Monday Night Man Meals #1

So, this is my very first post on GTAL and I am pleased to share with y'all something that's quite special to me. It's a little something I have dubbed "Monday Night Man Meal". Basically, for 3 out of 4 Mondays each month, my wife buggers off to one of her mate's place to watch her 'shows'. This allows for uninhibited bedlam in the kitchen. Let me stress, I LOVE to cook... moreover, I LOVE to eat! This'll be the first of no doubt many food-themed posts from this guy *points at self*


This week as you can probably tell is about a piece of meat. A big, juicy, manly piece of meat. Before we get into that, let me put my cards on the table right now... I am on a diet. Yep. I am fat. I lost 25kg in 5 months last year and have ashamedly put about 8-10kg of that back on. I have a hundred bucks and a home-cooked 3 course meal riding on losing more than a mate. That said, this is a BIG piece of meat! Nom.

One of my favourite accompaniments with any meal is toasted cherry tomatoes with garlic. Tonight I've mixed it up a little, along with loads of garlic, kosher salt and EVOO as per normal, I've biffed in a bit of fresh rosemary and halved chili. Chuck it into a 225 deg oven for about 20-25 mins.

The offending meat! A little EVOO (I've run out of anything with a higher smoke-point) and kosher salt & cracked pepper seasoning.

A nice hot griddle pan will give the BBQ style char marks. When using cast iron, ensure you heat it up at the temperature you intend to cook at - DO NOT heat at a higher temp and then turn down. What I do is put the pan on as soon as I get back from the supermarket - that way it's hot when I am ready to chuck the steak on.

Just a couple of field mushrooms on a really low heat while everything else is cooking. UMAMI!

Normally I would like to cook the piece of meat in the oven for a cpl of hours at 60-70 degrees, then finish on the grill... But, this is Monday night... Man hungry, man need meat, man need meat NOW! Meat-SMASH. Anyway, in this case where urgency is required, sear the meat on the edges and both sides...

...then into the hot oven (with the tomatoes). Turn the oven off right away. I like my steak pretty rare, so would probably only leave it in the cooling oven for 10 mins for such a thick piece of meat. Once removed from the oven, wrap steak in tinfoil, shiny side in to let it rest for 5-10 mins. And yes, that is a silicone cow oven-mitt.

The skins on the tomoatoes will split when they are approaching done. It's up to you how cooked you want them from there. I like them quite mushy, so back in they go with the oven back on. This time, that's the red monkey oven-mitt.

Ugh.

Second attempt. Good EVOO, rubbish balsamic, loads of good salt & nice fresh rocket.

Tomatoes done. That garlicky, tomatoey oil is the elixir of the gods. Don't waste it!

So my plating skills are rubbish. But this is MAN cooking. And anyway, Bobby Flay is rubbish at plating also and HE's only been beaten twice on Iron Chef. So,...yeah! The oil from the tomatoes is drizzled over the mushrooms ;-)

This is pretty much perfectly cooked for me. I made a jus from the steak pan juices, mushroom pan juice and some red wine to deglaze both.

GET DOWN MY NECK. chomp.

Just a Flintstone sized bone left. And YES, I DID lick the plate. What?