Z's Cup of Tea

Sometimes, being a food blogger and cooking for one’s family at the same time is interesting. Sometimes I’ll get the urge to pick up the camera and take pictures as I go along making a meal – one that I didn’t even intend to take pictures of, let alone share here. Let’s just say that, sometimes, I can’t help but take pictures of food, or let alone unable to resist taking out my camera and just taking random shots. As I wrote in my anniversary post, my photography has improved greatly since those first days of blogging – what I didn’t write about is my somewhat fascination with cameras. Sometimes, I’ll close one eye and focus with the other eye, pretending as if seeing through a camera.

Remember also that I said that I hadn’t many photos (in my anniversary post) since I’d been playing with a camera with practically dead batteries? Not those ones, but some of the photos that I took, such as all the ones in this post, were done with my aunt’s Canon Powershot G9, which she kindly let me borrow and that she’s let me borrow in the past as well (this post for example). I love her camera. I’ve been thinking for a while that I could write reviews for cameras that I have used, like the one that I read on Just Hungry, which introduced me to and that made me interested in micro four-thirds cameras. Camera reviews can be confusing sometimes, with different people’s conflicted opinions (especially once you get on Amazon – cameras always have hundreds of reviews, often too many to read all at once), or there are things you want to know about it but that the review doesn’t cover, and I find it helpful when I read camera reviews written by food bloggers, with pros and cons in the interest of food photography and blogging. If you also think this is a good idea, let me know.

But back to how I’ll just pick up the camera at random and take pictures of food – this steak was one of those that I hadn’t planned to take pictures of, but somewhere between chopping onion and taking the steak out of the package and frying it, I thought, hey, why not? And this is the second part of taking pictures of meals that gets tricky, particularly when it wasn’t planned: your prep inevitably becomes longer because of taking breaks to take pictures, often multiple, and thus everyone who is waiting to eat waits even longer. It’s a skill to take quality pictures while on the go and get it all done within the same amount of time it would normally take you, sans camera. This is an exercise of discipline especially, if you’re like me, you start to get obsessed with the macro setting. Case in point –

This steak was one of those things that I made before we left for our vacation (I am writing that post up as you read this), for my Dad’s lunch. It’s fast and easy, if you choose the fast fry steak – and also less worry when it comes to wondering, is the meat done? Serve it up alongside a salad – or not – and you’re done.

Recipe index Perpetually being updated as long as I blog, I’m working on adding some new categories – some being added a bit belatedly, but still.  If you think that I should add any categories that would be helpful in refining and making your navigation easier, please let me know so that I can hop to it! Also, an aside – if you’ve perused the index at all recently, you’ve probably noticed that the font colours in some areas are a bit messed up, specifically linked text. I’ve tried fixing the HTML but it seems to be an issue within WordPress.com’s system as I contacted support about this some weeks ago and they got back to me saying this is an issue they are working on. (Please fix it soon! I like my purple and making link text a different colour to distinguish it from non-linked text, rather than just dotty underlines.)

One year ago: Honey Cookies (SCD & GFCF) and a Quick and Easy Chocolate Sauce (GFCF), both with video

Steak with Sauteed Mushrooms and Onion

Serves 1 to 2 (or 3)

Ingredients:

Glug of olive oil
1/2 large onion, cut lengthwise and sliced into thin rings crosswise
4 large button or stuffing mushrooms, sliced lengthwise
2 to 3 thin beef steaks (fast fry, I supp0se)
Salt, to taste
Ground black pepper, to taste
Garlic powder, to taste

Method:

Heat the oil in a fry pan over medium heat, until hot enough (but not smoking) that the onion rings will start sizzling immediately upon contact. Saute the onion rings with the sliced mushrooms, until the onion is translucent and the mushrooms have softened and smell earthy. Push off to the side of the pan and add the beef steaks, one to two at a time depending on pan size. Season meat with the salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Cook until the meat juices start to surface on the top and flip, cooking until the other side is done. Repeat seasoning. To be extra sure if the meat is cooked all the way through, cut the steaks in half.

Transfer the steaks to serving plates and top with the sauteed onion rings and sliced mushrooms. Season with extra salt or pepper if needed. Enjoy!