Bone-in Striploins with Compound Butter and Eggplant Parmigiana with Stockyard Beef

Last Sept 12, we held our second virtual cooking class with Cecilia of Italian Cooking Made Simple and Stockyard Beef Australia! This time, 10% of ticket sales went to Penny Appeal Middle East efforts to support Lebanon Emergency efforts, via Yallagive.

THE MENU

The menu was simple, yet sophisticated:

- Bone-in Stockyard Beef Gold Angus Striploin Steaks, cooked two ways

- Homemade compound butter

- Authentic Italian Eggplant Parmigiana

Cecilia taught from her residence in Udine, Italy, which is a city in Northeastern Italy and she was able to show us her home garden during the class which helped us virtually escape the UAE warmth even just for a moment!

Let us take you on a little step-by-step story!

STEP 1: Make the compound butter and let it set in the fridge. Tip: get to room temp at least 2 hours beforehand to ensure the butter is really soft for mixing with the ingredients.

                           

                           

Step 2: Season 1 (or both steaks) with salt and pepper, insert probe into steak and place in low oven of 120-130C for reverse searing. We baked one and left the other to be seared later while the parmigiana was baking.

                          

Step 3: Prepare Parmigiana and bake in the oven for 30 mins!

                        

Step 4: When the baked steak has reached 54-56C, take it out to rest for 10 mins.

Meanwhile, season the other steak for searing (as we demonstrated how to cook steak two ways).

Step 5: Sear the newly seasoned steak and place in the oven, until the internal temperature reaches your desired doneness! 56C in our case for medium rare-medium. Once 25 mins has elapsed for the parmigiana, turn the oven to broil setting until the top gets a nice caramelized surface, then take out to set for 10 mins.

You can now sear the baked steak that has been resting!

                          

Step 6: Once the steak in the oven has reached your desired temperature, take out of the oven and rest for 10 mins.

You can go ahead and slice the reverse seared steak and spoon out some parmigiana! By then your seared steak will have been well rested and you can eat that too.

         

Step 7: Don't forget the compound butter!

                            

Now here's the recipe so you can try this at home!

Controfiletto di Angus al burro aromatizzato e parmigiana di Melanzane

a.k.a. angus bone-in striploin steaks with compound butter and eggplant parmigiana

Ingredients:

• Two Stockyard Beef Bone-in Striploins or any thick steak, at least 1-inch thick
• 1 stick of unsalted butter
• 1 lemon, 1 garlic clove
• a bunch of fresh thyme
• 1kg aubergine
• 500ml tomato passata
• 450g mozzarella (block version for lasagna, like "Cucina" by Galbani otherwise balls are ok just dry them well)
• 80g grated Parmesan
• 2 garlic cloves
• a bunch of fresh basil
• 1 liter sunflower oil 

Method:

COMPOUND BUTTER

• Zest the lemon, chop the thyme and garlic.
• In a bowl, mix the butter, garlic herbs and lemon together. Make a sausage with clingwrap/paper.
• Chill in fridge until ready to use! 

STEAKS - 2 optional cooking methods, feel free to use one or both!

• Reverse sear - Season the steaks and bake in the oven until internal temp reaches your desired doneness. Rest for 10 mins then sear in butter and olive oil to caramelize the sides!
• Traditional searing - Season the steaks and sear on a hot pan. Tent with foil or place in a warm oven until the steak reaches your desired doneness. Rest for at least 5 mins and serve!

PARMIGIANA

• In a saucepan, warm the olive oil with the cloves of garlic for a few minutes. Then add the tomato passata, salt to taste and let it simmer for about 30 minutes. Once you turn off the heating, add a generous amount of fresh basil.
• Slice the mozzarella and set aside. Wash and slice the aubergine about 1cm thick.
• In another pan, pour about 1 liter of sunflower oil. When hot, deep fry the aubergine until golden brown. Drain them, add salt to taste and set aside.
• Now assemble your parmigiana in a deep baking tray: start with a few tbsp of tomato sauce, then cover the bottom with a layer of aubergine, another layer of sauce, some mozzarella and grated Parmesan. Repeat the layers and finish with tomato sauce and Parmesan.
• Bake at 180° for about 30 minutes.

Bon appetit!

A special thank you to all that attended our class, it meant the world to us and Penny Appeal Middle East. Special thanks to Stockyard Beef for the steaks, Chef Cecilia for the virtual cooking tour and Ellaine Fatima for the photography. See you all next time!