Steak

[Basher]

Well you are all right, and I cook a mean one... time in the fridge really does break it down and make it tender.....

By the way, I am the king of gravy.... just ask the Gent....and I ain't sharing that secret!

Next week interrogation techniques, Regiment style, and how to avoid them.

You'll never take my gravy alive!!!

Bash

[joebuzzard]

Do you have an address for Virasu? Next time I'm in BKK I need to visit there to get a feel for what I is available in Thailand for aspiring food-slingers. Thanks!

I don't have the exact address for Virasu. The store is on Wireless (Withayu) Road. If you're walking down from Sukhumvit, it's on the left side, before you get to the Conrad (All Seasons Place). I thought the store was very cool and I'm not even really into cooking or kitchen stuff.

[thedude]

geez, i would have thought that after 3 whole pages of replies, someone would have given some sound advice.

tutsiwarrior, respect and all but you speak a load of tripe. i have yet to see a piece of NZ steak with proper marbling. NZ beef is predominantly Grass fed, which accounts for its leaness and phenominal lack of flavour, what you need is Grain fed Angus beef. Better still, look out for the Corn fed variety. The quality of a steak depends broadly on the species, breeding conditions, feed, the aging conditions (meat must look pale and not bloody) and of course the cut.

The good news is that there is actually good Thai beef around, Central offers a locally grown Thai-French variety that frankly tastes better than ozzy and kiwi beef, i'm just waiting for the day that they export the stuff, that should shake up the market a bit.

Steaks are actually quite fool-proof, the most difficult part is finding a good steak, the cooking is relatively simple. Unless you are using the barbecue and intend to marinate the meat, i'd strongly recommend that you avoid cuts like rump and shank, topside etc. Choose a good piece of meat and cook it naked or lightly dressed with olive oil, salt and rosemary. Choose cuts like T-bone, a well-aged striploin (otherwise known as a new york strip), or a rib-eye. Ask for at least 1 inch thickness otherwise you are wasting your time. Hot cast iron griddle, flat on each side for 3-4 minutes, turning Once.

If you are really into the best possible cut, ask your butcher to retrieve a whole uncut prime rib, count 7 to 8 ribs down from the top largest, and that's it, there you have it, the most heavenly meat on a dead cow, ribs number 7 and 8, the tenderest, most flavourful, juiciest cut. Take both ribs together, which together should be about 3+ inches, sear each side for 1 to 2 minutes on a hot griddle, then bung it in a hot oven for another 20 minutes or so. Prepare for the ultimate revelation, angels will weep.

[tutsiwarrior]

hey, dude...where the fukc do you think you are ('ask the butcher'???) the Edgeware road? The idea is to make the best of limited resources. Out in the provinces I haven't seen any local beef suitable for other than dog food...even Fido would stick up his nose and walk away...

true...maybe NZ beef ain't the best in the world but its edible. BKK based expats have got to realize that we ain't got much choice here upcountry...you can't even get ground beef or the tomato sauce to make chilli or meatloaf.

when you carry on about the best 'prime rib' you might as well be living on the Moon.

[thaigene2]

Hey Tutsiwarrior

You must make some trips into the bigger cities occassionally. Why don't you buy a whole bunch of bloody steaks on the day you're heading home, stick them in a cooler or eskie or whatever you call it..pack it with ice and freeze the lot when you get home? Fresh is better than frozen but if you're living in noodle-ville then this must be the best option isn't it. Maybe you don't have a fridge with a freezer in the golden triangle or wherever..I met a guy the other day here with his preggers Thai wife. Said he was shopping for an 8,000 baht baby stroller, one of the fancy three wheeler jobs..but said he lived in a jungle..I reckon he'd be better off with a few ropes and take the kid for a swing..takes all sorts with diffedrent priortities I guess.

[tutsiwarrior]

well...I guess I could kidnap newly born babies, butcher them and eat them but it wouldn't be the same...

what about ground baby gristle and meat loaf?

[dr_Pat_Pong]

well...I guess I could kidnap newly born babies, butcher them and eat them but it wouldn't be the same...

what about ground baby gristle and meat loaf?

Be nice Tutsi It is New Year time ... again Sawasdee pee mai na.

[tutsiwarrior]

uh...yeah, happy sonklan and don't let yer meat loaf...

