In Search of the Perfect Steak Sandwich
So what constitutes the perfect steak sandwich ? I take a look at some of the main criteria which for me contributes to a good steak sandwich and which should be kept in mind when preparing one.
Cooking fresh food and drinking divine Cape wines in Melkbosstrand Cape Town
So what constitutes the perfect steak sandwich ? I take a look at some of the main criteria which for me contributes to a good steak sandwich and which should be kept in mind when preparing one.
I recently got hold of some good quality springbok knuckles on my travels and decided to make this dish. The way the meat is prepared is based on Jamie Oliver’s Insanely Good Oxtail Stew Recipe and the pilaf is based on Nagi Maehashi’s Rice Pilaf with Nuts and Dried Fruit recipe. Jamie’s recipe I tweaked a bit and turned it into a one-pot dish while adding some ingredients like garlic and onions. Nagi’s recipe I pretty much kept standard, but I decided to work with ingredients at hand.
For those of you that are not familiar with springbok, it is a medium-sized antelope found in South Africa and also the national animal of this country.
Preheat a large casserole pot with lid in the oven at 220 degrees Celsius.
Remove the pot from the oven, add the meat, season it with salt and pepper, add a good lug of olive and mix it well.
Put the casserole back in the oven (with the lid) for about 20 minutes.
Remove the casserole from the oven and put it on low-medium heat on the stove. Turn the oven down to 170 degrees Celsius.
Add the leeks, carrots, garlic, onion, celery, rosemary, thyme, and bay leaves to the meat, stir well and cook for about 20 minutes with the lid on.
Add the flour and cloves, and mix well.
Add the muskadel or wine, tomatoes and stock and mix well.
Turn the heat up and bring to boil.
Put the casserole (with lid) back in the oven for about 4 hours, turning the food over every hour or so.
Remove the casserole from the oven, add a good dash of Worcestershire sauce and let the dish settle for about 30 minutes before dishing up.
Dry fry the nuts in a pan over medium heat. Be careful not to burn the nuts and note that the almond flakes will toast quicker than the whole pistachios.
Melt the butter in a large sauce pan over medium heat, add the onion and garlic and saute until translucent.
Add the rice and fry until mostly translucent.
Add the cinnamon, cardamom, pepper and cumin and stir.
Add the stock, and dried fruit and stir.
Cover with the lid, bring to simmer and then immediately turn the heat down to medium low or low.
Cook for 15 minutes until the liquid is absorbed. (Try not to open the lid while cooking). Remove the pot from the stove and leave for 10 minutes undisturbed.
Crush the pistachios slightly, add most of the nuts and toss.
Serve with remaining nuts as garnish.
We served the springbok and rice pilaf together with a bottle of Jacaranda Wines No. 47 2018 which is a Shiraz and contributed very well to the spiciness of the dish.
I got the inspiration for this dish by this Spanish recipe by Lauren Aloise, but I had to make quite a bit of changes as we are not so fortunate in South Africa to always get the produce our counterparts get in Europe – like Iberian pork cheeks for example. I also took the starch out of the dish and made a separate starchy dish to go with the main course.
So I Googled for “Pork and Bean” and came across this Corsican Bean Soup with Greens and Pork recipe on Food & Wine which sounded very interesting. Unfortunately I couldn’t source all the ingredients and had to make do with what I had. I also decided not to use the word Corsican in the title as I was not too sure how strict you have to follow this recipe to call it anything from Corsica.
We already did a biltong and blue cheese soup before in this article, but I decided to do it again, this time with a bit of twist.
We recently got our hands on some eland steaks and decided to make some venison schnitzel and prego rolls.
We got our hands on some tenderized eland steaks and decided to make some prego rolls. (We also used some of the steaks to make schnitzels). This is our first stab at making a prego sauce so we had to Google a bit to get some ideas.
We got this brilliant and easy pork sausage rolls recipe from Nagi Maehashi and decided to give it a try.
We love chicken pie (who doesn’t?). Whether it’s Kotopita (Greek pie in filo pastry) . B’stilla (Moroccan pie with cinnamon, ginger, turmeric and saffron) or a good old South African chicken pie with hard boiled eggs and sago.
We decided to put a twist on the traditional South African version by making it with smoked chicken, pancetta and leeks.
This is an easy recipe for a seeded rye sourdough bread