Jewish Life Digital Edition November 2014 | Page 55

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Fabulous tips!

DEFROSTING

PLANKING

It’s Sunday afternoon and you’re challishing for a last-minute braai,
but the kosher butchers are closed, the shelves at the Hyper have been
stripped bare and you can’t exactly pop down to the nearest 24-hour
Woolies. The only meat you have is frozen. What to do?
Simply grab two metal pots and let science come to the rescue. Turn
one pot upside down and place the frozen meat on top of it. Then
fill the other pot with water to give it some weight and sit it on top
of your meat. Wait 10 minutes and – ta-da! – your steak is ready for
grilling. Metal conducts heat, and aluminium in particular is a great
conductor of ambient heat – which is actually enough to thaw a steak
quickly. The weight of the water also presses the metal on top of the
meat, increasing its surface area so it can conduct more heat from the
air – all of which results in a faster thaw time.
Alternatively, make a lukewarm water bath in your sink, pop the meat
in a zip-locked bag and leave the tap running over the frozen meat.
The constant water flow speeds up the process.

Planking is a new buzzword trend in the braai world.
When cooking this way, the surface of the food touching the
wood picks up some of the plank’s natural flavours. Soak planks
(Woolworths sells quite a nice selection including oak and
maple) overnight in water or, better still, red wine, and then
cook your steaks or fish directly on the plank over the coals.
The wet plank creates steam, which imparts the flavours of the
wine and the type of wood used. It’s best to plank-cook your
ingredients with a lid, to absorb the aromatic smoke.

JEWISH LIFE

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