DIY Dry Aged Beef

Firstly, Happy New Year to you all. I had a wonderful Christmas eating well, drinking well and, in one particular area, saving well.

About two months ago a friend mentioned they had seen an article on air drying beef at home. This was facilitated by a special bag and that was as much information as I had. A little while later with the help of Google's search engine I found these Dry Aging Bags

 . I ordered some and split them with my friend. A day or so later I managed to buy a nice cheap piece of topside with a reasonable marbling. It was not 'matured' or 'dry aged' so it was around £15 for a large joint. I followed the simple instructions and bagged the meat before placing it in a clear space in my fridge on a metal rack . They advise that for the first 4 days there must be a clear space around the meat while the bag 'sticks to the meat'. A week or so later all was looking well and Ikept a weather eye on the joint over the next 2 months while it slowly turned black and shrunk.

Just before Christmas I removed the meat from the fridge and wondered. It was black, dry with just a little hint of a salami type mold on the surface. I removed a thin layer of the 'rind' before cutting the joint into steaks with a beautiful purple brown colour and a fantastic nose. I froze the steaks immediately to stop any further aging or deterioration but the smaller ends were cubed and popped in my Instapot to brown prior to creating a simple beef casserole with root vegetables, onion, leeks beef stock, herbs and lentils and a half bottle of cheap port (used to make 'Smoking Bishop' but more about that later). An hour later I was greeted by a wonderful, comfortable bouquet of the casserole as I released the steam. The first bite of a beef chunk told me the wait had been more than worthwhile. A tender and flavourful mouthful of this fantastic aged beef was reward a plenty. Better still, I have the steaks to look forward to. 

There is another joint bagged and drying in the fridge now. I will take photographs over the next few weeks as the next treat matures.

The supplier I ordered from ships from the US and it was not cheap but I did notice that these are now available at a much more reasonable price thanks to reduced postage costs but I have not tried them myself.

Dry Aging Bags at Butchers Sundries

Amalfi inspired

Following a recent visit to Conca Dei Marini on the Amalfi coast, I created a Limoncello inspired recipe. The holiday was a real treat of sun and relaxation at an apartment called Villa Donna Antonia . The apartment had a very serviceable kitchen so I was looking forward to some cooking. We arrived lat on a Saturday night and were greeted by one of the hosts, Francesco, who gave us a good overview of everything we needed to know about the area from restaurants to transport links and places to visit. I learned that the local supermarket would be open on Sunday morning. In the meantime, we satisfied our appetite with a plate of local ham and hay smoked mozzarella but more about the cheese in a later post.

Sunday morning was beautifully warm and sunny and we strolled up to the supermarket to stock up the kitchen. This was when we began our adventures. I could not find lemons and on enquiring, I was told lemons should be in on Wednesday and onions on Monday. Over the next two weeks, we learned when things were in stock along with finding a great butcher who was open until at least 10pm along with a vegetable seller with a little truck who appeared in one or two locations during the week. During some of these shopping excursions, I purchased an Amalfi lemon about the size of a grapefruit. This was the inspiration for the recipe.

On one of our final days, the extra-large lemon still very present by the fridge, I decided to create a pasta dish. I carefully peeled 2/3 of the lemon rind away and finly chopped it. I then took the remaining 1/3 and finly julienned it. I then peeled the lemon and broke up most of the fruit into small pearls of lemon.

I prepared some fresh pasta with oregano put some water on to boil. I created a small amount of sugar syrup with equal parts of water and sugar. Once it was clear I added the julienned lemon rind and some green peppercorns and let them simmer.  I cooked off some prawns (sufficient for two people) with half a bulb of garlic finely minced, some fresh zucchini and small chili from the garden. I cooked the pasta with the finely chopped lemon rind and reduced the syrup until it was almost sticky. I drained the pasta, added it to the prawns and added the lemon pearls just before plating up. I then poured a small glass of vodka into the lemon sugar syrup and added a little salt. I then placed the candied rind on top of the dish and poured the Limoncello inspired sauce over the plate. The result was a dish now affectionately known as Limoncello gamberi  Villa Donna Antonia con pasta limone.  The presentation is not all it could be but I worked with what I had.

È ora di migliorare il mio italiano

My shiny new Blast Freezer arrived as expected yesterday. After wrestling the 50kg unit through the house the next problem was to find a temporary home for it. Once it was installed and had settled for a few hours I thought it was time for a try out. I soon had it up and running so I opened the manual to see how to freeze my first items. Che catastrofe. Tutto era in Italiano. OK, I realise the home of excellent ice cream is Italy and the blast freezer is an ideal tool for creating such a product but all bar a very small section with basic ‘how to turn it on’ instructions were in Italian.

              I soldiered on and managed to get it working. Taking the temperature down to -40C I soon had a couple of chicken thighs reduced to frozen solid. My only issue was a periodic beeping and the whole freeze process on hold. A few hours later I guessed that Ld that was flashing on the display had something to do with the door. It seemed closed but on touching it the error message vanished and the freezing recommenced. I have now come to the conclusion that the sensor is not correctly positioned so as the temperature drops, the door contracts slightly and a false error is created.

