Week Seven: Sate Beef

Ok a main that has some teeth in it!

And perfect considering we're in the midst of Chinese New Year! Look how festive the photo is! 

in case you're wondering, the Dixon restaurant still exists, but urbanspoon tells me that you shouldn't, under any circumstances, go there. Apparently their food is tasteless, served cold and they use old, chewy ingredients. Well, I can only hope that in the 70's that the Dixon was a more up and up establishment. 

The Dixon has expensive taste in meat cuts. That and our family doesn't do little bits of meat. We want a big satisfying slab of beef! So at $40 a kilo for the fillet steak, we went for a cheaper cut (rump) to ensure there was no uprising and cries of "Where's the beef!!" at serving time. 

My sou chef chopping the beef.

Looks nice and tender. The recipe said to flatten the beef but with the volume of meat that seemed a little tedious so we just went with the strips. 

Marinating the beef. Hoping that we picked at cut that won't be too chewy! The sesame oil is very strong smelling but that's not a bad thing, I think it smells good :) 

Looking nice and tender now, ready to go in the pan. 

Woo this was tricky! Put in a little at a time and whipped it in and out really quickly. Oil was splashing all over the place! Didn't want it to be overcooked so I was pulling it out when it was still slightly pink. 

Draining the juices from the beef. Now it's time for the sauce. 

Pete Evans might not approve, but its what the recipe says to add! 

Didn't have sherry so I used this instead. Smells the same to me! 

Onions chopped and ready.

The sou chef makes an appearance again, putting in one clove of garlic. 

Mmmm nothing like the smell of cooked onions in garlic! Smells delicious! 

Adding the shameful jar of satay sauce. 

Giving it a bit of a mix. I didn't think there was enough sauce so I added more water, and I also added more of the jar of satay, to balance out the curry power taste. I wasn't too much of a fan of the curry power as it tends to overpower everything else. 

Stirring in the beef. 

Ok that looks about done! 

Plated up and ready to eat. I added some chopped shallots, ginger and chilli on top to add some aesthetic greenery to the plate. Served with basmati rice and steamed veggies. 

This was a really tasty dish, but a little bit on the overwhelming side with the preparation. It was handy having the sou chef in the kitchen with me, she did the veggies, chopping and measuring while I watched the meat and the sauce. 

And from what I've read on urbanspoon, I think my Dixon dish is better than what they are serving up there at the moment, maybe I should send them the recipe? ;)