Steak Mania!

Hmm, so I don't know how to place pics where I want them in the post on my phone, and I'm updating from my phone cuz it's been way too long since our last post. This week's post is brought to you by STEAK. Juicy, red, flavorful, awesome steak.  For reals, this is good eats, folks.

So we finally broke down and bought a cast iron skillet yesterday to cook up the highland beef strip steaks we got at the farmer's market this weekend.  We sat down like good little culinary students and watched the Good Eats episode about steak (Steak Your Claim: season 1, episode 1).  Then we went out, put our new pan in the 500 degree oven, got it piping hot, moved it to the burner on high heat, got our steaks ready with some oil, salt, and pepper, popped the steaks into the super hot pan...and found out how quickly we can fill an entire apt with smoke. I kid you not. PLUMES of smoke billowing out of the pan the instant we put the meat in. Apt filled in less than 60 seconds. And it turns out our kitten REALLY doesn't like smoke. She hid behind the elliptical meowing pathetically until I locked both cats in the bathroom and opened every window in the apt and disabled all the smoke detectors.  Fortunately that worked, the fire dept WASN'T called, and the apt cleared out in half an hour or so. In the meantime, we enjoyed some AMAZING steak. Despite all the smoke it turned out really well. Dante seared his for 30 seconds on each side then put it in the oven for two minutes per side. Currently the second pic in the lineup at the end of the post, like I said, not sure how that's working on my phone. For mine, given the smoke insanity, we opted to just put it in the hot pan in the oven.  It still turned out really well.  Just no crust. Oh, and we had them with baked sweet potatoes with brown sugar, bacon bits, and green onion.  No sauce on the steak. Didn't need it.

Tonight, Dante wanted to try again with a less glamorous cut of meat to see if it was just the really good beef that was to credit for the amazingness of the dinner.  I, I will freely admit, was a little nervous about the whole idea after the smoke debacle of last night. So... we went to the store, picked up some loin ball tip steaks (very cheap and relatively lean cut of meat), and some GRAPESEED OIL!  Grapeseed oil, unlike vegetable oil, has a very high smoke point, which is good for high heat cooking.  We also used less oil and slightly lower pan temp, and it worked amazingly. No billows of smoke.  There was smoke, but it was a manageable amount.  Dante's were again two minute rare (very good, very tender, a little rare for my taste). Mine was three minutes per side in the oven and came out a beautiful medium, and despite being a cheap cut, they were once again mouth-wateringly amazing.  Tonight with sauteed mushrooms with wolf moon garlic and shallot and a side of smashed yukon gold potatoes with garlic, shallot, and asiago cheese.

So... live long, prosper, and eat more steak!

Happy cooking!

Anniversary Dinner

Dante cooked this awesome dinner for me for our anniversary.  Cuz he's awesome like that.

On the left are yukon gold potatoes cooked in a foil packet in the oven with butter and olive oil and topped with rosemary asiago cheese.  On the right is chicken stuffed with red pepper and smoked gouda, topped with bacon, creme fraiche and caviar.  It was an awesome dish, although I have since decided that creme fraiche is not my favorite. (Which Dante thinks means I didn't like dinner at all.  not true.  dinner was AMAZING).

We followed this up with a really tasty crumb-topped pie from Grand Traverse Pie Company.  Mmmmmmmm.

Edit: This is our 50th blog post!  YAY!! Go us!
Happy cooking!

CHOPPED CHAMPIONSHIP! (Home Version)

We watch too much TV.  And a lot of Food Network.  I should state that right up front.  Anyway.... we decided that it would be incredibly fun to do a "Home Version" of the Food Network show Chopped.  For those of you who haven't seen it, the chefs are given baskets containing a selection of "mystery ingredients" that they must use in some way in their dishes.  There are three rounds: appetizer, entree, and dessert.  Each round has a time limit (usually 20-30 minutes), and is judged by a panel of three "experts".  

For our home version, we dropped the time limits and cut the rounds down to entree and dessert.  We also allowed each other $20 to buy additional ingredients, since we don't have a fully stocked food network pantry.  We chose three mystery ingredients for each other, with one overlapping ingredient between courses. 

        

Dante's Ingredients

Entree: Beef Steak, Canned Pumpkin, "Brown Bread" (Pumpernickel)

Dessert: Canned Pumpkin, Mascarpone, Golden Grahams Cereal

My Ingredients

Entree: Cream Cheese, Catfish, and Funyuns (forgot a couple in the pic... oops)

Dessert: Cream Cheese, Apple, and Whole Nutmeg

We actually managed to stay out of one another's way shockingly well considering the space we were cooking in... Here's a progress shot: 

It was a crowded workspace.

Ready for the finished products?

Dante's Entree: Brown Bread and Steak Sandwich with Pumpkin Sauce and Bacon

(I'll let Dante add comments here in the morning!)

Dante's Dessert: Graham-crusted French Toast with Pumpkin Mascarpone Filling, Vanilla Curd, and Caramel Sauce

(Same here)

My Entree: Pan-fried Funyun-crusted Catfish and Catfish Mousse "Sushi"

For this, I breaded the catfish in crushed Funyun and pan-fried it with a little bit of olive oil, then served it on a bed of spring greens with a cream cheese/onion sauce.  For the "sushi", I sliced a cucumber thin, then topped it with sushi rice that I had pressed into a pan and cut into small rounds with a cookie cutter, with catfish and cream cheese mouse and the cream cheese/onion sauce (which also had funyuns in it) and Funyun crumbs. The sushi was fantastically fresh-tasting, which was a great contrast with the strong onion flavor of the sauce, if I do say so myself. ;-) (by the way, I totally stole the idea of a cucumber-bottomed faux-sushi from a foodie email newsletter I get.  Don't remember which one right now or I'd give them proper credit.) 

My Dessert: Caramel Apple Puff Pastry with Cream Cheese and Nutmeg Ice Cream

On this one, I overcooked the sauce with the apples and they got super chewy and almost non-existant, and my puff pastry got a tad overdone, but the ice cream was a fantastic success!! (although melting already in this shot)  Very easy too, though I'm blanking on the finer details right at the moment.  I believe it was cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, half and half, and fresh-grated nutmeg, though I may be mistaken.  Unfortunately, I didn't write that one down either.  Oops. 

And here's a shot of the whole kit and caboodle out on the coffee table (our kitchen table MAY have been covered in cooling racks, mixing bowls, etc that overflowed the counter during our kitchen marathon...).

It was a LOT of food.  I don't think I finished a single item, but it was all SUPER-delicious.  And amazingly fun.  And will probably be repeated many times in the future (including possibly every year at my birthday.  This ended up being an AWESOMELY fun part of my birthday celebration this year, and I LOVED it!!).

btw, We didn't actually "judge" our foods or award points or a winner.  But I think we both won, since we ended up with an amazing meal and desserts, along with tons of fun in the kitchen, and ideas to use in the future! 

So... if you're looking for something fun to do this weekend, find a friend who likes to cook and challenge one another to a CHOPPED CHAMPIONSHIP!  It's a blast and a half. :-D

Happy Cooking!