So on the day of the Grand Event - more generally known as "my Mom's birthday lunch", she showed up in the kitchen in a powder blue twinset, the obligatory pears, white gloves and a matching cream apron with blue frill. Miss Twinset, not my Mom. My Mom wouldn't be caught dead in either a kitchen or a twinset lol. She can cook, but why should she with my Dad and I around? Anyway, Miss Twinset was something to behold. Not sure if it was a good look or not, but it was better than the housedress she had on the other day... at any rate, she said that she was ready to help and I never look a gift horse in the mouth :-) The meal that my Mom had requested (the one that was soooo not a surprise) was her favourite.... Braised Steak with baby potatoes, peas, cauliflower brocolli with cheese sauce and oven baked butternut. There was a request for caramel carrots, but thankfully the carrots never arrived as I had run out of pots and stove space by then... Don't get me wrong, the carrots were invited and would have been welcomed at the meal, but as there was no space, it was rather fortunate that they were a bit late and never made it to my parents car. Tardy but tasty... Your typical carrot :-) But I digress...
So, when you're braising steak, you're going to need - rather unsurprisingly - some steak. In this case, tenderised steak.
You slice this into smaller serving sized pieces and spice them with barbeque seasoning and loads of black pepper (freshy ground of course). In a heavy pot, one that can go into the oven, so no plastic handles please, you need to heat up your oil and then you fry the pieces of steak until they are very brown. Here is where my dastardly plan came into action. You see, the steak is best when it's just this side of burning, but since it's in my nature not to burn my food, I have to watch the pot and make myself leave the meat in the oil until past when my brain is screaming "take it out". Miss Twinset on the other hand is a world champion at saving food from disaster "just this side" of burning, so putting her in charge was the perfect solution. Of course, she thought it was me giving her some responsibility and who was I to disillusion her? *Shrug* Ok, so you've browned your meat and in the bottom of the pot are burnt on bits of meat and spice. Don't panic... they're meant to be there. In fact, if you don't have that, then you probably did it wrong :-) Into this, you're going to put around 6 large chopped onions (depending on how many you're cooking for after all) and while you're cooking these, you'll find that they pick up all those delicious burnt bits and go a glorious brown colour. This is important because it is a great base for the flavour of this dish.
Naturally, as you can imagine, I couldn't trust the Other One to do anything more challenging than sitting quietly - and even that is a stretch for her at times. Aah. I hear you... yes, you at the back trying to look invisible. You wondered why I didn't put her in charge of drinks? Have you just arrived? I wanted to actually HAVE some drinks for the Grand Event, not just get high off of her breath :-) I tried asking her to help with the vegetables, but she looked appalled that I would even suggest that she do any actual "labour". "Dahling... really? You are so funny" Huh. I was aiming for desperately busy, but apparently I came across as calm and humourous. Oh well. So, when you've poured another martini (for yourself) and passed another bottle of vodka to the Other One, you need to check on your onions. When they are softened a little, you can tip the meat and all the juice in the dish from the cooked meat, into the onions and stir well. To this you need to add enough beef stock to cover all the contents of the pot and stir again. I also add some beef gravy powder and brown onion gravy mix just to make the sauce rich and brown and extra tasty. I have to warn you that if you're watching your salt intake, you'll find that you've had the annual recommended intake of the Pitcairn Islands in this dish, but it's too good to refuse :-) From here on out it gets really easy... put it into a preheated oven at around 180 deg C until the meat is soft (about 2 hours or you can cook it at 200 deg C if you're in a hurry).
Now... you'll probably have about 1 - 1 1/2 hours until you need to start cooking the vegetables. For me, this time was spent on the Pavlova as discussed on Tuesday. You may use the time as you see fit. See... aren't I nice? Ok, so assuming we live in TV land ...
1 hour 20 mins later
... the braised steak is now nearly ready. What you need to do now is start on your veg. The baby potatoes are put into a larger pot and covered with water. They need to boil until soft and should be put on to cook first. The peas are quick and easy, so you can do them last... simply pour into pot, add a small amount of water, some salt and boil. *cough* Yes, as it happens I have heard that joke. What? You want me to tell them? I'm sure they've heard it too... oh, alright. My apologies ladies and gentlemen, but the Other One won't be quiet until I ask you if you know what 2 things you can eat, but not do? ~~~ peanuts and pea soup ~~~ sigh :-) The broccoli and cauliflour is also put into a pot with a 1/4 cup of water and boiled. Now please... to all of you who boil your veg to death - and you know who you are - you do NOT need to cover your vegetables in water to cook them. I promise that a small amount of water will suffice as the steam will also cook the veg. The benefit is that you don't cook all the nutrients out of your food and it's still colourful and tasty at the end of the process. If you're doing a Sunday roast, the small amount of fluid that you have in your veggie pots can be used to add to the gravy. Back to my vegetables... the only other thing that had to be done was the butternut. The trick here is to buy a butternut that is generally all one size (in otherwords, no bulb shape on one end). If you do this, then your butternut is unlikely to have a large seed area and it will give you several decent butternut discs for your guests. You decide how thick you'd like the butternut discs, then place a small knob of butter underneath the butternut and place it in a pyrex dish. Put another small blob of butter on the top and sprinkle with brown sugar and a small dash of cinnamon. Cover with tinfoil and then put it into the oven around 40 minutes before you want to eat (it can go in with your pot of braised steak if your oven is large enough). As for the cheese sauce... well, I can make it from scratch, but they make so many powdered sauces that rock and with all the work I'd already put into this meal, there was no need to kill myself :-) Yes - a cheat is allowed from time to time :-)
It's important that you keep the Tipsy Tarts entertained while all this is going on. Something that is usually a challenge, but Miss Twinset was so pleased that she'd been able to help, that she skipped off grinning like a loon to go re-do her hair and wasn't seen again that day. The Other One was slurping happily on her martini (a new concoction involving dark chocolate, vodka and strawberry coulis) and since she seemed to be over her "no carb, no salt, no sugar, no point in living" diet - which lasted about 4 hours (or until she discovered that booze contained both carbs and sugar and was therefore a no-no) I handed her the white chocolate ganache bowl to lick out and she was ecstatic - and on a bit of a sugar rush - so all was well :-)
My Mom and Dad had arrived earlier in the day as expected and had been keeping themselves occupied while I
finished the meal and by the time I was ready to dish, my Mom was hovering in the kitchen like a kid on Christmas morning, clutching her plate eagerly as I added finishing touches to this and to that. The Tipsy Tarts hadn't been too thrilled at being told that they couldn't stay for the party, but this devine dish was for family only - as it should be for a birthday :-) She was so content when she sat down with her meal that if she'd been a cat, she'd've be purrrrrrrrrring. In fact, this ------------------------> is what the meal looked like. Steak, potatoes, peas (her absolute favourite veg), cauliflower, broccoli and butternut. I have to confess, that even though I made it myself, the meal was A+ and was a perfect additional gift from me to her. The fun part is going to be waiting to see what my folks pick for their Anniversary lunch in Dec. Since they have to work together on this, it could get very interesting, but I think we all know by now that I'm a girl who's up for a challenge :-)Until next time.....
Hey that looks good enough to eat lol ..... what sort of pears was Miss Twinset wearing, red ones, white ones, Hee hee!!! And those poor carrots ... tardy but tasty? I think not lol, perhaps they were tardy on purpose?
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