Beef and turnip

Turnip and beef.  It is a combination as children we would I’m sure have had a huge moan over.   But this is a combination bigger than the sum of it’s parts.

Turnip has a surprising umami-ness about it.  Especially evident when it is mandolined and dry cooked in the oven until crisp.  It tastes very truffley when done this way (and looks very truffley too by chance).  When pureed, turnip takes on a sweetness not evident in it’s raw state.  I use full fat milk and a little butter for a lovely richness.

Pairing these two turnip preparations with beef capaccio or simply thinly sliced raw good quality beef (I used South African eye fillet) along with salt, pepper and good quality truffle oil, the combination is simply gorgeous. 

A decent way to highlight why umami is that fifth taste which you otherwise cannot quite define.

Yum. Entree heaven and a lesson in absolute simplicity.

Coffee in France

Well lets not beat around the bush.  The French have no bloody clues when it comes to coffee.  A cafe au lait is a ghastly milky concoction.  The espressos are repulsively bitter and it is possible (seriously) for a cappuccino to come with whipped cream! Geez, what the heck, Italy is just next door.  Not sure, maybe it's the French wanting to make their stamp but that stamp should be unstomped.  I suggest France sticks with the milk, butter, duck,  bread, coq au vin, boeuf bourguignon, tarte flambé, whatever.  Coffee in France however,...... SUCKS.

OK so moving forward we knew about French coffee.  We bought a shit hot Rocket machine, the same as we have at home.  We knew the milk in France was superb (again NZ sorry but like butter, the French also hold the milk cards).  And sacrilege to coffee snobs (or aficionados, however they like to identify themselves as) we found some amazing chocolate coffee beans.

Whether it's the beans, the milk or the sweet tap water I don't know but I think it is a combination of all 3.  We are lucky in our place to have divine tap drinking water and this is not something I take for granted.  It must make a difference.  Anyway coffee in our wee French pad is like nothing we've had anywhere.  Unreal flat whites, every single time, but I don't make them, Andy is the barista.  Ummm BTW I can hear those minds ticking! NO WAY are we coffee snobs, we just know what we like and know it when we get it.  Coffee snobs would never ever use chocolate flavoured coffee beans and would use terms like extrusion or some such.  No, we just like our good flat whites done to our version of perfection.

Pork belly, brined, braised, pressed, cooked......

We're in France.  They like their pig in France and the cuts of the pig are rather gorgeous.  So when I see the most divine pork belly imaginable I find it difficult to pass.  I'm not a big pork belly type.  It's a rich cut. It's a blokes cut.  It has to be treated with clean and clear respect in order for me to be interested in eating it let alone cooking it.

So.... step one, brining is a good way to extract extra moisture (so that when you cook it it's not a big wet mess) but also adds a lovely salinity to the end result.  It's like seasoning from the inside.  A wonderful way to treat many cuts.

Overnight it went, in the fridge, in a mix of salt to water (60gms of salt to 1litre of water).

The next day, rinsed (a very important step so you do not have a salty yuk) then braised for around 3.5 hours.  This was a 600gm piece of pork belly.  I ground some anise seed, star anise, black peppercorns and juniper berries, popping them in a pot with the drained rinsed pork and apple juice topping it up wiht water to cover (in a snug fitting pot).  After the 3 and a half or so hours I took it out and bound it tightly, weighing it down for a day or two skin side down on a very flat surface.

This all sounds like a huge bother but it's not....it's simple steps that take no time physically, just time to plan.

Okey doke, after a couple of days pressing the pork is ready.  The braising liquid should be reduced, set in the fridge and the layer of fat taken off.  I didn't strain this liquid, I wanted the residue of pepper, anise and star anise.

Long story short now because there were a few other components I did as I had the time.  Black rice risotto made with fennel and the pork braising liquor.  Turnips pureed with full fat milk.  Turnip mandolined and dry cooked in the oven which brings out the truffly umaminess turnips have in abundance.  Mushrooms cooked in a little super good quality butter (sorry NZ but the French have butter in the bag), garlic and chicken stock until reduced and fully absorbed.  The pork belly cut neatly (shavings cooked up separately in a pan until rendered and crisp shoved in a baguette with tomato for lunch were indescribably delicious).

This really was one of the best dishes I have cooked or, in fact, even eaten.   No I will never be able to recreate it.  The components were too layered to repeat but by gosh did we eat well and perfectly portioned.  Making an otherwise rich dish beautifully light.

