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Sunday Special: Steak for Two

Posted in American Cuisine, tagged , , on March 3, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

Today was a rare Sunday for me as I didn’t have any class to teach. So my hubby and I got to sleep in and have a nice relaxing day. He was craving steak, so we decided to buy a grill finally. We ended up with a portable Weber (200 series) from Home Depot and boneless rib eye steaks from Costco.

Now if you’ve read my blog you’ll know I come from a family of meat lovers, particularly steak. Consequently I’ve grown up with some pretty high standards set out by my dad and his ridiculously hot grill. Chris and I didn’t do too shabby tonight but somehow there’s nothing quite like Dad’s steak.

I feel there are some basics to making a great steak.

* Good quality fresh meat
* Time to marinate and time to bring the meat to room temperature
* A really hot grill

Of course, having some really nice side dishes always helps. But if the steak is good it’ll speak for itself! I season steaks really simply. My steps to preparing the meat are:

1. If you cant’t find good quality meat then I recommend using a fork and poking the meat all over on both sides. This helps to tenderize tougher cuts of meat. Some people believe you should never do this as it can let the juices out while others argue it lets the marinade in. Try it and see what you think!
2. Do a dusting (single layer) of garlic salt. It’s all in the wrist. And add plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Drizzle all over with olive oil. You could do this a day in advance.
3. Bring the meat to room temperature about 20-30 minutes before cooking.

The key to a really good steak is a very hot grill. We put ours (gas grill) on high and let it heat for about 15 minutes. For a 1-inch thick steak, Cook for about 3-4 minutes on each side for medium rare, 4-5 for medium. If you have to cook inside, use a cast iron stovetop grill for the marks. Pre-heat the oven to broil for at least 15 minutes. Get the grill screaming hot and grill for 30 seconds per side. Then pop it in the oven (preferably on the cast iron grill) for 2 minutes. Take it out and flip the steak. Put it back in the oven for 2 more minutes. It will be medium rare. Be sure to let it rest for about 5 minutes.

Now for the sides! My favorite vegetable side with steak is asparagus, but we chose to use up some leftover spinach, mushrooms and baguette today.

First up Creamy Garlic Mushrooms:

* Finely chop onion and garlic. Heat a large spoonful of butter and drizzle of olive oil (~tsp) in a medium pot on medium heat. Add the onion first.
* Meanwhile chop the mushrooms into quarters (smaller if your mushrooms are really big). Once the onions start to soften, add the garlic and cook another minute. Add the mushrooms and drizzle more olive oil. Stir for a few minutes. When they’ve softened and started to change color, add a half cup of dry white wine. Simmer for a couple of minutes. Add heavy cream to your liking. Simmer for another couple minutes. Season with kosher salt and fresh black pepper.
* If you’d like the sauce to be a little thicker, mix a teaspoon of corn starch with a teaspoon of water in a small bowl. Then add to the pot and let simmer a minute. This is a great appetizer with toasted bread any day!

For the Parmesan croutons you see in the photo, I used up some leftover baguette. Chop into bite size pieces. Coat with extra virgin olive oil. Dust with garlic salt and black pepper. Arrange onto a baking sheet and sprinkle Parmesan all over. Bake at 400F until toasted (~15 min).

The spinach is super quick as well. It’s optional to add some chopped onion. But basically heat some olive oil in a frying pan. Cut a large clove of peeled garlic in half. Stab it with a fork but be sure you haven’t poked all the way through. Add the spinach to the pan and stir with the garlic fork. The heat will release the garlic oil to add a subtle flavor and avoid any burnt garlic pieces!

Enjoy all of this with a nice Malbec or Zinfandel! Happy eating everyone!

PS Leftover steak is great with a fried egg on top!

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If Ground Beef Is On Sale..

Posted in British Cuisine, Italian Cuisine, Reducing Waste, tagged , , , , on October 7, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

In all aspects of life, I am always happy to find a good sale/offer. In the States (not everywhere), the grocery stores will send out weekly ads in the mail. They’ll highlight offers and coupons etc. If you love to cook or have to cook for a large household, you’ll absolutely love these. I love having a cup of coffee and reading these. I flip through and see what’s available, what’s fresh and come up with meal ideas for the week.

