Nigella's Italian Steak n' Chips - A New Take on a Classic

In my hungover state yesterday I found myself indulging in my ultimate guilty pleasure - watching hours of the Food Network. I love Nigella Lawson, so I  was delighted with a double bill of Nigellisima. In the episode I watched, she made Tagliata and Tuscan Fries. I was positively drooling. And knew that that would be the hangover cure meal for the coming evening, So I pulled out my Nigellisima book and sent my husband off to the shops to get the ingredients.

This is her Italian take on steak and chips, and I'm completely converted and actually very excited to recreate it again next weekend for our Valentine's dinner. I do not have a deep fryer, so I opted for her style of making the chips in a pan with hot oil. I was absolutely terrified making the chips as I can be quiet clumsy in the kitchen and it requires the utmost concentration, so as not to scald yourself. But it is most definitely worth it. Though in hindsight, with a crazy hangover and a hyper toddler running around the kitchen, it was a bold choice.

The idea of marinating the steaks after cooking is sheer brilliance, resulting in an extremely tasty steak, full of flavour and punch. In  Nigella's book, she states that one steak is plenty for two people. In fact stating this is a wonderful way of stretching a steak to two people. Now if Nigella tells you something is enough, then I should have believed her. Greedy guts here cooked two steaks (it would have certainly done four people at a dinner party).  In saying that, me and my husband had no trouble eating everything.

I didn't have the herbs she called for in the Tuscan Fries recipe, but I substituted the sage with basil, and it worked really well, especially seeing as this is an Italian recipe anyway.

With Valentines approaching, this is a stunning elegant steak and chips recipe to make for that someone special.

Serves - 2 greedies/4 adults

Ingredients

For the steak

• 1/2 tsp of dried chili flakes
• 1 tsp of dried oregano
• 2 tsp of red wine vinegar
• 2 tsp of extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp of black pepper
• 1 tsp of sea salt
• 2 sirloin steaks

For the chips

• 4 large rooster potatoes, skins on and cut into thin chips
• 2 litres of vegetable oil
• 4 cloves of garlic in skins
• 2 sprigs of rosemary
• 4-5 fresh basil leaves

To serve

5-6 cherry tomatoes, halved

1 bag of rocket (or designer leaves as Nigella would say)

Method

1. Start by putting the chips in a deep pan of oil, cold oil. Turn the heat up high and cook for 15 minutes. using a tongs and oven glove to stir every so often. Some of the chips will stick to the bottom of the pan. Stir frequently so you don't loose too many to this fate.
2. After 15 minutes, carefully drop in the garlic and herbs and continue cooking for another 5 minutes or so. The chips tend to float to the top with cooked. Try to get a really brown crispy finish.
3. Transfer the chips to a warm oven to keep hot while you cook the steaks. The steaks go cold quickly so that's why I suggest making the chips first and keep warm. As trying to keep the steaks warm whilst trying to wait for the chips to cook, will only result in an over cooked steak.
4. Heat a grill pan until searing hot.
5. Combine all the steak ingredients, except the steaks, in a shallow baking dish.
6. Lightly oil the steaks and sear in the pan, 2 minutes a side. The steak will be rare but this is what we want. 
7. Transfer the steaks to the baking dish with the marinade and let them rest for 2 minutes a side in the marinade.
8. Remove the steaks to a board and slice very thinly on the diagonal. Meanwhile, put the cherry tomatoes, cut side down. in the marinade and stir them around a bit.
9. To serve, scatter a serving dish with the rocket. And randomly scatter the slices of steak over the rocket, along with the cherry tomatoes. Pour the remaining marinade over the dish, not wasting a drop of flavour.
10. Serve with the crispy Tuscan fries.

Tip for the Fries: Chips in my opinion cannot be eaten without salt and vinegar. For these chips, I recommend coarse salt and balsamic vinegar. Delish!!!!!!

Thank you Nigella, as always, you rock!!

Super Fast Super Healthy Thai Beef Stir Fry

I'm  a huge Thai food fan, and luckily most Thai dishes are healthy! This dish is one of the healthy ones, perfect for guilt free dining mid week. You can really put any veggies with this dish, but I find that green peppers always pair beautifully with beef. There can be alot of calories in peanuts but a small amount are good for you and they help curb any 9pm hunger pangs that I sometimes experience with healthy stir fries.

Once you have all your ingredients prepped, this dinner can be made in a matter of minutes. Cut all your vegetables into even slices so they all cook at the same time.

