Cooking With Love

When my children were still very young, I did not do regular cooking. For everyday meal, it was either the maids cooked or we ordered food from catering company. But from time to time I cooked them simple dishes like fried noodle or omelet for a change.

Whenever I cooked, my children ate the meal enthusiastically and they seemed to enjoy the food so much. One day, my oldest daughter while enjoying the meal I cooked, asked: ‘Mom, why the meal you cooked taste much better than the meal cooked by the maids or caterers? Not prepared by such question, I answered her lightly: ‘because mine is cooked with love’. As a young kid she truly believed whatever I said. She then told her friends proudly that her mom’s cooking is cooked with love (bless her!)

Back to my cooking, my study expanded to watching cooking programs on TV by famous Chefs such as Anthony Bourdain, Kylie Kwong, Jamie Oliver, Bob Blumer (Surreal Gourmet), Nigela Lawson, Bobby Chinn, Curtis Stone (Surfing the Menu, Take Home Chef), Iain Hewitson (Never Trust a Skinny Cook) etc.

Whenever I watch a cooking program on TV, I always have a pen & notebook handy to write down tips from the chefs, and often I write down the recipes and how they cook them in details. I have a collection of cooking notes and stick them on my cooking books.

I watch each cooking program with much interest because all those chefs are so gifted. They make cooking looks like an easy task. One of my favorite Chefs is Bob Blumer.

What I like about Bob Blumer is he always gives catchy names to the dishes. One of my favorite recipes I learned from him on Surreal Gourmet is Love Me Tenderloin (this romantic meal was cooked by Bob Blumer for a couple on their 50th anniversary assisted by the couple’s daughter in the Toaster-mobile). This special dish symbolizes ever-lasting love.

This steak is easy to make, delicious and has a catchy name. I have tried this recipe and it tastes great, I am sure you’re going to love it too. Cook it with LOVE and it will taste even more delicious.

LOVE ME TENDER LOIN

Main ingredients (for 1 portion)
• 1 sweet potato cut into 4 wedges, steamed
• 1 small red cabbage around 100 gram, cut into 4 wedges
• 1 slice of 250 gram tender-loin beef

Ingredients to marinate the steak
• 1 teaspoons of chili powder
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• ½ teaspoon Salt
• ½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Marinate the steak
• Mix the chili powder, sugar, salt and pepper in a mortar, grind and pestle finely. Rub both sides of the steak with the mixed ingredients (dry marinade) and put in refrigerator for one hour.
• Before cooking, rub a little olive oil on both sides of the steak to keep it from drying up also to promote even searing and enhance the flavor.

Cooking the steak: direct grilling (see Notes and Tips)
• Place the steak on the heated grill, when one side has been seared (about 1 minute) turn the steak and sear the second side.
• Continue cooking to the required time for the desired degree of doneness (medium rare: around 8-10 minutes; medium 10-12 minutes and well-done 12-15 minutes).

Ingredients to season the red cabbage
• 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoons of balsamic vinegar (*)
• Salt & pepper
• Mix the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper in a bowl and stir lightly


(*) Red cabbage will normally turn blue when cooked. To retain the red color it is necessary to add vinegar or acidic fruit to it.

Grill the potato and cabbage: indirect grilling (see Notes and Tips)
• Brush the steamed sweet potato with olive oil and grill
• Coat the red cabbage with the mix-seasoning using a brush to distribute evenly and grill until cooked through

Place the cooked steak, sweet potato and red cabbage on a serving plate and serve immediately. Deliciously goes with Cabernet Sauvignon Red Wine.

Notes and Tips
• Grilling is cooking on a metal grid positioned directly over a glowing heat source: the meat is thrown on to the preheated grid and sears almost instantly on the hot metal.
• A general rule-of-thumb is that anything taking a short period of time should be grilled directly and anything taking longer should be grilled indirectly
• Direct grilling refers to the method whereby you cook directly over hot coals
• Indirect grilling is not true grilling, it's really more like oven roasting, but done outdoors in a grill.