cook the books

gordon ramsay

Gordon ramsay has written  17 books.

Gordon Ramsay – How to Cook a Perfect Steak

This recipe comes from Gordon Ramsay’s F Word -
Gordon Says “don’t be afraid to cook a steak on the big night. If you follow these simple rules, it will be easy. Let the pan get nice and hot. If there’s no heat in the pan, there’s no color. If there’s no color, there’s no flavor”. Make sure the steak is relaxed, meaning it’s at room temperature. A relaxed steak will cook quicker, and won’t be stone cold in the center. Ingredients needed to cook a perfect steak couldn’t be simpler, so grab a steak next time you’re at the market, and treat yourself to a delicious meal.
Keep in mind, stove cooked steaks can produce lots of smoke while cooking. Open the windows before you start, and turn on the exhaust fan.
Ingredients:

• New York Steak (or your preferred cut)
• Salt
• Freshly Cracked Pepper
• Butter
• Neutral Oil (flavorless cooking oil)

Directions:
Use a generous amount of salt and pepper to season the steak, and gently press it into the meat with your fingers. The thicker the cut of steak, the more salt and pepper you will need.
Use a heavy pan for cooking steak. Cast iron pans work best for this particular meal. Get the pan nice and hot, then add the oil. Wait for the oil to heat up, it should just start to smoke before adding the steak. Add the steak and push it down in the center with your fingers to ensure the entire steak is touching the bottom of the pan.
It’s very important to only flip the steak once during cooking. Moving the steak around while cooking it will only drain it of essential juices and lead to a less than desirable result. For rare, cook 2-3 minutes on the first side, then flip the steak. About 1 1/2 minutes into the second side, melt butter into the pan. Spoon the butter over the steak, ensuring to cover the entire steak. When the steak is just about finished, turn it onto it’s back, fat side down. Cook for about 30 seconds to reduce and soften the strip of fat. Remove steak from pan, and baste again with butter from the pan. Leave to rest, then slice if desired.
You can test doneness of the steak by comparing the firmness of the steak to parts of your hand. Rare is on your thumb muscle, near your palm, medium is near the outer edge of your thumb, and well-done is where your wrist meets your hand. Watch the video for a visual explanation of firmness. Embedding is disabled on the video for some reason, but you can watch it by clicking the link.
F Word
How to cook a perfect steak.


hairy bikers

The bikers have wriiten 9 books.

Info

Serves: 5 (302 calories/portion)
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour

Ingredients

• 500g lean minced beef (10% or less fat)
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
• 1–2 tsp hot chilli powder
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 150ml red wine or extra stock
• 300ml beef stock, made with 1 beef stock cube
• 400g can of chopped tomatoes
• 400g can of red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 3 tbsp tomato purée
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 bay leaf
• flaked sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper

Cooking Method

1. Place a large non-stick saucepan over a medium heat and add the beef and onions. Cook together for 5 minutes, stirring the beef and squishing it against the sides of the pan to break up the lumps. Add the garlic, 1–2 teaspoons of chilli powder, depending on how hot you like your chilli, and the cumin and coriander. Fry together for 1–2 minutes more. Sprinkle over the flour and stir well.
2. Slowly add the wine and then the stock, stirring constantly. Tip the tomatoes and kidney beans into the pan and stir in the tomato purée, caster sugar, oregano and bay leaf. Season with a pinch of salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper.
3. Bring to a simmer on the hob, then cover loosely with a lid. Reduce the heat and leave to simmer gently for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally until the mince is tender and the sauce is thick. Adjust the seasoning to taste and serve.

jamie oliver

jamie has written 14 books.

This pudding is chocolate heaven! The original recipe idea for it came from my mate Ben, the head chef at Monte's. I've changed it round a bit to make it easier to make at home.

Melt 125g chocolate with the coffee, then pour into small ice-cube moulds and freeze until hard. Take 6 small 3-inch pastry rings, dariole moulds or cappuccino cups and grease well with some butter. Place in the fridge while you make your sponge mixture. Melt the remaining chocolate with the butter in a bowl over a pan of boiling water, then in a separate bowl whisk the egg whites with the sugar until firm. Fold the yolks into the cooled chocolate and butter mixture, then add the almonds and flour. Finish by carefully folding in the egg white mixture. Preheat the oven to 190ºC/375ºF/gas 5. Take your moulds out of the fridge and spoon a little mixture into each one, then push in a cube of the frozen coffee and chocolate mixture. Cover with the rest of the sponge mixture so each ice cube is completely enveloped. Bake in the preheated oven for about 18 to 20 minutes, then remove carefully from the moulds while hot. Serve immediately sprinkled with hazelnuts.



  ingredients

• 455g best-quality cooking chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
• 50ml hot espresso or good strong instant coffee
• 125g butter, plus extra for greasing
• 6 eggs, free-range or organic, separated
• 200g caster sugar
• 100g ground almonds
• 100g rice flour
• 1 small handful chopped hazelnuts, toasted