Ingredients

• 3 minute steaks, cut in strips
• 1 carrot, sliced thinly
• 5 mushrooms, sliced thinly
• 1 green pepper, sliced thinly
• 1 red onion, sliced thinly
• 2 tsp of cornflour
• Stir fry oil, for cooking

Marinade

• 1 tbsp of fish sauce
• 1 tbsp of sesame oil
• 2 tbsp of light soy sauce
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 lemongrass, thinly sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, diced
• 1 thumb size piece of ginger, diced
• 1 tsp of chili flakes
• 2 tsp of sugar

To serve

• 2 tbsp of peanuts
• Wholewheat noodles
• Lime wedges

Method

1. First marinate the beef. Mix all the marinade ingredients in a bowl and pour over the sliced beef. Leave to marinate for at least 30 minutes.
2. Cook the noodles and set aside.
3. Put the wok on a high heat and pour in some cooking oil.
4. Stir fry the vegatables for 1-2 minutes and remove.
5. Drain the beef from the marinade, reserving the liquid.
6. Add the cornflour to the liquid marinade and stir to dissolve.
7. Add more stir fry oil to the wok and fry off the steak, this should only take 1 minute. 
8. Pour in the marinade liquid and stir to heat and cook the cornflour out.
9. Re-introduce the vegetables to the wok and stir fry for 1 minute.
10. Serve with hot noodles, scatter over the peanuts and serve with a wedge of lime.

Spicy Asian Beef Salad

The month of January is all about detox detox detox!! Gone are the mince pies, the selection boxes and the over indulging on Irish Cream Liqueur. Now tis the season to be healthy! Healthy for me doesn't have to mean boring. This Thai inspired beef salad is an exciting combination of fresh flavours, that is so tasty and satisfying you forget that its healthy.

The salad dressing is from Saba restaurant's cookbook. If you are ever in Dublin and in search of a great Thai/Vietnamese Restaurant, then you got to check Saba out. Everything on the menu is delicious. The recipe calls for 4 birds eye chilies in addition to everything else. I've left these out as I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to chilies, but feel free to add them. I'm content with my chili flakes.

Serves 2

Ingredients

Beef

• 1 steak, fillet or sirloin
• 2 tbsp of mirin
• 1 tbsp of palm sugar or brown sugar
• 2 tbsp of rice wine vinegar
• 2 spring onions, roughly chopped

Salad

• 1 stack of rice noodles
• 1 carrot
• 50g of chopped roasted peanuts
• 2 spring onions
• 2 tbsp of chopped coriander

Salad Dressing

• 2 shallots, peeled and chopped
• 1 tsp of chili flakes
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tsp of coriander stalks
• 3 tbsp of fish sauce
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 tsp of sugar
• 1 tsp of chili sauce

To serve

• 1 tsp of chopped peanuts
• 1 tsp of freshly chopped coriander
• 1 lime cut into wedges

Method

1. Firstly, you must marinate the steak. Combine all the steak ingredients in non metallic bowl and place the steak in the bowl. Allow to marinate for at least 1 hour.
2. Pour Boiling water over the noodles and leave to soak for 30 minutes. Then drain and rinse in cold water and drain again.
3. To make the salad dressing, simply add all ingredients into a mini food blender and blend until liquidised.
4. Heat a frying pan on high, get it really hot then add the steak. Cook for 3 minutes each side and then set aside to rest for at least 10 minutes.
5. Pour the marinade into a small saucepan and cook on high heat until its thickened and reduced.
6. In a large bowl, combine the noodles with the rest of the salad ingredients. Pour over all the salad dressing and mix really well so that everything is coated.
7. Divide the salad into 2 bowls.
8. Cut the steak against the grain into strips as thinly as you can. Divide the steak pieces on top of each noodle bowl. 
9. Pour over the thickened reduced marinade.
10. Scatter with some more crushed peanuts, sliced spring onion and freshly chopped coriander. Serve with lime wedges.

Healthy Meatloaf & Low Fat Tomato Sauce

I'm a huge believer in making meals from scratch rather than buying convenient prepacked jars/sauces and ready meals. It eliminates the risk of consuming artificial additives and sugars; plus homemade is always best; its tastier, healthier and  fresh. These days it can be difficult to know what's exactly in ready made food we buy. With all this in mind, it's a wonder at all why one would buy ready made meals at all.

This meat loaf is made with extra lean steak mince meat from my local butchers, ensuring a healthy, high quality meat. 

The tomato sauce I've made to accompany the meatloaf, is simple to make and extremely low fat with no butter or cream in sight. It's a great basic tomato sauce recipe to have, as it goes well with pasta and fish and is a great pizza base. Plus did I mention it has almost zero calories. 

The meatloaf freezes well also, once frozen and defrosted correctly, meaning freeze it completely cool in an airtight container and defrost in the fridge overnight within 3 months.

Ingredients

Meatloaf

• 500g of extra lean steak mince
• 1 large egg
• 1 clove of garlic, chopped
• 2 carrots (grated)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 tbsp chopped rosemary
• 6-7 leaves of sage
• 2 slices of wholemeal brown bread
• 3 tbsp of worchester sauce
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tsp of olive oil.