South Indian.... Keralan lemon tumeric rice, saffron coconut sauce, toasted coconut, curry leaf, mustard seed fried onion topping and sea bream

A bit of a dramatic title.  I am not sure what to call it....but this dish is South Indian through and through.  The rice has toasted lentils, the acidity levels from pure lemon (in my previous south Indian dishes I have used coconut vinegar but that is Goan and this is Kerala.  I think (have no idea but think) for acidity it's more Keralan to use lemon, Goan to use coconut vinegar.

Anyway, whatever, the topping on this is fried onion, popped mustard seed, tempered curry leaf and toasted coconut.

The sauce is a heady but subtle saffron coconut mix.

With the crispy cooked sea bream, a little flat bread (and as I'm here I use local stuff) a beautiful dish.  Hands down absolutely scrum and defies it's looks.   I added roasted leek.  Non bene maybe but bloody delicious.  And that sauce (not in the photo).  Yum.

Rump of beef wrapped in jambon de Bayonne, grilled leeks, sauce, toasted chestnuts, broad beans and baked beetroot

The beef rump is South African.  Very very very delicious and very very very good value.  NZ needs to sell rump steak in a single cut like this.  It's so versatile and replaces expensive fillet beautifully.  In fact if anything I think rump is better than fillet, it's just so damn tasty.  And my favourite from my childhood so the taste brings back nice memories for me.

I cooked this wrapped in tinfoil for 60 mins at 90 degrees.  Unwrapped the foil and let it rest.  It was perfectly cooked for most.  For us just a tiny tiny bit over.  I'd say more medium to medium rare than our preference of rare to medium rare.  I'm going to try this again, next time 60 minutes at 60 degrees.  For us I think that'll be absolutely perfect.

Not to say this wasn't damn good, it was superb.  And at 1/4 of the price of eye fillet????  Unreal.

Beef carpaccio, lightly pickled beetroot, mint and labnah, sumac on grilled bread

So very very simple.  A lovely little starter using a little of the beef for main.  Subtle middle eastern flavours.

Goan fish with coconut lemon grass panna cotta and south Indian lentil salad (again)

I noted the list of ingredients for this superb dish a few posts back and made it again.  And again it was absolutely sensational.

The sea bream had the goan spice paste on it's flesh side and grilled skin side up until completely crispy and a little charred.  YUM!!!!  That panna cotta balances out the flavours impeccably and the lentil salad offers a beautiful crunch and freshness.  Divine.

Massaman Nua - the proper stuff

 I've eaten Massaman Nua many times over the years.  Love it but Andy's always loved it that little bit more, being a bloke.  It's sort of bloke food in my opinion.   It's rich and creamy and full of delicious fatty deliciousness which I just shy back from fully enjoying.  Oh how simple life would be to be a bloke!

Anyway,  I had a very traditional recipe for Massaman Nua in my Thailand the Beautiful Cookbook I've carted around the world with me.  Being summer, time on my hands, I thought OK I'm cooking it.  Properly.

To say the house smelt glorious is an understatement.  It had over a bulb of chopped garlic plus onions all fried before being ground with a myriad of toasted spices including star anise, cinnamon, cumin, coriander, dried whole chilies plus the usual Thai fresh herbs of kaffir lime leaf, lemon grass,  ginger, green onions, lime rind and juice.  Whole proper roasted peanuts (not the fried packaged kind, not the dry roasted in whatever spice kind, the pure ones which are becoming increasingly difficult to find in Western supermarkets) and of course coconut cream, fish sauce and palm sugar.

I decided to use beef shin on the bone.  Ossobuco cut.  So the bone marrow is still in place.  A very good choice.

After hours of cooking, toasting, grinding, slow cooking etc etc the final result????

Was absolutely delicious.  Light.  Yeap light.  It simply didn't have that fattiness that the Massaman Nua curries I've had in the past had.  Whether due to this particular recipe or the fact that I think peanut butter is used along with the coconut cream to appeal to the Western palate in restaurants I'm not sure.  But this version I liked very much indeed.

A descent balance of toasted spice, fresh herbs, acidity, richness, crunch and that meltingly lovely beef.  I served it with some chopped fresh tomatoes, crispy fried shallots, extra peanuts on the side, toasted chilli, coriander and lime.  Steamed sticky rice added extra authenticity and that lovely chewy texture.

A dish worth taking time over to cook.  The results are worth it.