Special occasion dinner

Christmas is special, there's no denying that, but you're expected to do something traditional and do not, do fucking, NOT deviate from the standard and not cook turkey in the traditional-in-an-oven-bag manner or there will be consequences, trust me, I know.... one achiote-marinated bird and your christmas cooking license is revoked for... well, at least 10 years and counting.

No, don't touch thanksgiving, Christmas or some of the other classics. You can improve them, maybe a side dish here, a side dish there, but don't mess with the bird or the ham. No, those aren't the type of arenas for experimentation this past weekend we crossed a milestone that warranted such food-fuckery: dried/aged ribeye steaks now plated with some blue-feet chanterelles, asparagus and mashed potatoes.

The meat. This is how it looked when we first bought it. Nice marbling, heaps of connective tissue. These were rubbed with fresh garlic (reasoning for this is that garlic is a good anti-microbial and you know... flavor) and then placed in the fridge on makeshift racks with their styrofoam platters and some meat skewers holding them elevated.

 After a week, they dried out, but no rot or spoilage. I read somewhere that for small pieces of meat there's no benefit for dry-aging at home and that the meat picks up nasty tastes and odors from the fridge. Ok, if there's something that's a magnet for odors it's going to be fat, especially the fat on the surface of the meat, so I trimmed 1~3 mm from the fat deposits in the steak.

The wine. Every good steak deserves a decent wine and while I usually take the Kimmi Raikkonen approach to choosing wines, I asked the guy at the wine place to recommend something and a 2010 Grand Cru St. Emilion at a decen price is not too shabby. If presses though, I would have gone with a Russian River Valley pinot noir, but ok, french it is.

 The carbs. If your'e a carnivore you really, really shouldn't miss out on some good ole fashioned gluten and carbs, nice sweet, puffy carbs, yes, the fleishman's recipe for classic dinner roles didn't disappoint.

 Here's the meat getting the spa treatment with some masage oil in the form of sunflower seed oil (any high-smoking point oil will do) and a nice kosher salt scrub.

 Didn't I tell you that the dinner roll recipe didn't disappoint?

The veg. For the green portion of this dinner we have some asparagus all neat and tied up with some leek tops. Much swearing was had to tie these... much.

The sponge. After searing the steaks in this cast iron pan, the onions followed so they'd get a decent sear as they soaked up the residual heat in the pan. Shrooms, thyme and garlic followed and once they were golden-brown-and-delicious a swig of wine was introduced and left to reduce at the lowest temp setting.

 More sauna after the oven? Yeah a nice rest after the sear and oven treatment, these were heated to 160°F but the carry-over heat saw the temp gauge creep up to 172°F.

 All plated and ready to go

 And go it went, yeh, we's break out's them's fancy napkins for today.

 folks over at /r/steak call this "the money shot" and sadly, over-cooked for my taste, but not quite "done" which is still ok.

 Dessert was store bought: cheesecake with fruits and a vanilla glaze, serve with strong coffee.

 In hindsight, taking off it's undies would of made for a more food-porn shot

I'll make note of this for the sake of dry-aging at home, the sear is awesome! it's like a layer of fried beef jerky coating a juicy steak. And no, no off-odors were detected. Nor did the steaks develop any sort of mold or spoilage in spite of being fridge-neighbors with our sourdough starter.

Carne asada torta, Ensenada style

Ok, it'd be more true to form if the meat had been grilled over a charcoal fire, but you get the point. This is how the taco stands do tortas in Ensenada, on a soft telera bun, sliced in half, layer butter and/or mayonnaise, mashed beans, carne asada, shredded lettuce, cilantro and onions, salsa (usually red and fresh) and the top half gets a slathering of guacamole. Close up, chow down and glug a coke, or, you know, a barrilitos soft drink.

El Borrego de Oro, Red Rock, TX [Restaurants]

This time we're not singing high praises for groupon for getting us out of the house, rather, a combination of airbnb and yelp. The only place near the farm we stayed at that had 4 stars on yelp, AND it serves mexican dishes, well I'll be... yes, please!

Up there on top you see the pork chop plate, called "chuletas de puerco" on the menu and on the bottom, the carne asada plate. Both were served with beans, rice and salad, with the addition of a seared jalapeño for the carne asada.