Tomato Sauce

• 6 tomatoes, chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tbsp of tomato paste/puree
• 1 tbsp of red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp of dried oregano
• 1 tsp of olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• 6 basil leaves, finely shredded

Method

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees
2. Add all the meatloaf ingredients to a food processor and blitz until well combined
3. Rub the olive oil into a loaf tin and transfer the meatloaf mixture to the tin
4. Place the tin in oven proof dish and fill the oven proof dish half way up with water (bain marie)
5. Bake in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes, after 30 minutes cover the meatloaf with tin foil to prevent it burning and bake for a further 25-30 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, saute the onion and garlic for the tomato sauce on a medium heat with the tsp of olive oil. Add the oregano and puree and continue to saute.
7. Add the tomatoes and mix well. Add the salt, pepper and red wine vinegar and allow the tomatoes to cook down to a 'mushy' consistency.
8. Pour the tomato mixture into a jug and blitz with a hand held blender.
9. Return to the pan. The sauce should have a smooth consistency now.
10. Add the shredded basil and more pepper if necessary.
11. To plate up, remove the meatloaf from the oven and take it out of the loaf tin. Allow it tot rest for a few minutes below cutting it into slices. Place the tomato sauce in the centre of a plate and top with 2 slices of meatloaf per person.

Serving Suggestion: Garden Peas and garlic and rosemary roast potatoes

Rib Eye A La Romana

This steak dish was inspired by my recent trip to Rome and I had a lovely dish in a restaurant of beef strips and tomato sauce, so I’m trying to recreate the same flavours with a rib eye steak. I’m calling this dish Rib eye a la Romana, but it’s basically Rib-eye Steak with a Roast Cherry Tomato sauce.

I’ve decided to slow roast a pile of cherry tomatoes, as the slow roasting intensifies the flavours of the tomatoes. I sprinkled over sugar too, that really sweetens them. These roast tomatoes are perfect in sandwiches, pasta, salads etc.

I made this recipe for a big family dinner the other night and included green beans, mushrooms and roast baby potatoes as sides. The only fault I was told was that I didn’t make enough. Not a bad complaint I would think, though a couple of extra spuds wouldn’t have gone astray apparently. But all in all great crowd pleaser. Waiting for the sun to come out again so we can try this on the BBQ.

Anyways, back to the actual star of the show. The quality of beef is paramount. Get it direct from butcher and get nice big rib eyes. Though, of course you may use fillets or sirloins also. I just happen to think the rib eyes are juicy and tender cuts. The second most important step is to marinade the steaks for at the very least 2 hours.

This is where my favourite kinda cooking comes into play. I wasn’t working from a recipe, just from looking at what was in the store cupboard and adding a pinch of this and a dash of that. That goodness for my memory…

Serves 6

Ingredients

·         6 steaks (ribeye is best)

Steak Marinade

·         2 cloves of garlic

·         ½  a white onion

·         1 tbsp of ground black pepper

·         Juice of 1 lemon

·         3 tbsp of  good red wine

·         3 tbsp of olive oil

·         1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar

·         2 tsp of dried oregano

·         1 tsp of chilli flakes

·         Leaves from 4 sprigs of thyme

Roast Cherry Tomatoes

·         20 cherry tomatoes

·         4 cloves of garlic, unpeeled

·         Olive oil spray

·         1 tsp of fine salt

·         1 tsp of caster sugar

·         1 tbp ground black pepper

Roast Thyme, Lemon and Garlic Baby Potatoes

·         Bag of baby potatoes

·         4 cloves of garlic, unpeeled

·         Olive oil spray

·         2 lemons, quartered

·         Leaves from 3 sprigs of thyme

Roast Tomato & Garlic Sauce

·         2 tomatoes, diced

·         10 halves of roast cherry tomatoes

·         1 tbsp of tomato puree

·         1 white onion, diced

·         Garlic squeezed from 4 roast cloves with tomatoes

·         3 tbsp of red wine

·         4 tbsp of olive oil

·         ½ a red chilli, deseeded and diced

·         Juice of half a lemon

·         5 basil leaves, shredded

Method

1.       Firstly, combine all the ingredients for the steak marinade in a mini blender and blitz/or chop by hand.

2.       Put the steaks in a large freezer bag and add the marinade.

3.       Squelch (this, is of course the technical term) around the marinade in the bag with the meat.

4.       Put the bag in the fridge for 3hours (on a plate in case of accidental dripping)

5.       Take the meat out of fridge 30 minutes before cooking (golden rule)

6.       Preheat oven on 140 degrees

7.       Half the cherry tomatoes and place them on a lined baking dish with the garlic cloves.

8.       Sprinkle over the sugar,salt and spray the oil.

9.       Slow roast for 2 hours

10.   To prepare the thyme, lemon and garlic potatoes, simple line a roasting tin.

11.   Throw in the garlic, halved lemons and potatoes and thyme.

12.   Season well and spray with olive oil

13.   Roast in the oven for 1 hour and squeeze the lemons over them before serving.

14.   For the tomato sauce, fry off the onion, garlic, chilli and tomatoes in olive oil.

15.   When the tomatoes have softened add the puree, wine, and lemon juice.

16.   Reduce to an intense sauce and add the 4 tbsp of oil and halved roast tomatoes. (loosen with water if sauce is too thick)

