Well I don't know about you folks but the first week of 2011 has gone so slowly. At work I have had only a handful of things to do all week and I think I have quite small hands. I got excited a minute ago because it looked like I might have something to do but alas not...files got sent to Italy instead of here.
However the weekend beckons and I like many other will be looking at my bank balance thinking "Does Christmas really have to exist at all?"
But enough of the doom and gloom. I didn't decide to write this blog with the intention of bringing everybody down so lets get so positive vibes going on. What is there to be spiffingly happy about?
Obviously a 3-1 Ashes victory in the Ashes is right up there, first time in 24 years that England have triumphed on Australian soil and the manner of the victory is something to behold, all 3 victories won by an innings. Fair enough this may very well be the worst Australian test cricket team for a generation or more but take no gloss of a wonderful and consistent performance from the England team. (Notice I didn't use the term English)
I'd now like us to be tested against South Africa or India and to be honest I think we'd struggle against both but for the moment lets revel in the glory and again be proud of our country in the field of sport or on the field of sport or on teh sporting field......woteva Treva......!!
What else is there? Oh of course I have a nice brisket of beef brining away in the fridge which I shall be putting into the water bath later, it's about the size of a house brick so I'd imagine it'll just stretch between the 3 of us when it's done on Sunday. I'm not sure how that news is really going to cheer you lot up but it's doing wonders for me.
I'm hoping that today my work are going to pull their fingers out and approve the 3 weeks holiday I've applied for in March. I'd be furious if they didn't and as the time goes on I have growing concern that the plane I want to be on will be full when I get to actually book it and I really want to go on one of the Airbus A-380's!!
I have though found a rather scrumptious little place to stay when I get to Melbourne. Because I'm going to need 11 nights staying somewhere other than my buddies I thought I'd much rather have somewhere a little more cosier than a hotel so I've been looking at holiday rental homes and found this little gem.
It's in a fantastic location by all accounts but unfortunately two of the nights I need have already been reserved so if I do book here it'll be a case of checking in for 4 nights here then off to a local motel for 2 nights then back here for the remainder and I'm happy to to that if it means securing the booking. After all I'll be on my own so it's not as if it'll be too much hassle. Been in contact with the owner too and she says that I can just pay her for the full 11 nights stay and she'll sort out booking the other 2 days elsewhere for me which is less of a ballache for me.
Right that really is about all I have this morning although I did stumble across this fascinating article on the BBC website listing 100 things that we learn't in 2010. Might keep you going for a bit if you're bored today.
Toodle Pippians xx
Showing posts with label Ashes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ashes. Show all posts
Friday, 7 January 2011
Thursday, 4 November 2010
Bathtime.....
The adventures in sous vide go on......
A couple of days ago I tried a recipe from one of my favourite chefs Glynn Purnell which he cooked for the Great British Menu series. It involved using Pork Fillet (Tenderloin) and of course involved using the water bath.
I was surprised to see that he only cooked the meat for 18 minutes at 62C as I assumed that you need to do it for longer but of course he knows better than me so I followed it and was unbelievably good.
Yes it was a little bit pink but using this cooking method ensures that when the internal temperature of the Pork fillet reaches 62C for more than 1 minute any trace of Trichinosis is killed off so it's absolutely fine to eat.
I finished these off with the blowtorch which gave the meat a beautiful golden colour and a slight crust.
Accompanying the Pork was a Water Chestnut purée (couldn't get any Jerusalem artichokes), Glazed Pears and perhaps the most outstanding part of the dish some Vanilla dipped Potatoes.
The potatoes are a revelation and very easy to make. You just set the oven to 130C and layer the bottom of a glass oven dish with 6 slices of potato about 1cm thick. Remove the seeds from a Vanilla pod and sprinkle these over the potatoes then just cover the whole lot with rapeseed oil, give it a bit of a stir around to get it mixed up well, bung in the empty pods too for more flavour then heat in the oven for about 30 mins or until they are soft. I suppose they could be described as a Confit of vanilla infused potato too.
The whole recipe can be found here
The whole combination of flavours was just immense and it's no wonder this guy has Michelin stars coming out his ears.
So this shorter cooking period got me thinking because about a week ago I cooked some Ribeye steaks in the water bath but I did them at 55C for about 8 hours and I was a little disappointed after that time to find them quite a bit smaller than I was hoping them to be, the flavour was absolutely stunning don't get me wrong and they were cooked perfectly to medium rare but I wanted to achieve a certain look with the finished article and that wasn't possible with what I ended up with.
After cooking Glynn Purnell's Pork Fillet it dawned on me that as a much more tender cut of meat I need not have cooked it for so long and in fact around just 40 minutes would have been fine so I'm going to give it another go this evening serving it up with some gorgeous chips (not my own creation but these and they are damn good) some Portobellini Mushroom and my own Chilli Pea creation.
I was also thinking of what else to try in the water bath so rather unlike my usual self I have pre-planned a couple of meals for tomorrow and Saturday.
For tomorrow I have a couple of Lamb Neck fillets all vacuum packed up and cooking away, these are going to cook for around 30 hours before I'll blowtorch them ready to serve up with some Parsnip purée and a warm Broad bean and Asparagus Salad.
The next meal will be Beef brisket which again is already cooking and will be doing so for around 40 hours, this is going to be served up full roast dinner style with all the trimmings.....Just what we're going to need after a rather massive night out on Friday DJ'ing at Walkabout, Reading and seeing our buddies the lovely Candice and Wesley back off to Australia.
