Steak is another one that if I am going to buy, I buy good shit. REALLY good steak, is what counts. Sod the price tag, if I want a steak, I'm having a bloody well GOOD steak. Had a really, really really lovely piece of fillet steak recently, quite pricey but bought the best piece available all the same. And my god was it ever good. I cooked it by cutting deep slashes in a crosshatch pattern on both sides, then soaking it in a marinade made out of HP sauce, worcestershire, soy and teriyaki sauce with a good splash of the extra hot version of tabasco splattered in liberally, a bit of powdered beef gravy granules, and made up with some homedone fly agaric gravy.
Then after leaving it about an hour, turning it over and basting occasionally, no heat applied yet, I rubbed in my special steak spice, modified slightly. This consists of a mixture of black pepper, chunky rock sea salt, cubeb, some szechuan pepper, pink peppercorns, peppery boletus and fly agaric mushroom (caps only, cured of course to detoxify them) Chilli, a little bit of powdered dry garlic flakes, and I altered the recipe a little then to add some cardamom and a packet of dried beef jerky, all mixed in together and blasted in the electric spice grinder until the consistency of a soft, very slightly clumpy when squeezed between the fingers fluffy powder. The spice grinder is brilliant, reduced something the tough and chewy consistency of beef jerky to powder in seconds. The change made it even tastier.
Rubbed it into the slashes cut into the fillet steak, drizzled a tiny bit of oil on each side, rubbed it in and around the edge to seal the juicyness in, Then heated an empty pan until very hot indeed, and just for a few seconds, quickly seared it on each side on maximum heat, only letting it contact that heat for a short time either side and round the edges. Then turned heat right down and slow-cooked until well done. But not only well done, it stays TENDER that way. Really, really juicy and sweet and tender; every single mouthful nice and chewy but still tender, and very well done on the outside layer, with a properly thoroughly cooked, but not overdone center. I like my steaks...lets just say if it moos on the plate I'm going to go fetch a claw hammer and batter it to death. I like mine just short of electrically conductive. Not quite reduced to steak-shaped graphite blocks but nevertheless, if I've got hands on it, the little fucker has jolly well moo-ed its last.
'Twas lovely and tender through and through, very juicy and positively bursting with flavour. Devoured the whole thing in about 2-3 minutes and left nothing but a shred or two of fat behind, and little enough of that was there to start with, I think I will be adding beef jerky, powdered up in the grinder, and cardamom in the future again too, as well as using a bit of powdered fly agaric in the marinade as well as as I usually do in the spice mix. Because it really works wonders on meat recipes. I love fly agaric and peppery boletus in combination in my cooking as a spice and flavour enhancer, I go out to a local golf course and another spot of mine to pick mushrooms, and bag kilos of them every season. They are mildly poisonous raw, and must be cured by means of drying the caps over a low, low heat overnight in a propped-open oven (to let the moisture evaporate) and they then can be stored. I pick enough per season to last me the rest of the year. Although unfortunately I can never find as many of the parasitic peppery boletes that parasitize the fly agaric to last me through as much cookery as I would like. I also use the fly agaric medicinally, to ward off the cold of winter and feel it not, as a tea, and it can be used as an intoxicant too, as is traditionally done in siberia.
