Post-pub nosh neckfiller: Fancy a ham and cheese 'dry tree trunk' sarnie? We have no idea how it happened, but during a recent review of our previous post-pub nosh neckfillers, we realised that not since our crack culinary team constructed the fantastical and frankly mind-boggling Portuguese Francesinha in December last year, has one dish featured a nice bit of steak. This simply won't do, so for …
My preference depends very much on the quality. Generally I go for rare (and I do not mean the "rare" I sometimes get in the UK, which is more like medium, I mean rare as in "saignant" in France), and in the best cases I will even have it "bleu" as the French say (very, very rare).
That however is purely my taste. If a guest at my house wants his steak well done, or medium, I just leave them in the pan a bit longer, while the juices settle in my own.
Back to cachopo: really interesting "Cordon Bleu on steroids"
Darn, I am hungry now
Looks very tasty! Nice pictures as well.
I'm currently on a Korean food kick at the moment. Lots of great recipes out there. My favourite Youtube channel at the moment: Maangchi Korean cooking a go-go
Luckily I have a local H-Mart stocking all sorts of Korean goodness.
Keep that post-pub grub bubbling!!
Cachopo should really be made with meat that's too young to be called beef and too old to be termed veal - "ternera" in Spanish, 10-12 months' old. It should be washed down not with beer but with aerated still cider. Follow the recipe and you'll get something good, but for the real thing you'll have to come to Asturias. Easyjet from Stansted's the easiest way.
Asturian cider has no bubbles, until it's served ("escanciada") in the proper way. This Wikipedia link explains the process, though you'll probably need to resort to Google Translate, as there's not an equivalent article in en.wikipedia.org.
Important advice: Don't try to do this yourself unless you're wearing rubber boots. ;-)
Search for "asturian cider".
About 30 years ago, I figured out that the object of the "long pour" method of aerating the cider was to miss as much as possible, so there was less of the nasty stuff to drink. Pouring over your shoulder into a glass held behind your back looks even cooler, and achieves that goal even better. Unless, of course, you're playing drinking games where you pour for each other...
You mentioned Stanstead and EasyJet.
I'd love to go to that part of Spain (extramadura is my fav though) but the thought of spending at least twice the length of the flight just getting to Stanstead (A303,M3,M25 & M11) just sort of makes it pointless.
Then there is EasyJet. The only airline in existence that could lose my bag during the flight. Saw it go in the hold. It never came out. Wot! Should have not checked it in the first place? Ok, try hand carrying 2 weeks worth of winter clothes.
Given that the bacon is in between the two nice, rare pieces of steak, how does it get cooked - or is it cured bacon ?
Perhaps cooking the bacon first then inserting it will be better. This probably provides just enough heat to the steak too. I'm with the really rare school on steak.
We need a red wine icon to go with the lovely slab of blood dead cow.
Jamón serrano is cured, yes. Although crispy bacon would be worth trying as a substitute.
Health-and-safety-conscious people might want to sear the inside of the steak before assembling: typically the idea with rare steak is to cook it just enough to kill the bacteria on the cut surface.
Properly cured bacon doesn't require cooking. (Back bacon, streaky bacon, and indeed Jamón (which isn't really bacon ... think Prosciutto ... the south end of a hog heading north).
Here at the ranch, I sometimes put a bunch of salt (Mostly Diamond Crystal, and hint of curing salt (other flavo(u)rings to your taste if you like) on a pork belly, wrap it well in food service film, and stash it in the back of the 'fridge for ten or 12 days. Edible as-is on retrieval. Better after 6 hours of smoke at about 140 degrees (I prefer dry Apple & green Manzanita for smoke). Smoked or not, if you're squeamish about perfectly safe preserved food, cut thin, sear both sides and serve as streaky bacon ... or cut thick & deep or shallow fry at 375 degrees F until GB&D.
I defy anyone to grate breadcrumbs while pissed without removing their fingertips
Alternatively, you can run hardened bread over with a rolling pin or toss it into a food processor and give it a couple of pulses (which still might end up with alcohol-enhanced blood being spilled). In the interest of simplicity, perhaps it would be better to use store-bought crumbs.
They are always completely stale...
Jake, as with many things, YMMV, but I have had pretty good luck with those produced by a bakery housed inside a local grocery store. They make breadcrumbs from their bread which did not sell the day before. They also make these lovely cream puff swans, but I digress...
clearly none of that meat is cooked. Which is fine if you like it so but I'm guessing you would want to pan sear the meat construction prior to adding your crust. You simply can not cook that meat to a state that is considered acceptable by the food standards agency without burning your breadcrumb coating.
And also, you just recycled the Findus crispy pancake.
There are rules in the UK to ensure you don't kill anyone.
How does that work then? Seriously...
It's only in relation to serving food on a professional or commercial level. All staff must do courses and become certified in at least basic food hygiene. The food standards agency will perform regular checks to make sure you comply with and maintain standards. They have the power to close any establishment in an instant if there is a health and safety issue found. Undercooked meat would be such an issue.
That does not mean you can't serve blue steak or tartare, you just have to ensure it is described as such and the customer understands what they are getting.
https://www.food.gov.uk/business-industry/caterers/sfbb/sfbbcaterers
OK, they wouldn't make it with beef, but with any variant of pork, veal or chicken.....is to then stick the breadcrumbed meaty goodness between two slices of bread perhaps with a bit of mustard.
Seriously helps soak up that Pilsner....
*Back in the early 90s, when people could first travel freely, it was said to be one of the sure fire markers of Czechs on the move. They'd be the ones in Croatia or wherever, packets of various schnitzels brought from home, only willing to buy the fresh bread to slap them between.
Breaded fried food saved in plastic for later? That's just appalling.
Fried food needs to be eaten hot ... Please tell me you don't put two fish & chips (and scraps) with mushy peas into tupperware just after the pubs close, in order to have lunch the next day?
It doesn't matter how bloody you like your steak on the inside, ALL raw meat needs to be cooked on the outside. Because of its construction, this dish is only safe to eat if the temperature at the centre reaches at least 2.8°Hilton (or 48°C for those still using primitive SI units).
Yay, lets further rot our bodies with Acrylamide from useless high-GI carbs, Nitrosamine from nitrate 'cured' Bacon, and TFAs etc. from unstable heat extracted and further heated vegetable oil. Yes, these will contribute to Heart Disease.
The only good parts are the Steak and the Cheese, despite what idiot doctors said about animal fats and Cholesterol, and has now been admitted!
Sheesh.... this about a post pub-nosh. Not about anything else like government standards or unhealthy eating... .
Occasional doses of carbs, fats, whatever else is cooked up aren't going to kill anyone. The alcohol will do more damage in the long run.
As for the "food standards agency"... this is home cooking, not commercial. Beside, ever had Steak Tartare?
Let's just enjoy the food... It's one the few pleasures in life that don't involve politics or corporate cultures. If you don't like something, make something else.
I was in a bar in Lastres about a month ago and saw cachopo on the menu. I asked the waiter/barman what it was and he'd only got to jamon serrano sandwiched between two beef fillets for me to say, "that'll do for me". Until it was in front of me and opened up I was in disbelief, had I heard right? Yes I had, and it was heavenyl. Definitely filling.
Looking again at the size of the steak in the pictures in the article and the ones I used last night, I think I may have seriously gone overboard. Took up a whole plate in length and was a good 0.4 linguine thick. I don't have a meat hammer so fists did the job instead (always wash hands after handling raw meat, friends) and I had to use a different dry cured ham.
I used blue cheese for added naughtiness and I have to say it was bloody fantastic.
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