Busy Nothings

The grill came out from its winter hibernation last night and it was a good thing.  Sure, the temperature was not quite 40 degrees F and I had to shovel off my porch, but I think it was well worth the effort.  As I ended last year grilling season with Rib Eye Steaks with Billionaire’s Bacon Butter, I thought it would be fitting to start this season with a Rib Eye steak as well.  And I wanted to cook right on top of my charcoal chimney again, just like last year.  Here’s what my grilling mise en place looked like:

And here’s the recipe I made:

Mexican Spice-Rubbed Rib Eyes with Lime Butter, adapted from a recipe in the April 2008 issue of Food & Wine magazine

For four servings

4 T unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 small garlic clove, minced

1/4 tsp finely grated lime zest

1 T fresh lime juice

Kosher salt

1 1/2 tsp sweet paprika

1 1/2 tsp ground cumin

1 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

4 12 ounce, 1-inch thick boneless rib eye steaks

Vegetable oil, for the grill

Light or preheat your grill.  In a small bowl, combine the butter, garlic, zest, and lime juice with a pinch of kosher salt.  Set aside and keep at room temperature.  In another small bowl, mix the paprika, cumin, cayenne pepper, and 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt.  Rub the spice mixture evenly over all of the steaks. 

Oil the grate of your grill and grill the steaks to your desired doneness, turning once.  Transfer the steaks to a platter and lightly cover with aluminum foil.  Let rest for 4 minutes.  Serve with the lime butter. 

This is what I came up with:

I served it with some roasted sweet potato with roasted garlic.  As you can see, my steak, turned out rare instead of medium rare.  I had a really good guess that this was going to happen as I was cooking but I needed to take the steak off the grill lest it burn.  This is how I grilled the steak:

As you can see, I put my grate right on top of my charcoal chimney.  The idea of this is to concentrate all of the heat of the charcoal in a small space.  This is to mimic the amount of heat available to chefs at the top steakhouses, the idea being that the large amount of heat would allow for excellent browning on the outside of steaks while cooking it fast enough so that the inside does not become overdone.  Imagine a black and blue steak, and you get the idea.  Of course, with that much heat, steaks can burn and hence, you are limited as to how long you can actually cook the steak.  As a general rule, you can’t really grill it any more than 5 minutes total on top of the chimney without burning.  But with that short of a cooking time, some environmental factors (as I now know) matter a lot.  For one, the outside temperature is key.  The outside temperature was about 37 degrees F when I grilled last night, which is about 25 degrees less than the last time I grilled.  I think that made the steak cook slower.  Second, I used a cold steak (refrigerator temperature all the way through).  I think next time I will try to use a room temperature steak as that will shorten the amount of time that the inside needs to come up to a pleasant medium rare.

As far as the recipe itself goes, I’d say it’s pretty average.  I really thought I would like the lime butter much better than I did but it was a bit odd, actually.  I couldn’t quite reconcile the brightness of the lime with the richness of the butter.  And that combination really didn’t do much with the steak either.  I don’t think I’ll be trying this recipe again. 

This year, Easter included eating, Easter Egg hunting, and, for the very first time, swimming at Casselton, ND’s very own indoor waterpark. 

More pictures from Easter can be found here. 

Once I read this recipe, I knew I had to try it.  The idea is that you heat a nice, heavy saute pan pretty hot, rub a nice rib eye steak with oil, salt, and pepper, and then throw it in the pan.  However, instead of searing both sides, you take a blowtorch to “up” side and brown it.  Then, it gets parked in the oven to finish cooking.  I really wasn’t sure why the blowtorch was being used, other than it being plain fun.  But once I went through the recipe, I realized that it allowed me to get a nice crust on both sides of the steak and still cook it less in the direct heat of the saute pan.  That means that less of the outside of the steak is cooked as the heat is slowly transferred to the middle of the steak.  Hence, you are able to get more of your steak the exact temperature you want.  Here’s what the torched side looked like:

Here’s the recipe:

Blow Torch Steak with Bourbon Mushroom Sauce, from here

1 (2-inch) thick, boneless rib-eye steak

1 tablespoons vegetable oil

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

4 tablespoons butter, divided

1 cup sliced onions

1 cup sliced mushrooms

1/2 cup bourbon

1/2 cup beef broth

2 tablespoons heavy cream

Take the steak out of the fridge and let it sit at room temperature 2 hours before cooking.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Heat a heavy bottomed skillet over medium-high heat. Rub 1 tablespoon vegetable oil all over the steak and season it with salt and pepper on both sides. Place the steak in the preheated skillet to sear on one side. Sear the face-up side with a blowtorch simultaneously. When both sides of the steak are browned, transfer the skillet into the preheated oven to finish cooking.

