Whether as a steak, roast, burger or braise, beef is a versatile meat that’s easy to cook, especially with these simple recipes. We love our veal too, from ossobuco to tonnato.
Steak Tartare As a reformed vegetarian, it’s odd that my favourite way to eat meat is raw, but I can rarely resist this dish when I see it on a menu. I love the theatre of it being mixed tableside by an experienced waiter and the traditional crinkly pommes gaufrettes with it, though crisped baguette […]
Fettuccine Bolognese Join my Small Group Food & Wine Tours of Bologna https://youtu.be/MNEYP5H1Ia0 Slow-cooked meat sauces, called ragùs, are made all over Italy, though the best known comes from Bologna in Emilia-Romagna and is the ancestor of Australia’s beloved ‘spag bol’. Not that it would ever be served with dried spaghetti in Emilia-Romagna where fresh […]
Steak Diane I love food history almost as much as I love food. I always thought this dish of steak with a garlicky sauce was a French classic. In fact, steak Diane originated in the USA in the 1940s, when tableside cooking was all the rage. Every recipe I’ve found is a little different; butter, […]
Vitello Tonnato This elegant Italian version of surf and turf hails from the north-western region of Piedmont. It is delicious, though when prepared correctly not particularly attractive, and its English description of ‘poached veal in tuna mayonnaise’ doesn’t do it justice at all! You have to wonder why anyone would want their veal to taste […]
Asian Warm Beef Salad I love Asian flavours, but don’t have a lot of patience for cooking elaborate Asian dishes. So I love this Asian warm beef salad. It’s easy to toss together, looks impressive and is full of flavour. It can be adapted to use whatever’s on hand (leftover roast beef or steak for […]
Veal Schnitzel with Potato Salad Veal schnitzel is such an easy classic, and the method works just as well with pork, chicken or turkey. You could use packet breadcrumbs at a pinch, but it’s much nicer with fresh crumbs made by blitzing stale bread in a blender or food processor. It’s worth getting some freezer […]
Steak with Green Peppercorn Hollandaise I was served steak with green peppercorn hollandaise at the comfortable Kilchoan Hotel on the Ardnamurchan Peninsula on Scotland’s west coast. A simple hollandaise with pickled green peppercorns is such an easy way to dress up a steak with what’s in the fridge and pantry, that I told the chef […]
Swiss Barley Soup (Gerstensuppe) Discover more regional specialties on my small group Swiss food & wine tour! I always cook up a big pot of this delicious barley soup for Swiss National Day (1 August). It’s one of Franz’s favourite childhood memories – a sustaining dish full of vegetables and cured meat, that’s more a […]
Entrecôte Café de Paris A compound butter is one of the easiest ways to to turn a piece of meat into a meal. It can be as simple as anchovies, garlic or fresh herbs mixed through butter, or as complex as the most famous version: Café de Paris. This butter was created in the early […]
Beef Tagliata with Salsa Verde In Italy, steak is usually sliced into strips – bistecca tagliata (tagliata meaning ‘cut’) – which looks much more appealing than a big slab of meat on the plate. It’s often served with a salad of rocket and shaved parmesan but any salad works well (as does the delicious pan-fried […]
