Less is More

Making Meat go Further.

Eating meat in summer poses a challenge, Outdoor 'al fresco' lunches are wonderful but too much
of a good thing can leave you feeling horribly full, guilty for ruining all your diet plans and, especially in the case of barbecues, sticky, mucky and totally inelegant.
The Italians have always had an edge when it comes to entertaining outdoors and the flavours created by that cuisine are perfect for using smaller amounts of expensive meats and fish.
Three large 2 inch thick, well hung and matured sirloin steaks can be cooked in a way that will feed 10-12 people combined with a selection of very tasty accompaniments.
Most Italian artisan shops will sell packets of herb mixes that can be extremely useful for flavouring meat dishes.

Take your three thick steaks and pat the herb mix all over them. Leave them to stand for 10 minutes.
Prepare a skillet with some oil and goose fat and fry the steaks for 3 minutes then turn them and fry for a further 4 minutes. They should feel like the cushion of your thumb in the palm of your hand. Soft and yielding. Definitely not hard and not squidgy. Take the steaks out and leave to rest on a wooden carving board, they can stay there for 30 minutes...you can always flash them quickly before caring up if you really want the dish piping hot, in summer I prefer my food 'Mediterranean warm'.

Yes there really are only 3 steaks on this large platter      
        
 Be inventive with salads

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you are ready to serve lunch prepare all of your vegetables and salads, bread cheeses etc. and last of all carve the steaks diagonally about 1/2 inch wide in strips and lay on a pretty plate lengthwise. Add some capers and caper berries and any garnish you prefer. Most people will take one or two strips and a few will come back for more, generally I find ladies will eat no more than two strips and feel they have eaten plenty of meat. The flavour and texture is divine and no-one feels obliged to eat more than they feel comfortable with.

Salads with an Italian theme are plentiful and easy. Tomato and Mozzarella, Green salad with Rocket leaves, in fact basil, olives and a good olive oil and balsamic dressing will make almost anything fit the theme. New potatoes baked upright in a dish with their tops and bottoms cut off level but still with their skins and sprinkled with rosemary, thyme and some lavender flowers, a little oil and butter are absolutely delicious.
Desserts with an Italian them are so plentiful and some are surprisingly easy...I chose Torta Della Nona, a delicious custard pie with pine nut topping which is very traditional and pure comfort food.


Appearance enhances flavours

     
 Torta Della Nona

For ten people this makes a very reasonably priced lunch that can be served on any outdoor occasion to even the fussiest of guests.

Enjoy the weekend!

http://www.Personalchef..uk.com

Dining at Home
October 2009
In France.

At the wonderful Farmhouse of Goth in Serignac France I recently spent 6 days prepping and cooking for a wedding that was the funniest and friendliest wedding ever attended.
So many helpers!!! which was quite wonderful as the facilities were very sparse for a big party. Wedding breakfast consisted of many many mixed canapés prepared the night before and assembled first thing in the morning ready for the 12 noon wedding ceremony at the local Mairie.
Canapés are not the norm in that region of France....unless of course they consist of duck or goose when anything goes! However these were mainly fish and vegetable and some Italian dainties as well. ...all were consumed with the champagne and lasted a good two hours which gave us all time to prepare the evening meal...Huge Rib Eye Beef joints were to be barbecued on 3 wood fired barrel BBQ's...Smokin!

Lots of fine bean Ottolenghi style salads with seed dressings crunchy style....you can imagine my 'helpers' hands rising in horror when I said "Blanch them for no longer that 2 minutes" Oh dear...I then explained if the vegetables for the salad became brown or floppy they would be answerable to the bride and groom......French people in the deep countryside do NOT eat crunchy vegetables as a rule....well....they do now!

The beef was accompanied by a remarkably decent Sauce Forrestier made from wild and cultivated mushrooms and creme fraise and served hot....a very good point with BBQ's in the open air in Autumn....nothing as sad as a cold plate when you get back to your table...the hot sauce keeps the meat just right. As the great joints of beef were roasted whole and sliced at the serving the meat was nice and rare...anyone wanting well done just forked the steak back on to the BBQ and cooked it to taste...people love participating in BBQ cooking and that is the best way to do it....once everything is done so they can't mess up or get in the way.

Of course Barbecueing for a large number of men...especially when many are French...is quite intimidating for a woman cook. ( or 'cook woman' as some French like to call female chefs)...well luckily I have tough skin and determination...at the serving of the meat the felicitations flew and there was nothing left save the well done peices which were used for a meatball and spaghetti dish the day after. All the critics stated they would always cook BBQ beef that way in future :)

The French markets were wonderful as ever and even the fact that ONLY seasonal produce is sold...even in the big supermarkets...did not restrict our choices...we just adapted a bit.

