Steak Club

Bashment Blue Cheese Sauce recipe

Bashment Blue Cheese Sauce is a recipe handed down to me by my Jamaican grandmother, Deisha "Daggerin" Hamilton. These days, the "Bashment" element refers to a high wine content and (optionally) Cayenne Pepper. Legend has it, however, that originally my grandmother would substitute parsley for strong sensi weed from the Blue Mountains.

1. Fry some very finely chopped onions and crushed garlic in plenty of butter until soft. (If you're adding Cayenne Pepper, do it now so the spice cooks a little in the butter.)

2. In a separate pan, reduce half a bottle of white wine by about 1/3.

3. Add a small handful of plain flour to the onions to form a paste.

4. Little by little, and stirring rapidly, add the reduced wine until you have a consistency that's a little runnier than that of your ideal cheese sauce (the next step will thicken your creation slightly).

5. Add a generous dollop of double cream or creme fraiche, along with as much strong blue cheese as you like, some chopped parsley (or ganja) and seasoning to taste.

Steak Club round 2: Round up 10 Feb 12

High Steaks: Steak Club Round 2, 10 February 2012

Steak Club returned on Friday night with the second meating of this now monthly event. The steaks were high as Heavyweight Beef Champ Phil Evans stepped up to defend his title. This edition was notable for the creative interpretation of the steak club brief including a curve ball steak tartare from competition creator Thomas Partridge, marinaded venison from High Steaks veteran Jessica Hamilton and the innovative presentation of new competitor Ed 'I call my penis Michael Fassbender' Hamilton.

This impressive creativity was reflected in the scoring:

1st place: Jess, 345 points (venison)

2nd place: Ed, 343 points

3rd place: Phil, 337 points

4th place: Tom, 334 points (steak tartare)

5th place: Frankie, 330 points

6th place: Karina, 317 points

7th place: Gordon, 309 points

8th place: Kate, 305 points

9th place: James, 255 points (kangaroo)

Unplaced: Anna and Mani*

The new Heavyweight Champ is Jessica Hamilton with a high-rolling 345 points!

*Due to unimpressive lack of commitment from both Anna and Mani and for handing in incomplete score sheets, both contenders have been disqualified from this steak club session. Only the dedicated survive.

**Other lessons to be learnt from this steak-out:
1. Presentation is key
2. Kangaroo is as tough as old boots
3. Upon arrival at High Steaks steak club competitors are required to bring a high-class bottle of wine and a bottle of 'plonk' (each)
4. The new wine shop on Hackney Road is good

http://www.wherevent.com/detail/florian-flux-tonello-259-hackney-road-wine-shop-soft-opening

Who is going to step up to the plate and host the next instalment of the Club we call steak? I can't wait!