This is the first in what may be a long line of guest bloggers… or maybe just it will just smoulder away like the burning love you used to have for your life… ooh. That was a little rough. Sorry. So this is from my head chef forever, Pauly. Or as I still call him, chef. I love this guy and owe him a serious debt of gratitude for being there to help me with a thousand and one questions about food, and just for being a great friend in general…

Take it away my chef…

Foodisthebestshitever blog entry

What to write about? What to cook? What ingredients to use?
Well without even knowing I had already answered my own questions, and I did this by visiting my local Asian supermarket this morning. I went there with one purpose to buy a mandolin (food slicer) or as they called it a ‘jumbo benriner’ which as they quote on the box “cooking joyfully and beautifully” not sure if this makes any sense? But neither did the fact that I left with not only my mandolin but an entire box full of goodies.
My box has everything from a kick arse looking bottle of fish sauce which I feel will be a fine drop, to blocks of shrimp paste with not a letter of English to be seen on the packaging. But as I walked around my senses were flipping out, colours, shapes and products I’d never seen…not to mention the smells, some of which are not, I feel, something to ever smell.
But what is for sure is that if you need inspiration for your cooking, if your repertoire needs an upgrade or if you just need some serious chilli in your life then get yourself to your local Asian shop of wonder (that’s the food one not the other one with red lights outside) because unless you’re a senses are handicapped or your small minded brain doesn’t let you try new things, then I assure you’ll find what your not looking for….

With this all in mind I have decided to share with you a recipe that I truly love and have loved it ever since I made it up two hours ago…

Miso & chilli braised skirt steak
1kg skirt steak (trimmed nicely)
180g miso paste (what ever colour you like)
15g chives
60g tahini (sesame seed paste)
35g garlic, finely chopped
35g sesame seeds
75g sugar
40ml soy
40ml mirin (wheat soy)
25g long red chilli, finely chopped (this is a lot of will make for a hot dish, if you are a little girl just add less)
250ml rice wine vinegar
300ml water (or any stock will do)

• We can do this a few ways, the first way is to fry off the meat in the pan to just give a bit of colour and love
• Then mix all other ingredients together and place with meat in an oven proof dish and cover with silicone paper and alfoil
• Place in an oven at 160c and cook for 2-3 hours until the meat is tender, this may take different times depending on oven, size of meat etc…but if you check after 2 hours and then every ½ an hour until cooked
• Once meat is tender remove from liquid and place liquid in a sauce pan and reduce until it thickens up, thickness depends on how you like it…I like it thick and sticky!!
• Now at this point your ready to serve up the goodness it can be one of many share dishes, it could be served on rice, noodles or mixed greens…I really like in a big baguette with fresh basil
Now I did mention that this was one way the other is a bit cheffy but I want to share it with you so that when you see sous vide written on a menu you’ll know what it is.
• For this you will need a vac pac machine and a sous vide machine, this should only set you back about $2000 or so ☺
• Place all ingredients in the vac pac bag and seal in the machine, you may not get all the liquid in but get as much as you can
• Turn your sousvide machine on and set to 62c and place bag in the water
• This should be left in for 24 hours, sounds crazy I know but at 62c it perfectly cooks the protein in the meat without causing shrinking or blood loss
• In the end you end up with amazing meat that’s like butter
• As with the other method just reduce the liquid to desired thickness and you can fry of the meat just to warm through and add a little colour and texture
I did warn you that this was cheffy, and by cheffy I mean wanky, but it is delicious but most likely a method left to the professionals (that’s me..)

Now go get your Asian on…try new things and remember food truly is the best shit ever!!!