The house smells great.
I bought a cut-price lump of frozen porterhouse a week or so ago. Yesterday I thawed it ready for cooking slowly as a roast. This is a long weekend in WA, and a Sunday roast seemed like a good idea. I can sleep it off Monday, and have beef and chutney sandwiches for the rest of the week.
I slow-cooked the porterhouse in the oven and served it with spiced green beans, baked potato and leek in Béchamel Sauce.
The Leek is trimmed, washed, sliced, and sautéed in a little margarine or butter mixed with olive oil, then the flour and the other ingredients used to make the Béchamel are added.
My recipe for Béchamel is here. It can be zinged up with extra mustard or horseradish.
The Potatoes are microwaved for around 3 minutes until partly cooked, then prepared as described here, and baked in the oven below the meat. When the meat is removed from the oven to stand, turn the temperature up to 200 and move the potatoes up in the oven to crisp them.
The Meat is simply
- Rubbed all over with Worcestershire Sauce, garlic and pepper, and left to stand at room temperature for half an hour or so.
- Seared top and bottom for about 3-4 minutes each side in an unoiled salted hot pan – fatty side first.
- Placed fat-side up on an oven rack in the middle of an oven preheated to 150 C if fan forced, 160 if not.
It should be cooked to medium-rare in around 40 minutes, depending on the thickness and size of the cut. Stand for 10-15 minutes before slicing as thinly as possible with a very sharp carving knife.
The Beans are cooked last, while the meat is standing, thusly;
- Mix salt, a pinch of cinnamon, a pinch of nutmeg, a grind of black or green pepper.
- Place the frozen beans in a steamer over a pot of boiling water.
- Sprinkle the seasoning over them and put on the lid.
- Steam for about 3 minutes.
- Serve immediately.
On Vegetables in Remote Places:
Frozen whole beans are the best green vegetables I have on hand at present. The leek looked a little tired but it came out ok. Fresh vegetables are problematic here in the Kimberley. At least they seem to be hard to procure in the part of the Kimberley I inhabit. I can’t drive to Kununurra, Darwin or Broome every time I want some fresh cauliflower or broccoli. If some do arrive here fresh they don’t seem to stay so for long, even in the crisper bin of the refrigerator. I find fresh greens once in a while, but I need to use them within a day or two. There seems little point in stocking up. Even potatoes and onions deteriorate rapidly in the cupboard, so I buy only a few at a time and refrigerate them too. I am now relying more and more on frozen veggies, but some do not freeze well, in my opinion. I dislike the texture of cauliflower, broccoli etc, that has been frozen, but frozen spinach, peas, beans, corn and some varieties of mixed diced veggies are quite acceptable. I have even found bags of frozen chopped onion which come in quite handy. quite economical too, because there is no waste and one can use less. If I buy a bag of “fresh” onions I lose nearly a half of them before I can finish them. Best to buy one or two at a time and have frozen on hand for when I run out. I slice and freeze celery and capsicum when I can get some that are in good condition. I blanch the celery first. The capsicum does not need to be blanched.
I may try blanching and freezing leeks too, if I get some good ones.
Kummerspeck. 