March 2020 – Cooking the Books

March 27, 2020

End times call for good steak

I had originally planned for this to be my obligatory spring is here post, but things have changed.

While I had almost balked at springing for a good New York strip for this springtime recipe I found from Bon Appetit, I am now quite glad that I ultimately decided it was worth the cost, as it’s one of the few remaining joys left in a pandemic.

Also, it turns out that good steak is pretty damn good.

The recipe allowed me to skirt the difficulty of fitting everything in my little skillet by searing the steak to perfection and letting it rest while the veggies cooked in the same dish. It all ultimately comes together when you place the steak (sliced) on top and drizzle on the Dijon mustard sauce, but it’s much easier than trying to stir it all together at the same time.

Plus, with peas, asparagus, and spring onions, it’s perfect for springtime.

Oh, and during these very stressful times, it’s also relatively simple and doesn’t require a lot of ingredients that keep you in close contact with people for too long at the grocery store.

All in all, pretty freakin’ worth it.

Ignore the dystopian hellscape, dream of steak.

Here’s what I did:

Ingredients

1 lb. boneless New York Strip steak
5 cloves garlic, divided, 1 grate and 4 thinly sliced
⅓ c. Dijon mustard
1 T. red wine vinegar
1 t. honey
¼ to ½ t. cayenne pepper
⅓ c. + 3 T. olive oil, divided
1 bunch scallions (white and green parts), thinly sliced and divided
1 (10 oz.) bag frozen peas
1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

Pat the steak dry and season with salt and pepper all over. Let rest while you prepare the Dijon mustard sauce.

Whisk together the 1 clove of grated garlic, mustard, vinegar, honey, cayenne, ⅓ c. olive oil, and 1 T. water, in a medium bowl to combine. Add salt and pepper, to taste.

Heat a 9- to 10-inch cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Rub the steak with ~1 T. olive oil, and cook, turning every ~2 minutes, including some searing on edges, until medium-rare, so that a thermometer reads 120 degrees, for about 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer steak to a plate to rest.

Heat remaining 2 T. of olive oil in the same skillet, reducing heat to low. Add the slices of garlic and all but 2 T. of the spring onions, and cook, stirring often, about 3 minutes. Add the peas and a splash of water, and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add asparagus, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook, stirring regularly, until the asparagus is just tender, another 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

Slice steak and layer on top of the vegetables in the skillet. Drizzle some of the mustard sauce over the steak and top with the remaining spring onions.

Serve with any additional mustard sauce as desired, though be careful not to overdo it, and enjoy even in the end times!

March 21, 2020

Obligatory Lenten fish dish to happily enjoy year-round

Even though I’ve long since given up on giving up anything for Lent (or practicing Catholicism, for that matter), I still can’t help but mark the time of the year.

So, of course, I know that it’s the time of the year for fish Fridays (or possibly vegetarian, but if you’re my age and Midwestern, the idea of giving up “meat” entirely used to be unacceptable, so fish is not “meat,” but that’s a whole other discussion). I’ve also given up this practice, at least intentionally, but I do like a good excuse to make something with fish.

That is even more true as I practice sustainable fish-eating habits and have been sitting on 2 pounds of frozen haddock from my last trip to Whole Foods, where I can reliably get sustainable seafood. It turns out as much as I’m nostalgic for my Highlands honeymoon, I just don’t eat that much fried food, so it’s sat less used than I imagined when I bought it.

Thankfully, Jamie Oliver’s 5 Ingredients cookbook delivered with a “crazy simple” fish pie.

Not only was it an incredibly simple dish, it called for specifically haddock and still managed to recall my Highlands honeymoon even though we never had this particular meal there.

As the cookbook and this recipe’s name suggest, the pie is short on ingredients and crazy simple. It’s perfect for a weeknight meal, and yet still manages to taste like something special.

I even managed to use a much smaller skillet than called for and it all worked out (unlike some of my past plans), though it was slightly more juicy so maybe lay off the soaking water if you’re using a 9-inch skillet, but it still tasted great and I have no regrets.

It was a simpler time when I made this crazy simple (and delicious) fish pie.

Here’s what I did (following the simple recipe other than size of skillet — which was meant to be 30 cm instead of 22 cm, so anything in between should work fine — and I did sneak in an extra phyllo dough sheet):

Ingredients

1 lb. haddock, skin off
~2 T. olive oil, divided
2 bunches of spring onions, chopped white and light green parts
250 g. baby spinach (about 1 ½ standard bags, though I could’ve fit 2 bags and been happy to enjoy more spinach … so there is some leeway, depending on tastes)
150 g. cheddar cheese (I sprung for the good-ish stuff, and it was slightly less than 1 block of Kerrygold cheddar)
Pepper, to taste
5 sheets of phyllo dough (thawed)

Directions

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a large bowl or casserole dish, cover the fish with boiling kettle water.

Meanwhile, heat a 9- to 10-inch skillet (or up to 12-inch) on medium-high heat. Add in 1 T. of olive oil, and then add the spring onions, and pan fry for about 2 minutes. Add in the spinach in batches until all is wilted down, and then remove from heat.

Add a scant ½ c., maybe less if using a smaller skillet, of the fish-soaked water to the skillet, and then drain the remaining water from the fish. Break up the fish fillets using a fork and then place around the skillet. Grate over *most* of the cheddar, and season with black pepper. Layer 4 of the pieces of phyllo dough on top and slightly around the ingredients to form a pie topping. Tear up the last piece in a “nutty fashion,” per the recipe, sprinkle the top with the remaining cheese, and drizzle on the remaining olive oil.

