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Posts Tagged ‘steak’

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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Quick and Easy Steak Sandwich

Posted in American Cuisine, tagged , on February 5, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

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Sometimes Chris and I just crave red meat. And these days I’m always looking for a quick meal that’s not too sinful.. So as requested by the husband we had steak sandwiches two weeks in a row. It’s not exactly THE healthiest meal but it’s definitely fast. This can easily be changed from a steak sandwich to a warm steak salad though!

A couple of pointers that can make this sandwich that much better..

* Bread – Ciabatta makes for a great crispy and light sandwich. It also has more surface space and thus can fit more meat. Lightly toast the bread before filling it also.
* Meat – Of course the better the quality the better the taste. But don’t worry too much as meat can get very expensive. I used casserole steaks. Just be sure to slice it as thin as possible.

RECIPE FOR TWO

~300g steaks
~1 tsp Garlic salt
Black pepper
Drizzle plain oil to coat
~0.5 tsp thyme
Few dashes Worcestershire sauce
Pinch cayenne pepper or chilli powder

1 large pepper
1 medium red onion
Large handful mushrooms
Garlic salt
Black pepper
Thyme
Ciabatta or baguette
Large handful grated cheese (cheddar is fine)
~2-3 tbsp mayonnaise
~1 tsp horseradish sauce
~1 tsp English mustard

1. Slice the steaks as thin as possible. Trim off any chewy sinew pieces. Put in a mixing bowl and add the following seasoning. Set aside to let the flavors mingle.
2. Shred the cheese. Then in a small bowl combine the mayo, horseradish and mustard. Adjust the quantities as desired. A punch of salt would be great too.
3. Slice your peppers, onions and mushrooms into about 1/2 cm thick slices. While heating a frying pan, slice the bread in half lengthways and then in half. Lightly toast at ~200C and leave the oven on. Add plain oil to your hot pan and add the peppers first. When they start to soften after a couple min, add the onions. Sprinkle some garlic salt (use plain if you need to) and black pepper. Cook until soft for another couple min. Set aside. Add a bit more oil and add the mushrooms. Sprinkle salt, pepper and pinch of thyme and cook until soft. Set aside with peppers.
4. Ensure there are no juices left in the pan and add a splash of oil. When the oil moves easily in the pan you know it’s warm. Add the steak and cook until it’s colored on each side. It’s okay if there are some red bits left because you’ll be putting it in the oven. Set aside with the veg as soon as its done.
5. Spread the mayo on the bread. Start piling on the steak with a fork as there will be a lot of juice. Then pile mushrooms, then onions and peppers. Sprinkle the cheese on and place the sandwiches (open face) onto a baking tray. Cook in the oven until the cheese is melted and eat!

It you’re going the healthy route, you could still melt the cheese by layering the meat directly onto a baking tray. Or you can skip that and layer the meat and veg onto spinach leaves and top with the a spicy horseradish dressing. Just use the above mayo mixture and add a splash of water and/or vinegar to thin it out. Hope you enjoy!

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The Pleasures of Slow-Roasting..

Posted in Gourmet, Italian Cuisine, tagged , , , , , , on October 22, 2011 | 3 Comments »

As I just finished watching BBC’s Saturday Kitchen (as I do most Saturday’s if I can help it, check out another post on the show), I wanted to quickly post in response to the viewer’s call-in question about lamb shoulder. I’ve been meaning to catch up on my posts to write about the slow-roasted lamb shoulder I made last week, so I thought this was a good a time as any!

Last Friday, Chris and I had some friends over for dinner and I wanted to make something different, not too difficult but still have some ‘wow’ factor. I remembered that I recently watched an episode of Food Network UK’s Street Feasts (with British Chef Andy Bates who is renowned for his award-winning pies, check out at EatMyPies.co.uk). He’s been exploring the ‘street food revolution’ in the UK and then making his take on dishes back in the kitchen. On a side note, I went to check out Andy’s stall yesterday at the Whitecross Street Market and was a bit disappointed he wasn’t there, but his mum was delightful and very sweet.. My spirits were quickly turned around when I tried his chorizo pie and traditional pork scotch egg..

