Beef with Porcini Broth

When ill, my Chinese mother would make me congee (rice porridge) and my father would make me plain pasta tossed with olive oil and parmesan.  Soup was never a sick food for me, but you know what, in my current cold-stricken state, a soup sounds delightful.  In fact, I would love to have some of this broth right now.  I consider myself quite independent, but there are times like now where I wish I just had someone to make me soup and deliver it to my bed.  I ought to just make a big batch of soup someday and keep it in the freezer for emergencies.

Picadillo

Ok, I know, I know.  Anybody who knows what picadillo is will know that this doesn't look like picadillo.  Picadillo is a Cuban dish with ground beef with tomatoes and lots of spices.  This isn't ground beef, no.  I never buy ready-ground meat because usually the meat they use is just the bits and pieces that's left over and nobody wants.  My mom always goes to the butcher's, picks a cut of meat, and asks the nice butcher to mince it for her.  This is how it works in China and Italy and I assumed the rest of the world.  I went to the butcher's here today and he wouldn't let me do that.  He had that little meat grinder thing right behind him and told me that I could only do that if i wanted 3kg of meat. 

Does it work like that where you're from?  Oh things are just so difficult here food-wise.  And we only have one butcher's in town. 

Spicy Steamed Meat Patties

I bought a book on steamed recipes. These were actually meant to be kebab sticks but as I had no skewers, patties they became. It’s spicy and diet-friendly, actually, it’s even Dukan-diet-friendly I believe. Very yummy, make sure you don’t oversteam them, I did and they became a bit dry. That’s what happens whenever I steam something, I feel like they can’t “burn” or anything, so I forget about them…but they can still overcook! Excuse the photo, sometimes when it’s late in the afternoon, and by that I mean 2 or 3, i.e. too late for lunch for me, my hunger takes over my blog needs, and so my lack of patience leads me to take bad photos before the meal’s even ready (it’s meant to be paired with tomatoes and greek yoghurt, please do, they make a big difference).

I made these with veal, but if you have some ethical issues with that (and so I presume you’ve obviously never had a good veal carpaccio, you poor thing), use ground beef or lamb.  Ohhh I wonder how they’d be with tofu if you’re vegetarian/vegan.  Yea, why not try with tofu.  You may need an egg or two or some liquid to hold it together.  Or if you use silken tofu you may need to add some starch.  Try it! I’m intrigued, I’m gonna try it– my local supermarket’s tofu’s on offer right now until the 8^th of August so that will be a large part of my diet in the next couple of days.

How to: Steak

Oh God.  It's been more than a week.  I really haven't been cooking.  I have an exam tomorrow.  And yes, I decided to post something today.  

So, steak.

It's one of those things that costs a fortune in fancy restaurants but you can easily make at home at a fraction of the price.  It's easy, but a lot of people get it wrong.  There is so much debate though.  Oil in pan or on meat, turning it once or a couple of times etc etc.  But after a multitude of research, here's how I believe you panfry the perfect steak.  Well, ok, here's my perfect steak.