So recently ground beef has been on sale. It’s usually the fattier type (80/20), but let’s be realistic. We can’t all eat everything we want. Food can get really expensive! Sometimes the fattier ground/mince beef is tastier too. So when I see these deals, I stock up if I can. Same goes for chicken which freezes really well. For the beef, I prefer to cook it and then freeze it. Or freeze patties so you can throw them straight onto the grill/grill pan for a burger.

Here are two recipes you can make that would freeze really well. They can be eaten for dinner or lunch and in a variety of ways. There are many shortcuts you can take, but if you have the time on maybe a Sunday you can just cook these. You could do it while the husband is watching Sunday football maybe!

There are so many recipes out there for these dishes. If you have time you can use fresh tomatoes for Marinara (the riper, the better). Lately I like to blanch my tomatoes and remove the skin. Don’t hesitate to use lots of tomato paste too.

For Bolognese, some recipes use milk and/or pork as well (Epicurious) or white wine instead of red (Food Network). Some of you may be surprised to see Cottage Pie or wonder what it is. You’ve probably heard of Shepard’s Pie, but traditionally Shepard’s Pie is made with ground lamb. The beef version is called Cottage Pie. This MyRecipes.com version adds mushrooms. This Epicurious recipe uses dried marjoram. Ultimately, there are many versions. Play around with them and choose the one you like! I personally love it super thick and gravy-like.

As for meatballs, I don’t really measure when I make them. I use whatever ground beef I have, add some breadcrumbs or panko soaked with milk, an egg or two, finely chopped or grated onion and garlic, Italian seasonings and a handful of parmesan or romano. A couple of good recipes are Ina Garten’s or this Epicurious recipe that uses ground fennel. Either way, bake them and then pop ‘em into a bubbling Marinara. These freeze so fantastically. Reheat with a bit of olive oil and splash of water.

Beef Meatballs & Homemade Marinara

Universal Base for Bolognese or Cottage/Shepard’s Pie

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Mini Meat Loaves

Posted in American Cuisine, tagged , , , , , on March 4, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

So this week I wanted to make something new with ground beef (mince). Growing up, we would often have meatloaf which I learned this week is not a well-known dish in the UK. Or rather – it is thought of as a very American dish. Delia Smith even calls her recipe “American Meatloaf“. In my family it was always a favorite though and leftovers were used for sandwiches.

But there are so many recipes out there for meatloaf. Traditionally, it’s cooked in a loaf tin (hence the name). But doing this usually means you’re looking at at least an hour and half or 2 hours of cooking time. And with our work schedules, I knew my husband and I wouldn’t want to wait that long on a week night. So I went for a recipe for Ina Garten’s Individual Meat Loaves. My sister has made this recipe before and she’s always raved about it. But of course me being me, I wanted to put my own spin on it. I’ve been reading a lot recently about lentils being used as a meat supplement or to “beef” up a meat dish. A lot of recipes out there have half meat, half lentils. This way you get your meat flavor and you not only decrease cost but also increase the healthiness of your dish.

So instead of using the full 2.5 pounds of ground beef (mince), I used 500g (~1.1 lbs) of ground beef and about a cup of red lentils that had been soaked overnight. I only used one egg and 1 large yellow onion and chose beef stock instead of chicken. But once you combine everything, you’ll see it’s a pretty soft texture. So you may or may not need an extra egg depending on how much meat you’d like to use. Remember to season the meat directly before adding the onion mixture with a good pinch of salt and pepper. I made fairly small portions laid out on a baking tray and I baked them at about 190C/375F. As it was a week night and I was getting hungry, I actually took them out after 35 minutes and they were perfectly cooked. They were so moist and full of flavor! To make our meal a tab bit healthier, we chose to make a sweet potato mash instead of regular potato mash. I also made a beef gravy on the side.

Overall, I highly recommend this recipe! Both my husband and I ended up having leftovers for lunch, and it was just as delicious the next day. I bet this would be a big hit with kids too!

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Chicken, Beef and Pork – Oh My!