Cook the steak until it reaches an internal temperature of 140 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer for medium-rare. Remove the skillet from the oven and transfer the steak to a plate to rest while you make the sauce.

Place the skillet over medium heat and add 2 tablespoons of the butter. Add the onions and mushrooms and saute until all the water released from the mushrooms has evaporated. Pour in the bourbon and beef broth and cook until the liquid has reduced by half. Turn off the heat and add the remaining 2 tablespoons butter. Swirl the butter around in the skillet until it melts and then quickly stir in the cream. Season the sauce, to taste, with salt and pepper. Slice the steak across the grain and pour the hot bourbon sauce over it and serve.

The steak and sauce are delicious.  The steak, as mentioned above, is just cooked so right and to temperature.  The sauce has a bit of sweetness from the bourbon, earthiness from the mushrooms, and richness from the butter and cream.  It was amazing.  I served it with some blanched asparagus dusted with some Parmesan cheese.  Here’s what it looked like:

One note:  The original recipe has an obvious error in it.  It calls from 1/2 cup of flour.  This ingredient is not referenced in the directions and would be silly to put into this type of sauce.  So, leave it out.  Enjoy!

This recipe has been a mainstay of my family’s gatherings for about 10 years now-or at least since my family started using a bread machine.  These buns are just a little bit sweet, a little buttery, and melt-in-your mouth delicious.  They’re very soft but have enough character to stand up to some pretty aggressive fillings like Pulled Pork.  They’re as close to perfect as I can think buns can be.  Here’s the recipe:

Soft Sandwich Buns

1 1/4 cup milk

1 pkg. instant yeast

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg

3 T butter, melted, divided

3/4 tsp salt

3 3/4 cup bread flour

Heat milk to about 105 degrees.  Mix milk, yeast, and sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer (or a mixing bowl if not using a mixer).  Let the yeast proof until foamy.  Add 2 T butter and then the egg and mix thoroughly.  Then add 3 cups of the flour.  Beat with the paddle attachment until the dough comes together.  Switch to the dough hook and add another 1/2 cup of flour.  At this point, start kneading.  Add flour as necessary to make a slightly sticky dough.  Knead for 5-10 minutes or until soft and elastic. 

Place into an oiled bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm place until double.  Punch down the dough and roll out until it’s about 3/4 inch thick.  Cut into 3 inch rounds and place onto an ungreased baking sheet.  Cover and let rise until double.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  When ready to bake, brush the buns with the remaining melted butter.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until lightly golden brown.  Remove from oven and immediately transfer to a cooling rack. 

Here’s what they should look like:

Enjoy!

This is another interesting bread from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart.  I have written about his pizza dough recipe and like that recipe, this one uses ice cold water to work it’s magic.  Here’s what I came up with:

As you can see, this is definitely an artisanal-style loaf with a crisp-chewy crust and an airy crumb.  I didn’t quite get the air bubbles inside the loaf that I was hoping for but the flavor of the loaf was outstanding.  It is wheaty, chewy, and satisfying.  It may be the best home-loaf I’ve ever made.  Here’s the recipe:

Pain al’Ancienne

6 cups (27 ounces) flour

2 1/4 tsp (.56 ounce) salt

1 3/4 tsp (.19 ounce) instant yeast

2 1/4 cups plus 2 T to 3 cups (19 to 24 ounces) water, ice cold

Semolina flour or cornmeal for dusting

Combine the flour, salt, yeast, and 19 ounces of water in the bowl of the electric mixer with the paddle attachment and mix for 2 minutes on low speed.  Switch to the dough hook and mix for 5 to 6 minutes on medium speed.  The dough should be sticky on the bottom of the bowl but it should release from the sides of the bowl.  If not, sprinkle in a small amount of flour until this occurs (or dribble in water if the dough seems to stiff and clears the bottom as well as the sides of the bowl).  Lightly oil a large bowl and immediately transfer the dough with a spatula or bowl scraper dipped in water into the bowl.  Mist the top of the dough with spray oil and cover the bowl with plastic wrap.  Immediately place the bowl in the refrigerator and retard overnight.

