brooklyn table

Simple pleasures

Paella in Barcelona

Catalan lunch of snails, gazpacho and paella.

Sifnean lunch.

Cognac Cremini Cream Sauce

This is the stuff. It’ll make you feel French. It’ll make an otherwise basic steak into a feast. And, with what Eataly charged me for that piece of meat, the least I could do was dress it up in a tux and take it for a ride around town.

Sauces have intimidated me a bit, but I took baby steps with pan sauces, then have mastered a few others like a béchamel (for my amazing Swiss chard and mushroom lasagna- I swear, I’ll be good and post that one soon!) So when Tristan found this one online, I knew we could do it. We even tweaked it a bit. Daring, eh?

Start with slowly heating 1 cup of cream in a saucepan. It’s going to sit there for about 20 minutes ‘til it reduces by half. Have a whisk handy to stir it every once in a while so it doesn’t form a skin. And don’t burn it- a low low flame is all you need.

While that’s going on, you’ve got time to deal with your steaks, as well as chop some mushrooms. I’m a fan of creminis for this. They’re sturdy and have an earthier flavor that stands up to both the steak and the cream.
Sauté them with a pat of butter. Let them get tender and brown, about 7 minutes. Don’t season them- you want to add them in the sauce before adding more salt or pepper! Put them aside for now- you’ll add them in the sauce last.
(This was one of our experimental additions to the recipe. Our verdict- worth it!)

Once the cream has reduced by half and feels appropriately thick, stir in 1 tsp of beef bouillon, 1 1/2 tsp of lemon juice, and a Tb of port. Also add 1/4 tsp of salt.

By this time, your steak is likely out of the oven and needs some time to rest. This is when you put on your tallest chef hat and get out the cognac. After you’ve transferred the meat to a cutting board, you’re going to deglaze that hot and crusty cast iron skillet with 1/4 cup of cognac. Ignite that stuff (make sure your vent fan is on and you’ve located your fire extinguisher). Once the flames die down, stir it all around the pan, scraping up all the good bits. It’ll bubble a bit, but don’t let it reduce too much. After just a minute or so, pour that sweet smelling nectar into your cream sauce.

Add in your mushrooms, give it a stir and a taste. Add more salt if needed. Then pour that goodness on your sliced steak. Say a little prayer to the food gods, and dig in.

It’s ok to use your finger to lick up every last drop of the sauce. That’s how they do it in Paris, you know.

We assembled quite a meal out of all this. A rare steak is a perfect bloody valentine to my husband.
We even decanted a bottle of smokey Cabernet Franc we’ve been holding onto for a while. And whipped up a sauce like no other to dress it all up. More on that later…

Super simple, but a few things make a slab of NY strip like this amazing:
Let it rest at room temperature for a little bit. Make sure it’s dry before liberally dusting both sides with salt and pepper.
Get the pan (preferably your heavy cast iron one) hot in a 400 degree oven
On the stove, sear it for a minute on each side, starting a solid crust.
Then put it in the oven to finish it off. Shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes- so perhaps check it with a meat thermometer earlier than you think you should. (You can’t uncook it!)
Internal temperature should read 120, and it will continue to cook as it rests for 5-10 minutes, getting to the perfect medium rare.
After it’s rested, carve it against the grain in generous 1/2 inch slices.
Get carnivorous!

I came home to Tristan at the helm, boiling water and chopping mushrooms.  Within minutes, we were digging in: spinach tortelloni, shitake mushrooms simmered with shallots in chicken broth, topped with goat cheese crumbles and a few green onions.  

Luckily, there was no meat involved… so no portions fit for a gluttonous giant!

This is what happens when the guy picks out the meat.  Check out these monstrously huge center-cut bone-in pork chops!  I was aghast when I unwrapped the butcher paper… and quickly realized I better get crackin’ because slabs of meat this thick would take a little while.

Despite the interesting addition of white asparagus (sauteed with lemon zest, white pepper and salt and a dash of olive oil) and fancy little tri-colored potatoes, it made for a rather ugly plate of midwestern fare.  I almost didn’t make the mini-potatoes, knowing that would almost certainly be too much, but figured leftovers would make for a perfect salad nicoise (aka redemption meal).

Yes.  I’m still full this morning.  PORK CHOPS!

p.s. while white asparagus looks interesting, these ones were horrible- fibrous, devoid of flavor… i think they need the sun to become the stellar vegetable that they are.  either that, or there are tricks to making them that i have yet to discover.

after a whirlwind day of trying to get to and from boston for a meeting any way possible, involving planes, trains and automobiles, and a lack of any food with substance (think rest stop vending machine for trail mix posing as breakfast, 2 hour cold slice of pizza for lunch, and a bag of chips as a midday snack)… it was lovely to come home to this quiche for dinner.

i had planned ahead for the week and made it sunday morning, knowing a zucchini, onion, spinach and goat cheese quiche would make for a much better meal on a late night than the usual thai or sushi delivery.  and yes, i was right.  i’m going to have to make garden veggie quiche varieties more often!  so easy, so tasty, and fresh! 

harissa is not all hype and no substance.  it is an amazing addition that can transform and un-bore many things.  especially chicken.  i love chicken, but it does get kind of routine if you’re not careful.  

so, i had a lovely organic split breast and rummaged through the fridge to figure out how to make it interesting.  the little jar of harissa paste caught my eye.  i made a little concoction of olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest and about a tablespoon of harissa, then let the chicken marinate in it while the oven got hot, and then basted it while it roasted.  let me just say - it packed a nice punch of flavor!

i finished off the meal with a little salad and a steamed artichoke (which took longer than a kid tying their shoes for the first time… so by the time it was ready, i dug in too fast and burned the top of my mouth!!  ahh!  pizza mouth!)