A bag of ugliness

I picked up a juicy bag of tomatoes from the Farmer's Market on Sunday. Sounds lovely, no? Actually, it was a pretty ugly bag of bruised tomatoes. I would be lying if I didn't mention the little fuzzy stuff growing on a couple of them. When I say juicy, I do mean juicy. The juice was floating around in the bag along with the tomatoes. The fellow gave them to me for dirt cheap (as he should!) so I'm living on the wild side!

My plan was to do a simple ragu because I figured I had better cook the buggery out of these ugly things so I bought a few pounds of tenderloin. I normally use some kind of eye-round-roast thing but the supermarket only had giants ones (and giant = expensive). I forget how many pounds it was but the loin I got was pretty small (and cheap). But then! This afternoon, my wife reminded me that she wasn't home for dinner tonight. So I thought, I have some tenderloin... steak au poivre! Here's my version.

1. Cut a couple of medallions about 2 inches thick.
2. Salt (kosher) liberally all over
3. Put pepper grinder in a super coarse setting and grind all over top and bottom faces. Give it a little pat to help the crust stick.
4. Heat olive oil and butter in a frying pan over medium heat until very hot
5. Cook medallions until internal temperature reaches 140 degrees turning once (about 4 minutes per side)
6. Remove meat and rest. Discard oil
7. Deglaze with about half a wine glass of alcohol -- I used my favourite two-buck-chuck from Trader Joes. Try to ignite. Fail. I think I need a higher alcohol content liquid.
8. Add heavy cream and reduce till sauce coats the back of a spoon
9. Add a little more butter to make it look pretty
10. Put medallions back in the sauce and serve

So easy and so good!


As for the ragu, I kept it pretty simple too.

1. Cut the (remaining) loin into chunks
2. Brown in hot olive oil and remove
3. Pour off excess oil and deglaze with half a bottle of red wine
4. Reduce by about a third
5. Season with salt and pepper. I also had some rosemary on hand
6. Throw in some hearty vegetables (carrots and onions today --it's all I had) and the loin
7. Bring to boil again. Cover and simmer until meat is super-tender (about 1.5 hours)

But what about the ugly tomatoes? Continue!
8. In a different pot, I cooked some garlic in olive oil over low heat. When they took a little colour, I added the ugly tomatoes chopped into chunks. Even though I cut out the ugly bits, they were still pretty ugly because they were so soft. Cover, reduce to simmer, and cook for a long time (an hour or so) or until they fall apart. I cooked off some of the extra liquid as well.

Later...
9. Shred the meat and remove the rosemary stalks
10. Pour the tomato sauce into the braising liquid
11. Add a little can of tomato paste
11. Reduce a little bit. Adjust seasoning and throw in a little more wine. That's about it!

This will be lunch (and probably dinner) tomorrow. I'll warm it and boil pasta when I get there. Top with cheese. I have some pecorino romano in my fridge. Now that I think of it, the cheese is a little ugly as well. Maybe no cheese :)

Barons Black Wattle Superior

Another one of Baron's beers today. Can't say I knew much about Barons when I was living in Australia, but since moving here I have discovered their Pale Ale and now this Wattle Seed Ale and have always been pleasantly surprised.

This beer has a lovely dark amber colour and unique floral aroma. Presumably this is what wattle flowers smell like. The head is a little thin, but this one has been in my fridge for a little while. The taste is sweet, floral, and complex with a wheaty finish. Overall, this is a surprising and delicious beer that's well priced. Drink it with dinner.

I will definitely buy another pack of this one.

Molson Golden

So I have been trying to sample all (well, maybe not all) of the beers at my local supermarket. I figured I would write a little about some of my impressions. Today's beer: Molson Golden.

I think this beer is a stereotypically North American beer. On the upside, it's quite refreshing and has a clean finish. On the downside, I think it lacks character. It has a pleasing hint of malty-bitterness but I would like some more flavour. I think it would be great on a beach trip, provided it could be kept super cold.

Bottom line, $9.99 for a 6-pack is too much.

Speaking in Chinese

I am mono-lingual. I can only speak English. If English has dialects, I prefer Australian English but am growing increasingly comfortable with American English.

Here is something that deeply infuriates me. I hate, hate, hate it when people that speak perfectly good English deliberately speak another language that everyone but me understands.

Call me a racist, but there is one people group that I think is particularly guilty of this crime: the Chinese. I myself am not Chinese but, fortunately or unfortunately, I have a lot of Chinese friends. I hate listening to them compare their Chinese name characters or the pronunciation of the Chinese menu. I am left there waiting for someone to translate. Worse yet, when the waiter is Chinese (but speaks English), and they insist upon ordering in Chinese.

I can understand if, say, they themselves cannot speak English; or they are uncomfortable with their English, or someone else at the table cannot speak English and requires translation; or the waiter cannot speak English; or everyone at the table speaks Chinese; or they do not know the English word for something. But excluding people for no other reason seems very disrespectful to me.

I write this because I had such an experience at lunch today. Grrr.

I have often wondered why I am so bothered by this behaviour. I think it has something to do with one trip to Singapore back in my college days. On two occasions, I was out with some (Singaporean-Chinese) friends, and the shop assistant asked my friends whether I was their maid because I was Filipino. I understand that many Filipinos work as maids in Singapore (as well as other places in South-East Asia), but I was hurt nonetheless.

This however is a different story. Bottom line, I have a very deeply rooted problem and I probably need therapy.

What is a Jaffle Maker?

Perhaps more fundamentally, what is a jaffle? For some, the answer to this is obvious but to many (esp Americans), probably less so.

In Australia, a Jaffle is a type of sandwich. Specifically, it is a pressed, sealed, and toasted sandwich. A Jaffle Maker is the machine that presses, seals, and toasts the sandwich. I suppose one can think of it as a higher evolved grilled cheese sandwich. Or perhaps like a panini of sorts.

I love Jaffles because you can put almost anything inside them. Years ago, my school tuck shop (read cafeteria) made delicious Spaghetti Jaffles, which were nothing more than canned spaghetti toasted between two pieces of bread. They were good. Observe, no cheese!

I believe the English call these sandwiches them toasties, which sounds wonderfully English. "Would you like some tea with your toasties?". What do Americans call them? Beats me.

Why did I title this blog Jaffle Maker? Well, I had one for lunch today and thought it sounded nice. I actually made a pepperoni-pizza jaffle, which is nothing more than tomato paste, cheese and pepperoni toasted between two slices of bread. Yum.