Thursday Night Dinna – Steak ‘n’ 3 Vege Phoodie’s Way. 0

Recently, husbies and I have been eating the same 5 meals over and over again on rotation.

Not reallllllllllllly……. but basically.

I’ve been so busy over Chrissy and New Year that I just haven’t had the time to be creative or inventive or even put ANY thought into dinners. I’ve been buying the stuff that I know how to cook with my eyes closed. Stuff that I can whip up in 4 minutes between Husbies arriving home, getting changed and walking into the kitchen.  The good ol’ reliable favourites.

Well last Thursday night I decided to be a LITTLE more inventive. With definite emphasis on the world ‘little’. What you are about to read / see below is far from a Blumenthal Fantasy creation, but rather, me, with 1 extra hour in my day to cook, thinking semi-outisde my typical dinner-meal square.

I’ll cook steak at least once a week but I have become completely accustomed to serving it with my mushy eggplant – the recipe for which is on this blog, and is completley delicious but HEY – I’M OVER IT.

So I asked myself  “What goes well with steak?” and I answered myself “ONIONS!” and I asked myself again, “what’s better than Onions???” and I answered myself again, “CARAMELISED ONIONS!”

After I decided that it would be steak with caramelised onions, I wanted to finalise the meal in my head….So, a few more questions to me, “What is also in the “carameley veegtable” family?”……what a ridiculous question, but y’know what I mean…..and I thought “Sweet Potato, cooked simply in the oven, baked, dowwwwwwsed in salt and olive oil!!!”……. And FINALLY “what will offset all this sugary, salty gooey brilliance ??”…..”Easy! Some peppery rocket, dressed purely with balsamic!”

Questions asked.

Answers provided.

TO THE KITCHEN!

THE ONIONS

10 Onions will technically serve 10 people…….BUT you kinda NEEEEEED to do 10 as a minimum as this mix shrinks down by about 70 million %, and you semi rely on the quantity of onions in that they let out lots of sugars and steam and the like…..make sense? maybe only to moi, but trust me, just do 10.

BUY ‘EM, CHOP ‘EM, CRUSH 4 CLOVES OF GARLIC TOO, JUICE A LEMON

SHOVE ‘EM IN A SAUCEPAN THAT HAS HAD ABOUT 3TBSP OLIVE OIL HEATING IN IT FOR A FEW MINS ON MEDIUM HEAT, TOSS IN GARLIC, ADD LEMON JUICE

STIR, STIR, STIR, KEEP STIRRING, YOU WANT ONIONS TO BECOME TRANSPARENT

THERE WILL BE LOTSA STEAM, DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT, PANIC THAT THE ONIONS APPEAR TO BE “POACHING” RATHER THAN FRYING, THIS IS OK, IN FACT, THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT

STIR SOME MORE, AFTER ABOUT 25 MINS THE “POACHING” EFFECT WILL DIE DOWN AND YOU’LL NOTICE SOME BROWN BITS FRYING AT THE BOTTOM “YAY”! TURN UP THE HEAT NOW TO HIGH TO ENCOURAGE THE FRY FRY FRY BUSINESS……

VERY VERY ROUGHLY CHOP UP A BUNCH OF FLAT LEAF PARSLEY AND CHUCK IN HALF OF IT

STIR IT IN WELL

AFTER ABOUT 5 MORE MINS, STILL ON HIGH HEAT, YOU’LL NOTICE THE ONIONS BROWNING QUITE A BIT MORE, THIS IS GOOD

STIR, MAKE SURE NOTHING IS STICKING TO THE BOTTOM AND BURNING. THERE WILL BE MORE STEAM!

TURN THE HEAT BACK DOWN TO MEDIUM AND KEEP STIRRING

YUMMMMMMM GOOEY ONIONS GALORE!

AFTER ANOTHER 10 MIN ON MEDIUM CHUCK IN THE OTHER HALF OF THE PARSLEY…..HMMM, MAYBE CHUCK IN 90% OF THE OTHER HALF, KEEP 10% FOR THE VERY END!

