Perfect cooking being the aim of every passionate cook, Moushira Abdel-Malek shares her secrets The word "feast" means celebration, and "to feast" is to enjoy a sumptuous meal. However, Al-Ahram Weekly food editor Moushira Abdel-Malek believes that the pleasure does not only lie in the taste of food alone. What really counts is the gathering of family members, loved ones and friends around the table to share a meal in a friendly atmosphere and with the love in the air spreading positive energy. "A feast can become a real feast, an event sorely longed for and desperately needed nowadays in the midst of all the turmoil and havoc people are suffering from," Abdel-Malek said. Cooking for her is a passion, and she shared her tips to enjoy the great taste of food. On the greater Bairam Feast, sometimes known as "the Day of Sacrifice", mutton is the star of the dishes on the table. Preparing the lamb or sheep's meat to be cooked fresh or frozen, necessitates the following steps. After the animal has been slaughtered, the meat should be allowed to stand for some hours, allowing the muscles to relax and to loosen up after the strenuous muscular tensions that have occurred during the slaughtering process. The meat is then divided into the following cuts: - Slow-cooking cuts: These include roasting and baking cuts, pot roasts, stews and boiled-cooking cuts yielding the soup for the dish of Fattah, which includes mutton. These cuts should be from the lean parts of the animal, whether boneless and/or on the bone. Boneless meat is perfect for roasts, pot roasts, boiling, ragouts and stews. - Bigger cuts on the bone, like silverside joints (the leg/hip joint), or shoulder joints, are best to bake in a slow-cooking oven, covered and at medium-low temperature, and only uncovered towards the end to gain colour. This tenderises the flesh, allowing it to cook in its own juices. - Smaller cuts on the bone, like ribs, spare ribs and T-bones, are perfect for baking and/or to be boil-cooked, always at medium-low temperature. - Baked cuts should always be marinated and refrigerated for between eight to 24 hours to achieve a better flavour and to tenderise the meat as well. Grilling cuts include some of the previous cuts, like ribs and T-bones, but without the fat having been totally removed in order to prevent the meat becoming tough or drying out. They include some of the following: - Marbled boneless cuts, which are best for grilling. These cuts should be thick to endure direct heat without losing their juices. - Less marbled cuts are best to marinate before grilling. The marinade compensates for the loss of some fat and is needed to flavour and tenderise the meat. - If you wish to grill lamb cubes threaded on a skewer, the choice would be the eye of loin (backstrap) cut. This cut should be halved lengthways, cut into 2cm cubes, marinated from six to 24 hours, threaded onto wet wooden skewers, or metal ones, and then placed onto a hot grill. Another cut is the rack of ribs. However, this has to come from a very young lamb, in order to enjoy a tender, lean, juicy, on-the-bone baby lamb rack. This cut comes from the loin back ribs. Have your butcher cut them into six to eight rib portions. They should not be separate, but instead should be connected to one rack. Marinate and refrigerate from eight to 24 hours and then bake in a moderate preheated oven for one hour, removing them from the oven and grilling until reaching the desired doneness. This process is necessary with a rack of ribs in order to preserve the meat from turning black or burning without being cooked through, as the grilling time will never be enough to cook the ribs fully. Marinating fresh meat and freezing marinated meat: When the cuts are fresh, do not include salt in the marinade, since you may not want to cook the whole quantity and may need to freeze some. Instead, season with salt while cooking the desired quantity. The remaining quantity can then be frozen without salt. Salt releases the meat juices, and when the meat is thawed after freezing, these juices will be wasted and the meat will toughen when cooked. Thawing in hot weather should be done inside the fridge. In cold weather, thaw outside at room temperature. There are some golden rules to be observed: - Freeze and thaw only once. Never refreeze meat. This can cause the multiplication of bacteria that can affect other food by cross-contamination, either by self-contact or from the contact of one container with another. - All kinds of meat can be frozen for up to six months in airtight sealed bags. - Always add olive oil to any marinade mixture and some molasses or honey to tenderise the meat tissue and enhance its flavour. Grilling beef steaks: Some tips should be observed when grilling beef: - Never remove the steaks straight from the fridge onto the grill. They should be allowed to stand until they have lost their chill. The result is better flavour and a more tender steak. - Do not grease the grill. Grease the steak instead by brushing it on both sides with olive oil; otherwise, a cloud of smoke will flare up and fill the grill's surroundings. - If the steak is not marinated, season it for 10 minutes before grilling, so as not to allow its juices to ooze out. - In order to cook a perfect steak, grill it directly on a high heat over either charcoal or a gas grill. This will sear the steak, turning it brown outside and making it juicy inside. To gain a crisscross grill mark, rotate the steak after one quarter of the grilling time. Repeat when flipping it over to the other side. - Avoid piercing or cutting or making incisions in any meat whatsoever, whether grilled, roasted or baked. This will ruin it, and you will end up with dry tissue that has lost most of its flavour, plus losing the haemoglobin contained in the meat as well. Use tongs, never a fork. - Trimming off any fat should take place when the meat is still raw and always before grilling. - Sizzling steaks have to rest. Allow steaks to rest, covered, for five minutes before serving. This resting period allows the meat to retain its juices until it is served. - Note that the steak keeps cooking while it is resting, so slightly undercook it before removing it from the grill. The resting period should be away from the grill and with the meat covered. Knowing your cuts can help you to choose and plan a meal when purchasing. The following tips can guide you when determining the choice of cuts: - If you are on a low-fat diet, go for tenderloin steak. This is the leanest and healthiest cut of all. - Ribeye and sirloin are the most flavourful steaks. Both are higher in caloric values than the tenderloin steak, as both have streaks of fat (marbling). However, sirloin is leaner than ribeye, apart from the fat contour surrounding it that can be removed at the table if desired. - A T-bone steak is both a tenderloin and a top loin steak, connected in the middle with a bone shaped like the letter "T". It is less marbled than the ribeye and the sirloin. - The long oval-shaped steak, sometimes called strip steak, or New York steak, is considered the most popular. This is because it is the most flavourful and the tenderest, due to its high fat content. This steak is rarely to be found at local butchers, and it is served in some restaurants and hotels. Avoid it if you are on a low-calorie diet, or treat yourself to a juicy steak once in a while without feeling guilty, repeating to yourself: "eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die..t"! Happy Eid!
