Pichana

Today we had our first experience with Pichana. This came from Stockmann crazy days and was from Australia, Black Angus. We were a bit surprised by the taste and texture of this meat, it was very good. Of course the marinade had something to do with it so here comes the recipe we used.

Pichana

1.2 kg Pichana, with the fat on (for 4 persons)

Marinade

1 dl olive oil

2 tbs balsamic vinegar

2 cloves of garlic, chopped in pieces

1/2 chili, according to taste, chopped in pieces

fresh thyme, 2 tbs

fresh rosemary 2 tbs

Method

Put all ingredients in a mixer and mix to make a sauce that you brush on to the Pichana. You can cut the Pichana in beefs, across the fibers before you put it into the marinade or you can marinade the beef in one piece if you want. Let the meat marinate overnight, or at least 8 hours.

Fry the meat in a grill pan or on the grill, just to get a nice burned surface. Then put the meat in the oven with a thermometer in the thickest part. When the temperature has reached 51 C take the meat out and let it rest for 5 minutes.

Serve the meat with your favorite potatoes or salad. We had oven potatoes and garlic butter together with arugula/ parmesan salad with the meat.

Table bread, the no mashine version

This bread gets very similar to the the table bread that you need to knead for a long time in a machine to get ready. The difference is that this bread does not need any machine at all, instead we use time to get the dough ready.

Table bread

280 gr water, lukewarm
350 gr flour, high protein flour
6 gr yeast
8 gr salt

Method

Dissolve the yeast in the water, add flour and salt and mix with spoon until you have a solid dough. This takes about 30 seconds. Cover the bowl with some lid or plastics. After 45 minutes wet your fingers with water and fold the dough from left to the middle and then from right to the middle, from the top to the middle and from the bottom to the middle. Do this two more times with 45 minutes interval. After 3 hours you take the dough out and gently shape it to a loaf. Let the loaf grow for 1 hour- Preheat the oven to highest temp after 30 minutes and keep a baking tray in the oven to get warm. Gently transfer the loaf to the hot baking tray and spray plenty of water in to the oven. Put the oven temperature to 250 C, and after 10 minutes lower the temp to 200 C. After 20 minutes open the hatch to let steam out, repeat that every 10 minutes until the bread has been about  40 minutes in the oven. Leave the bread a bit longer in the oven if you like a hard crust.

Soffrito, Italian tomato sauce

This is a lovely and very easy to make tomato sauce, the only thing you need is time. By cooking the vegetables slowly over low heat they produce the sweetness that goes so well with the tomatoes and the wine. Try to chop the ingredients as small as possible, but of course if you prefer bigger pieces than you do it that way.

Soffrito

to fry for about 30 minutes:

1 big onion, finely chopped

4 cloves of garlic finely chopped

1 big carrot finely cut to small cubes

1 chili, according to taste

1 red bell pepper, finely chopped

3 bay leaves finely chopped

to the oven at 150 C for about 1 hour:

the fried vegetables

Two cans of eco tomatoes, whole and skinned.2 tsb of fresh Thyme

2 dl of red wine

Method

Chop the vegetables and fry on low temperature for 30 minutes. Add the tomatoes, the wine and the chopped thyme to the pot and put it in the oven at 150 C for about one hour. Break the tomatoes with a fork or put the sauce to a mixer for a smooth sauce. Put in a pot, cook for about 20 minutes at low temperature until it gets the texture that you want. Then you can use this sauce for many different dishes, for example to Bolognese or Pizza or where ever you need a tomato sauce and of course it is perfect to keep in the freezer, you can just double or triple the recipe and just fill the freezer.

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Vegetables swetting in the pan for 30 minutes.

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Tomatoes, wine and thyme added, now into the oven for an hour at 150 C.

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Now out of the oven, break up the tomatoes with a fork or put the whole thing to a mixer and mix to your preferd texture.