravy granules (a cheat, I know, but when combined with the wine they make a splendidly rich sauce). Stir until fully incorporated.
2. Serve the steak on a large plate with a generous pile of wedges, ketchup and a few lettuce leaves and tomato segments. Pour the gravy over the steak and enjoy.

(Foreign) Food Experiences

One of things I most enjoy about visiting my brothers and sister on the continent is the inescapable possibility of an unforgettable food experience. It hardly matters where I visit, such is the diversity of cuisine across Europe. I think I will take the opportunity, once in a while, to share a food experience, one of those delightful meals one comes across in an unexpected setting, or in an utterly predictable one such as next to the Trevi Fountain in Rome, or on the banks of the Danube in Vienna. Perhaps you will indulge me and send me an email. Tell me about one of your favourite foreign food experiences and I'll try my best to include it in a subsequent post.

SHRIMP RISOTTO IN VENICE

For those who haven't yet had the pleasure of visiting Venice or the Veneto, here's some prerequisite information. First of all, and most importantly, Venice lives up to ALL expectations. Believe me. If you have seen From Russia With Love, you will already, as many of us have, had expectations including Gondola rides with Flaxen-haired, Russian beauties and O Solo Mio sung by a delightfully chubby gentleman in a stripy shirt. Though not completely realistic, the depictions in such examples of popular culture are close enough to accurate as to be informative.

There is, however, a problem with Venice. This problem, ironically, is caused by the very features we have all all grown to love. Venice is SO popular as a tourist destination that it is almost impossible to walk two metres without bumping into a Brit, or an American, or heaven forbid a German! You get the impression that Venice is a museum, housing it's own buildings as exhibits and not really functioning as a city any more. The district of Castello is largely devoted to old naval buildings and tourist attractions. The districts near the Rialto are full of cheesy tourist boutiques selling aprons with pictures of Michelangelo's David on the front (presumably the owners consider it an unlikely possibility that any of the philistines visiting the city will know that they are NOT in Florence, where David is housed).

If you travel to the North of the city, however, walking along the northern shore, you will come to an old, still-residential district known as Cannaregio. Though the stretch of Cannaregio on the Grand Canal is packed with tourists and the usual street artists and performers, if you venture down a few of the miniature side canals and walkways, you'll soon find a peacefully oasis of authentic Venetian living to enjoy (such as the splendid examples above and below).

One day, stumbling through the broken, cobbled streets of Cannaregio, my family and I found an unassuming shop front with rather unattractive frosted glass obscuring the view to the inside. I must stress this point, there was NO sign outside, no possible indication as to the contents of the building. Being British, and thus naturally nosey, we ventured inside. You guessed it, it was a restaurant! And not just any restaurant. It seemed to be the secret headquarters of all the Venetians who needed a place where everyone knew their name, and was able to pronounce it correctly. There were no menus, no cloths on the tables and apparently no staff. I asked someone sat next to me how to order food and was greeted with a cheery yet regrettably unintelligible rant in Italian. Eventually, somebody did come to our table and I was able to hear the word Risotto in her spiel about the day's specials, so quickly interjected "che!" About 5 hours later, as is tradition in Italian restaurants, she returned with a small plate with a rather pathetic-looking dollop of risotto on it. After being starved for 5 hours and eating the entire place out of bread sticks, I was in no position to question the quality of the portion and hastily tucked in. To my astonishment, it was without a shadow of doubt or exaggeration, the most exquisite risotto I have ever tasted. I melted in the mouth, it was shrimpy but not fishy, it was creamy but not too heavy, it was sumptuous and cloud-like. I can still taste it, down the the last detail. What a surprise, and what a food experience. We returned every night for the next week. As far as I know from my explorations in Venice it is the only authentic restaurant, and since I don't know the name, you'll probably never find it. Sucks to be you. 

The moral of the story is to explore, to get lost, to wander aimlessly through whatever city in which you happen to find yourself. Don't do what the guidebook tells you to, do the opposite. As a general thought for the future, remember this rule: whatever a tourist is doing, avoid replicating at all costs, it is far from likely to lead to a surprising conclusion.

If anyone is abducted due to straying from the well-trodden tourist routes of Europe's major cities, I am in no way responsible. =)

The River Cottage Cookbook Review

This book is, for me, unambiguously brilliant. I honestly fail to see how anyone in their right mind could fail to enjoy it. For those unfamiliar with the River Cottage concept, here's some background.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall was the subject of a show based in Dorset, England, in the late 90s. Hugh moved into an old cottage with the aim of turning it into a self-sufficient smallholding. If you're lucky enough to find the show somewhere in the cavernous depths of the internet, it's definitely worth a watch. You can learn an awful lot about growing your own vegetables, rearing animals for meat and, of course, cooking! Hugh's approach is to buy seasonally - to buy produce from local sources as and when they are available. The obvious positive consequence of this is that you are supporting local farms and producers - one of the concepts upon which River Cottage is based.

The book contains information on almost any vegetable, meat, fish or spice you could ever wish to cook with, from buying, preparing and cooking. As a resource for those new to cookery, it is an invaluable tool, and is even useful for those who might consider themselves experts.

Also check out the website of River Cottage. After over 10 years the old place is still going strong, and Hugh hosts regular cooking tutorials and seminars at the property.

Check out Hugh's other titles too, and keep a lookout for his TV shows!