FLOWER POT KITCHEN: RIBEYE TOMY HAWK STEAK AND SALAD

16 Jan 2015

RIBEYE TOMY HAWK STEAK AND SALAD

In the mood for steak, and this gorgeous whopper fitted the bill, a grass fed 32oz four week dry aged cut of ribeye, seared and slowly pan fried rare, left to rest for five to ten minutes letting all it's glorious juices to settle evenly throughout the steak ensuring every mouthful is going to be succulent and juicy, I served mine with some gently pan fried nutty butter chewy garlic slices on a bed of watercress.

Prep time 5 minutes / cook time rare 7 minutes, medium 10 minutes

Ingredients

32 oz grass feed ribeye steak on the bone

6 cloves garlic sliced

1 tbsp butter (grass feed)

Sea salt

Fresh black pepper

Heat a skillet or frying pan medium hot, add the butter and garlic and gently pan fry until light golden and the butter has taken on a some light brown colour, keep your heat medium, if your heat is too high the butter will burn and leave a bitter flavour, remove the garlic from the pan and keep to one side.

Pop the pan back on the heat and turn up to high, add you steak and sear both sides for a couple of minutes, then turn the heat down a little and slowly cook to your choice.

To check if your steak is cooked to your choice you can make a incision and look, remembering that during resting your steak will cook on a little bit more, or gently prod your steak and feel the tension, to do this take your thumb and index finger and touch the finger pads together, turn your hand palm facing up and now using your other index finger prod the protruding muscle at the base of your thumb, this is how rare meat feels.

For a medium cooked steak swop your index finger for your fore finger and feel the tension, again move along to the next finger to feel the tension of well done.

Once your steak is a minute of so away from being cooked to your choice, remove from the pan and rest on a warm plate, loosely cover with foil. Serve on a bed of watercress, drizzle any resting juices over the salad and top your steak with the garlic and any cooking juices left in the pan, season with sea salt and fresh ground black pepper.

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.