Some freezer cooking was required last night after the expense of various Christmas shopping expeditions. No, I'm not talking about another strange cooking technique involving a kitchen appliance (like the dishwasher salmon experience), I'm talking about raiding the freezer to see what goodies lurk in the frozen wastelands. Lo and behold, a forgotten treat. A magnificent piece of beef rib steak was found and immediately rescued from the depths to be feasted on. A quick check on some Internet sites to check the cooking times and I was off.
Defrosting in my microwave is never easy, often frustrating and sometimes hazardous to my health. Even though I have a supposedly clever button which calculates the defrosting time based on weight, the food is nearly always nowhere near defrosted and I end up having to add more minutes through guesswork. The steak was given 13 minutes by the microwave and was still rock hard in the middle. After a further 5 minutes, it was still hard in the middle but beginning to cook on the edges. I had to give it a full half hour at room temperature for it to be fully thawed. (Maybe this is the correct procedure, I really ought to find that manual)!
It took a little longer than one hour to cook to medium rare and for a $8 steak, (really, $8), it wasn't half bad.
I decided to cook some vegetables I had picked up at the winter market, carrots, two kinds of beets, onions, garlic and some left over rutabaga. I love the way red beets 'bleed' into anything within close proximity and create this gorgeous pink marbling, like some expensive counter-top. They took a good hour to roast at the bottom shelf and were sweet and caramelized.
I decided to add some of the pesto I had made the night before to really heighten the sweetness and herbal tastes and to make me feel oh-so-resourceful and domestic, it worked well, but definitely less is more as the intensity of the flavours could be overwhelming if too much was eaten. I added a little white wine vinegar to counter-balance the sweetness with some sour and tang, which worked well.
The juices in the bottom of the pan were significant, dark brown, meaty smelling and appetizing, so I made a gravy using the onions and garlic the meat had sat on, adding a little water and some port.
Nice crispy fat, the carnivore's prize.
Recipe: Roast rib beef
1 2lb piece of rib beef
1 onion, sliced thinly
4 cloves garlic, left whole with skin still attached
6 sprigs rosemary
2 sprigs thyme
1 tsp sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
Heat the oven to 425oF.
Lay the onion, garlic, thyme and rosemary in a baking tray and place the beef on top.
Season the beef with the salt and pepper and bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 325oF and roast for another 30 minutes.
Check the temperature with a thermometer if you have one, (medium rare or whatever you prefer) and remove when cooked to your liking. If you don't have a thermometer, cut into the beef and check the done-ness. Remember it will continue to cook a little when resting.
Cover the beef in foil to rest for 15 minutes while you make the gravy.
Gravy
All juices, onions and garlic from the bottom of the pan.
Splash of port, Madeira or red wine
1/4 cup water
1 tsp beef stock
If you have a fat separator, use this to separate the fat from the juices, otherwise, spoon off the fat and keep the juices.
Place the juices in a saucepan with the onion and garlic, squeezed from it's peel and add the liquor.
Bring to the boil and reduce heat and simmer until the alcohol flavour has mellowed and the sauce has reduced by 1/2 - 1/3. (About 10 minutes).
Add the water and stock and simmer for a few minutes, then strain through a sieve. You can keep the onions and serve with the steak if you like. Serve the gravy in a jug.
Recipe: Roasted vegetables with pesto
1 onion, quartered
3 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
3 small red beets, peeled and halved
3 small golden beets, peeled and halved
1/4 rutabaga, peeled and cut into chunks
4 cloves garlic, peeled but left whole
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp pesto
1 tsp white wine vinegar
Place all the vegetables on a roasting tray and drizzle with oil, season with salt and pepper and bake at the bottom shelf of the oven while your beef is roasting above or at 375oF for 1 hour.
Remove from the tray and add the pesto and white wine vinegar whilst warm and toss together.
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