Monday, June 4, 2012

Pepper-crusted steak

I was looking for tips to improve the pepper rub on steak before barbeque and this idea with a stock cube and mustard just fitted the ticket. From http://www.bbcgoodfood.co.uk/
 Pepper-crusted steak

  • 1 beef stock cube
  • 2 fillet steaks , about 175g each
  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard
  • 1½ tbsp good-quality peppercorns

    1. Rub beef stock cube onto one side of the steaks, turn over and smear mustard across other side. Lightly crush peppercorns with mortar and pestle. Spread on a board and dip the mustard-covered side of steaks into them until encrusted.
    2. Heat olive oil in frying pan and fry the steaks for 2 minutes, pepper-side down, to form crust, then flip and fry for 1 minute on the other side. Remove from the pan and keep warm.
    3. If you like, deglaze the pan with a little red wine, heating it enough to cook off the alcohol. Serve with the steaks.

    East Midlands Book Award

    Thank you to Rhian on her blog http://itsacrimeuk.wordpress.com/ for alerting me to a recent win.
    Anne Zouroudi has won the East Midlands Book Award for The Whisper of Nemesis.
    The site for the award  http://www.writingeastmidlands.co.uk/awards/ tells us about this new award."The East Midlands Book Award is an independent, annual award that was first awarded in 2011 for the best book of 2010. £1000 will be given to a writer of Fiction (including work aimed at young people), Creative Non-Fiction, or Poetry. The aim of the award is to promote writers who live in the East Midlands, to raise the profile of the thriving literary scene in the region, and to reward exceptional work...
    The Whispers of Nemesis is a story of desperate measures and long-kept secrets, of murder and immortality and of pride coming before the steepest of falls.

    Stephen Brandes

    I was just reading about Stephen Brandes as a visiting artist at The Burren College of Art http://www.burrencollege.ie/ . I saw one of his works at a recent show at the Douglas Hyde gallery. he has a very interesting style which these small copies don't really do credit to. Keep a look out for his work visiting Dublin or go to his website http://www.stephenbrandes.com/
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    Dublin Fire Brigade celebrates anniversary

    We were in Dublin on Saturday and saw an antique Fire Truck led by horses and members of a pipe band visiting from Palm Beach, Florida (in The Porterhouse, not at Dublin castle!!)
    http://www.eveningecho.ie/ reported "Dublin Fire Brigade officially celebrates its 150th anniversary today. To mark the milestone, the brigade's Pipe Band will perform in Croke Park this afternoon at the Leinster Senior Football Championship quarter final double-header. Yesterday evening, firefighters paraded through Dublin city centre from Parnell Square up to Dublin Castle.
    As part of the celebrations, Fire Services from around the country will be in the city, as well as a large delegation of firefighters from the US.

    UCD covered walkway

    I really like the site http://builtdublin.com/ . It has some great photos and I particularly like this article which makes you look differently at parts of a building you might either miss or even have considered to be ugly.
    bd-ucdwalkway-3bd-ucdwalkway-1
    Lisa Cassidy tells us "In 1964, Andrzej Wejchert won an international competition for UCD’s new campus at Belfield. A key element of his proposal was the covered walkway, a linear element unifying a campus that would be composed of standalone buildings by different architects, constructed at different times as the university grew.
    There’s approximately 600m covered by the walkways, running between the original science building (Downes Meehan & Robson, 1964) and the restaurant (Scott Tallon Walker, 1970). Their primary function is, of course, shelter in a crap climate, but they also define a path and a core to the university, putting the pedestrian route at its (original) heart. It’s a simple device and it still works.
    A centre line of columns supports a waffle slab, with smoothly rounded corners on the coffers. Waffle slabs have a better strength-to-weight ratio than their flat equivalent, retaining a form that allows for strength in two directions, and they also have a visual effect of texture in light and shadow. At the edge of the slab, there’s a strip of chunky exposed aggregate that’s extremely beautiful from close up. The exposed aggregate and the waffle differentiate the upper layer from the pavement, while the columns match the paving well enough to seem like part of has just projected upwards."

    Olympic Torch continues Irish tour

    The other exciting sporting event is of course the Olympics. The torch was in Belfast yesterday and will be in Dublin on Wednesday.
    From http://www.irishexaminer.com/ "The Olympic Torch will visit the Belfast slipways where the Titanic was built today as it begins its five-day relay through the North before arriving in Dublin later in the week...Former Olympic championMary Peters, who won the pentathlon in 1972, carried the golden lantern through a packed Belfast City Airport after it landed from the Isle of Man...The torch will also travel to 2013 City of Culture Derry and Dublin..Among sporting figures expected to carry it in Ireland are Olympic boxing medallists Wayne McCullough and Michael Carruth, who will take part in the handover at the border.

    Other highlights will be a celebratory event at St Stephen's Green in Dublin city centre on Wednesday... Celebrities taking part in the relay will include television personalities Zoe Salmon, Patrick Kielty and Colin Murray.

    Dublin streets become F1 track

    Dublin was transformed on Sunday. I had full intentions of going but the rain and generally being knackered from being in town all day on saturday changed my mind. The pictures looked fab though and we went over the stand on the train on the way home and it looked great. A great day out for petrol heads.

    From http://www.irishexaminer.com/ "An estimated 110,000 people attended the Bavaria City Racing Dublin motorsport demonstration today, despite an unseasonably cold downpour. The event transformed Dublin City centre into a spectacular race track.More than 70 vehicles were involved in the demonstration, including former F1 world champion Jenson Button who wowed the crowds in his Vodafone McLaren F1 car. "