The next day, check the dough to see if it has risen.  It will probably be partially risen but not doubled in size.  Leave the bowl of dough out at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours (or longer if necessary) to allow the dough to wake up, lose its chill, and continue fermenting. 

When the dough has doubled from its original prerefrigerated size, liberally sprinkle the counter with bread flour (about 1/2 cup).  Gently transfer the dough to the floured counter with a plastic dough scraper that has been dipped in cold water, dipping your hands as well to keep the dough from sticking to you.  Try to degas the dough as little as possible as you transfer it.  If the dough is very wet, sprinkle more flour over the top as well as under it.  Dry your hand thoroughly and then dip them in flour.  Roll the dough gently in the sprinkled flour to coat it thoroughly, simultaneously stretching it into an oblong about 8 inches long and 6 inches wide.  If it is too sticky to handle, continue sprinkling flour over it.  Dip a metal pastry scraper into cool water to keep it from sticking to the dough, and cut the dough in half widthwise with teh pastry scraper by pressing it down through the dough until it severs its, then dipping it again in the water and repeating this action until you have cut down the full length of the dough.  Let the dough relax for 5 minutes. 

Now, place a baking stone in the bottom of your oven and preheat it to 500 degrees F.  Also, place a baking pan or a cast iron skillet on the top rack of your oven.  Cover the backs of two half sheet pans with parchment paper and dust with semolina or cornmeal. 

Cut the dough into 6 roughly equal strips using the dough cutter.  Using floured hands, gently transfer the dough to the prepared baking sheets (3 to a pan).  Be careful to space them as you do not want them to touch.  Using a very sharp knife or kitchen scissors, make three incisions on the top of each loaf.  Spray with oil and then cover with plastic wrap and let them rest until the oven is ready, roughly an hour. 

Heat about 3 cups of water to a simmer.  Measure out 1 cup of it.  Have a spray bottle full of room temperature water at the ready.  Open the oven and slide the parchment paper (with the bread, of course) directly onto the baking stone.  Then pour in the 1 cup of water into the baking pan or cast iron skillet.  Close the oven door and wait 30 seconds.  Then spray the walls of the oven with water.  Repeat two more times.  Then reduce the heat to 475 degrees F.  Bake for 15-20 minutes, rotating midway through the baking time if the loaves are baking unevenly.  When golden brown and the internal temperature is at least 205 degrees, transfer the loaves directly to a cooling rack.  Repeat the baking process with the remaining loaves, remembering to increase the oven temperature to 500 degrees. 

Cool for about 20 minutes on a rack and enjoy. 

As you can see from the recipe, there are a number of unique methods.  Namely, the use of ice cold water in the beginning and the immediate stashing of the dough in the refrigerator.  There’s a host of science behind it and if you want to know about it, well, buy the book.   

A few notes:  1)  This is a very sticky dough, probably the stickiest you’ve ever worked with.  Resist the temptation to add flour to make the dough easy to work with.  Else, you’ll get a much different product.  2)  If you don’t have a baking stone, it is possible to bake the bread directly on the sheet pans.  3)  Don’t get into a tizzy about shaping these loaves perfectly.  I sure didn’t and they still turned out delicious.  Furthermore, these are artisinal breads, not mass-produced breads.  A little individuality in each loaf is a good thing.  Plus, the dough is so wet that trying to shape them is pretty much a lost cause.  4)  This bread goes fabulously with olive oil. 

It’s often the case with really nice things that once you experience them, it’s really hard to go back to whatever you had before.  Towels, cars, houses. . . take your pick.  It’s hard to regress to something less nice because there simply isn’t any enjoyment in it because of the knowledge that there’s something better out there.  This is how I feel about my previous hummus post.  There was really nothing wrong with it but now that I have had the following recipe, I know I can ever go back to it because it just isn’t as good.  In fact, it isn’t even close. 

Really Great Hummus, based on a recipe from Savuer Magazine, No. 92.

1 2/3 cups dried chickpeas, picked over and soaked overnight.

