TUESDAY 25th, 2023, A beautiful Anzac Day to reflect and remember.
Kicked off the day with Dawn Service at Ocean Grove, where a huge crowd gathered. It was really moving to see the support.
This was followed by a stroll with the doggoes on the beach, to greet another magnificent Autumn’s Day.
What a magic morning to feed your soul today 😌
Finished off with the day and weekend with the most amazing, grilled Tomahawk steak on the BBQ, with a mushroom and truffle mustard sauce, served on wilted spinach and veg.
We brought the Tomahawk to room temperature and then in this case, we took it off the bone, as were going to cook it on the BBQ instead of the smoker and thought this would help the cooking process, as is a quicker cook on the barbie.
The Chief Taste Tester has acquired himself an electronic meat thermometer and I cant tell how it has made a difference to cooking meat, especially on the BBQ or smoker – really does help.
You can cook the sauce whilst the steak is being cooked, if you have extra hands (like a Chief Taste Tester) to cook the steak. Otherwise, make the sauce, set aside and then do the steak. When the steak is resting, wilt the spinach.
Mushroom and Truffle Mustard Sauce
1-2 cups of sliced Swiss brown mushrooms
1/2 cup of dry porcini mushrooms soaked in about 1 cup of boiling water
2 Shallots, chopped
1 small clove of garlic, crushed
2-3 sprigs of thyme
3 tbs brandy
3 teaspoons of truffle Dijon mustard or plain mustard if you can’t find any (I got my truffle mustard from a speciality deli shop)
3/4 cup of cream
About 1/2 the juice of lemon
Salt
Chopped chives
In a fry pan on medium heat, with a dash of olive oil, cook the shallots until soft, add a good tbs of butter and a couple of splashes more of oil, add the garlic and mushrooms and cook until soft, add the mustard and stir through and cook a minute.
Add the brandy and cook out a couple of minutes, then chop up the porcini up and add, along with the porcini juice, thyme leaves and a pinch of salt. Allow to simmer and reduce the liquid down by about half.
Add about half of the lemon juice, taste and see if needs a bit more salt. Add the cream and simmer on low heat and taste – if required add a little more lemon juice. If a little tart, add a dash more cream. When ready to serve, gently re-heat the sauce if had sitting aside and add the chives.
Wilting the Spinach
When ready for the spinach, add some garlic butter (or a nob of butter and half a clove of garlic crushed), with a dash of olive oil. Throw in the spinach (about 1 normal sized bag from the supermarket will cook down to enough for 2 people) and toss around until wilts.
Serving Up
Once the steak has rested, slice up. Place spinach and any other veg on the plate (we did broccoli but some yummy, scalloped potatoes would also be good with this), arrange slices of beef on the spinach and top with the sauce.
Conclusion
Chief taste Tester did a bl@@dy awesome job of cooking this beautiful steak tonight and the sauce was just fantastic, even if it doesn’t look great 🤣We also had the most amazing 2005 Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot with it….
Hmmmmm, after an absolutely brilliant long weekend, across a number of soul food moments, this was a wonderful way to bring Anzac Day (long weekend) to conclusion 🥰