STIRRRRRR! DON’T BE LAZY! NO! STOP! YOU! COME BACK! FORGET THE 6 O’CLOCK NEWS! STIRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

OH LOOK! NEARLY READY! MAKE SURE NOTHING IS STICKING TO THE BOTTOM OR SIDES OF THE PAN!

WHEN THE ONIONS ARE DONE, IE CARAMELISED, TRULY GOOEY-LICIOUS AND A DEEP DEEP GOLDEN BROWN TAKE THEM OFF THE HEAT, PUT THEM ON THE SERVING PLATE AND CHUCK THE REMAINING ROUGHLY CUT PARSLEY ON TOP! TA DA!

SERIOUSLY. YUM.

THE STEAK

I have weird ways of doing things. Not everything. But some things. Like cooing steak. I season my pan, not my meat. I dunno why. I think the oregano has a richer flavour once it’s cooked a bit in the oil before the meat, and just for convenience I chuck my salt and pepper on top too. Anyway, read below and see what I mean….

HEAT OLIVE OIL SPRAY, OR A THIN COAT OF OLIVE OIL IN YOUR PAN FOR 5 MINS, WHEN HOT HOT HOT, COVER THE PAN IN ORGEANO, SEA SALT AND PEPPER

AFTER A FURTHER 3-4 MINS, CHUCK YOUR STEAKS IN. THEN, USING TONGS, PUSH THE STEAKS ALLLLLLLL AROUND THE PAN SO AS TO COVER THEM WITH AS MUCH OF THE SEASONING AS POSSIBLE

I LIED! I LIED! I SAID I DON’T SEASON MY MEAT, I SEASON MY PAN! WELL ACTUALLY, I DO BOTH. PAN HAS BEEN SEASONED AND AS A RESULT SO HAS UNDERSIDE OF STEAK, BUT WHAT ABOUT THE TOP SIDE?! IT NEEDS SOME TOO, SO TOSS IT ON!

DEPENDING ON HOW YOU LIKE YOUR MEAT / HOW THICK IT IS / WHAT CUT IT IS / HOW HOT UR STOVE IS / HOW LONG YOU HEATED THE PAN FOR AT THE BEGINNING AND A MILLION OTHER THINGS , ALL I CAN SAY IS “COOK IT TO PERFECTION PLEASE!” BUT TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA, FOR ME, I NORMALLY DO FILLET, EACH PIECE ABOUT 200G AND I LIKE IT MEDIUM, THUS, I DO ABOUT 4 MINS EACH SIDE ON MED-HIGH HEAT!

STEAK IS DONNNNNNNNNNE!

THE SWEET POTATO

Seriously, this is the easiest of the lot. You will cry, hyperventilate, require assistance in breathing when you see just how easy this is. But what is truly AMAZZZZZZZZZING is that this bright orange burst of heavenly vege side dish, as hilariously simple as it is to cook,  tastes UN-BLOODY-BE-LIEVE-ABLE!!! Minimum effort, MAXIMUM REWARD! GO FOR IT!

WASH YA SWEET POTATO, PLACE IT ON A BAKING TRAY. USING A PASTRY BRUSH, LATHER IT WITH KILOSSSSSS OF OLIVE OIL AND BUCKETS OF SEA SALT AND A LITTLE PEPPER IE BE GENEROUS WITH THE OIL AND SALT

SHOVE IT IN A PRE-HEATED 180 DEGREE FAN FORCED OVEN…….

…..FOR ABOUTTTTTTTTTT AN HOUR…..LITERALLY WATCH IT CARAMELISE, WATCH IT BUBBLE, WEEP, TAKE PICS, LIE DOWN, BREATHEEEEEEEE

AFTER AN HOUR, PULL IT OUT

CUT INTO CHUNKS AND SERVE……

WASH AND THOROUGHLY DRY YOUR ROCKET, PLACE ONTO DINNER PLATE, DRIZZLE WITH BALSAMIC….ADD SOME C. ONIONS, SWEET POTATO, A PIECE OF FILLET STEAK ET VOILA!

THURSDAY NIGHT DINNA….IS SERVED!