Chip crusted eye fillet steak with mustard potato mash

You can find the full recipe and background at Yummy Lummy.

Red Rock Deli Lime & Black Pepper Potato Chips

Sous vide eye fillet steak with potato gem poutine plus mushrooms and crispy Brussels sprouts

Saturday night dinner is sous vide eye fillet steak with potato gem poutine (provolone and smoked cheddar cheeses and gravy) plus mushrooms and crispy Brussels sprouts.

My personality

I was chatting with a friend today about my personality.

Introverted	–	99%
Observant	–	56%
Feeling	–	51%
Judging	–	51%
Turbulent	–	63%

My personality scores

People who really know me won’t be surprised by how introverted I am. I live alone and for now, I’m happy about that. I enjoy my own company. I’ve lived a full life, I’ve been married, I’m divorced, I’ve learnt a lot about myself, what makes me happy, what upsets me, what unsettles me, and what I think I want for my future.

One thing I know about my future, is food will be a feature. Cooking and eating. Perhaps even growing some of my food. Growing up as a little boy, my maternal grandfather spent long periods of time living with us. Mum was pretty ill when she was pregnant with my youngest brother. She’d already had two very difficult births. My grandfather converted our backyard into a market garden. I don’t have a green thumb and the thought of gardening fills me with horror, but I do have fond memories of picking and eating fresh vegetables. Fresh fruit and vegetables taste so much better than what you get in a supermarket.

Faith will also feature more in my future. I’ve been in the wilderness for a long time and around this time last year, a friend started a good thing in my life. It’s been a year of revelation and self reflection and growth.

Saturday dinner. Sous vide eye fillet steak with potato gem poutine (provolone and smoked cheddar cheeses and gravy) plus mushrooms and Brussels sprouts.

Ingredients

Eye fillet steak
Iodised salt (ground)
Black pepper (freshly cracked)
Oregano leaves (dried)
Potato gems (Tater tots in North America)
Provolone cheese (grated)
Smoked cheddar cheese (grated)
Gravox instant gravy
Brussels sprouts
Mushrooms
Beef dripping
Butter

Instructions

Steak

Remove the meat from the wrapping and season liberally with salt, pepper, and oregano leaves.
Vacuum seal in a food safe plastic bag.
Cook sous vide in a water bath at 54 °C for 2 hours and 15 minutes.
Remove the meat from the plastic bag and dry the meat with absorbent kitchen paper. Try to dry the surfaces as much as possible.
Take some mushrooms and roughly break them up with your fingers rather than slice them with a knife. You want a rustic rough look to them. Although, if you feel refined, you can slice them, I was feeling like being a bit rough and rustic tonight. Not that I’m ever refined and sophisticated 🤣
Heat a skillet (cast-iron if you have it) until it’s just smoking hot and add in a little beef dripping to smear the surface.
With long kitchen tongs, place the meat in the skillet and press down firmly for about ten seconds and repeat this with all surfaces of the meat.
After the first turn, add in some more beef dripping and butter and the mushrooms so while the meat is searing, the mushrooms are cooking and the butter is browning.
Remove the meat from the skillet and set it aside.
Spoon the mushrooms and sizzling dripping and butter over the steak.
Allow the meat to rest for 10 minutes.
Slice into just under 1 cm thick slices and hope the meat has a deep red blush to it.

Gary’s “Poutine” and Brussels sprouts

Grate the cheese fresh.
Slice the Brussels sprouts in half and toss in a mixing bowl.
Splash in some olive oil and season the Brussels sprouts liberally with salt and pepper.
Toss the Brussels sprouts with the oil and seasoning to ensure good even coverage.
Heat an oven to 250 °C and place frozen potato gems (tater tots) into a baking sheet (keep to one side) and on the other side add the Brussels sprouts.
Cook until the Brussels sprouts have become crispy.
Remove the Brussels sprouts and then top the potato gems with the grated cheese.
Cook until the cheese begins to brown. The potato gems should be crispy.
Make the gravy according to the packet instructions.

Plating up

Use a spatula to scoop the cheesy potato gems onto a dinner plate.
Add the Brussels sprouts next to the potato gems.
Lay the slices of steak over the cheesy potato gems.
Place the mushrooms next to the meat and then spoon gravy over the meat, Brussels sprouts, and cheese potato gems.

Final thoughts

What do you think of my version of poutine?
Do you like your steak done like this?

Spaghetti with creamed spinach and steak

Spaghetti with creamed spinach and eye fillet steak

I carb loaded today, so I figured why not have some more with some spaghetti.

I have great workmates. One friend made croissants yesterday (she’s a butter fiend), and she gave me one fresh out of the oven this morning. Another friend made coconut ice which is one of my all-time favourite confectionaries.

Yes, I’m spoilt.