[KevinN]

Well now that we are dreaming of GOOD BEEF,

Take a 5 or 6 pound rib roast[prime only] put 1 inch of rock salt in the bottom of your old cast iron dutch oven,,lay the roast flat side down on the salt and stick in your MEAT THERMO,then cover to 1 inch deep over the top of the meat,,pop in a hot over,450 deg. F,,cook for 15 min per pound for rare,,take out of oven dump out and then brush all salt crystals off,let stand for 10 minutes for juices to set,cut in thick slices and knock your self out.

O and by the way JEEPZ they have a new thingy in the states but I never had a chance to buy one,,it is a large meat fork that has the thermo in the handle,,just poke your steak every once in awhile and when the temp you want ,stick it in and throw on your plate.

The barge supt. on a derrick at INOC oil terminal when we was building it at Basra was an auzzie, and he somehow got an order of Aussie beef,I think the poor bastard cows were pobly 6' tall and 6" thick and never had more than 1 blade of grass in its mouth at one time in its whole life,or maybe they was just rubber cows,I don't know,,but I do know that his life was in danger for quite a while after.as we was used to BROWN & ROOT feeding us good USA beef.

[Padkapow Guy]

i always cut of the fat smash the shit out of it.

Never cut out the fat. You don't have to eat just leave it their while you cook.

Also you can let your steak age for a couple of days in the fridge. It's just an opinion but I don't think you should ever cook a steak over medium rare.

enjoy!

[KevinN]

In My house,,med rare is just ruining a steak,so if ya ain't gonna eat it rare,then you gotta go somewhere else and eat, as has been said"THREE CHEERS FOR KEV'S STEAKS,,RAW RAW RAW".

[Jeepz]

KevinN~

Yeah, those meat thermometer barbecue forks are all the rage with the backyard chefs. The gadget heads at work (same ones that were figuring out how to overclock their cpu's a couple years ago) are now into "smoking" and are taking modified charcoal smokers and adding all sorts of upgrades to them, from gas/electric heating elements to built in thermometers. The guy I talked to Sunday at work just bought thirty pounds of various cuts to try in his bullet smoker. His wife just rolled her eyes when she saw it all in the reefer.

Sadly where I grew up the rule for meat was cook it until you are sure it was dead. I've tried to make the change to medium rare, but it just didn't work. I was ruined at a young age and looks like medium well is the way I am going to like it until I don't like it no more at all.

Aging beef is a great way to add flavor, but you have to hold it at certain temp level and low moisture enviroment.

Jeepz

[KevinN]

Well I was raised on a cow ranch in eastern Oregon and my grandma or my dad thought that when she when she smokin,she cookin and when she black she done.

Everything from a steak to roast was cooked til no juice was left,,It wasn't to hard for me to make the change to a fine cooked RARE steak.

And I have built some of the finest BBQs in the world,back in the early 70s I worked in SE Texas and around the coon-ass country of LA,Cameron and the tex-la. border and sold then for $450 at that time.

Takes about 5 hrs to BBQ ribs , a little more for BEER BUTT chickens and up to 10 hrs for turkeys to hot smoke,which is real BBQ, what most yankees call BBQ is actually not BBQ but charcoal broiling.

if ya want to know about it and how to get a real BBQ,let me know and I can tell you,,or go to wally world and buy a "brinkmans professional" and I can tell you what changes to make to be a real BBQ,, the uncouth bastard stole my plans and cheaped out a little,but is basically my plans.with just a few changes,,you put in your food,come back in a few hrs and take it out,no turning,no burning,just good BBQ that any Cajun would be proud to call his own.

[Boon Mee]

For my palate, which can be as discriminating as anyone's, a good Water Buffalo Steak is just all right too. Why pay through the nose for some imported meat when there's Buffalo all around!

[KevinN]

Buffalo is good if it is fed right and taken care of properly,We do get some here that is OK.

But you can't butcher one in the field after he has been worked to death pulling the plow in a rice paddy and then eat him,better off eating the plow.

Once I just happened to miss what i was shooting at in Nam and shot a joung one right between the eyes,555,we butchered him and had a BBQ with a lot of schlitz and bud that night,better off trying to eat your jungle boots,and web gear.

But he was only aged about an hour before starting to cook.

That is the only thing wrong with Thai beef also, the only grain they get is in their dreams, If fed out for a couple of months on about 5-10 kilo of grain a day and not forced to scramble for some of this green grass,they will get some fat marble,same as any beef.and the flavor will be very good,I would feed one out if I had some way to dispose of about 3/4 of the animal as we do not have the freezer space and my family is to small to go to the expense of doing it and letting most of the meat go for nothing.

You are not going to get good meat off of an animal that looks like a sack of door knobs or a hat tree under a blanket when it goes to slaughter.