1 clove garlic, peeled

Kosher salt

1/2 cup tahini (sesame paste)

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

3 T extra-virgin olive oil

2 tsp chopped parsley

Drain chickpeas, transfer to a pot, cover with water, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.  Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, partially covered, until chickpeas are tender and skins begin to fall off.  This could take anywhere from 1 hour to 2 1/2 hours.  Drain well, reserving the cooking liquid, and set chickpeas aside until cool enough to handle.

Put chickpeas and 1/4 cup cooking liquid into a food processor and puree, occasionally scraping down bowl, until very smooth, 3-4 minutes.  If the mixture looks dry, add more cooking liquid.  Transfer puree to a large bowl. 

Put the garlic and a pinch of salt into a mortar and crush with a pestle until they form a paste.  Transfer garlic paste to bowl of chickpeas.  Add tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, and salt to taste and mix well to combine.

Transfer hummus to a bowl.  Sprinkle with parsley.  Serve with tortilla chips. 

You should end up with a very smooth and very creamy dip.  Here’s what mine looked like:

What makes this recipe so much better is that it is so much more smoother and earthier.  There seems to be more of the essence of chickpeas in the recipe.  The garlic and lemon juice are just present enough to compliment the beaniness of the dish.  I really don’t know how else to describe it.  It’s just magical. 

A few notes:  1)  The original recipe does two things that I changed.  First, it asks you to peel the chickpeas after cooking.  I can’t say what the benefit to this is but I admit to skipping this step out of sheer laziness.  Second, it instructs the cook to put the olive oil on top of the hummus instead of incorporating it into the hummus.  Your choice.  2)   I am not very good at cooking beans of any sort.  Hence, my rather weak instructions at how to cook them in the recipe.  The original recipe says the chickpeas should cook in 50 minutes.  I found them to still be a bit raw at that point.  I have no insight into why mine took so much longer to cook.  All I can advise is to taste the chickpeas until they are tender.  That’s the only way to tell.  Enjoy!

I have to admit to having next to no real knowledge of curries and of Thai cuisine in general.  Sure, I enjoy it (see this post and this post) but I really don’t know what I’m eating and how it was made.  Nevertheless, I am willing to try to very basic Thai dishes at home.  Hence, my earlier try at a Salmon with Thai Curry Sauce.  And today, I tried to expand on what I learned there with beef.  Here’s what I did:

Spicy Beef Curry with Red Pepper and Edamame, based on this recipe

1 red pepper, seeded and cut into 1/2 inch chunks

1 1/8 tsp minced peeled fresh gingerroot

1 1/8 tsp minced garlic

2 1/4 tsp peanut oil

3/4 tsp ground coriander seeds

1 1/2 tsp curry powder, plus more for rubbing the steaks

1 1/2 tsp Thai red curry paste

1 1/2 tsp paprika

3/4 tsp ground cumin

1 1/4 cups well-stirred unsweetened coconut milk

3 T tomato purée

1 T soy sauce

1 1/2 T packed dark brown sugar

1 cup frozen shelled edamame beans

Enough top sirloin steaks to serve the number of guests; there is enough sauce for 4.

Cilantro, chopped, for garnish

Lime wedges, for garnish

Crushed peanuts, for garnish

Cooked white rice, preferably a Thai-style, basmati, or sushi style rice

In a heavy saucepan sauté red pepperover moderately high heat in oil until soft.   Add the gingerroot and garlic, stir until golden.  Add the coriander, curry powder, curry paste, paprika, and cumin and sauté, stirring, 1 minute, or until fragrant. Whisk in coconut milk, tomato purée, soy sauce, and brown sugar and bring just to a boil.  Add edamame beans.  Simmer for five minutes.  Remove pan from heat and keep warm.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  In a sauté pan, heat a bit of olive oil over medium-high heat.  Season your top sirloin steaks on both sides with salt, pepper, and curry powder.  Place in the pan and sear on both sides, about 1-2 minutes per side.  Place the pan in the oven and let it finish cooking to your desired doneness.  Depending on the thickness and size of your steaks and your desired level of doneness, it could take anywhere from no time in the oven to 10 minutes or more.  Just keep an eye on it. 

When steak is done, remove from heat and place on a cutting board.  Tent with foil and let it sit for 5 minutes.  Then thinly slice against the grain. 

