Sunday, March 2, 2008

Where's the Beef?

I am an unabashed carnivore. I love all things red meat. In my family, steak has always been reserved for special occassion meals--birthdays and christmas. Since it's so rare, anytime mom made steak, I would cut mine into tiny bite-size bits in order to savor them longer. My parents like to tease that I'm eating minced meat instead of a big hunk of steak. My husband has a completely different experience. His mom made steak on a weekly basis. Another difference: I like my red meat on the rare, bloody side, while my husband likes his tough and well-done (yuck!).

Well, imagine my utter joy when it's steak night at cooking class. Enjoy the photos.

lamb

Lamb

steak

Raw steak

veal

Veal

appetizer

Since we don't eat till 9-10, my classmates cooked up some "appetizers." It's filet mignon bits. Soooooo delicious.

tritip

Tri-tip

filet mignon

Filet mignon cooking up

filet2

Filet mignon cut up for easy distribution. It is tender and soft like butter.

skirt steak

Sliced tri-tip

skirt2

Plated tri-tip

veal2

Wiener Schnitzel

pork chops

I know all about the risks. I don't care; I like my pork chops on the pink side.

spaetzle

spaetzle

lamb chops

Lamb chops with spinach, eggplant, and tomatoes. I think I needed to cook it a bit longer.

steak diane

I've never had steak Diane before. It's delicious.

dinner done

You bet I went for seconds =)

~Ray

2 comments:

bananami said...

Wow! That's a lot of red meat! Hey, did they ever talk about why the raw meat browns and get that funky smell? Especially when they're layered on top of each other and looks fresh and red, but when you take a layer off, it is brown and funky. It's basically the reason why I don't really cook with beef. Have you had the Vietnamese dish called the "seven courses of beef"? It's so good!!

Hakka House said...

We were all very happy that night.

I asked my instructor and she said it's oxygen. It doesn't really affect the taste. If it smells, it's bad. I'm always sniffing my meat. I would definitely go for those vacuumed packed for a prettier color. A visit to a butcher for fresh meat is also recommended.

I have not heard of seven courses of beef. I'm going to google it right now.

~Ray