How To Cook Steak Diane with Rustic Tomatoes...

By now I think almost everyone knows how highly I look up to Gordon Ramsay as my inspiration in the kitchen. So wanting to cook his dishes has always been something I wanted to try although it is by no easy means... But with the magic of Youtube and his cook along sessions, it's only a matter of getting the ingredients and having the equipment to be able to cook like a 3 star chef!

(note: pictures below shot with camera from phone so quality kinda sucks... sorry ya)


All you need for an awesome meal...

I happened to come across one video him cooking a dish called Steak Diane. The clip was only one minute long and it looked pretty simple to do plus ingredients all are easy to get a hold of so I thought why not try that next time I get home. Coincidently parents went out for dinner tonight and my mom said that there was a piece of steak in the freezer with my name on it. Then I went to ask my mom if the rest of the ingredients are available at home surprisingly (or rather unsurprisingly) almost everything was in stock. For what was missing, just simple substitution :).


Added some of the cut of fat for some extra flavour...

The full recipe is available here but it serves 4 so I had to portion it accordingly for 1. Of course Basically all you need is 1 beef steak (sirloin cut if possible), half an onion or shallot, 2-3 big button mushrooms (canned or fresh up to you), garlic, butter, mustard, about 50ml single cream, Worcestershire sauce, brandy and some parsley for garnish. Yeah.. I think I got everything. So let the fun begin!


Sweat em onions n shrooms...

First step is to cut the fat off the steak cos it gets tough and chewy after it gets cooked. Then flatten the meat a bit and season with salt n pepper. Then heat up a pan with normal olive oil (or normal corn oil) until it's nearly smoking before putting the steak inside. Each side should be about 2 minutes tops on the pan before taking it out to rest.


Fire was way bigger and cooler than I expected...

For the sauce, using the same pan add in the onions and mushrooms that have been chopped along with a clove of pressed garlic. Let the onions sweat a bit til it turns slightly golden then add about a knob of butter. Next step is the most fun part of the process: pour about 50ml of brandy ( I used 1 shot glass) into the pan and flambe it! Be careful when you do this to tilt the pan facing away from you and pour the brandy towards the end furthest away from you. The flame will get HUGE trust me! Oh there is a short video clip available at the bottom of my attempt! Lucky no hairs, eyebrows or even parts of the house were burnt!


After the 'show' has ended, put back the steak and cream into the mix...

Once the alcohol has evaporated i.e. when there is no more fire, add in the cream along with the steak. My mom gave me the cream which actually split so didn't look how it should which led me to add some milk into the pan. Then it looked like what i saw in the clip :D. Leave the steak inside depending on how well you want your steak to be. This you have to trail n error yourself because it varies with the heat you use as well as the thickness of your cut.


Rustic cherry tomatoes...

After that all that is left to do is plate. The recipe suggested fried potatoes with peas but deprived of both, I ended up using cherry tomatoes instead. Tossed it with some extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar (couldn't find the balsamic type), salt, pepper and a little chinese parsley.


Tried my best with the presentation, that's just olive oil...

So plate nicely and like how Gordon says: Steak Diane with Rustic Tomatoes... DONE! I think I did a pretty decent effort considering it is my first time trying this. Could've been a little more generous with the mustard and Worcestershire sauce. And I think next time I'll straight away use full cream milk instead of cream. The steak itself was just the way I liked it, with a little pink in the middle though I think I overcooked it by just a couple of minutes.


Meat was perfectly pink in the middle...

But never mind la, at least got a new dish to add to my rep sheet eh ;). Few more tries of this and I should be able to get it up to 'Presentable to others' standard :D. So next time I call for dinner, maybe can expect this la !


Somebody call 911?...

So hopefully after this, my 'saham' will naik eh ;).... oh I think I shall trademark this smiley --> (-:=3 ... Looks kinda cool eh?

Sometimes Mixing Fire With Fire Is A Good Thing...

Usually during super this hot mid-day weather, I would probably think of eating something cool like ABC or at least something that is not spicy for lunch. But today I went against my gut feeling and instead decided to satisfy it with a big bowl of seafood tom yam, right after a 2 hour session of futsal no less!

Could well be the best bowl of tom yam I've had...

Went to this Chinese hawker shop somewhere in Sri Rampai (its pretty near to where I stay) for lunch with a couple of friends from college. Having been here once before, I initially thought of having something non spicy but after being convinced by Viki, thought what the heck, how bad could it get right?

Viki is very proud that his area has some awesome food...

Luckily this wasn't one of those times where those last words end up biting me in the ass. In fact, it was awesome! The tom yam came in a pretty big portion with 3 mid sized prawns (compared to small ones u usually get), a large handful of mussels a.k.a lala and some squid. All of the seafood is fresh, so no chance of me doing a Ramsay and calling the chef a donkey! The soup itself was in a league of its own. Full of flavour and very well seasoned, not too salty, not too sour, not too sweet and packs a load of heat! All of us were sweating after the meal and it wasn't from the heat of the day! Clearly something that has been concocted from hours of brewing and not something you get from a packet! One of those times where even if it hurts, you still want more!

Resistance is futile...

Best part of it all is, a bowl of this only costs RM6! As a comparison, I once had seafood laksa in Segambut few years back, pretty similar to this but just laksa soup instead of tom yam and it cost about RM12-15! Francis couldn't resist the temptation and even ordered a bowl after initially ordering a plate of chicken rice! If a Penang guy says this food is good, there's your seal of approval there!

Rest of the stuff here is pretty nice and dirt cheap as well! Had a bowl of pork noodles the last time I came and it only cost me RM3.50 for a medium bowl! Only thing is, I'm not too sure if I can find this place by myself should I have a craving for some seafood tomyam! Did I mention I finally played some futsal since CNY? Oh Happy days!!