Steak

Regrettably it's been a while since my last post.  Ngoc has been sick and one of the byproducts is the mother in law coming over every day and cooking lunch and dinner.  Not many recipes are getting tried as of late, though not to my dismay I'll admit.  

One mini-meal I did create last weekend was the ultra classic steak for two.  It goes without saying that the basic grilled/broiled beef steak, almost entirely naked, should be a basic arrow in the quiver of any herbivore chef.  Pair it with 1 starch and 1 veggie, and you've got a classic American meal.

There are many ways to heat a steak, but I prefer cast iron for it's high conductivity and ability to really get a crispy black surface on each side of meat.  Everyone has their preferred cut, but it goes without saying that the quality of meat is going to pay a major factor in the resulting steak, especially since we're doing very little other than adding heat and serving.  I prefer rib eye for its fat content.  Ngoc prefers filet for its lean but tender texture.  New York and sirloin steaks also will work, but bone-in cuts like porterhouse or t-bone are better saved for the broiling rack.

The meat needs a basic coating of fat.  This is the first step in ensuring a hot and crispy burn on each surface.  You will also need to rub in some salt for a basic flavoring, but just how much is up to you.  I coat each side with a thin layer of vegetable oil and maybe a half teaspoon of kosher salt (do not used iodized salt, EVER!)

While heating up the cast iron to medium high heat, melt a couple tablespoons of butter in the skillet.  This will come in handy later.  I should not that, if you do not have a cast iron skillet, you need to get your pan over BLAZINGLY hot heat to come close to simulating the amount of direct heat that cast iron can send straight to the meat's surface.  

Once your butter is melted and bubbling ferociously, place your steaks in the skillet and begin basting the surface of the steaks with the butter.  Do this semi-continuously until you are completely done cooking.  For a 1.5 inch steak, rare is about 2.5 minutes on each side.  For a medium steak, try 2.5 minutes on each side twice for a total of almost 10 minutes.  This is the hardest part to convey, and will probably only be perfected after a bit of practice on your end.

Viola!  You should have a crispy, buttery, juicy steak ready to serve alongside a glass of red. 

Viva El Mar: Fish for the New Year #2, Arctic Char

Quickly becoming a household tradition is something Ngoc and I call Crab Night. In the winter months, its not uncommon to find us on an otherwise uneventful Friday night steaming a couple live whole crabs and calling it a night. Yesterday we mixed it up a little, since I'm kind of feeling overloaded on crab as of late.

While Ngoc opted for the traditional Dungeness, I instead scored a half pound fillet of fresh arctic char. The char, as you can probably tell from the photos, is a close close relative of salmon, with a very similar taste and firmness that falls apart in layers. It differs in its higher fat content, due to the frigid ocean temperatures in its nature habitat, the arctic circle. It actually is the found farther north than any other freshwater fish, and is listed by fish watch as a sustainably harvested species. In addition, one observation of my own is that char seems a little firmer than salmon...it held up pretty well on the grill over open heat.


The high fat content and firmness lend themselves to a variety of cooking methods. Last night, I goosed the grill and gave her 4 minutes on the skin side of the filet, and 3 minutes on the meat side of the fillet. Over the grill flame, a crunchy crust starts to develop on the meat side of the fillet after 3 minutes. This is good! BUT, you don't want to overdo it and dry the fish out. Accordingly, use the skin side of the fillet to control your meat doneness. If you want a drier, more well cooked piece of fish, go for 5-6 minutes on the skin side, while still maintaining the same 3 minutes on the meat side. My grill was on medium high. After that, a little salt and some pepper, possible a squeeze of lemon, and you're good to go.

Look at that strip of fat! It's like a frikkin' pork chop!

Hopefully this will give you a laugh. We are without a porch light at our new place, so grilling has been done with everything from car headlights to an open back door that spills light out onto the porch. This method seems to work best thus far:


Also, I developed a little recipe for Sweet Potato Fries on the fly last night to go along with the fish. You'll never believe the secret ingredient. After peeling and slicing a couple of sweet potatoes (variety of your choosing, I used Japanese sweet potatoes) into 1/3 inch thick fries, heat up your wok and about 3/4 to a full cup of vegetable oil until a drop of water really sizzles on the oil surface. In batches, fry the fries for about 2 minutes for each batch. In the meantime, pre-heat the oven to 425.