Posted in French Flavors, Italian Cuisine, Vietnamese Cuisine, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 20, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

All my British friends and family are more than likely to be familiar with the “3 for £10″ meat offer at most supermarkets (Tesco, Sainsbury’s and recently Waitrose). For all my American friends and family, I’m sure I’ve complained to you how expensive meat is here! While this deal isn’t always the best I have found, it makes grocery shopping a little easier. In this case, I just picked three different types of meat/poultry and thought I’d figure out what I would do with them later. I still struggle with accessibility to quality meat in the UK.. I mean – let’s be honest. The steaks are just NOT the same as American steaks (unless you’re willing to spend a small fortune). Most of the time, steaks served in restaurants are thin and overcooked and have this distinct taste that I really can’t explain. However, I HAVE had a good steak here.. but it was one I cooked myself at Cordon Bleu with meat sourced from Allen’s of Mayfair (London’s oldest butcher shop with superb quality and the prices to match!).. Nonetheless, I still crave red meat from time to time. So that day at Waitrose, I decided to buy a tray of chicken thighs/drums (bone in, skin on), a couple frying steaks and some pork loin steaks.

The dishes I came up with were:

Because it was National Curry week in the UK not long ago, I decided to use up my chicken thighs and drumsticks by making Vietnamese Chicken Curry. Now I’ve promised my mother that I’d never divulge her ‘family’ recipe. But what I can do is refer you to another Vietnamese recipe by The Ravenous Couple (a young Vietnamese couple cooking traditional recipes). There are a few variations of this recipe depending on the family, but their recipe is great. Since I don’t always have these ingredients on hand, I make a few shortcuts and a few additions.

  • I haven’t been able to find curry paste in the UK, so I use Madras curry powder from Costco UK and it tastes just fine.
  • I don’t often have the patience to cut shallots, so I just use white/yellow onions.
  • Again, I don’t often have the patience to marinate the chicken but if you have time then it will only make your dish better!
  • My family doesn’t usually add carrots (even though it’s traditional). Instead we add sweet potato chunks. We also don’t add onion wedges.
  • My husband likes his curry thick, so I’ll add some corn starch/flour with water.

Vietnamese Chicken Curry by TheRavenousCouple.com

While I can’t reveal my mom’s measurements, my method is basically this.. Cook chopped onions and garlic until translucent. Add curry powder and secret ingredient. Cook a minute or so. Add chicken and brown on all sides. Add chicken broth, fish sauce or salt and smashed lemongrass. Let cook and then add chopped potatoes, sweet potatoes and coconut milk. Let cook and thicken as necessary. For some added spice, add cayenne.. Traditionally, Vietnamese curry is eaten with fresh baguettes but it’s often eaten with rice vermicelli or plain white rice. It’s also always better the next day or day after that! PS.. I’ve used up leftover mushrooms to make a vegetarian version of Vietnamese curry – check out this old blog post.

So after eating curry for dinner and lunch the next day, I was ready to cook my steaks (click above for recipe). This was a dish I thought of based on my basic pantry ingredients. It’s such a great classic and is super fast to make. Also, a creamy rich sauce is great to mask a lower quality meat! I used basic Oxo beef stock cubes and didn’t actually have any wine to add, but it was still great! To make the sauce super rich, I reduced the stock quite a bit and added a knob of butter at the end. The sweet potato and fennel combo came about purely because they were available at my local market. I was trying to come up with more creative and nutritious starches to bread and pasta. So I had leftover sweet potato from making curry and roasted it with the fennel. Fennel is a great vegetable which isn’t used too often. I didn’t grow up eating it but I see it so often lately that I’m doing my best to find new ways to cook with it. It did take quite awhile to roast though. So be prepared to wait for this one. But this dish is really minimal in prep and has very little cleanup!

Steak in creamy peppercorn sauce with roasted sweet potato and fennel

So as I worked my way through my very full fridge, I was torn on what to do with my pork (click above for recipe). They were pretty thin already (just about 1cm thick), so making any hope of cutting ‘chunks’ for a Vietnamese dish were out the window. I also wasn’t in the mood for cooking with fish sauce.. It CAN smell the house up a bit :-) So I figured I’d utilize the capers I had yet to open. I originally wanted to make an escalope (breaded) but realized we were low on breadcrumbs. It’s also a bit messy to set up an assembly line of flour, egg wash and breadcrumbs. But dipping in just flour isn’t so bad! Due to the recent unexpected heat wave, asparagus had a second season and was available in abundance at my local market. This is one of my favorite vegetables and I think I’ll be eating more of it.. It’s so easy and quick to roast and can be eaten on its own, in an omelet or tossed with garlic and pasta! Whenever I think of scallopini or escalopes, I always think of warm pasta. Since I’m on a garlic kick right now, I took the easy route and infused extra virgin olive oil with a LOT of garlic. I found that if you let it infuse until the garlic slices become really soft and golden, the taste isn’t too strong and doesn’t stay with you for ages. This is also my ‘fast’ way of getting nice garlic flavor instead of roasting a whole garlic. But yum, remembering this dish is making me very hungry.. pasta, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, meat, butter, lemon.. Mmmmm.. Hope you enjoy!

