Category: steak

bone-in sirloin steak with red wine and onion sauce

Post author By Gary @ BigSpud
Post date October 23, 2017
1 Comment on bone-in sirloin steak with red wine and onion sauce

If you love a good steak, Sainsbury’s have released a new steak that’ll scratch your itch.

Their new bone-in sirloin is a treat perfect for two people. It’s unusual for a supermarket to offer a bone-in steak but this is a welcome deviation from the norm. With the bone left in the joint you get more variation in cooking and generally the fun of gnawing on a bone after serving! Cooking with the bone lends greater meat flavours too.

Just fry briefly on each side, finish in the oven and carve thickly and you get a great date-night meal. It’s a tasty one for carnivores everywhere!

I served mine with green beans and chunky chips but I wanted to share a great sauce with you which is perfect with any red meat dish.

Sainsbury’s sent me a steak to try. It’s available in-store now for £15.

bone-in sirloin steak with red wine and onion sauce

Course Main Dish

Cuisine English

Servings 2 people

Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

For the steak

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 bone-in sirloin steak about 800g
1 sprig rosemary finely chopped

For the sauce

1 onion peeled and sliced
glass red wine
250 ml beef stock
1 teaspoon cornflour
1 teaspoon mustard powder

Instructions

Preheat a pan to very hot, and your oven to 180C. It's important both of these are fully warmed before starting.
Meanwhile, season the steak with salt, pepper and rosemary and rub the oil into it. Add to the pan and fry on both sides until browned. When browned add the onions to and pop in the oven. Cook in the oven for 15 minutes to get it medium rare. Ideally use a temperature probe and check for a temperature of 55 - 60C at the thickest part.
Once the steak is cooked, remove to a board to rest. Meanwhile put the tray on the hob over a medium heat and add the red wine, scraping with a wooden spoon to deglaze. Let it bubble until nearly gone and then add the stock. While the stock comes up to the boil stir the cornflour and mustard powder with a tiny bit of water to make a paste, then stir into the stock. Stir or whisk until thickened, checking for seasoning.
To finish, carve the steak thickly, sprinkle with sea salt and serve with the reduced sauce.

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beef food meat recipes steak

the great british steak off

Post author By Gary @ BigSpud
Post date August 25, 2017
1 Comment on the great british steak off

What do you look for when buying steak? Do you look for ruby red meat? Marbled fat? Lean portions? Do you only look for certain cuts? Or is cheapest the best?

For me, I zero in on the cut I’m in the mood for. If it’s a regular steak-and-chips steak I almost always go to rib-eye. I love the blend of fat and meat, packed with flavour. If it’s ending up in a sandwich, bavette or skirt will do the job.

According to a survey by Statista (below), the appearance of the steak is the most important factor. 93% of people give it a complete once over before deciding on it, followed by 88% concerned with colour. For me this isn’t always a reliable way, as exposure (or not) to oxygen will completely change the colour. Many people are put off by lines of fat, but it’s here the most flavour is stored.

Source: Statista

It’s interesting that nearly three quarters of people go for the cut as I do, as each cut does different work.

Aldi ask me to taste test their steaks to see how they fare. I picked up some sirloin, some rump, and my default rib-eye. Aldi’s steaks are 100% British and quality approved by the Government’s certified EBLEX scheme, which improves efficiency in the beef supply chain as well as adding value to the beef industry. Aldi’s fresh meats are also 100% Red Tractor Assured, which means all of their fresh meat is produced safely and responsibly. I hadn’t tried their fresh meat before, so I was intrigued.

What’s the difference?

Rump comes from right up the back end of the cow (unsurprisingly) and has to do quite a bit of work being attached the legs. This extra work makes it a little tougher than other cuts, but develops a strong flavour.

Sirloin is slightly further up the back of the cow, works that little less and has a cream of fat around the outside from the small of the back.

My personal favourite rib-eye is from the upper rib cage, hardly does a lick of work and capped with fat.

Even just from the photos above, you can tell the looser texture working from left to right. These extra striations of fat offer a less dense structure and a more defined grain. This gives a more tender finish.

I cooked all three the same way: sous-vide at 55°C for 1 hour, quickly finished in a pan to brown. This method gives incredibly consistent results as the water bath brings it to a perfect doneness while the browning provides that desirable brown crust. No other flavouring beyond salt and pepper.

And yes, I enjoyed my rib-eye as always. And the rump was full of strong game flavours. But the sirloin really surprised me. I often overlook sirloin as caught between the strong rump or the tasty rib-eye, neither one thing nor another. But this steak was grassy and buttery with a pronounced beefy flavour. It really changed my mind on sirloin! I’ll definitely be going back for more.

