Eating in

You won't see many recipes on this blog: I'm not a chef. I am, however, a show-off - which is why I couldn't resist telling you that the best eats in town tonight are at my house. Pictured above, slices of Wagyu topside, filled with pinenuts, raisins, parmesan, garlic and parsley. They're about to be strung up then browned, then braised in red wine and tomato for about three hours. Thanks birthday Italian cookbook.

This is also a good chance to shout out to Lake Farm Beef, from whom I bought the topside. Lake Farm raise cattle purely for good eating, and while they specialise in Italian Piedmontese cattle, they've been experimenting lately with Wagyu/Kobe animals - which apparently provide the most tender, tasty beef in the world. Lake Farm are based at Karapiro in the Waikato, but provide an excellent delivery service to Auckland regularly - I get a 5kg pack which includes some familiar steak varieties, sausages, mince and then always a few interesting cuts like this topside, which can take a bit of research to cook well.

Apparently topside is brilliant for bresaola, an Italian specialty consisting of beef cured in salt and red wine over a period of weeks. However, my girlfriend says I'm not allowed to be THAT guy who has a kilo of raw beef hanging from a rope in the communal apartment storage locker, so braised in red wine it is.