Pork Scallopini in Lemon Butter Caper Sauce

P.S. I recently discovered my new favorite ‘affordable’ wine! Sainsbury’s House Cotes du Rhone. 75cl is £3.99. It also comes in mini 250ml bottles that are 2 for £3.

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A Bit Of MY Soul Food

Posted in British Cuisine, French Flavors, Italian Cuisine, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on September 9, 2010 | 10 Comments »

As the weather begins to turn here in England, I find myself craving for really hearty, comforting, food for the soul. The kind of food you smile at or smile thinking of. The kind of food your fork lingers over. Most importantly the kind of food you finish then curl up onto the couch and sleep a blissful sleep… 

For now I’d like to share three examples of the kind of food that makes me just simply happy… 

Let’s get right to it, shall we? As I’ve mentioned before, one of my favorite weekend pastimes is to cuddle up with Chris and watch BBC’s Saturday Morning Kitchen. Just a couple weeks ago, we watched the well known British chef Sat Bains (who runs Nottingham’s only Michelin-starred restaurant “Restaurant Sat Bains”) whip up one of his family’s favorite brunch dishes – Chorizo Eggs with Scallops and Coriander Salt. As neither of us had had breakfast yet, Chris got inspired to run out to the store and make us breakfast. He came back and did a wonderful job of whipping up this incredibly satisfying breakfast below. It’s incredibly simple but made even better with high quality sausage and high quality bread. Any spicy sausage would really do. For the bread, Chris nipped to our local Italian delicatessen (Filippettos) for some ciabatta. Believe it or not this little delicatessen is perfect. The owner is actually Italian and many of his products are imported directly from Italy (with the packaging written in Italian only!). If you’re ever around, you must have some of their ice cream… But more importantly they have a wide variety of cured/smoked meats and fresh bread. 

Chorizo Fried Eggs with Sauteed Mushrooms on Ciabatta

As you can see Chris added his own little addition of mushrooms sautéed in butter… I think any egg-lover will agree with me when I say there’s something SO satisfying about breaking a perfectly runny yolk. The gooey liquid spills out everywhere and drips off your bite of egg, spicy/smoky chorizo, buttery mushroom and crispy but light toasted ciabatta. And that’s when I look over at Chris and remember why I love him :-) Because he knows exactly how to make me happy! 

(CLICK FOR MORE…)

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WHY I COULD NEVER BE A VEGETARIAN

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on May 18, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

A few weeks ago, my dad’s good friend came down to visit Arizona and left us with a wonderful gift of Kobe beef. If you’ve never had a Kobe steak and you love red meat, I highly urge you to try some! For the uninitiated, Kobe beef is a special grade that is raised based on the methods developed in Kobe, Japan. There are stories of how the cattle are fed beer and massaged with sake. Whether or not those stories are true, the meat is incredibly tender and marbled. It is, of course, extremely expensive to get the real deal, but nowadays you can buy American-raised, Kobe-style beef which is still pretty good.

If you’ve ever had the real deal, then I’m sure you will never forget your first experience. Although I can’t quite remember how old I was or which exact restaurant it was, I can definitely remember the sensation of eating my first Kobe steak. It was a family dinner and I distinctly remember Dad ordering a steak that was supposed to be very special and insanely expensive (something like $200+). Each of us got just one bite, but I will never forget that bite. It literally melted in my mouth and exploded with flavor… Since then, I’ve had a couple Kobe burgers here and there but only a couple other Wagyu/Kobe experiences. One experience was last year in Phuket, Thailand at the Rivet Grill at the Indigo Pearl Hotel. For my birthday dinner, Chris treated me to a delicious Wagyu steak that melted in my mouth.

