I’m a vegetarian. Normally. I’ve not eaten meat for 30 years (that looks terrifying written down!). Here is the steak I ate this week.
Experimenting with meat
I have been toying with the idea of experimenting with meat for a while now. I often cook it for tables d’hotes or the cafe and we are slap bang in the centre of Charolais country; our neighbour is a farmer for Pete’s sake and daydreaming cows have been known to wander off into our garden whilst being taken for a walk.
So even though there is one day a year when the sound of anguished mothers mooing their lament to lost babies breaks my heart, the beef here is incredibly high welfare. They are kept in the fields with their mothers for longer feeding on the beautiful burgundy grass.
So I thought I would give it a go. Jump in at the deep end. Start with a steak.
We pedalled to the auberge in Frasnay, a little village about 10k away. They have a new chef. Three courses menu including coffee and half a litre of good house wine – 20e a head. We could hardly climb on the bikes afterwards.
And the reason it’s so red? In France they have several ‘cuisons’:
- BLEU – still mooing
- SAIGNANT – bloody
- A POINT- ‘perfectly cooked’
- BIEN CUIT – well done but still pink in the middle.
We went for ‘à point’. No point in messing about, if you’re going to do it, do it right- yes? But I think it may have been a bit of a test. I think they absolutely expected us to send it back to the kitchen for a bit more heat ( which is perfectly acceptable).
However, I like to rise to a challenge and I think there were definitely some approving looks when we eventually tucked the last bit away!
It was delicious. Took a while to eat but it was delicious.
Took even longer to digest!
