The weather is abysmal today. Rain rain and more raindrops, not heavy rain just constant wetness.

Hubby needed lunch earlier as he has a meeting and I decided to go for tender slices of beef in bagels with onions, cheese and mushrooms. An easy half hour cook.

I bought a piece of beef skirt for £5. it weight about a kg. Beef skirt is not too expensive and when cook this way it is not bad to eat and hubby loves it as not too fatty. otherwise he is not a fan of red meat. I often use beef skirt to cook stir fry, leeks, Chinese leave cabbage etc.

My tip on making the beef really soft and tender – Hubby loves his beef this way. It’s the secret Chinese way. Often I have been asked by the Brits what is the Chinese secret to making really tender beef with our stir fries, just like the ones they get from the restaurants and this is the way.

The secret is bicarbonate of soda. The most important secret is not too much and do not marinate too long. You want to tenderizes the beef not turn them into mush. if you do it this way I guarantee you no more tough beef.

However this is unnecessary with expensive cuts of beef like chateaubriand, filet mignon etc

TIP – Do not season your beef before o when frying. Salting the beef now draws out the juice and won’t leave them tender and juicy. Season AFTER frying.

TIP – If you want to use as stir fry Asian style lose the worcestershire sauce and instead use soy sauce, touch of rice wine and a tsp of cornstarch. Loosen the marinated beef with sesame oil before hitting the pan to flash fry with garlic, ginger etc. Then use your tender beef to fry your vegetables of choice.

Creamy Full Fat Mushroom Soup. Not with chicken stock and not with crème fraîche. My Creamy Full Fat Mushroom Soup is made from double cream and full fat milk. I make this maybe twice a year and when I do I like to make it full fat. No diet stuff and the family always laughingly fight for leftovers booking it for dinner. 

Just a bowl of soup and some garlic baguette is more than enough for a meal.  It is a simple recipe and very easy to make. Once you have tasted home made the tin stuff just do not cut the mustard anymore. Once you tried home made you will also be able to tell the difference between home made of out of a tin when you order at a restaurant.

Today I made it extra special by adding some truffle and truffle oil.

JULY 10, 2018 BY ADMIN

SousVide Beef brisket steak (28 hours), roasted banana shallots, creamy butternut squash, buttered asparagus, pickled roasted red peppers served with a red wine mushroom sauce. 

I promised my boy lollipop that he will be getting only English food this week. Hence my SousVide machine has come out to play. I bought some beef brisket as they looked very nice and I do not mind beef brisket cooked SousVide as they are quite a tasty cut. However cooked normally it could be quite tough. This beef brisket steaks were about 3 cm thick but when SousVide at 140F for 28 hours they were really tasty and tender.