However, I must admit that no one can cook a steak like my Dad. If you are a “meat-a-tarian” (like Chris), then you’ll know that THE best way to eat a steak is charred rare. This requires very high heat and creates a perfect crust. So no matter how great the quality of meat, it’s not the same if it’s not cooked properly. And when you bite into a steak like the one below (a charred rare Kobe steak), your eyes will close, you’ll probably moan and you’ll know in your heart that you’ll never be a vegetarian.

 

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NY TRIP (PART 4) : FOODIE HEAVEN

Posted in American Cuisine, Gourmet, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 9, 2010 | 1 Comment »

At last, my final post about my trip to New York last month. If you’ve read the other posts, you’ll know my dear friend Adi took me on a little culinary adventure. For two days we ate and walked our way around Park Slope, Chelsea, the West Village and SoHo. We re-visited some of my favorite places, went grocery shopping and checked out the new High Line Park.

But the highlight of my week-long stay in the city was not only a great experience, but was an exceptionally unique and intimate experience. The restaurant is Degustation in the East Village. The layout, itself, is a unique concept – a gourmet spinoff of a Japanese sushi bar. As you can see, it is a pretty small space that only seats 19 with all the cooking being done in the middle by four chefs. There was a grill/fry station, sauté station and plating area. It is categorized as a tapas bar due to its small-plate-style. While some flavors and ingredients are definitely Spanish, I would sway more towards American cuisine.

We had the pleasure of sitting in the far left corner of the bar next to the plating area. And we took full advantage of eyeing every single plate that was assembled. They even let us replace one of the dishes on the 5-course tasting menu. The chefs were really nice and accommodated all of our questions. Correction, he accommodated all of MY questions! But it was so much fun watching the intense concentration, the artistry, the flow. If one vegetable was plated facing the wrong direction, it would have to be thrown out and re-plated anew facing the right way.

For me, this is what made the experience foodie heaven. It was being so close to the action. It was seeing exactly why they call it Culinary ARTS. Each plate was the artist’s blank canvas. His mise en place (all the prepped items) was his paint palette. Even if the food had not turned out to be amazing, I would have enjoyed this experience. It’s one thing to watch sushi chefs but a whole other thing to watch a chef make such delicate, thoughtful food. (That’s not meant as an insult to sushi chefs, especially since my brother is currently training to be one!)

The entire restaurant, as Adi put so eloquently, was like a “finely choreographed song and dance”. Every plate was timed perfectly. The moment you finished your dish, it was removed in the most nonintrusive manner. And voila your new dish was placed in front of you.  The waitstaff was very friendly and knowledgeable, and (at least when I was there) all the patrons seemed to be really enjoying themselves.

But now to the food. As I mentioned, we ordered the 5-course tasting menu but we also couldn’t resist trying the ham and apple croquettes. Croquetas are a classic Spanish tapa. It’s a small, lightly fried fritter and is usually made with ham (the Spaniards do love their ham!). It’s a wonderfully delicate little morsel of crispiness and creaminess. Having both studied abroad in Spain, Adi and I have had our fair share of croquettes. And I have to say that I never ever tire of them. How can you say no to something fried? Something creamy? Something with ham? The best croquettes are the ones that are almost fluffy and don’t leave you feeling greasy (like fried mozzarella sticks do). And Degustation’s version were perfect. The crunch, the explosion of flavor and gooey-ness. I could have eaten 50 more if anyone let me.

Ham & Apple Croquetas (one order came with 4)

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Top 10 Food Trends Of The Decade

Posted in Food News, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on March 10, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Hi Everyone ! Can you believe we’re almost a quarter of a year into the new decade? As I subscribe to MyRecipes.com I recently received an email with their list of the Top 10 Food Trends of the Decade. I thought this was a nice reflection of where food has taken us in recent years and also to have a little look at what it might bring to us in the future.

Top 10 Food Trends of the Decade (as per MyRecipes.com)

  1. Sushi
  2. Bacon
  3. Cupcakes
  4. Coffee
  5. Gourmet Beef
  6. Superfruits
  7. Oils
  8. Whole Grains
  9. Artisan Foods
  10. Sliders

Now that you have the list – a few comments from me on each.

(CLICK FOR MORE…)

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