What to do with a Thing of Beauty

As he handed it to me, he said with a twinkle in his eye, "last one - let me know what you do with it."

"No pressure," I joked. In my hands it felt so much more substantive than what its packaging indicated. Another quick look just to believe that I had actually bought it before I stored it away in the protective bag for safekeeping.

Two days later, I took it out of its cold storage space. Ah, consistent crawling white marbling across crimson red. You could feel the care that had gone into it, recall the story behind it. How the man with the twinkling eyes had fought the fires of Black Saturday and almost lost everything in the process. How the couple had to start literally all over again to build their future in the countryside.

Sorry vegetarians, a girl must have her dose of protein and iron to keep going but at least I am supporting local industry.

All right, good to go at room temperature. Rosemary? Thyme? Moroccan style? Honey and soy? Hmm, only the simplest seasonings with care during cooking need be done for this.

Sea salt, freshly ground Sarawakian black pepper, organic Spanish extra virgin olive oil. Massage into this hunk of a porterhouse. Heat up the pan, watch the time, place carefully into pan. Too big for me but then hey this thing of beauty should not be cut up and risk getting ruined.

As the meat sizzled on the gas, I checked for vegetables. No garlic?! No potatoes?! This would have gone so well with garlic mash or roast sweet potatoes tossed with whole garlic cloves, rosemary and coarse sea salt.

Alternatives, alternatives. Baby zucchini, round zucchini, slightly over-ripe tomatoes, snow peas. No time for broadbeans. Forget the cauliflower.

Checked that meat, make sure it was seared rare or medium rare. No way should this be even attempted as medium. Sauce, sauce, sauce...what to do sauce-wise?

Time to get that meat off the pan, leave it to rest in a warm place. Wished I had time to do the restaurant thing and have the meat roasting to melting tenderness after browning. Deglazed pan with water (or red wine; I wished I had thought of opening a bottle of good cabernet sauvignon or cabernet merlot especially since I had a dozen bottles lying around the house). Added the chopped up tomatoes and sliced whole porcini mushrooms (only the best for this steak). Seasoned them with salt and a fruity balsamic vinegar, and cooked until soft. Oh yum.

Ten minutes later, I sat down to: a rare-going-to-medium-rare six-week aged Belted Galloway porterhouse topped with a reduced tomato-and-porcini balsamic sauce, matched with cut up zucchinis and snowpeas that had been cooked with onions & dried thyme and topped with toasted sesame seeds. Oh, and warmed Sicilian marinated artichokes from Rita at the markets. I silently thanked D.O.C for waking me up to the wonders of marinated artichokes.

Ah, what a thing of beauty. You cannot never over-rate home cooked food, especially when you have fresh ingredients and you are willing to put the dish together. Even if the matching is a bit unconventional.

Now for those Sunny Ridge strawberries and Mornington Peninsula chocolates...