24 Oct 2015
After we already had breakfast/lunch at Orchard, we were at Plaza Singapura window shopping to get out of home and away from the awful haze.
YX requested that I cook dinner tonight (so that she could play at home), so we decided to pop by Cold Storage for main ingredient. I was thinking along the lines of a beef stew, since I already had root vegetables (potato, carrot, zucchini, cucumber) at home. When browsing the beef section, the promotion for Australian wagyu beef ($2.99/100g) came into view and we decided to get it since it was more worthwhile.
When we got home, I started google-ling for recipe and methods, as I had an awful record of cooking the toughest beef steaks. Learnt a couple of things about wagyu (I have read about it before, about Japanese wagyu and how they are raised specially. But I figured that even for wagyu, there are tender and tough cuts, depending on which part they came from.) And for less than $30/kg, the cut we had probably wasn't that good for me to salvage with my lousy cooking skills.
Thankfully, the label indicated wagyu topside M4. "Topside" referred to the cut, "M4" the degree of marbling. And the deal we got had the least marbling, for Australian beef is supposedly M4-M12. I decided to just give it a try with no particular marinating (There was not enough lead-time anyway!) A few tips I did apply from reading various blogs (there was even a discussion on an Australian BBQ forum) include,
A. take it out from the fridge 30 min before cooking;
B. Use paper towel to soak up any juices/condensation;
C. Rubbing with butter and marinating with salt and pepper just before applying to heat (1-1.5 min each side);
D. Resting the cooked steak for 10 min before serving on warmed plates.
YX chose macaroni when presented with choice of rice, potato and pasta/macaroni, so I decided to prepare a foolproof Mac & cheese, which I know she would enjoy. Only that I hadn't had any cheddar in the fridge, only open packages of shredded mozzarella and parmesan, which I had used for a pizza recipe earlier. Back to the google-world it was, as I knew it was unwise to throw the mozzarella into the saucepan for the cheese sauce. Thankfully, I found some useful alternatives on http://www.melskitchencafe.com/tuscan-macaroni-and-cheese-bake/, and decided to use my new box of Philly cream cheese instead. And since I also wanted to use up some of the mozzarella, I decided on a cook-and-airfry Mac & Cheese.
I started cooking at 6pm, cutting a peeled carrot and a medium zucchini into wedges while the macaroni (1 cup dry) was being precooked. Drained macaroni was mixed with cubed cream cheese (scant 4 oz, I eyeballed my block when cutting as I wanted to ensure I had enough leftovers for a future cheesecake).
Into another saucepan went a half cup of fresh milk and 2 small chunks of frozen chopped spinach (I didn't follow the recipe link above, hehehe). I whisked 2 tsp flour into an additional 0.25cup of milk, and added it to the milk-spinach mixture just before it came to a boil. I drizzled 2 rounds of olive oil on my ramekin to oil the surface. Whatever left over was added to the thickened milk mixture (I still need some fat in the AF process!), which was then mixed with the macaroni-cream cheese. All these went into the ramekin, then into our Philips AF (preheated at 160 deg C), covered with a piece of foil.
With the carbo-side out of the way, the carrot wedges, which were in the meantime, boiling in the salted-macaroni water (with some fresh boiling water topped up), were drained. I sauteed the zucchini wedges with a chug of olive oil in a preheated frypan, then added a splash of water and the boiled carrots. Just before they were done (this took a while as I like my sauteed veg soft, and to pre-empt YX's complaints of "the vegetables are too hard!"), diced red pepper were tossed in. I turned off the gas after a while, placing the serving plates as lids to keep the veg warm (and you know, warm the plates at the same time).
By then, the Mac&Cheese had been in the AF for 10 min now, and I didn't want the sauce to dry out, so I removed the foil, scattered shredded mozzarella on top, and left it inside the AF with the power off. I figured the residual heat from the AF and wire basket (and the heat in the ramekin itself) would keep the contents warm, and the "broiling" of the mozzarella cheese could be done just prior to serving.
The multi-tasking cooking (not to mention a load of laundry in the washer and an awful itchy cough that made me cough continuously) made me a bit blur by now. So instead of applying butter on the steak, I just grabbed the nearest available fat (olive oil) and rubbed one side of the steak with a large drop of oil and some salt (I forgot pepper!). My frypan is nonstick, so no fat was applied. I was so ecstatic when I heard the sizzle of the raw meat touching the preheated frypan.
However that was short-lived as I was distracted and left the first side on for almost 2 mins, by which time the fats and juices were charring at the side of the frypan. I have absolutely poor control over my gas stove, I swear. Flipping over the steak with my silicon spatula, I then watched it during the 1min for the reverse side like a hawk. Removed it from the pan and set it on the warmed plate, then restarted the AF for it to melt the cheese topping. I did some dishes in the half-full sink, then checked for doneness. When the dear hubs said it was okay (it is about medium-done, I guess, my preferred style), I proceeded with the 2nd piece of steak. But I forgot to preheat it, and the steak went on the pan like a limp, wet fish. So the second piece (which went to the hubs since I was sharing my steak with YX) was more like, medium-rare?!?
