The Best Steaks Ever!

Lately, Dev and I have been making and effort to cut down on the amount of beef we're eating. So once in a while, for a special occasion, we will go for a steak - I will spend a little more and buy the steaks at Whole Foods - go for the DRY AGED!  For Dev: New York, For me: tenderloin.  :-)

I have cooked our steaks this way a few times now and they've come out great... consistently.   Note: this works best with thick-cut steaks, at least 1.5" thick for the NY and 2+ for the tenderloin. **UPDATE. Highly recommend this technique w/ Dry aged steaks only. We tried regular steaks, and for some reason, the end result wasn't as good - tougher/drier texture. MEH.

Preheat oven to 500F
(I usually cook the steaks after baking a potato gratin, so the oven has been on for a good 1.5+ hours!)

Yamadan Steaks
2 steaks, thick cut
(New York 1.5+" thick, Tenderloin, 2+" thick)

Montreal Steak Seasoning

2 pats of unsalted butter

Preheat a heavy cast iron skillet on medium-high - high heat for 20 minutes.
Take steaks out of the fridge and let rest 10 min.  Pat steaks with paper towels - you want them to be dry. Salt the steaks a few minutes just before searing.

Sear steaks in the heated pan for 2 min. (no more) then, put the cast iron pan directly in the oven for 3 min. Flip steaks, top with a pat of butter and cook an additional 4 min. (Cooking time depends upon how thick your steaks are and how well you want your steaks. Dev likes medium rare-plus and I like medium rare.)

Take steaks out of the oven and let the rest on a rack and cover with foil for 5 min.
If you like, spoon the pan drippings of butter onto the steaks!

Pair with a good wine and ENJOY!!!

Beef & Vegetable Rollups : a late night snack.

This recipe came from a book of my mom's called Japanese Cooking for Health & Fitness.

Beef and Vegetable Rollups
.30 lbs of thinly sliced beef (I used Rib Eye for shabu shabu)
2 carrots, peeled and cut into thin strips
handful of green beans
2 green onions, cut into thin strips
cornstarch

Broth to cook carrots
1/4C water
1 T sugar
1T soy sauce

Blanch green beans in salted, boiling water for about 3 min. Set aside.
Prepare broth for carrots, heat until sugar is melted.

Cook carrots for about 5 min. Set aside.


Lay out the strips of meat and dust one end with cornstarch.
place a few green beans, carrots and strips of green onion.

Roll them up tightly. Then dust the outsides with cornstarch.

Broth for rolls
1/4C water
1 T sugar
1 T sake
1 T mirin
3 T soy sauce

Heat about 1 T of oil in pan, on high heat. Sear beef on all sides. Add broth, bring to a boil, and lower heat to a simmer for 5 min.



Cool. Cut each roll into 3 pieces. The sauce isn't too sweet or salty - next time, I might add Sriracha for a little added heat. The vegetables are crisp, which is a nice contrast in texture with the tender beef.

It's quite nice. ENJOY!

Swedish Meatballs

Swedish Meatballs

2 slices bread
1/4 C milk
3 T butter
1/2 C onion, diced
1 tsp kosher salt
3/4 lb ground beef
3/4 lb ground pork
2 egg yolks
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 C flour
3 C beef broth
1/4 C heavy cream


Tear bread into chunks in a bowl and cover with milk.

Heat 1T butter over medium heat - saute onion with a pinch salt until soft. Remove from heat and set aside.

Combine spices. In a mixer, combine ground beef, ground pork, egg yolks, bread mixture, sauted onions, 1 tsp salt and spices.

On med-high speed, mix for almost 10 min. until fluffy and light in color. Form 1 inch balls on cookie sheet.

Heat 1T butter in a cast iron skillet (or heavy bottom pan).
Brown meatballs in 2 batches. Set meatballs aside.

Stir in 1/4C flour in pan. Heat until lightly browned. 

Slowly add beef broth and simmer.

Add cream and a little Kitchen Bouquet browning sauce.

Add meatballs back into pan and simmer for 5 minutes.

Shepherd's Pie

DAMMIT BEN!

I've never had Shepherd's Pie, but for some reason I've always wanted to make it. I got this recipe from my friend Ben who is a chef. He usually eyeballs the ingredients for his dishes, but he was nice enough to breakdown this recipe for me. Since this is HIS creation, I won't post the recipe.  ;-)

Dev and I aren't huge fans of lamb, so I used ground beef only.  I suppose that makes it Cottage Pie, then right? Originally,  I was going to use Veggie Ground - Ben laughed at me for even considering it - HEH. The browning of the beef is essential and pretty much what makes this dish so tasty.

... I didn't have tomato paste, so I added ketchup (good tip Ben!)

I almost forgot the peas!

Mashed potato Topping




I have this cake decorating gadget so I used it to pipe on the potatoes. Dev helped me take the pictures!

Bake at 375F for 30-45 minutes until golden brown on top!

Wine pairing: Wente Southern Hills Cabernet Sauvignon.