From hearing other patrons' orders, it would seem that they sell a lot of enchiladas, not too surprising given the adventurous nature of the rural texan, but c'mon people! live a little, enchiladas are not all there is to mexican food!

Even though it was mid-afternoon, the place had a few people come in, meaning that their food probably doesn't go to waste. Overall, this restaurant is very recommendable, especially given it's in-the-middle-of-nowhere location.

Steakhouse at home

I admit that these pictures are a bit old, since I did do another steakhouse at home dinner the other day (I'll post those later). The idea behind these posts is to remind you that yes, you can go plop your behind in some bench and get waited on by someone with flair.. (jeeez)... OR, you can go the frugal route and cook this stuff at home. Just, repeat after me:

1. I will let the steak reach room temperature before EVEN turning on the stove.
2. I will apply a high smoke point oil and salt AT LEAST 20 minutes before turning on the stove.
3. I will SEAR the meat on all sides on high heat for AT LEAST a minute per side.
4. I will (optionally) add pepper or some other flavor enhancer to the meat.
5. I will let the steak finish cooking to my liking (of course, medium rare!!! or, (55–60 °C / 130–140 °F))
6. I will let the meat REST for at the VERY LEAST 10 minutes, on a plate with an upside down bowl on top so we don't invoke the capillary effect.
7. I will serve and ENJOY!

Heheh... ok, that's a bit of fun, or the steak-at-home credo, however you want to call it, but it's a good set of rules that'll almost guarantee a good steakhouse at home experience. 

Oh, and about those fries... since I like finishing steaks in the oven, à la Alton Brown, I make these fries by cutting and tossing them around in seasonings (salt, paprika, thyme, oregano, cumin, etc.) then baking them in the oven for around ~20 minutes. 

Picnic Roast [recipes]

I'm sharing this recipe so maybe you'll have a chance to make it in time for new year's... This was my first attempt at a pork roast in a few years, previously I had only done loins and, well, those are pretty easy and quite similar to any roast of beef. Given that usually pork roasts come out a bit dry, I went with a brine bath before roasting in the oven, I read a few recipes online for doing this type of roast in a slow cooker, an oven and even in a pot, but there's nothing like roasting in an oven; and for Christmas with the no-poulty-eating wife, well, it was a perfect fit.

Why brining you may ask? well, the salt in the brine super-saturates the meat's cells with moisture and when you cook it, more of that moisture will remain, giving you a better chance of not over-cooking and drying out your roast.

Now, about that recipe...

Ingredients

• 1 ~8 lb picnic roast or similar cut

For the brine

• 3 quarts water
• 1/2 cup kosher salt (coarse grain)
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon thyme
• 5 bay leaves
• 7 whole cloves
• 1 1/2 tsp anise seed
• 1 1/2 tsp black peppercorns
• 1 1/2 tsp coriander seed
• 1/2 tsp allspice

For the tanning lotion

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp canola oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1 tsp paprika

Procedure

1. Toast the peppercorns, cloves, coriander and anise seeds until fragrant.
2. Crush toasted spices in a mortar and pestle.
3. Bring water to a boil, add and combine all of the ingredients for the brine.
4. Simmer brining solution for 15 minutes.
5. Once cooled, put roast in a large enough container and pour over the brining solution.
6. Let the cut sit un the brining solution for 12 to 18 hours, this one got a 14 hour bath.
7. Preheat your oven to 425°F.
8. Remove the roast from the brining solution, put on a rack that fits inside a roasting pan and pat dry.
9. If your piece 'o meat has skin, you can cut a cross-hatch pattern into it for added looks and easier skin-cutting at the table.
10. Paint on the tanning lotion for an even coating.
11. Place the roast-to-be in the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes so it'll start crisping up.
12. Reduce the heat to 350°F and leave it in there for another 4 hours or if you have one of those fancy shmancy thermometer thingies, until the internal temperature reches 150~155°F.
13. Remove from oven and let it rest at least 20 minutes because if you cut into it, not only will you loose all of those juices you went to such trouble to keep in the meat, it'll probably spit boiling pork lard at you when you hit a pocket of the stuff.

Black Peppered Rib Eye