Cooks' Corner

[Lesley Cox]

Here are the two pics I took of the Black Krim tomato. I should also have taken one of the cut tomato to show the very meaty inside. The tops look like a neatly stitched piece of surgery, an umbilical hernia maybe.

I have clicked on Attachments and other options but no place comes up to browse for the picture.

[ronm]

Does anybody know of( or better still recommend from experience) a software package that can be used to store personal recipes? I have them scribbled all over the place and its about time I got them into one place if this can be done.

[David Nicholson]

I have a person to do that but the following may help

http://www.recipecentersoftware.com/

[ronm]

Certainly appears to be exactly what i want, and its free! 

Thank you David, 

[Anthony Darby]

Can someone explain to me the difference between "fillet steak" and "eye fillet steak". Fillet steak at the butcher or supermarket here is what I would call sirloin (although you can also buy sirloin), complete with the fat and to get what I would call fillet steaks I have to ask for "eye fillets". If the one labelled as fillet is fillet, what's it called in the UK, because I don't remember being able buy that as fillet steak?

[maggiepie]

Anthony, I think you will find that eye fillet there is tenderloin,  and  fillet is rib steak or scotch fillet.

I have had the devil of a job figuring out what cuts of meat are which in Canada, compared to what they are called in Australia.

[Anthony Darby]

So what is called a fillet steak here comes from a different part of the beast and is therefore not really fillet (tenderloin), but just a steak on or off the bone, so to speak. Scotch beef is beef imported from, or reared in, Scotland. I haven't seen meat labelled Scotch fillet in Scotland. The real (eye) fillet, although not as full of flavour as sirloin or "Scotch fillet", is a real treat done medium rare (2 - 3 minutes on each side) and served with a pepper sauce.

[Lesley Cox]

So far as I know the "eye" is that little bit tucked under the T bone, in a lamb or other beast, like a little separate steak and if you cut it out along the whole rack of ribs, you have an eye fillet which can be cooked whole or sliced. I would have thought the fillet steak was the same thing without the eye name. Either way it costs a fortune. Tenderloin is not a term used by local butchers, that I've seen here.

I think what we call Scotch fillet is a less tender cut and might even be used in a casserole rather than for frying/grilling. My mother used to buy undercut, porterhouse or T-bone steaks and these terms don't seem to be used now either by the butchers in the supermarket anyway. But since I can't afford any of them, it doesn't really matter to me. Living on eggs and bananas at present.

[maggiepie]

So what is called a fillet steak here comes from a different part of the beast and is therefore not really fillet (tenderloin), but just a steak on or off the bone, so to speak. Scotch beef is beef imported from, or reared in, Scotland. I haven't seen meat labelled Scotch fillet in Scotland. The real (eye) fillet, although not as full of flavour as sirloin or "Scotch fillet", is a real treat done medium rare (2 - 3 minutes on each side) and served with a pepper sauce.

Anthony, this might help you figure out the meat cuts.

http://www.meateaters.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/beef.pdf

[Anthony Darby]

That's a very comprehensive guide to cuts of beef and I can see where the names fit. Curious how a cut from the rib set gets called Scotch fillet whereas in Scotland if you asked for a Scotch fillet you'd get what is called tenderloin here (with the side strap removed). I'm going to save that page so I know what I'm doing the next time I'm in the Mad Butcher's.

[Lesley Cox]

So what do you think of cow-pooling Anthony, as depicted on last night's "Sunday" programme?" Seems a great idea to me, at least for larger households. The arguments Katherine Rich put up were rubbish as homekill is highly regulated and inspected with conditions attached that are rigidly enforced. KR used to be a right wing MP for Dunedin North but is now a highly paid lobbyist for the food industry giants like the supermarket chains, Fed. Farmers and the like; those who are one way or another determined to regulate farmers' markets and any private initiatives out of existence. It is sheer stupidity that anyone who grows a few herbs or tomatoes and takes them to the local food banks or markets, even a car-boot sale, by law must pay a levy to VegFed (self-explanatory) as if they were a commercial grower. Federated Farmers HATES farmers' markets. The silly woman talked about health risks but what does she think farmers have been doing in this country for 180 years and everywhere where else for many centuries? Taking their stock to an abbatoir?

As for saying that if you don't like the meat you buy in the supermarket because it's tough or whatever, you can take it back, !!! yeah right. The only time I ever bought meat with some flies' eggs in it was in a local supermarket about 3 years ago. I took that back all right and was told I must have left it out on the bench instead of the fridge, even though it was obviously in its supermarket packaging and I had the docket proof that I'd bought it less than an hour before. They eventually said they'd exchange it but I insisted on refund which I only got when I said I'd take it to the local daily paper.

[Lesley Cox]

Reverting to the subject of tomatoes, here are the Black Krims I intended to post a few days ago. Have also bought some more and taken pics of the sliced toms. All eaten now. They make a marvellous sandwich and though they're very juicy, the juice is somehow held inside the flesh so they don't dribble all down your front or onto the carpet.

[Maggi Young]

I have to say if I saw those tomatoes I wouldn't be tempted to try them, because of their look... but sounds like they taste good.   I shouldn't be so shallow 

[Lesley Cox]

Maggi they taste wonderful and if still available next Saturday I'll get more and remake the tomato tart I pictured a few days ago. They are not very acidic. I have to say though, they are, in reality a LITTLE bit redder than above because my camera is misbehaving at present. I probably need a new one but am putting it off as long as possible. But I know what you mean.

I read a book once, it may have been an Agatha Christie, where the murder was done by someone who had bred a strain of tomatoes which were half true tomato and half the related deadly nightshade.  The detective or someone eventually realized that the tomatoes which were in the house were a darker-than-they-should-be colour.

Another thing I love about these is that their skins are very soft and never need to be removed. I can't abide the cooking shows or recipes where the chef or the text says "remove the skins" and probably the seeds too. What are we that we can't cope with tomato skins or apple skins or anything except the bland and tasteless bits?

[Lesley Cox]

I'm making pumpkin soup for tea tonight (it's going to be a chilly night, bit of frost) and will try out a tip from a market vendor, given me on Saturday. I have spent ages cutting up then peeling the bits of pumpkin before cooking them. It's a hard job, quite wasteful of the flesh and has been known too, to cause cut fingers. The answer? Put the pumpkin, whole if small or cut in half  or quarters if large, in a large baking dish or on a tray and roast/bake it gently until tender. When it has cooled down, the skin will pull off as easy as, as NZers would say. Then it can be mashed or cut up or whatever.

So it's in the oven now. OK, it takes some electricity but the advantages are many and worth the few cents of power, in spite of what Roger says.

The soup will be made with the mashed pumpkin, salt and peper, a little ground nutmeg and chicken stock. Pieces of chicken cooked IN the soup, and these placed on cooked noodles then spinach, raw or blanched, then the liquid poured over the lot. A meal in a bowl (a big bowl). Little washing up and ultra delicious.