After each batch of fries comes out of the wok, arrange them on a greased cookie sheet. When they've all made it onto the sheet, sprinkle a half teaspoon of GARAM MASALA per potato over the fries, along with a pinch of cayan pepper. Bake for 30 minutes.

After you pull the fries out of the oven, scrape them into a metal bowl and shake with a pinch of kosher shalt. Viola!

Cinnamon Buns with Buttermilk Icing

Recently, I've been getting more and more into baking. Blame my cold in December, or a sudden interest in being a more useful wife, but it's a new hobby that's testing both my patience and my ability to stay petite in spite of all the sugar and butter I'm eating these days.

After a few frustrating attempts at trying to find a good source for recipes, I finally caved and purchased Baking Illustrated, published by Cooks Illustrated Magazine. Thanks to Susan/Alfred for introducing me to this amazing magazine! I'll have to get a subscription soon.

Our first attempt is their recipe for Cinnamon Buns without yeast! Yes, you CAN make cinnamon buns with just baking powder.

What I like about this book is that there's always a narrative before each major recipe that describes the steps and thought-process that were taken to develop the recipe. For example, for the below recipe, they went through a series of different options for the liquid base: heavy cream, whole milk, skim milk, and buttermilk. They concluded that whole milk made the buns too heavy, and skim milk made the dough too rough and bland. Buttermilk won out.

You'll need exactly one stick of melted butter. Melt it all at once and use as you need it. The buns are best eaten warm, but can hold up well for up to 2 hours.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted, for greasing the pan.

Cinnamon-Sugar Filling
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

Biscuit Dough
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus additional flour for work surface
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Icing
2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons buttermilk
1 cup confectioners' sugar

Instructions
1. Adjust an oven rack to the upper-middle position and heat the oven to 425-degrees. Pour 1 tablespoon of the melted butter into a 9-inch nonstick round cake pan, brush to coat the pan.

2. FOR THE FILLING: Combine the sugars, spices, and salt in a small bowl. Add 1 tablespoon of the melted butter and stir with a fork until the mixture resembles wet sand. Set aside. This is key - make sure the mixture is like wet sand. Ours turned out a little too dry with this and as a result, our filling had a hard time staying inside the buns.

3. FOR THE DOUGH: Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk the buttermilk and 2 tablespoons of the melted butter in a measuring cup or a small bowl. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until the dough is absorbed for 30 seconds. The dough will look very shaggy. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead until just smooth and no longer shaggy.

4. Pat the dough with your hands into a 12 by 9-inch rectangle. Brush the dough with 2 tablespoons of the melted butter. Sprinkle the filling evenly onto the dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border of plain dough around the edges. Press the filling firmly into the dough. Using a bench scraper or metal spatula, loosen the dough from the work surface. Starting at the long side, roll the dough, pressing lightly to form a tight log. Pinch the seam to seal. Roll the log seam-side down and cut it evenly into 8 pieces. With your hand, slightly flatten each piece of dough to seal the open edges and keep the filling in place. Place 1 roll in the center of the prepared nonstick pan, then place the remaining 7 rolls around the perimeter of the pan. Brush the remaining 2 tablespoons butter.

5. Bake until the edges of the buns are golden brown, 23-25 minutes. Use an offset metal spatula to loosen the buns from the pan. Wearing oven mitts, place a large plate over the pan and invert the buns onto the plate. Then, place a greased cooling rack over the plate and invert the buns onto the rack. Cool for about 5 minutes before icing.


we didn't realize we needed to roll the dough so tight, so our filling made a bit of a mess


but it's nothing a little sugar buttermilk glaze can't hide

6. While the buns are cooling, line some parchment paper underneath the buns/cooling rack to avoid making a mess. Whisk the cream cheese and the buttermilk in a large bowl until thick and smooth. It will look like cottage cheese at first. Sift the confectioners' sugar over the mixture and whisk until a smooth glaze forms, about 30 seconds. Then, spoon the glaze over the buns. Serve immediately.



Enjoy!