One of his creations is a Slow-Roasted Lamb Shoulder with Feta Salsa. I’ve never actually cooked lamb shoulder before (chops/rack yes, but no other cuts), and I’ve never ‘slow-roasted’ anything either. Since I had the time that day, I thought I’d take a stab at it. And let me tell you.. There was definitely WOW factor. I marinated it in the morning (not overnight as I forgot!) and it was just fuuulll of flavor. And the smells that were coming through were incredible. There’s something to be said about the satisfaction of slow cooking anything.. kind of like the feeling you get when you bake I think.. The effort, love and care you put into it and the patience you have to have when the delicious smells are permeating your clothes and house.. all of it is worth it when you take that tray out of the oven and sigh with relief that it looks just as amazing as it smells. My only regret is that I didn’t take more pictures because I was hosting, but that only means that I’ll have to make it again! This dish was so straight forward to make. The simplicity of the ingredients makes the flavors wholesome yet bold and comforting. Mmm I’m remembering how the meat just melted off that bone.. And that feta just melts into the rich garlicky olive oil. I was amazed at the depth of flavor that the lemon zest provides without being ‘lemony’ too.. I highly recommend this dish! It is particularly brilliant for a dinner party as it’s interactive. Also, because it’s slow-roasted.. it allows you to clean all your cooking up before guests arrive. Ours were amazed at how clean the kitchen was when they came in (our kitchen/lounge is open plan). All I had to do was pull the lamb out and pour the salsa over.

Slow-Roasted Lamb Shoulder with Feta Salsa

Now whether or not my starter was a classic pairing isn’t exactly certain, but I wanted to keep with the Mediterranean theme. So I made a dish I’ve made before which is also straight forward, doesn’t require a lot of cooking and lets you clean up before your guests arrive – Scallops with Sauce Vierge (Click here for the original post on it). It’s a great starter as it’s got lots of flavors and freshness with the herbs, but isn’t too heavy at the same time. I served it with a side of ciabatta toasts. I prepared the sauce in advance whilst my lamb was cooking and let the flavors marry whilst I cleaned up. Then when our canapes were finished, I just seared the scallops in some butter/olive oil until they were just golden brown. Happy to say they were perfectly cooked!

Scallops with Sauce Vierge

So for the canapes.. I have no idea how I came up with this but it suddenly occurred to me the night before our little dinner party.. Here’s my Steak, Roasted Onion, Crouton Canape with a homemade Roasted Garlic Mayonnaise (click here for my post on making mayo).. For this mayo, simply take a whole head of garlic, chop the top off (to expose the garlic cloves), place in foil, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, close it up tightly and roast until the cloves are just melting. Use this olive oil to make the mayo (add more oil of course if need be) and squeeze in the bits of roasted, creamy garlic. These were such a hit and fairly easy to make! If you don’t want to make homemade mayo, just add the roasted garlic oil to store bought mayo.. Hope you try this one! Again, easy but with WOW factor :-)

Steak Canapes with roasted red onion and croutons

To be a bit cheeky, I presented them on little plates with the mayo in egg cups!

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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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My Ongoing Love Affair With Meat

Posted in British Cuisine, Sandwiches, Vietnamese Cuisine, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on October 1, 2010 | 2 Comments »

As you all know I am quite carnivorous. I do love my veggies and am improving on my fruits, but nothing can really beat a juicy steak or Sunday roast (except for maybe anything fried).  So I thought I’d share a little slide show of the meat I’ve been eating. Hope you enjoy! 

Sunday Roast - Rosemary Garlic Lamb

Perfectly crispy, fluffed, roast potatoes

So many people give the Brits a hard time about their “plain” food, but as I’ve come to learn plain is just another word for simple. And if you have good quality ingredients, you don’t always need a whole lot of them. The above is courtesy of Mr. Chris Hutton (the boyfriend). Lamb was the very first thing Chris ever cooked for me, and three years later I’m still around! He stuffs garlic cloves and rosemary into the meat and rubs English mustard powder and a bit of flour on the outside. Since rosemary is such a fragrant herb, it can really stand on its own. (Tarragon and sage are other unique, distinct herbs) Be sure to keep it covered ~75% of the cooking time so moisture isn’t lost. It’s SO simple, but when done right it’s such a comforting meal.. Especially when it’s accompanied by perfectly crisp, fluffed potatoes! It’s not fair the Brits get such good potatoes. I have neeever been a potato person, but I’m definitely a convert! A classic trick is to use some goose fat to brown your potatoes in. It’s a natural product and will give you super crispy results! For crispy fries/chips, ensure you have dried, cooked potatoes before frying. Stick them in the oven for just a minute or two to finish off the drying process and voila! 

(CLICK FOR MORE…)

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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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