Whilst I make no claims to be a connoisseur, I do love a good red wine and when I am in Spain I can lose myself amongst the wine racks of our local bodega for hours at a time. I love that I can select Vintage and Gran Reserva wines for a fraction of the price here in the UK.
They say that women and wine go together like melted chocolate and strawberries, that it's a sacred functional relationship, however, I quite happily supped my way through malibu and coke, pernod and black (blackcurrant cordial) pina colada's and white wine spritzers (all very sweet, which with hindsight appealed to my unrefined palette) before I acquired a taste for red wine, which after all, is the most healthy and hygienic of beverages according to Louis Pasteur!
Experts have discovered the 'gastronomic watershed' an age at which we start to appreciate grown up food and drink (ie not sickly sweet malibu and coke!) Sophisticated adults veer towards olives, blue cheese and anchovies, all firm favourites of mine which coincidentally go very well with red wine. Bizarrely, given I was a vegetarian for many years, I now enjoy the occasional steak, but I'm glad that as with wine, I really appreciate it and look for good quality. A good steak accompanied with an excellent wine is a thing of pleasure, cheap steak and plonk, so readily available, is by no means comparable, as I've found out in my local Beefeater restaurant!
The only problem I have found with buying steak (and readers will know I don't do economy, factory farmed meat) is the cut. Of course, fillet is the best steak but comes at a high price, I have decided I don't like rump steak, but definitely like rib eye and t bone. However, having bought two expensive pieces of sirloin steak recently I was disappointed at how chewy and unpalatable they were (I simply cannot do chewy meat!) It occurred to me that my mother always marinated steak prior to cooking so I did a bit of swotting up and found this advice. Salting your steaks prior to cooking breaks down the protein molecules of the meat, causing them to attach to fat molecules helping to seal in moisture and flavour. Salt has a high affinity for water and steak is full of moisture, the salt coating will pull the moisture to the surface.
You must use coarse sea salt or pink Himalayan salt which is stone ground and has bigger granules (hence you use less) and is less processed than table salt.
Salt your steaks at least 1 hour prior to cooking
Lay the steaks on a plate and sprinkle approximately 1 teaspoon of salt over the surface (for extra flavour add crushed garlic, as the salt enters the muscle fibres it will take the garlic with it.)
Flip the steaks over and cover with salt, pressing the granules into the steak
After an hour, rinse the steaks and then pat completely dry with paper towels (if the steaks are wet they will steam)
Cook steaks to your requirements, place on a plate with a knob of homemade garlic butter and enjoy
I tried this method and our steaks were literally as soft as butter, however, they were expensive grass-fed outdoor reared steaks and the salting method is advised for an inexpensive cut of steak, either way, I shall certainly use this simple trick again.
'Age appears best in four things; old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust and old authors to read.'
- Francis Bacon.
Love Donna xxxxx
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