The gentleman who grows English scented roses and sells via the markets gave the bride two huge bucketfuls as a wedding gift so the whole evening was heady with old rose perfume...it made such a change to see everything natural and the table decorations giving off their fragrance deep into the night just glowed in the candlelight...every rose hue you could imagine........no fancy expensive designer could have done better.

Tuesday, 27 January 2009

A Good Day's Baking
There I have finished! 5 lovely big terrine's made from the gifts of pheasant from local farmers from the last shoot...now cooling under heavy weights ready for preserving with goose fat and vacuum packing with my little cryovac machine. 3 nice pots of chopped liver 1 for each daughter....I used the rest of the chicken livers in the terrine's.2 huge long split tin loaves are now baking in the oven and I have cleared everything ready for the marmalade making tomorrow.All the carcass bones are simmering away making soup for tonight and the house smells like France.There is a fine rack of lamb bought this morning at market waiting for a quick roasting when the bread comes out....the herb crust looks marvelous.This time of year is my time...when business goes quiet after Christmas and New Year and I can get my own little cellar and larder filled up once again with good things.Celairiac has been particularly good this year and jars of grated pickled root...some tinged pink with beetroot slices, sit in big gleaming jars on the cold stone floor. In the summer when drained and mixed with mayonnaise and grainy mustard it will make a delightful and tasty salad.I am now sorting the big jars for the rabbit confit...just waiting for those little varmints to get fat on new shoots first.I love the marmalade making...if you ever want to sell a house make marmalade in the kitchen when potential buyers come to veiw (even if you just warm a jar of it up in a pan) The smell of marmalade will clinch the deal quicker than any other thing...even the smell of fresh baked bread isn't as powerful.Now what shall I find to have with the lamb...purple sprouting broccoli should do the trick then I can use all the stalks for a broccoli and stilton soup tomorrow...I have a few ends of Stilton left over from Christmas they will be fine for soup.I love my work.....but my days off are far superior.....
Posted by Personal Chef UK at 09:56 0 comments
Friday, 23 January 2009

Illegal Dinner Parties...whatever next?
"fai da te" (DIY) restaurants have been springing up all over Italy since the financial crisis some years back. By 2005 they were an established phenomena enjoyed by many as an affordable night out with friends new and old. The cost for a home cooked 3 course meal with drinks was between £11-£16.00 per head so made dining out a very affordable option.Now the Italian Government want to make them all illegal.There is something delicious about doing something a little bit illegal...especially when people feel put upon and oppressed and very stretched for cash.Do we have Fai-da-te dining in UK...you betcha! Every dinner party I do for Hen Nights where all the girls club together at the end and pay me is in effect a fai-da-te and theoretically illegal..well it would be if it were held in my home. It does happen, in places like Notting Hill there are regular get-togethers where guests all contribute to the cost of the evening.How soon before the great clunking kitchen police barge in and close down home dinner parties? Let's hope never but you can never tell with this ever increasing oppression and stifling of freedom that seems to have taken over every aspect of our lives.Luckily I am a bona-fide company and produce invoices, pay taxes and altogether keep everything tickety boo.Not so those recently made redundant from top restaurants...the ever increasing army of chefs who are desperately seeking a way of making a living and paying the bills. How long before every decent kitchen/dining room has a 'regular clientèle' of happy paying guests eating good cheap food cooked by the hosts 'friend'...the recently redundant Micheline star quality chef who lives down the road?One of the main reasons for clamping down on this enterprise, apart from the non payment of taxes of course, is the claim that the Health and Safety brigade can't get a look in to protect the diners...PROTECT? ... you only have to tour some local restaurant kitchens and even the kitchens of those food production units that set up on small industrial estates all over London, to realise that Health and Safety officers just do not do their jobs, especially in these difficult days where money is tight and cost cutting is rife.I must admit that I finally lost all respect for the inteligence of such people when one of them diligently picked up a large black olive stone that had missed the bin and gingerly put it in a plastic phial with satisfied exuding 'Aha rats!'....after pestering me in my catering establishment for six months and never finding anything wrong.Don't get me wrong I believe wholeheartedly in protecting the general public from filth but these people do not do their job...they are hampered by the human rights laws where they cannot or will not shut down the true culprits and therefore take vengeance on decent establishments who do nothing wrong...after all they need to justify their job. Things have got a lot better since certain TV programmes exposed a number of awful supermarket practices but how long before the financial crisis causes more corners to be cut...more untrained cheap staff replace the knowledgeable and more foodstuffs get re-labeled and re-labeled again after the sell by date is reached.I wonder how long before front parlors become fashionable once more where little tea parties are set up hiding the Speak-easy style dining rooms behind...now wouldn't that be fun?Fay Olinsky
Posted by Personal Chef UK at 01:55 0 comments
Labels: Boot-leg dining "fai-da-te"