Flank Steak

Christmas was good this year (see picture).

The Alton Brown cookbook ("I'm Just Here for the Food") is just what I need -- a technique book. I read it through while still at my parents' house, and I think I'm going to have to cook my way through it. Brown has a great way of explaining things; not just techniques, but why they work the way they do. He's also very funny. Mom was a little puzzled that I was laughing at a cookbook, but it really was the only reasonable response.

Anyway, tonight's exercise was seared flank steak. The book is divided by cooking technique, with an explanation of how each one works, and why it works the way it does. So, I followed his recipe pretty closely. This also gave me a chance to use the Dutch oven in the picture, as well. Brown insists that a cast iron skillet is superior, and it may be, but I got a pretty good result with my Dutch oven. The steak is seasoned with nothing but kosher salt and fresh ground pepper, an it came out great! The secret seems to be the waiting. You wait for the steak to come a little closer to room temperature, then you season it, and wait a little while for the salt to draw somoe of the steak's juices to the surface. Sear it for 3 minutes per side, then put it on a rack, cover it loosely with some foil, and wait a little bit more before slicing. Patience is not one of my virtues, particularly when I'm hungry, so this represents a significant challenge.

My wife was a big help tonight, making her roasted asparagus for our side. Don't know what I'd do without her. I certainly wouldn't be learning to cook!

By the way, the other book in the picture is "How to Eat Supper," by the women behind our favorite cooking radio show, The Splendid Table (if you have trouble viewing it, disable your adblocking software). Great program, and a wonderful book, as well.

Fotocuisine

I found this cooking blog that has a terrific approach: recipes documented with photographs at every step.  The recipes are sometimes way beyond my skill level (not to mention available time), but it's great to see how things are done.  Enjoy!

Cookie Update

When I made the molasses cookies, I was a little concerned that they would turn to rocks after a day or two.  I am pleased to report that they were still pleasantly soft after two days.  Unfortunately, it proved impossible to continue the experiment beyond two day, due to an insufficient quantity of test subjects.

Molasses Cookies

It's the holiday season, and that means cookies!

This evening I tried a molasses cutout cookie recipe that I found in the local paper.  Every year our paper runs a feature of reader-submitted holiday cookies, and this year it had a bunch of things that sounded good.  This was our house's first foray into cookies for the year, and so far, it promises to be a merry Christmas, indeed!

The cookies are kind of ginger-snappy in their flavor, but with a distinct molasses flavor backing them up.  I frosted most of them with a simple vanilla sugar frosting, but my wife insisted that I leave a few of them plain, because she likes them on their own.

One mistake, I crowded my cookie sheet a little, so a few of them a a little rough around the edges where they expanded into one another.  Next time, I'll use two sheets.

Teriyaki Pork

I think my stir-fry woes are not so much with the technique, but with chicken. Last night I took a teriyaki chicken recipe that had not been successful, and took only the parts of the recipe that had to do with the sauce. I cut up some pork loin chops, and marinated them in the sauce. After letting them sit for a bit, I stir-fried the pork, and set it aside. Then I threw some sugar snap peas into my pan, stir fried those for a few minutes, and added some sliced baby-bella mushrooms. I whisked a little bit of cornstarch into what remained of the marinade, added that to the veggies, and let it thicken. Then I added the pork back in, and heated it through. My roommate (who is a dedicated pigivore) declared it delicious.

Next time I do chicken, I'm going to try to think of it enough ahead of time that I can let it soak in the marinade for a while.

Stir-fry efforts

I've been struggling with this stir-fry thing of late.  Seems like I end up with too much flavor or too little.  On one end of that spectrum, I made some ginger-garlic beef, from a recipe in the stir-fry book I got a week or so ago.  The recipe called for 3/4 of a cup of soy sauce, and was just plain too salty.  On the other end, I've made a couple of chicken recipes in the past week, and I can't seem to get much flavor into the chicken itself.  Is there something basic that I'm missing?  Do I need to marinade the chicken for a longer period of time?  I'm stuck.

Garlic Lamb with Mushrooms and Noodles

So, I got this book on stir frying.  It was one of those bargain books that Borders always has on sale just inside the front door.  I figured that for eight bucks I couldn't go wrong, and I know how to saute, so stir frying would be playing to my strengths.

Right.

First of all, the measurements are mostly in ounces of weight, not volume.  Since I don't have a scale, that leaves me eyeballing things and guessing based on package size.

Second, the book uses a lot of ingredients that I haven't used previously, and doesn't really explain what they are.

Third, the directions tend to compress several steps into one, so it is really easy for the novice to miss something.

All that notwithstanding, the recipe I used tonight came out pretty well, albeit with way too many noodles.  I really liked the technique for cooking up teriyaki mushrooms.  You stir fry them for a couple of minutes, then add two tablespoons of teriyaki sauce, toss thoroughly, and then cover the lot and let them steam for about 10 seconds, just to force the flavor into the mushrooms.  I'm thinking of using this technique to go with some chicken at a later date.