TV chef Simon Rimmer’s top tips during National Steak Week

It’s one of the most popular foods in the world, but while many of us love nothing
more than a juicy steak, it can be tough knowing how to do justice to our delicious
sirloin or fillet.

National Steak Week runs from 18-24th October and now TV chef Simon Rimmer is
encouraging everyone to get tasting steak!

But whether it’s rare, medium rare, medium or well done, judging how to cook a piece
of steak perfectly can be quite tricky to achieve. It is often too easy to become
concerned that the meat is not rare and this can lead to an overcooked steak.

And whilst we may feel out of our depth at home, knowing whether to choose fillet,
rib eye or rump in a restaurant can also leave us floundering. Throw in the huge
array of sauces now available and the perfect combination can be easily missed.

So which cut is best? How long do you cook it and how hot should the pan be?

If you feel yourself wondering where to start then our top tips from chef Simon
Rimmer should help and if it all sounds like too much hard work, Simon’s Steak
Lover’s Menu will be available at Beefeater Grill throughout National Steak Week -
so the experts can do the cooking for you.

“Steak is a British favourite and it can be enjoyed in so many different ways”, says
Simon.” I’ve teamed up with Beefeater Grill for National Steak Week to educate the
nation about steak and show everyone out there the best ways to enjoy it.”

Simon’s top tips for the perfect steak

When choosing in a restaurant, here is my key to the cuts:
· Fillet – most tender and easiest to eat
· Ribeye – tends to have more fat running through its centre but will have
more flavour as a result
· Rump – has the highest fat content but has a nice chewy texture and the
fat adds extra flavour
· Sirloin – is the second easiest to eat with less fat running through and
slightly cheaper price point than the fillet

When cooking at home:

* Let your steak come up to room temperature before you begin cooking
* Pat the steak dry with kitchen roll to make it as dry as possible before cooking
* Rub oil onto the steak instead of putting oil into the pan. This will ensure
that you have better and more even cooking
* Season the steak after rubbing oil onto its surface so as not to draw extra
moisture out of the meat
* Before you begin cooking the steak, make sure your pan/griddle is very hot
* When you put your steak into the pan, don’t be tempted to move it around. Let
it sit so that it can seal and retain all of its flavour
* If cooking rump or sirloin, don’t be tempted to cut off the fat before cooking.
Keeping it on helps to retain its shape and flavour
* Finally, to add a twist to your steak, why not make pineapple chutney… All
you need is red onion, chilli, coriander, vinegar and sugar and boil it down to
form the chutney – easy!

there is also an excellent recipe by the hair bikers for Newcastle brown and cheese bread on the bbc site

Ingredients:

3x7g sachets of dried yeast
30g of honey
600ml (ish) of your favorite beer at room temperature….i mean proper beer none of that cheap rubbish.
1kg of stong white flour
pinch of salt

method

disolve the honey and yeast in the beer

then in a massive bowl or on large surface make a pile of the flour and then mix in the beer mixture a bit at a time and mix until you have a dough.

knead for 5-10 min unti l the dough is smooth.

put in a bowl and cover, place the bowl in a warm place for an hour or two until the dough has doubled in size.

then knock out all of the air in the dough by re kneading for 2mins

now to shape the bread….as you will see below i seperated mine into 6 balls then placed in a round (greased) cake tin with 4 round the edge and 1 in the middle, but you can do it how you want.

leave to prove for another hour or two (until its doubled in size)

carefuly put in a preheated 220 degree c oven for 20/25 mins until golden or the base sounds hollow when tapped.

allow to cool slightly then tuck in.

The idea with seed potatoes is that you buy them then put them somewhere cool and light to “chit”. Chitting is the process of allowing the seed to sprout (like if you leave shop bought spuds in a cupboard for too long)

Once chitted they are ready for planting in Feb/March dependingon the variety.

I bought 3 types yesterday and will try to get one more next week.

the ones i bought were:

• 2nd early – Charlotte
• 2nd early – Nicola
• Main crop – Maris piper

seed potatoes from wilkinsons

The 2nd earlies make good new potatoes and salad potatoes and are ready earlier than maincrop (hence their name) so  in order to have some nice fresh spuds earlier i will also be getting some first earlies which will be ready even sooner.

Ill be planting them in a different part of the garden to last year as its not good practice to grow the same crop in the same place year after year.

I will also be growing some in tubs and compost bags as these can be hidden out of the way and make use of space that would otherwise be wasted.

If you want to try growing spuds and don’t have a garden then growing in tubs or bags is an idea way to get started, wilko’s even do a kit now that gives you everything you need to get growing on your patio or path.

Well ive not been dissapointed with the 6 winning flavours being:

• Chilli and Chocolate
• Builders Breakfast
• Onion Bajji
• Fish and Chips
• Cajun Squirrel
• Duck and hoy sin sauce.

Id heard rumours they were being released today in Asda so called in on the way home, i manged to get all the flavours apart from Cajun Squirrel which i got from Asda near work!

Anyway ill post a review of each flavour on here as and when i try them, so keep your eyes peeled

in the mean time why not check out their website here