This was our 30th cooking/blogging experiment from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals. For this week, we chose “Steak Sarnie, Crispy New Potatoes, Cheesy Mushrooms, and Beetroot Salad.” We made this meal on Saturday, the day before the Sydney Running Festival Half-Marathon. We chose it because we had the episode recorded, and it seemed like a good choice for a pre-race meal: a good amount of carbs, but not overly heavy like pasta. We also prepared this for lunch instead of dinner so we could just eat a light meal of leftovers in the evening. I was on chef’s duty for this one and I was flyin’! I finished it in 29:44.

Substitutions: We already had normal potatoes on hand so I used those instead of buying “New” potatoes. You can’t get pre-cooked beetroot here, so I simply boiled mine up ahead of time. We’re not 100% certain if our mushrooms were Portobellos; basically we just got the biggest ones we could find. I was going to use the jarred red peppers as indicated, but when I opened mine they were moldy so I left them out. Other than that, everything was as written in the recipe.

Quick verdict: I had guessed this one would be a crowd-pleaser, but it ended up being somewhat divisive! It was mostly the mushrooms. Neither of us are big mushroom eaters, but I’ve been making an effort to learn to like them. I actually really liked these. I thought the strong flavours and the rich cheese really complimented the thick slab
of mushroom. The Snook didn’t like the texture of the mushroom itself though. The sandwich and the potatoes were good, and the beetroot salad was tasty and different. Overall I rated the meal an 8.5 out of 10, while the Snook rated it an 8. It’s a simple, quick, and (mostly) unobjectionable meal that lots of folks should like.

Pre-start prep: We got out all the necessary ingredients, tools, and cooking vessels. The kitchen was clean (well, as clean as it gets) and everything wiped down and ready to go. The oven grill was turned on full whack, the kettle was boiled, and the food processor was fitted with the grating attachment.

First up are the ingredients for the potatoes: potatoes, garlic, rosemary, and lemon.

Next are the components for the cheesy mushrooms: Portobello mushrooms, garlic, chilli, parsley, lemon, and Cheddar cheese.

For the beetroot salad: pre-cooked beetroot, balsamic vinegar, lemon, parsley, and feta cheese.

Lastly, for the steak sarnie: rump steak, thyme, a ciabatta loaf, jarred peppers, parsley, horseradish, and rocket.

The food processor was fitted with the grating attachment.

Pots and pans, ready to go! The baking tray is for the mushrooms. The frying pan is for the potatoes, and the grill pan is for the steak.

Allez cuisine! I started by prepping the potatoes, cutting them into smaller chunks.

These went into the frying pan with a kettle full of boiling water. I also added garlic cloves and salt.

Next I peeled the mushrooms. As Jamie says on the episode: This is very therapeutic.

For the flavouring, I crushed some garlic and chopped up half a red chilli.

To this I also added parsley and lemon zest.

I finished it with olive oil, salt, and pepper.

The flavour mix got rubbed all over the mushrooms and piled up inside. Then I added a few chunks of cheese to each one. The tray then went into the oven under the grill.

Time to grate the beetroot!

I drizzled it with balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil…

…and salt and pepper…

…and lemon juice.

I also finely chopped some parsley and added that.

To finish the salad, I put it in a bowl and crumbled feta cheese on top.

Here’s the finished beetroot salad.

Now for the steak. I sprinkled it with salt and pepper and then picked over some fresh thyme leaves. I also drizzled it with olive oil.

The potatoes were done, so I drained them…

…and then returned them to the pan with some olive oil to get crispy. I also put the steak into the hot grill pan.

After a few minutes, I flipped the steak over. Looking good!

I copied a trick from the episode. I fished out some of the garlic cloves from the potatoes and mashed them up on the board with a fork. I seasoned it with salt and pepper and put it back in with the potatoes.

This is where I’m meant to be making the “salsa” for the sandwich. I’ve chopped up all the parsley, but when I opened my peppers, I could see they were moldy. So we only had parsley and olive oil.

The steak was cooked, so I placed it on the board on top of the parsley mix to rest.

Next I sliced open our ciabatta loaf…

…drizzled it with extra virgin olive oil…

…and spread it with horseradish.

I gave our rocket a quick wash…

…then added it as the base of the sandwich.

Then it was finally time to slice up the steak!

I piled the slices up on the bread to finish the sandwich.

I finished the crispy potatoes with a squeeze of lemon juice.

The mushrooms were well done, so I pulled them out of the oven.

Here’s a view of the completed steak sarnie.

And here’s the completed meal of steak sarnie, crispy new potatoes, cheesy mushrooms, and beetroot salad.

Tasting notes: I wonder if the peppers would have made a big difference to the sandwich. It was good, but it wasn’t mind-blowing or anything. (Or maybe it would have helped if I’d STABBED IT TO A BOARD WITH A KNIFE as Jamie suggested?) The potatoes were fine. The beetroot salad was good, but it’s a lot of work and mess without the vac-packed beets, so I’m not sure I’ll be in a rush to make it again. And the cheesy mushrooms were, as mentioned, quite divisive. I think it would come down to whether the person likes the texture of big grilled mushrooms. I thought they were good, but the Snook didn’t finish his (and he usually eats everything). Still, this one is relatively easy to finish within the 30 minutes and you can’t really go wrong with a steak sandwich and potatoes. Definitely an 8-8.5 out of 10.

Stay tuned for another recipe from Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals!