The Perfect Pan Seared Steak with Frizzled Onion Straws

I had a hankering for a steak the other day. Grilling season is over so I prepared the steak in a way that I learned from an article I read by Julia Child years ago. This is a perfect way to do steaks if you want them quick or if the grill is put away for the winter.

Start with the most beautiful steak you can find at the grocery store. It should be 3/4 to an inch thick and have lots of marbling. For my steak I found a beautiful porterhouse, and to make it even better the store had them on sale. The only other piece of equipment that you need is a heavy black iron skillet. I have found this to be the best pan for searing. The key to a good pan seared steak is a heavy skillet, high heat, and the patience to not fuss with the meat while it is searing so a good crust forms.

The way I test for doneness is by pressing on the meat and looking at the color of the juice coming to the surface. Here is a link that teaches you how to test for doneness using the feel of the palm of you hand called the finger test. Also, the juice coming to the surface should be clear, and bright pink.

After the steak is done, it should rest for about ten minutes. While it is resting you can prepare a sauce from the pan using shallots, red wine and butter or just pull up the fond using some melted butter and whatever juice the meat gave up while resting, which is what I did in this case. I served the steak with frizzled onion straws, which made it extra good. I have tell you, it was one of the best steaks I have had in a long time.

Pan Seared Steak

1 T olive oil
1 3/4 inch to 1 inch thick well marbled steak
kosher salt
freshly ground pepper
2 T butter

Sprinkle steak on one side with a generous amount of kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. Coat the bottom of a heavy skillet with olive oil. Put over high heat and preheat until oil just begins to smoke. Place steak in pan, seasoned side down. Season the other side of the steak. Leave it undisturbed in the pan over high heat for 5 to 7 minutes. When the meat can be moved without sticking it is seared. Turn over the steak. Cook undisturbed for another 5 to 7 minutes, until steak tests to desired doneness using the finger test and juices have begun to run clear. (This should be medium rare). Remove steak to a warmed plate and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt butter in pan and scrape up all the brown bits (the fond). Cook this until butter is foamy. Pour any juice the steak has given up while resting back into the pan and cook for a bit. Pour this sauce over the steak. Pile frizzled onions on top of the steak.

Frizzled Onion Straws

1 medium onion
2 T wondra flour
1/2 t salt
1/4 t white pepper

Slice onions against the rings into very thin slices. Separate the slices into straws. Mix flour, salt and pepper in a bowl. Toss onions with the flour mixture. Fry onions in two inches of oil over medium heat until golden brown. (Cook in several batches if need to avoid overcrowding the pan). Remove for pan and drain on a paper towel. (Onions will crisp up as they sit).

Enjoy!

Great Deals under $50 at Cooking.com!

World's Best (and easiest) Pot Roast

My mom is known at our church as the Pot Roast Lady. Whenever someone is sick or have some crisis from the church, she brings over a dish of pot roast to make their life a little easier. Her Pot Roast is so coveted, that folk in our church have been known to feign illness, in order to be recipients of her roast. Pot roast is one the most simple of comfort food. It is the epitome of meat and potatoes. You can put this on in the morning, turn the heat down and have a great, warm comforting meal in the evening. Since we had the first hint of fall in the air yesterday, I cooked my mom's recipe of pot roast. As usual, it was delicious.

Pot Roast

2 T vegetable oil
1 4-6 lb bottom round beef roast
1 large onion sliced
salt and pepper
1 c water
8 carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks
1 c potato water (the reserved water from boiled potatoes)
1 T butter
2 T wondra flour

In a heavy dutch oven, brown the meat very well on all sides, add the sliced onions, heavily salt and pepper the roast, add 1 cup of water and reduce heat. Allow meat to braise for 3-4 hours until it is tender. Add carrots 1-2 hours before you are finished cooking the beef. Check occasionally and add more water if necessary to keep about an inch to 2 inches of liquid in the bottom of the pan. Remove meat from pan and cover with foil. Allow to rest at least 10 minutes before slicing. Remove carrots and onions from pan and set aside. Pour off cooking liquid from dutch oven and reserve for later. Deglaze pan with potato water, making sure you get all the browned bits from pan, pour into reserved cooking liquid. Melt 1 T butter in pan, add 2 T wondra flour and cook for about 2 minutes until flour is bubbly and slightly golden. Return cooking liquid to pan and whisk with flour making sure all lumps are removed, cook for 5 or so minutes until gravy is thickened. Slice meat against the grain. Arrange on platter with carrots and onions. Serve with gravy, mashed potatoes and red cabbage.

Enjoy!

Great Deals under $50 at Cooking.com!

Norwegian Meatballs (kjottkaker)

Back to school for the kids this week.  It's time for some Norwegian soul food, so I made Norwegian Meatballs. The recipe given here tells you how to make gravy, which you must have, however I learned a secret from my mother-in-law--freeze your leftover gravy from a pot roast, then deglase the pan  after browning the meatballs and add the frozen gravy to the pan, return the meatballs and cook for 30 minutes or so.

Norwegian Meatballs (Kjottkakker)

1 T butter

1 medium onion, minced

1 & 1/2 lb ground beef

3 slices white bread

1/3 c milk

1 egg

1/4 t nutmeg

1/4 t allspice

1 t salt

1/4 t pepper

Melt butter in a frying pan. Cook onions in butter until clear.  Soak bread in milk.  Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.  Form meat into balls about the size of a golf ball.  Melt about 1 T. butter in pan, brown meatballs on all sides.  Remove from pan.

Gravy

1/4 c flour

2 1/2 c beef stock

Cook flour in pan, (add additional fat if necessary).  Add the beef stock.  Cook until thickened.

OR

Deglaze the pan with 1/2 cup of water.  Add 2 cups of left over beef gravy that you have in the freezer.

Return meatballs to the gravy and cook for 20-40 minutes.  Serve meatballs with mashed potatoes, and lingonberry jam.  (Cranberry sauce is a good substitute if you can't find lingonberry jam).

Enjoy!

Great Deals under $50 at Cooking.com!

Time to Grill! (The best london broil marinade recipe)

Memorial Day Weekend at the Jersey Shore signals many things. For the locals like me, it signals lots of traffic on the weekends and our once lonely beaches crowded with folk from "up north", for several months. It signals the warm and balmy weather, and the date to plant the Big Boy tomatoes, pole beans and squash. For a foodie like me the most anticipated signal is the beginning of grilling season.

I have been trying to hone my grilling skills over the past few years. I used to be a gas grill man. Just step out onto the back deck, fire the grill and throw on the burgers, dogs or steak. It's quick and easy. However, grilling this way does not really add anything to the flavor of the food. So I made the switch back to old fashioned charcoal grilling. There are a couple of essentials for charcoal grilling. I got rid of my gas grill and picked up a Weber Kettle. I also picked up a fire chimney starter. Starting your coals this way eliminates the biggest objection to charcoal grilling which is taste of lighter fluid which can ruin the taste of a great steak. A fire chimney starter is a way to get red hot coals really fast. You put a sheet of newspaper in the bottom chamber of the starter and pile the charcoal in the top chamber. Light the newspaper with a match or lighter and about ten minutes later---searing hot coals. Another step that I took in my development as a charcoal griller was to buy hardwood chunk charcoal instead of briquettes. This kind of charcoal is more expensive, but it is worth the extra money.

Now that you have your grill set-up its time to grill and one my favorite things to grill is Savory Marinated London Broil. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Savory Marinated London Broil

1 4-7 lb. beef round for london broil (the oyster cut is the best if you can find it)

Marinade
1/3 cup of olive oil
1 clove of garlic smashed
3 T ketchup
2 T soy sauce
1 T Worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Mix marinade ingredients together, pour into zip lock bag. Put London broil into bag and marinate in refrigerator for 2 hours.

Grill London broil until it is medium rare to medium (about 145 internal temp). Rest for 10 minutes. Slice thin across the grain of the meat. (This last step is especially important because if you don't the meat will be tough.)

Enjoy!

Mary's Spagehetti Sauce (Gravy)

Well, today I am cooking my wife's best friends spaghetti sauce. Since I am not Italian I can get away with calling it spaghetti sauce. It is actually known as "gravy" a term I have picked up since all the paisanos from Brooklyn started moving down the shore. One of the wonderful benefits of that migration to us beach bums is that our stores are now filled with the best Italian provisions and there are several Italian specialty stores where you can get fantastic bread from Brooklyn or Newark, NJ.

Before Mary taught my wife to make sauce, I was never very happy with our attempts. It just was never right. Mary generously unfolded for us the secrets of the best sauce I have every had. Here are some of the secrets. First of all, you must brown the tomato paste in olive oil before adding the rest of the tomatoes. The carmalization of the tomato paste adds to the depth of flavor so it is important not to skip this step. Another secret is to infuse the olive oil with onions and garlic rather than cooking the onions and garlic along time in the sauce. A final secret has to do with the tomatoes you use. It is important not to use imported tomatoes. The reason this is the case is that imported tomatoes are a cooked product. This is to get around import taxes on imported vegetables. If you use American tomato products you get more actual unadulterated tomatoes. (Who knew?)

So here goes the recipe. The recipe make quite a bit and it freezes well.

Mary's Tomato Sauce

1 #10 can of crushed tomatoes (not imported)
1/5 #10 can of tomato sauce
1 18 oz can of tomato paste
1/2 c. olive oil
2 large onions, diced
3-6 cloves of garlic, minced
3 T garlic powder
salt & pepper
sugar

3 lbs sweet Italian sausage, well browned
meatballs (recipe below)

In a large stock pot, sweat the onions and garlic in the olive oil until the onions are soft and translucent. (Adding a couple of pinches of salt at the beginning of cooking helps this along). Remove onions and garlic from pan, drain as much olive oil as possible back into the pan. Over high heat brown the tomato paste in the olive oil. Add the garlic powder, about 2 t. of salt and 20 grinds of pepper to the tomato paste. Blend in while continuing to cook a bit longer. Add the crushed tomatoes and the tomato sauce. Taste and correct for seasoning. If the sauce is to acid add a couple of teaspoons of sugar. Bring to simmer. At this point I put aside a couple of cups of sauce for my son who is a vegetarian. Add sausage that has been browned on all sides (again the browning is important as it adds to the flavor profile) and the meatballs. It is actually the addition of and cooking with the meat that turns the sauce into "gravy". Cook at a slow simmer for 3-4 hours.

Mary's Meatballs

3 lb. of ground beef
6 eggs
6 cloves of garlic, finely minced
1/2 cup of dried parsley
1/2 cup of pecorino romano cheese
salt, pepper
unflavored dried bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 375%. Beat the eggs together with the parsley, cheese, salt and pepper. (Go easy on the salt as the cheese is salty). Mix in the garlic. Mix the meat into this mixture. Add enough bread crumbs so that the wetness is gone and the mixture holds together well. (About 3/4-1 and 1/4 cups). Make sure the everything is mixed together well.

Dip your fingers in oil. Roll mixture into balls about 1 and 1/2 times the size of a golf ball. Place in baking dish. Add about 1/4 of an inch of water to the baking dish. Bake in oven for about 40 minutes until the meatballs are browned. Add the meatballs to the sauce.

Enjoy!

Beefsteak Dinner (Whole Beef Tenderloin Roasted in a Kosher Salt Crust)

It is our family tradition to cook a Beefsteak dinner on New Years Eve. For those of you who don't know, "Beefsteak" is what a whole beef tenderloin roasted in a "cast" of Kosher Salt is called in North Jersey. The meat is cooked rare, sliced thin, dipped in melted butter, and served on thin sliced Italian or just plain white bread. It is always accompanied by a "relish tray" of raw carrots, celery, scallions, radishes, olives and pickles. Sometimes people serve fries at a Beefsteak dinner, but I have always thought they fill you up to much to have room for the star of the show.

I have never heard of this style of cooking a beef tenderloin outside of my native North Jersey, but in those parts there are whole businesses built around doing "Beefsteaks". It is common for organizations to hold Beefsteaks as fund raisers. They are also often done for political fund raisers. The best way to do a beef steak though is with a bunch of friends for a special time of celebration.

When I was growing up my uncle used to cater Beefsteaks and this is how the tradition got handed down to me. I have old eight millimeter films of my parents hosting new years eve Beefsteaks our house in Clifton. (My folks were quite the party people in those days.) One wonderful memory I have is of sitting in School # 4 on West 2nd Street and smelling the delicious aroma of beef steak roasting in an open pit at Hap Nightingales, the beef steak caterer next to the school. (By the way, Hap Nightingale is still owned by the Nightingale family in the same location they have been cooking Beefsteaks for the last 60 years.)

This year we had our beef steak at the home of Russ and Debbie, in Lancaster, PA. We introduced the tradition to them a few years back and Russ always wants to get together to Ring in the New Year with this decadent tradition. He invited a few friends over to join us, so the tradition is spreading outside of it's North Jersey environs.

You can find different recipes for salt crusted beef tenderloin on the Internet, but all of them complicate this simple way of cooking this select cut of beef.

Here is my recipe for how to cook a Beefsteak. You have to follow it to a T to get the full North Jersey experience.

North Jersey Style Beefsteak Dinner

1 whole beef tenderloin, trimmed (about 6 or 7 lbs.)
1 box Kosher Salt
Water
1 lb butter
2 loafs Italian Bread

Preheat oven to 400.

Moisten kosher salt with enough water so that it just sticks together.
Place tenderloin in a low sided pan, bend thin end of tenderloin up so that the girth of the meat if fairly uniform. Put a meat thermometer in the thickest part of the beef. Encase the beef fully in the salt so that is completed covered with about 3/4 of an inch of salt and no meat is showing through.

Roast the meat in the oven for about 45 minutes to 1 hour until the thermometer reads 120. Let meat rest in the salt crust for another 1/2 hour to 1 hour. It will continue to cook in the salt crust. Remove salt crust when temperature is between 140 and 145.

While meat is resting heat butter in a roasting pan until it is just melted.

Rinse salt off meat. Slice it thin. Place sliced meat into melted butter. Meat should be rare to medium rare. You can cook it to be more well done in the butter if desired, but this is not recommended.

Serve meat on thin slices of bread. Pass around the relish tray, and the fresh ground black pepper. A traditional thing to drink with a beefsteak dinner is red birch beer on tap.