Day-before-yesterday's food
Nov. 2nd, 2011 09:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lyornI meant to put that into yesterday's post, but forgot.
Green tomato chutney
Summer was short this year, and the tomatos on my balkony did not quite make it to "ripe", though the September sun got them beyond "green" to a pale-red green-on-the-inside. They were not especially good to eat raw, better suited for cooking, so Not-quite-green tomato chutney was it.
There were about eight of them, maybe 800 grams, and one sole chili that had ripened on the chili plant with its leaves sadly chewed to lattice by the cats. I halved them, cut out the part where the stalk connects, cut them roughly. Cut the chili very fine, removing most of the seeds. Crushed some allspice, chopped a small piece of ginger and put it all in a pot with salt, tarragon vinegar, and a good amount of brown rock sugar. Kept it barely cooking for about half an hour in a closed pot, stirred occasionally. After that time, fine-tuned the taste and added about half a coffee cup of neutral plant oil. Stirred, and put it all in a clean jar, closed it well and put it upside-down to seal.
Unfortunately, the jar didn't seal as well as intended, so I wiped up the mess and kept the chutney in the fridge, to be used soon.
Stir-fried beef
This chutney goes best with meat, and I had bought, two weeks or so ago, a large rump steak (the part from the hip), enough for two meals. Only I didn't get around to cook it, so I put it in the freezer, and as I could not cut it un-thawed and not re-freeze it once thawed, I had to eat it all in one go. Not complaining,not really. (Except maybe about the state of my food budget.)
I thawed it a little in the microwave, meanwhile, peeled a red onion and cut it in eight parts like an apple, and then thawed some frozen rice leftover from the chicken leg dinner. Sliced the steak very thin, the way you can do it when it's still half-frozen. Cleaned and sliced a few spring onions, too. Put balsamico cream, Worcestershiresauce, hot water, salt and pepper within easy reach.
Then heated an big empty pan until a drop of water boiled off in it, added neutral vegetable oil and spred it quickly, and then the meat and the onion pieces. Stirred energetically on high, until the meat was brown all around, added salt and pepper, poured in water (big cloud of steam), deglazed the pan, put in a little Worcestershiresauce and a little more balsamico cream, then let the water boil off.
When the water was gone, I threw in the spring onions and the rice, stirred some more, and when the rice threatened to stick to the bottom, took the pan off the heat, added two tablespoons of the chutney, stirred some more, and threw it on a pre-heated plate.
Very yummy.
If I had had a little more and freshly-cooked rice, I would have arranged the meat, the rice and the chutney seperately to make it prettier, but it was too little rice for that.
Green tomato chutney
Summer was short this year, and the tomatos on my balkony did not quite make it to "ripe", though the September sun got them beyond "green" to a pale-red green-on-the-inside. They were not especially good to eat raw, better suited for cooking, so Not-quite-green tomato chutney was it.
There were about eight of them, maybe 800 grams, and one sole chili that had ripened on the chili plant with its leaves sadly chewed to lattice by the cats. I halved them, cut out the part where the stalk connects, cut them roughly. Cut the chili very fine, removing most of the seeds. Crushed some allspice, chopped a small piece of ginger and put it all in a pot with salt, tarragon vinegar, and a good amount of brown rock sugar. Kept it barely cooking for about half an hour in a closed pot, stirred occasionally. After that time, fine-tuned the taste and added about half a coffee cup of neutral plant oil. Stirred, and put it all in a clean jar, closed it well and put it upside-down to seal.
Unfortunately, the jar didn't seal as well as intended, so I wiped up the mess and kept the chutney in the fridge, to be used soon.
Stir-fried beef
This chutney goes best with meat, and I had bought, two weeks or so ago, a large rump steak (the part from the hip), enough for two meals. Only I didn't get around to cook it, so I put it in the freezer, and as I could not cut it un-thawed and not re-freeze it once thawed, I had to eat it all in one go. Not complaining,not really. (Except maybe about the state of my food budget.)
I thawed it a little in the microwave, meanwhile, peeled a red onion and cut it in eight parts like an apple, and then thawed some frozen rice leftover from the chicken leg dinner. Sliced the steak very thin, the way you can do it when it's still half-frozen. Cleaned and sliced a few spring onions, too. Put balsamico cream, Worcestershiresauce, hot water, salt and pepper within easy reach.
Then heated an big empty pan until a drop of water boiled off in it, added neutral vegetable oil and spred it quickly, and then the meat and the onion pieces. Stirred energetically on high, until the meat was brown all around, added salt and pepper, poured in water (big cloud of steam), deglazed the pan, put in a little Worcestershiresauce and a little more balsamico cream, then let the water boil off.
When the water was gone, I threw in the spring onions and the rice, stirred some more, and when the rice threatened to stick to the bottom, took the pan off the heat, added two tablespoons of the chutney, stirred some more, and threw it on a pre-heated plate.
Very yummy.
If I had had a little more and freshly-cooked rice, I would have arranged the meat, the rice and the chutney seperately to make it prettier, but it was too little rice for that.