I will endeavour to correct the sensor issue over the next day or two as time permits and I can then try a little experiment. We all know that putting Vodka in the freezer thickens it but at -27C or so it should freeze. This means I can make Alcohol Cubes to put in my tonic. More on this later

Back in business (at last)

I had got so bored with the same old same old and had entered something of a rut when it came to cooking and eating. What I needed was a few new toys in the kitchen. I was waiting for the delivery of a new BBQ ( https://thegadgetflow.com/portfolio/portable-outdoor-cooking-stove/ )and a new Sous Vide ( https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/sousvide-supreme-touch-plus#/ ) from kickstarter type projects and was still hunting around for a blast freezer at a fair price. Finally, after over a year of waiting my internet controlled SousVide has arrived and is fully functional. The BBQ has arrived and tomorrow a nice new (if small) blast freezer arrives (https://www.sousvidetools.com/blast-chillers/sousvidetools-2-3gn-blast-chiller-and-freezer) . I can finally get back to a little creativity in my cooking again. If I really want to push the envelope then I can use my 3d printer (a gift from my wife at Christmas) and its upgraded print head to create custom shaped silicon cookware. Other additions to the arsenal are a centrifuge and an instant pot pressure cooker along with a Thermomix. OK, I still need to build a blast chamber for a vacuum distillation setup and I am no nearer the purchase of an anti-griddle but you can't have everything.

Hope to have a few more interesting posts very soon.

March 2018. That was the expected delivery date of my new internet connected sous vide but I am sorry to say it is still in development with no real hope of seeing it in 2018. It's a shame as I was looking forward to it kick starting my creativity but instead it has somewhat put me off kick starter as a way of buying things. Two delayed kick starter projects and a delayed indiegogo project. The latter being an Aquaforno II. I guess they will all turn up one day but until then I need to stick with the kit I have or I can buy on line or in the store that is available and not a pipe dream.

I was chatting with a work colleague today and I showed him this rather neglected blog. 15 minutes later I remembered

a) how much I enjoyed writing it
b) how much I have neglected my cooking skills of late

I guess I ought to brush off the pots and pans and get back in the kitchen. The summer and salad days are over so we can get down to some real cooking. Since the last time I was writing this the equipment in the kitchen has had an addition. I finally invested in a Thermomix and Cookido.

When it first arrived I decided to test out the machine and the platform with sweet potato curry. It sounded like my worst nightmare. A simple vegetable curry. How wrong I was. I followed the recipe here https://cookidoo.co.uk/vorwerkWebapp/app#/recipe/8837276385910 and was rewarded with an excellent curry for one.  Since then I have enjoyed cakes, sauces and meals prepared with the aid of this wonderful tool. I will start to add some comments on my adventures here from now on.

Has it been that long

Sorry everyone. I have somewhat neglected this for a long time. I still cook and I still enjoy restaurants but my creativity has been a little off kilter in recent years so this just became somewhere I came back to for ideas. The reason for the renewed interest is two fold. Firstly I need to get back to writing up my food experiences and, secondly, I have received great news from the Sous Vide Supreme guys.

I love my Sous Vide but the biggest issue I have with it is that I either have to leave food in it all day while I am at work or I have to switch it on when I get home and wait for it to reach temperature. Finally, they are going to produce an Internet connected Sous Vide that I can control via Alexa or an app. Awesome. I will be able to cook at weekends. Freeze the results and then place the frozen food in  the sous vide as I leave for work. Set a temperature, start and finish time and great food at serving temperature will be ready when I need it. Better still, if I decide to go for a beer on the way home or there is a problem at work that delays my return then I can re-schedule dinner via the app.

If you want to get on board and get an excellent discount then take a look here :

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/135140520/sousvide-supreme-touch?ref=FundedToday&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=1e.fnd.to

I have made my pledge and am looking forward to receiving my new souse vide sometime in March 2018.

The trouble with salads....

The Autumn has arrived and with it, my interest in real cooking. Having spent the summer enjoying the odd BBQ, tapas and a lot of salad there has been little to write about here. Now that the nights are drawing in and the chill is at the door I find I am drawn back to real cooking.


Earlier today, on a wonderful sunny autumn afternoon, I pottered up to the shops to see what would light my imagination with regards to a supper tonight. I soon found four leg steaks on offer and decided to be a little creative with them.

 I recently joined the fad and purchsed a Nutribullet. While I have enjoyed the affectionatly known 'sludge' for breakfast and sometimes lunch, it is hardly cooking. The resulting 'sludge' has ignited the odd thought with regards to sauces and rubs so I decided to employ it in tonight's preparations. Firstly, I put two long peppers ( http://www.steenbergs.co.uk/product/238/long-pepper-specialist-spice) into a Nutribullet cup along with some a dried chili, a teaspoon of white peppercorns, two cloves and a teaspoon of juniper berries and a pinch of oak smoked sea salt. I blitzed this and added it to some plain flour to dust the meat with.

I cut the meat into 1" cubes and rolled it in the flour and spice mixture before browning it in a very hot iron casserole pot. Meanwhile, I put a handful of fresh sage, 3 garlic cloves, 2 eating apples, a red/orange pepper, 2 shallots and some water into a large Nutribullet cup and blitzed that. I added two coarsely cut red onions and a chopped red./orange pepper to the meat and stirred it for a minute or two before adding the blitzed fruit/herb mix. I added a pint of pork stock and brought the dish to the boil. I then simmered it for 40 minutes with a bouquet garni.

I added a can of chick peas and 100g of chestnuts and cooked this on for another 10 minutes, finally I added some button mushrooms and left this on the heat while I floured and fried some fresh courgette from the garden.

I served the pork on a bed of wild rice and quinoa with the courgette as a side. Welcome back Autumn :)