To plate, place a serving of rice in a bowl or on a plate.  Ladle a bit of sauce on top of the rice and then place a portion of beef slices, overlapping them slightly.  Ladle more sauce on top of the beef.  Garnish with the chopped cilantro, crushed peanuts, and lime wedges.  Serve immediately. 

I was really happy with this recipe.  Here’s how I plated it:

What I liked most about this recipe was the addition of the garnishes.  They added a flavor boost as well as a texture contrast.  The lime wedges squeezed atop the dish was particularly good.  It brightened all of the flavors and gave it a nice citrusy tang.  I now think it essential to my curries.  The red pepper and edamame were nice additions as well.  They gave the sauce some nice body and extended the dish quite a bit.  One could, I think, easily just increase the amount of vegetables and skip the meat altogether in this dish.  Enjoy!

Springtime is here, at least for temperate parts of the U.S. and that means fresh asparagus.  I love the stuff and am always looking for new ways to cook with it.  Normally, I’m a blanch and ice water bath type of guy with asparagus (and other vegetables as well) but it’s always nice to shake things up a bit.  This recipe fits the bill:

Roasted Asparagus, from The Joy of Cooking

1 lb asparagus, woody ends cut off

Olive oil

Kosher salt

Preheat oven to 500 degrees (this is not a typo, I mean 500 degrees).  Arrange the asparagus in a single layer on a baking sheet.  I prefer to use some parchment paper underneath but this is not necessary.  Drizzle some olive oil the asparagus and then toss lightly to get an fairly even coating over the asparagus.  Sprinkle liberally with the salt and then roast for 8-12 minutes or until tender.  Serve immediately.

This is the result:

The asparagus takes on a nutty and almost caramelized flavor from the high heat of the oven.  It’s really quite lovely.  Admittedly, and for some reason or another I think this would be a pejorative description in some way, the asparagus tastes “cooked” in the sense that it really doesn’t taste fresh.  Yet, the application of all that dry heat really does conjure up some deep flavors that would not otherwise be there if the goal was only the let the asparagus taste like asparagus.  And I have to say that this is a very easy way to get some really nice asparagus on the table.  Enjoy!

I was really pleasantly surprised by this recipe.  It is so unquestionably bold.  What other recipe would use plain old distilled white vinegar (which by the way, is not gentle at all on the palate) as a main player in a sauce?  I really don’t know.  In fact, I was really skeptical about even using the white vinegar.  I thought I might be clever and substitute white wine vinegar or even rice vinegar.  It’s a good thing I didn’t because the aggressiveness of the white vinegar was actually necessary to make the Chimichurri sauce work.  Only a very strong vinegar would be able to be assertive enough to stand up to the other bold flavors in the sauce, namely, the cilantro and serraño chiles.  The end result is a very strongly flavored sauce that pairs really well with beef.  The flavors are aggressive enough to stand up to the bold flavors of the beef while offering a distinct counterpoint.  It’s really quite good and would probably be even better over grilled steak.  [Insert a pining for spring and summer here.]  Here’s the recipe:

Pan Seared Flank Steak with Chimichurri Sauce, from the Bon Appétit Cookbook

1/2 cup packed fresh cilantro leaves, divided

6 garlic cloves

2 serraño chiles, stemmed, halved

4 large bay leaves, center stem removed

1 T dried oregano

1 tsp Kosher salt

1 cup packed parsley

1/2 cup distilled white vinegar

1/2 cup olive oil

1.5 lbs, flank steak

Combine 1/4 cup of the cilantro leaves, garlic, serraños, bay leaves, oregano, and salt in a food processor.  Process until chopped finely.  Add the vinegar, parsley, olive oil, and the remaining 1/4 cup cilantro.  Process until herbs are minced.  Taste and adjust any seasonings. 

Heat a large heavy saute pan over medium heat.  Add a bit of olive oil to the pan.  Season both sides of the flank steak with salt and pepper and cook until it reaches your desired doneness, about 4-5 minutes per side for medium rare. 

Let the meat rest, covered, for 5 minutes and then cut thinly against the grain.  Serve immediately with some of the Chimichurri sauce spooned over the top.  Pass remaining sauce separately. 

I paired it with Roasted Asparagus.  Here’s a picture: