Our Citizenship Is In Heaven

This has to be the best lunch I ever cook! Steak and Chips. from Nigellisma  TV series 1 episode 1. I have previously cooked an egg dish from the same episode.



TUSCAN FRIES

Tuscan Fries are chips deep fried with herbs and garlic but the method Nigella uses to deep frying the chips is new to me. The cut potatoes are soaked in room temperature oil and leave to cook till the oil boils. Then herbs and garlic are added into the hot oil.

 You may cringed thinking the potatoes are soaked with oil, but it is not. This method of frying is like the double frying method where you get crisper fries on the outside and melting tender on the inside.




TAGLIATA

Tagliata is steak cut into thin slices (tagliare simply means to cut),  is cooked first and marinate later. The cooked steak oozes with juices is then left on a marinade of herbs infused oil, slice and serve.

Tuscan Fries
Nigellisma
serves 4-6

Ingredients

1 kg waxy potatoes
1.5L corn oil or flavourless vegetable oil
1 head garlic, cloves separated but not peeled
8 sprigs thyme, rosemary or sage, or herbs of your choice (I used rosemary and thyme)
sea salt flakes, to taste


Method

• Cut the short ends off each potato(but don't peel it) so that it can sit up vertically, and then slice it downwards into generous 1 cm slices. Cut these slices into chips about 1 cm thick, again err on the generous side. Load up a clean tea towel with the chips as you cut them.
• Put the oil into a wide, heavy based pan (mine is approx 28cm ) and add the freshly cut potatoes. Then put the pan over a high heat and bring to a boil, which should take about 5 mins. Keeps careful watch on the pan at all times.
• Continue to cook the fries, without stirring them, for another 15 minutes. Once the oil temperature reaches 160C, turn down the heat slightly and keep the fries cooking at between 150-160C. The pan will bubbling vigorously. If the oil gets too hot or bubbles too hard, reduce the heat a little, and always keeps close eye on it.
• Now you can very carefully give the chips a gentle stir with a pair of tongs held in an oven glove, moving any that might stuck away from the bottom or sides of the pan. Add the unpeeled cloves of garlic to the pan, stir gently again, and cook for another 5-10 minutes (watching the temperature and making sure the garlic doesn't look burnt or the fries too dark), before testing a chip for crispness on the outside and tenderness on the inside. Do not burn your mouth! You might need another five minutes or so beyond this, but stand by your pan, the chips can turn from a cooked gold to a burnt bronze quickly (mine was almost bronze!)
• At the point when the chips are pale gold, but crisp, toss in the herbs, then after a minute or so scoop everything out- using a couple of perforated scoops for ease, and wearing oven gloves to protect your hands- onto a tray or platter lined with a double thickness of kitchen roll. Once any excess oil has been absorbed, tip the chips off the kitchen paper clatteringly onto the plate and sprinkle with sea salt flakes to taste, serving immediately.

Tagliata
Nigellisma
serves 2

Ingredients

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil,plus some for oiling
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon dried oregano just under a teaspoon
kosher salt or 1/2 teaspoon table salt, or to taste
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
12 ounces New York strip steak (sirloin)
8 ounces cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
few sprigs fresh oregano, to serve (optional) (thyme)

• Heat a grill pan or cast-iron or heavy non stick frying pan.
• In a small dish that can take the steak snugly later, combine the evo, red pepper flakes, dried oregano, salt and red wine vinegar.
• Oil the steak lightly and put it in the hot pan and cook for 2 minutes on each side, then remove it to the dish of spicy marinade and sit the cooked steak for 2 minutes a side in the dish. Your steak will be rare, but that's the way it's meant to be - although if you want to cook it for longer, I won't stop you.
• Remove the steeped steak to a board, ready for slicing, and while it sits there, arrange the cherry tomatoes, cut-side down, in the marinade dish. Cut the steak into thin slices on the diagonal and arrange on a serving dish or 2 dinner plates. 
• Smoosh the tomatoes around in the marinade, hen pour them, and the marinade over the ribbons of meat. Add a few leaves of fresh oregano, if you get them, and serve immediately.

Note: I cook for one with 2 potatoes and  230g of sirloin. This meal is cooked for my son and ends with a strawberry frozen yoghurt pop.

This post is linked to Cook like A Star  "All Stars" organised by Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids,
Mich from Piece of Cake and Joyce from kitchen flavours.

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,
Philippians 3:20