[Pink Mist]

just have to suffer the Oz beef Kev, with the marbleing, is a tough job, but some ones gotta do it.

keep the jokes up I enjoy them immensly and so do a few other guys.

[thedude]

For the record Chokchai steakhouse off sukhumvit 23 serves pretty good grain fed, well-aged thai beef. cheap too compared to having air flown chilled USDA prime. just try to ignore the sizzling hot plate treatment.

[KevinN]

Ain't that a bitch,,order a rare steak,they cook it almost to med.rare and then put it on that hot iron plate and before you get it it is well done,same as at grandma's house. Next time I gonna tell then,NO HOT IRON PLATE.put it on a cold salad plate.

Maybe they could just put it on the plate and serve it and it would be rare. But choc chai has US beef as well,at least they did. But I had a fair T bone USDA beef at sizzler in some big mall [silicom center or something like that.] where we went with a thai lady friend of ours.500 baht for that and rib eyes.and it came rare.

[tutsiwarrior]

the 'sizzling plate' business is an example of the 'attractive presentation' concept gone haywire. The next time it happens pour water on the plate when set before you, stare at the waiter and say 'I wanted it rare...'. The waiter should report to the chef who should then re-cook your order served on a room temperature plate with a free bottle good burgundy to boot...

[Guest IT Manager]

Another entry for the book I'd reckon.

KevinN you old bastard how come you never told me about the steaks when we discussed the BBQ?

[KevinN]

Well FUK, If I told you everything I know,then you would know all I know and all you know and then you would be a little smarter than me. SHIIIITTT.

[Simbo]

All this talk about steaks is making me hungry. I have had good steaks here, but as in the UK, they are hit and miss. I find, if you are buying and cooking yourself, and don't wish to pay the extortionet prices the supermarkets charge for imported gear, Go to your local market and buy buffalo meat, at least 20 years old, take a sledge hammer and a butchers block, bash the living daylights out of it, then put it in the pressure cooker with a little water and an OXO cube. Cook for 15 minutes. reduce pressure and thicken sauce with cornflour and you will have a good steak meal. Notice, I omitted the obvious additions; garlic, onions, wine. these are all personal preferences. Bon appertit

[tutsiwarrior]

yeah...usually called 'pot roast' on other parts of the planet. Add onions, spuds and an carrots and all right...

I remember my mom pounding the shit out of a cheap cut before she put it in the pressure cooker. I never liked meat that much but that was all right. You can take the leftovers to work the next day and warm up in the microwave.

[patekatek]

I've been told there are several good recipies for cooking red meat in the popular cookbook called "101 Ways To Wok Your Dog". Perhaps one of these will allow your steak to turn out the way you want.

I am still looking for a used copy of this book. :>)

[KevinN]

TUTSI, Where on the landing did you keep your microwave,in the yarder on in the crummy??we allus had to warm our lunch over a pile of burning knots and them pitch knots made your sammiches kinda black and taste funny.

[tutsiwarrior]

kev...never worked on the landing in winter...always out on the riggin' in the snow. At lunch time we would build a fire (get some diesel from the landing and build a big one) in clear ground that a turn had already run over. Take off corks and socks to dry out and warm up then toast sandwiches on a forked stick. Quite cosy with good camaraderie on the riggin' crew. Had to keep the rain gear on as you were drenched with sweat underneath and would freeze ass otherwise...

the guys on the landing usually had pizza delivered (buncha pussies) and a huge comfy roaring fire...this was a time before microwaves...

some of the scenes reminded me of Breugel's 'Hunters in the snow' on display in either Amsterdam or Vienna, can't remember now which...

[thedude]

hey tutsi, are you sure toasting sandwiches on forked sticks was the only thing yer riggin crew did to keep warm, are you leaving out other vital information on how the cozy camaraderie was was arrived at? nudge nudge wink wink

[tutsiwarrior]

kev...yeah there is that as well...but usually happens in lonely camps in SE Alaska. In one instance a guy had a stash of dope and offered to give anyone a joint if he would grease his boots in the bunkhouse after work. Some big ugly dude said and I quote 'I'd liketa greeze yer ###### and fukc yeh...'

It can get awful lonely in the brush

[tutsiwarrior]

OOPS...kev, please ignore that last post. I had mistaken you for a charlatan called thedude who insists upon mimicry of the famous frank zappa photo and 'phi zappa crappa'

hey 'dude...you a lonesome cowboy or what?

[KevinN]

TUTSI; No Sweat Pard,

You know I would never post such shit as that..