Personally I think they are just leaving the country before our boys give their cricket team a good bashing during the upcoming Ashes series :-)
A couple of days ago I tried a recipe from one of my favourite chefs Glynn Purnell which he cooked for the Great British Menu series. It involved using Pork Fillet (Tenderloin) and of course involved using the water bath.
I was surprised to see that he only cooked the meat for 18 minutes at 62C as I assumed that you need to do it for longer but of course he knows better than me so I followed it and was unbelievably good.
Yes it was a little bit pink but using this cooking method ensures that when the internal temperature of the Pork fillet reaches 62C for more than 1 minute any trace of Trichinosis is killed off so it's absolutely fine to eat.
I finished these off with the blowtorch which gave the meat a beautiful golden colour and a slight crust.
Accompanying the Pork was a Water Chestnut purée (couldn't get any Jerusalem artichokes), Glazed Pears and perhaps the most outstanding part of the dish some Vanilla dipped Potatoes.
The potatoes are a revelation and very easy to make. You just set the oven to 130C and layer the bottom of a glass oven dish with 6 slices of potato about 1cm thick. Remove the seeds from a Vanilla pod and sprinkle these over the potatoes then just cover the whole lot with rapeseed oil, give it a bit of a stir around to get it mixed up well, bung in the empty pods too for more flavour then heat in the oven for about 30 mins or until they are soft. I suppose they could be described as a Confit of vanilla infused potato too.
The whole recipe can be found here
The whole combination of flavours was just immense and it's no wonder this guy has Michelin stars coming out his ears.
So this shorter cooking period got me thinking because about a week ago I cooked some Ribeye steaks in the water bath but I did them at 55C for about 8 hours and I was a little disappointed after that time to find them quite a bit smaller than I was hoping them to be, the flavour was absolutely stunning don't get me wrong and they were cooked perfectly to medium rare but I wanted to achieve a certain look with the finished article and that wasn't possible with what I ended up with.
After cooking Glynn Purnell's Pork Fillet it dawned on me that as a much more tender cut of meat I need not have cooked it for so long and in fact around just 40 minutes would have been fine so I'm going to give it another go this evening serving it up with some gorgeous chips (not my own creation but these and they are damn good) some Portobellini Mushroom and my own Chilli Pea creation.
I was also thinking of what else to try in the water bath so rather unlike my usual self I have pre-planned a couple of meals for tomorrow and Saturday.
For tomorrow I have a couple of Lamb Neck fillets all vacuum packed up and cooking away, these are going to cook for around 30 hours before I'll blowtorch them ready to serve up with some Parsnip purée and a warm Broad bean and Asparagus Salad.
The next meal will be Beef brisket which again is already cooking and will be doing so for around 40 hours, this is going to be served up full roast dinner style with all the trimmings.....Just what we're going to need after a rather massive night out on Friday DJ'ing at Walkabout, Reading and seeing our buddies the lovely Candice and Wesley back off to Australia.
Personally I think they are just leaving the country before our boys give their cricket team a good bashing during the upcoming Ashes series :-)
Tuesday, 2 November 2010
Ashes to Ashes....
25th of November is the date of the 1st Ashes test of 2010 and I'm positively brimming with excitement. Despite our resurgent form and the lack of the same coming from the Australian team I think we have a great chance of keeping hold of that little urn.
I still wouldn't have us as favourites because in their own backyard Australia are a pretty fearsome opponent and they need no more incentive to win than simply beating the old enemy.
The Australian psyche is so much different from the English mentality. Every Australian will think that whatever competition they enter they will win. Even during the football (soccer) world cup every single Aussie thought that their team could win that cup whereas it was pretty obvious right from the start that English hopes were fading fast....I was surprised they even got out the group to be honest and I was tempted several months before the start of the competition to have a bet on England failing even worse than they did but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.
With the test matches starting at 00:00 GMT it's going to mean getting nocturnal for a while and hopefully not missing too much to those inevitable naps during the breaks in play. Last time the Ashes were played down under I remember falling asleep after about 3 hours of play where hardly a thing happened. I thought I'd just had one of those quick shut eye moments but alas not because I'd missed about 2 hours and loads of action.
Good job I have plenty of holiday spare at work because I think I'll be needing it although the one bonus of sitting watching cricket through the night is that I can still work from home during that time and not miss a ball so good times all round really.
I still wouldn't have us as favourites because in their own backyard Australia are a pretty fearsome opponent and they need no more incentive to win than simply beating the old enemy.
The Australian psyche is so much different from the English mentality. Every Australian will think that whatever competition they enter they will win. Even during the football (soccer) world cup every single Aussie thought that their team could win that cup whereas it was pretty obvious right from the start that English hopes were fading fast....I was surprised they even got out the group to be honest and I was tempted several months before the start of the competition to have a bet on England failing even worse than they did but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.
With the test matches starting at 00:00 GMT it's going to mean getting nocturnal for a while and hopefully not missing too much to those inevitable naps during the breaks in play. Last time the Ashes were played down under I remember falling asleep after about 3 hours of play where hardly a thing happened. I thought I'd just had one of those quick shut eye moments but alas not because I'd missed about 2 hours and loads of action.
Good job I have plenty of holiday spare at work because I think I'll be needing it although the one bonus of sitting watching cricket through the night is that I can still work from home during that time and not miss a ball so good times all round really.
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