Thursday 10/1/2013
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Diary and Notes
And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?
The Revalation of St. John the Divine - 13:4
Have I been born again? Have I taken to predictions of the end of civilisation by fire and brimstone? Am I predicting the rapture?
No my goodly (or even godly chums) - I'm just making reference to a great cooking implement bought for me about a year ago by my friend Laurie. It's a very large and heavy, cast iron griddle pan, which is big enough to fit over two rings. I call the thing
The Beastand the dragon in the above quote must refer to the gas flame beneath it. Whenever I use it, I have to turn the extractor fan to full blast and open windows as it smokes out the entire house otherwise. Nobody will come into the kitchen when it's in full blast - yippee! That's exactly why I love it so much. The photo doesn't do it justice as the bit the steaks are on is blisteringly hot, the camera has only picked up a little of the smoke.
I don't think St. John the Divine was actually seeing my griddle pan when he had his vision - but if he was, many, many people, have made a very big mistake in interpreting his message.
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I was in a real hurry today. I popped out in my lunch break to get dinner from the Tesco outside where I work as I am really short of food at home. I haven't done any propper shopping since I got home from my holiday in Wales and things are getting a little grim. They had some "rump" steak on offer (£2.86 for two) and although they were a slightly unusual shape for rump I bought them (I used to be a butcher, so I know what they would normally look like). I also bought some spinach and ricotta tortellini and a some courgettes. I didn't get home until 5.20, got changed, gave each of the kids a cuddle and started cooking. Dinner was on the table at 5.45. Beat that!
The "rump" steak as Tesco were calling it, in my opinion, was actually top rump - not the same thing. This would explain the shape and also the fact that it was chewy and didn't taste like rump at all (one of the tastiest of all the steaks, perhaps only bettered by a really good New York Strip or nicely marbled Rib Eye). Top rump is a roasting joint and absolutely no good for cooking in this way. Mine was however perfectly "Pittsburg rare" as I like it and wasn't bad for a Thursday evening.
If you want good steak, go to a butchers, not a supermarket. Supermarket steaks are invariably crap.
I know the pre-packaged torttellini is cheating a bit and not a lot different to serving oven chips, but you have to admit this is better than a value mircowave lasagne.
For dessert we also had a Tesco Belgian chocolate eclair (4 for only £1.00). Small but tasty.
Menu
RumpSteak
No ingredients list today as it's all fairly simple.
Preparation
My griddle pan is very big so I can put it over one gas burner on really high (for the steaks) and one on slightly lower (for the veg). This way the olive oil on the veg doesn't begin reach its smoking point and turn into diesel.
Today’s Ratings:
Isis: Pasta - yum. Steak - ok.
Eve: Pasta - yum.
Olias: The picture on the right is what he did to a piece of courgette and he doesn't even have any teeth yet.
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*All quantities are very approximate and for a family of 5 (2 adults, 3 kids aged 4 years, 3 years & 6 months)
JCBorresen@GMail.com