Songlines coffee with homemade Croissant and homemade Coconut ice

Ingredients

Spaghetti
Spinach leaves
Garlic
Dijon mustard
Cream
Leftover sous vide eye fillet steak (thinly sliced)
Cherry tomatoes
Leftover caramelised onions

Spaghetti and creamed spinach with leftover eye fillet steak and caramelised onions

Instructions

Cook the spaghetti in boiling water for 7 minutes.
Drain the spaghetti and rinse with cold water.
Put some olive oil in a cold skillet and turn the heat on to a low setting.
Add some sliced garlic to the oil and allow it to cook and release its flavour into the warm oil.
Add in the spaghetti and begin to warm it up with the caramelised onions.
Toss in the spinach leaves and allow the leaves to wilt.
Mix through a couple of teaspoons of dijon mustard and some cream.
Add in the sliced steak and some cherry tomatoes and keep cooking until the meat is warm.

Sous vide eye fillet with lentils à la dijonnaise

I’ve got leftover lentils from last night and steak plus some broccolini—a pretty nice Sunday dinner on a long weekend.

Sous vide eye fillet steak with mashed lentils à la dijonnaise and broccolini

Ingredients

Eye fillet steak
Iodised salt
Black pepper
Leftover lentils à la dijonnaise
Broccolini
Olive oil

Instructions

Steak

Tie the eye fillet with cooks string.
Season the steak with salt and pepper.
Seal the steak in a vacuum bag.
Cook sous vide (under vacuum) for 2 hours at 55 °C.
When finished, remove the steak from the vacuum bag and dry the surfaces with absorbent kitchen paper.
Sear the steak in a hot cast-iron skillet using high vapour point oil like Queensland nut oil or rice bran oil.
Add a nudge of butter to the skillet and spoon the melting butter over the steak.
Allow the steak to rest and then slice thinly with a sharp knife.

Broccolini

Wash the broccolini in water and then rub olive oil on the heads.
Season the broccolini with salt and then cook in an oven at 200 °C for about 20 minutes.

Leftover lentils à la dijonnaise

With low heat, warm the leftover lentils in a skillet with the lid.

Plating up

Spoon the lentils onto a dinner plate which has been warming on the water bath.
Transfer slices of steak over the lentils and spoon burnt butter over the steak.
Place the broccolini next to the steak and lentils.

Spaghetti, creamed spinach, and eye fillet steak

For the first time in many years rather than buying Asian pasta, I bought some European pasta.

Spaghetti with leftover eye fillet steak with spinach, rocket, garlic, dijon mustard, cream, and cherry tomatoes

A simple meal tonight. I need to finish the leftover steak from last week. I also have some spinach left to finish too.

It’s an easy enough meal.

I boiled some water and cooked the spaghetti. After rinsing and draining the spaghetti I out it into a frying pan with some olive oil and butter and tossed it around a bit before adding in the spinach leaves to wilt. Add to the frying pan a dash of cream and a teaspoon of mustard for flavour and Bob’s your uncle. All I needed to do was toss through the thinly sliced steak, and dinner was ready.

Udon noodles with pizza sauce and leftover eye fillet steak

I had some leftover pizza sauce and leftover steak from the weekend. I needed to finish everything off.

“Pizza” sauce

Ingredients

Tinned tomatoes
Onions
Oregano
Worcestershire sauce
Garlic
Kalamata olives
Capers

Instructions

Heat up a non-stick (PFOA-free) skillet to a low to moderate heat and add in some olive oil.
Sauté some garlic and onion in the oil until the garlic begins to take on some colour.
Add a tin of tomatoes.
Add in the capers, kalamata olives, dried oregano, dried basil leaves, and red chilli flakes.
Season with freshly ground iodised rock salt and black whole peppercorns (ground in a mortar with a pestle).
Allow the sauce to simmer for about 15 minutes so it reduces a little.

Udon noodles and putting it all together

Boil some water and cook the noodles for 8 minutes and then rinse in cold water twice.
Add the noodles to a hot skillet with some olive oil and garlic. Stir in the cold pizza sauce and when that this simmering add in the sliced leftover steak and stir that through.
Garnish with some cherry tomatoes and fresh basil

Garlic butter steak and chips tossed in garlic butter with scallops

The full recipe can be found at Yummy Lummy.

Garlic butter steak and chips with scallops

Ingredients

Eye fillet steak
Iodised rock salt
Black whole peppercorns
Garlic powder
Butter
Garlic
Dried oregano
Scallops

McCain frozen chips
Butter
Garlic

Instructions

Garlic butter

Get the butter to room temperature.
With a fork mix in the crushed garlic and dried oregano.
Form a disc in the bottom of a bowl and refrigerate until it’s time to plate up.

Sous vide steak

Remove the steak from the packaging.
Trim the fillet and bind the muscle fibres with some cooking twine.
Grind some rock salt and whole peppercorns in a mortar with a pestle. Once the salt and pepper have been coarsely ground add in some garlic powder and mix.
Season the steak with the salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
Seal the steak in a vacuum bag.
Cook in a water bath at 57 °C for 2 hours.
Remove the bagged steak from the water bath and then remove the steak from the bag.
Dry the surface of the steak with absorbent paper.
Sear the steak in a cast-iron skillet.

Scallops

Dry the surface of the scallops and sear in a hot skillet.

McCain SuperFries

Cook according to the instructions on the packaging.
Once the chips are cooked put them into a large metal mixing bowl.
Using microwave radiation melt the butter an mix in some crushed garlic.
Pour the melted garlic butter over the hot chips a little bit at a time and toss the chips at the same time.