So what do you look out for when buying steak?

Aldi compensated sent me for the steaks.

mayonnaise sandwich steak

steak sandwich

It’s British Sandwich Week! If you needed an excuse to celebrate, rather than have a limp ham sarnie push the boat out and have a proper steak sandwich. Don’t just stop there: get decent bread, some onions, some mushrooms, some greenery and slap some lovely sauce on it.

In this case I used one of Heinz’s new sauces: a creamy pepper sauce. I’m a devotee of their Seriously Good mayonnaise because of it’s creamy texture and excellent flavour so I couldn’t wait to try this. The pepper sauce is smooth and lightly tangy with a definite tickle on the tongue from the pepper flavour. Works great in a steak sandwich! I also tried others in the range: creamy chive sauce (great on a jacket potato); tomato & garlic sauce (great with asparagus); and béarnaise (great with a boiled egg). Visit their website for more info.

Looking for more steak sandwiches? Try my Viking rib-eye bagel or Jan’s steak ciabatta.

Want recipes like this? Never miss a post from Big Spud by subscribing to my emails. It only takes 10 seconds and you’ll get new recipes and food stuff every time they’re posted.

Thanks to Heinz for the samples.

steak sandwich

Course Brunch

Cuisine English

Cook Time 20

Total Time 20

Servings 4 people

Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
50 g butter
2 large onions finely sliced
2 cloves garlic finely sliced
500 g sirloin steak
100 g rocket or spinach
100 g chestnut mushrooms finely sliced
1 baguette
100 g Heinz Seriously Good Creamy Pepper Sauce

Instructions

Heat half the oil and the butter in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the onions, mushrooms and garlic and cook, stirring, for about 10 mins, until golden and beginning to caramelise. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside.
Add the rest of the oil to the pan, and turn up the heat. Season the steaks and cook for 2-3 mins per side, or until done to your liking. Remove from the pan and leave to rest for 4-5 minutes before slicing.
Arrange the leaves over the halved baguette, then top with the onion and mushroom mixture followed by the steak. Spoon on the pepper sauce and sandwich together. Serve immediately.

coffee food pizza product review steak

november goodies

There’s been lots of little bits and pieces going on lately. Here’s a quick roundup of what I’ve been playing around with lately!

Chop Bloc Steak House, Chelmsford

I’ve written about this steak house before. Chop Bloc opened earlier this year in the heart of Essex, and I loved it. I recently returned as a paying customer, and it was still outstanding.

I had the rib-eye and it’s just to die for. The best I’d ever eaten. They care about the meat deeply, and have an expert on their Josper grill. If you’re in the area, give it a try.

Saltwater Kitchen Cookbook

This cookbook is full of the joys of Cornwall. Now I haven’t spent much time in the South West, not since about a dozen of us used to cram into a borrowed VW camper van in about 1985! But the food on display here is cracking, like fried fish burritos and stick toffee apple cheesecake. I made a masoor daal and it was sensational. Not what you associate with Cornwall but it was sublime.
Buy Saltwater Kitchen Cookbook from Amazon

Sugru

I’m bowled over by this invention. It’s kinda like putty but once moulded stays firm yet flexible. It can deal with temperatures from -50C to +180C so is pretty durable!

I’ve been playing about with it, and have made a bunch of “kitchen hacks”, including making little pegs to hold my tablet in place in the kitchen while I cook, fixing an annoying freezer drawer and secure a few pesky cables in place. These are just a few ideas, check the Sugru website for more info.

Chicago Town Pizzas

They’re a guilty pleasure but I like a Chicago Town pizza. A crisp base, gooey cheese, tangy tomato… And what could make it better than by winning a toy dinosaur with your pizza! Check the website for more details.

Silver Spoon Quick and Easy

The original Silver Spoon cookbook is an institution. There’s now a new volume out dealing with quick and easy recipes. To be honest I was a little underwhelmed. The recipes are quick and easy, but quite predictable. There’s plenty to get your teeth into but they’re so traditional as to be well-worn. That said, if you haven’t got a good book covering some Italian basics like saltimbocca, risotto and zabaglione then this is a good base.

Buy The Silver Spoon Quick and Easy Italian Recipes from Amazon

Hope and Glory Coffee

Hope and Glory Coffee have got some great new gifts for Christmas. They sent me a couple to try: the fruity and chocolatey Wonderland espresso, and the spicy Honduras blend. Both were excellent.

Browse the full range at the Hope and Glory website.