17.   Add the freshly shredded basil leaves and your sauce is ready.

18.   To cook the steaks, get a grill pan roasting hot.

19.   Place the steaks on the grill pan, and turn after 4-5 minutes ( I like medium-rare).

20.   Cook for a further 4 minutes and remove and rest for 6-9 minutes.(Resting your meat is another Golden Rule)

21.   To plate up, place the rested steak in centre of plate and adorn with the tomato sauce and top with remaining roast cherry tomatoes and more basil. Serve your sides separately.

(Tip: this is a great meal for a dinner party as the potatoes can be prepared well in advance, the sides take minutes to cook, the beef marinade is also prepped in advance and the sauce can be cooked earlier and just warmed up and add the cherry tomatoes and basil)

(Tip: Cherry tomatoes can be kept in airtight container for a few days)

2 1/2 Hour Balsamic Beef Casserole

I’m a firm believer in the slower the cook, the more tender the food, and this casserole is pure testament to that. I hadn’t intended on cooking a casserole today,

 I’d actually planned on a beef stir fry for my husband, but when I arrived back into work after my lunch break with my steak, my lovely colleague Noreen informed me that the steak I got would need chewing for a week if I were to use it in a stir fry!! You see, I pickup up round steak from the supermarket, and round steak, although looks like a lovely sirloin does in fact requires really slow cooking in order for it to tenderise. So stir fry plans scrapped, I had to put my thinking cap on to figure out a stewing beef dish that wasn’t too boring.

I decided on a beef casserole with a Mediterranean influence, firstly because the flavours would go well together, but secondly because the majority of the ingredients are store cupboard staples that I would have at home already.  I use 3 tbsp of balsamic vinegar in this stew which does seem a bit too overpowering. But the slow cooking mellows the intense vinegar flavour, lending a deep richness to the dish.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 lb of round steak, cut into chunks
• 4-5 sprigs of thyme, left intact
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 tbsp of tomato puree
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 2 tbsp of sugar
• 3 carrots, peeled and chunked
• 10 mushrooms, halved
• 1 large chorizo, cubed
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 2 tbsp of olive oil
• 3 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
• 2 tbsp of flour
• 8 leaves of fresh basil, shredded

Serving suggestion: pasta, rice, or potatoes

Method

1.       Preheat oven to 140 degrees

2.       Get a large casserole dish on the heat, add the beef and the flour and stir until you have floury beef chunks.

3.       Add the oil, and get you heat on high, brown off the meat.

4.       Then add the garlic, carrots and mushroom, thyme and bay leaves.

5.       Add the tomato puree and the balsamic vinegar and stir to combine for a few minutes to get a good colour going.

6.       Add the tin of tomatoes, and then fill the tin with water and add that water too.

7.       Bring to the boil.

8.       Put a lid on the dish and put into the oven for 2 hours

9.       After the two hours are up, take the lid off for 15 minutes and put back into the oven to thicken the sauce

10.   Add the shredded basil and serve with rice, potatoes or pasta.

The result of this method of cooking results in melt in your mouth beef, no knife required.

Beef Teriyaki & Chicken Yakatori Skewers

The homemade teriyaki & yakatori marinades really are a must!! They tenderises the meat perfectly. We have gone crazy on Japanese food since our Ballymaloe sushi course. Up to now, we were deep frying or sushi rolling. But these skewers are actually really healthy, as they are lean cuts of meat, marinated in nothing oily, and then griddled. Both marinades are so similar, they could be variations of each other actaully.

Serves 6

Ingredients

Beef Teriyaki

• 3 tbsp of mirin
• 4 tbsp of soy sauce
• 1 tbsp of brown sugar

• 3 sirloin steaks, cut into thin strips

Chicken Yakatori

• 3 tbsp of mirin
• 4 tbsp of soy sauce
• 1 tbsp of brown sugar
• 2 Finely chopped Spring onions
• Juice half a lime

• 3 chicken breasts, cut into thin strips

Method

1. Combine the marinade ingredients together
2. Soak the beef and the chicken in their relevant marinades for at least 30 minutes
3. Skewer the meat onto metal skewers (or use soaked wooden skewers)
4. Preheat the griddle pan.
5. Place the skewers on the pan, turning occasionally until browned all the way round. Alternatively you can pop them under a preheated grill for same amount of time.
6. Serve with some rice noodles.