Clarrie and her son Todd have featured in several of my posts this past year and previously in my Two Mad Cow blog. Several of my friends have been hugely supportive of my blogs and have come on the journey with me in their quest to understand more about the food we are consuming and how we can feed our families well.
Clarrie and her lovely partner became engaged yesterday and it was uplifting news for myself and all their friends and family alike. I spent the day with Clarrie today and as usual our conversation turned to food, like many young mothers, Clarrie is constantly concerned about her families diet and always looking for ways to improve it.
What was especially nice about today was that we had the company of Clarrie's grandmother and her many words of wisdom. She pointed out that not so very long ago consumers relied on their common sense regarding the food they bought and ate, meat was purchased from a butcher with no use by date, likewise fruit and vegetables and dairy produce. Women stored their food in larders as fridges were uncommon until the 1960s and if they spotted some mould on cheese they would scrape it off, or if the outer leaves of a lettuce were discoloured they would discard only the offending leaves.
Today we rely on 'experts' to tell us how to eat, we have bought into the farce of use by dates, a human being deciding what to eat without guidance - something Clarrie's nan and generations before her have been doing, with notable success - is seriously unprofitable to food corporations.
The novelty of the Western processed diet - cheap - quick - effortless and disposable is far from the money saving meals lovingly prepared by our grandmothers. Cheapness and ignorance are mutually reinforcing, not knowing what is happening in the food chain amounts to not caring and the substitution of quantity over quality has become the norm. Why worry about the welfare of animals? As long as one egg looks pretty much like another, chicken like chicken or beef like beef, if it's cheap enough we have no qualms about binning it.
We are constantly being warned that we are eating too much meat, there is strong evidence that those eating above average amounts of red meat have increased risks of cancer, in 2007 the world cancer research fund recommended a limit of 500g per person a week. Clarrie's grandmother, much like my own grandmother and mother, bought meat with a sense of reverence, shopping was a ritual of little, often and fresh, nothing was wasted, people rarely overindulged and food was appreciated.
As a child I remember steak as being a luxury and a rarity, normally reserved for adults on special occasions. To this day I rarely eat steak and still consider it a luxury. Of course, getting engaged is certainly worthy of a steak dinner and Clarrie treated her and Jas to a nice piece of grass fed-free range sirloin steak.
Grilled steak
Recipe
1 sirloin steak per person
Olive oil cooking spray
3 large potatoes, peeled and cut into chips
Salt and pepper
Before grilling remove steaks from the fridge and leave to sit at room temperature for 20 minutes
Preheat oven 200c/gas mark 6
Blanch chips in a large pan of boiling water for 3 minutes, then drain well
Spread chips over a baking tray and spray with oil, season and place in oven, cook for 30 minutes until golden and crisp
10 minutes before chips are ready, heat grill to high
Spray steaks with a little oil and season liberally
Place steaks under the grill: 1 1/2 to 2 minutes each side for rare, 3 minutes each side for medium, 4 minutes each side for well done
Allow steaks to rest whilst you dish up the chips
Serve immediately
'The very first moment I beheld him, my heart was irrevocably gone.'
- Jane Austen.
Love Donna xxxxxxxx
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