The Finest Yorkshire Beef

In our menu planning we have been seeking to try new ingredients as well as new preparations, in order to take advantage of being elsewhere.  For that reason, we have so far stayed away from "chicken" and "beef," foods that are available at home in very high quality.  But on the other hand, we have access to some of the finest chicken and beef on the planet, or so our sources say.  So for Saturday, we opted for a T-bone steak from the Ginger Pig, sliced for us off a larger rack. (Don't try this at home - the butcher uses a bone saw.)  The Ginger Pig's beef (also served at London's top restaurants, including Hawksmoor) comes from their Yorkshire farm, and as their web site explains, come from the largest Longhorn herd in the country, England's oldest breed. The beef is then aged for about 35 days.

One of the reasons we had avoided steak is our lack of a grill; in the end we sauteed this on top of the stove, although we'd intended only to brown it and finish it in the oven, as instructed, we recall, by one of Paul Bocuse's recipes.  We completed the meal with garlic mashed potatoes (using Maris Piper potatoes), and Kenyan green beans from Waitrose: here is how they are packaged:

The beef has a tenderness and slight gaminess that is really outstanding.  We sauced the steak with a marchand du vin sauce, using shallots, red wine, fancy "Heston beef stock" from Waitrose.  Heston is a celebrity chef with whom we are not familiar, but like many, including the Prince of Wales and Jamie Oliver, he has his own line of quality foods at Waitrose.  And here is our dinner, along with a bottle of Vinsobres from the St John wine people.

Our midweek meal was a pair of brown trout from Waitrose, roasted on a bed of leeks and fennel. Pretty fine weekday meal!

Other eating adventures last week included chestnut flour pappardelle (from the fresh pasta people Latua at Borough Market) with a sauce of Italian sausage (Ginger Pig), carrots, fennel, onion, canned plum tomatoes and wine, a variation on a recipe from the River Cafe's first "Easy" cookbook.

This was a "quick" supper before going to an excellent concert of baroque music at St John, Smith Square.
On Wednesday, we were among the fortunate (and far-sighted) to have tickets for the hit opera of the season, "Anna Nicole," at the Royal Opera.  Everything Anthony Tommasini wrote in his New York Times review was true -- it was a moving, complex, exciting, and thoroughly thrilling opera,  even if many of the lyrics would have to be bleeped were it to be shown on US television (or opera stages).  We decided to dine afterwards at 32 Great Queen Street, just minutes away from the opera (and our flat).  For a late night supper we had starters of lamb's sweetbreads, and smoked mackerel, and we shared a main course of cold wild rabbit salad with raddichio and endive.  This place never disappoints!