Bake the pie for 15 to 17 minutes until golden and crisp, and enjoy!

March 14, 2020

Medium-shelf margarita cheesecake

One of the greatest — and most me — gifts I ever got was a cookbook called Booze Cakes.

As its name suggests, it’s cakes made with booze. Shocking, I know. It could have been just a novelty, but it actually has some great cake recipes, and ones that have clever ways of adapting classic alcoholic drinks into a cake.

Among my favorites are eggnog cupcakes. They have the eggnog ingredients in the cake, of course, but the cupcakes also have their centers cut out, and topped with a rummy eggnog pudding and a rummy whipped topping, that makes them actually resemble little cups filled with eggnog. Their tea cakes become Long Island ice tea cakes.

What I’m saying is, it’s inventive, and tasty.

Yet, even after the many years I’ve had it, I still haven’t tried them all, and I do tend to stick to my favorites. This year offers a chance to try some more. Even though, as cake, most recipes call for either a springform pan, or a pair of 9-inch pans, I figured this year is about making the most of what you have so I would give my little Le Creuset a shot.

I started easy enough, with a margarita cheesecake.

Or so, I thought.

While (spoiler alert!) the end result was still amazingly tasty and did manage to taste like both margaritas and cheesecake, the vessel was not as ideal as it seemed. I think partially because I pre-baked the crust too near the bottom of the oven but also because cast iron cooks hotter, much of the wonderful cornmeal crust stuck to the bottom of the skillet. Then, a 9-inch springform is a little different than a 9-inch pie plate so I ended up having way too much filling compared to the area I had left to fill.

I made a second all cheesecake bake but haven’t dared eat it yet so it will likely almost all go to waste. I guess what I’m saying is this might still be OK if not ideal for a cast iron (given the way it holds heat) but it’d work better in a 10-inch skillet than a little 9-inch braiser.

Either way, I’m pretty sure I’m going to make it again, because that cornmeal crust and the lime flavor (with a dash of tequila and triple sec) was just too good to only have once.

A note on the booze: I’m not much for buying top-shelf stuff to use for cooking even though the recipe was technically called a top-shelf margarita cheesecake. I’m cheap and already pay for good whiskey, so I went with what I’m calling the medium-shelf level. Kind of like the Medium Place, there are worse tequilas and triple secs, but I couldn’t talk myself into the good stuff. Besides, I’m no tequila aficionado so mediocre is fine by me. And it all worked out fine so don’t stress if you want to go cheap; the flavors will mix just fine without splurging on the good stuff (unless you really want to!).

Here’s what I did (following the recipe, except the garnishes, even though it is a little off for a 9-inch pie plate/braiser):

Ingredients

For the crust:

1 stick (½ c.) unsalted butter (plus more for coating pan)
¼ c. sugar
½ c. all-purpose flour
½ c. yellow cornmeal
¼ t. salt (about a hefty pinch)

For the cheesecake filling:

3 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese (I softened mine but the recipe doesn’t specifically call for it)
1 c. sugar
4 eggs
¼ c. fresh lime juice
2 T. tequila
2 T. triple sec
Zest of 1 lime (the recipe called for zest of half a lime, but I really like lime flavor)

For the whipped cream:

1 c. heavy cream
½ c. confectioners’ sugar
1 T. fresh lime juice
2 T. tequila
2 T. triple sec

Directions

For the crust:

Heat oven to 350 and grease the bottom and sides of a 9- to 10-inch skillet (or other container as appropriate).

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Gradually add flour, cornmeal, and salt, and mix to combine. Press the mixture into the bottom of the pan and up the sides as much as possible, and bake 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown. Let cool.

For the cheesecake filling:

In a mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese and sugar and beat until smooth, 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time. Then, add in the lime juice, tequila, triple sec, and lime zest, and stir or beat to combine.

Pour mixture over the cooled crust, and bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until the filling is cooked through (still at 350 degrees). Remove from oven once done and let cool for about an hour; then, refrigerate at least 6 hours or overnight.

For the whipped cream:

In a mixing bowl, combine the cream, confectioners’ sugar, lime juice, tequila, and triple sec, starting on low speed but gradually increasing until peaks form.

To finish:

Spread the margarita cream on top of the chilled cheesecake, and enjoy (preferably with a good, homemade classic margarita)!

March 7, 2020

Honest artichoke dip

One of my go-to cookbooks since I discovered it is Amy Thielen’s The New Midwestern Table cookbook. As a nearly life-long Midwesterner, it’s perfect. Its recipes are rustic, delicious, mostly not that healthy, and not terribly pretentious, kind of like most Midwesterners.

As I was looking for a simple appetizer for something to share with friends, I was ecstatic to find a recipe that also fit my little Le Creuset/small skillet mission. It also happened to have artichokes, wine, and a butt-ton of cheese, aka, most of my diet.

So, basically, I moved the artichoke fondue dip to the top of my queue.

Two things about it appealed to me specifically — OK, OK, in addition to the aforementioned wine, cheese, and artichokes.

The first was that she correctly labels it a fondue dip; let’s be honest about what a Midwesterner’s (or really, everyone’s) idea of spinach artichoke dip is, mostly cheese. The second thing is not so much that it ditched the spinach, which I enjoy, though it does have a tendency to get stuck in between one’s teeth, but that there was a note about her choice in an alternative.

She not only replaced spinach with edamame, which has an entirely different texture and reasonably different taste, but noted that she’d been called out for how egregious it was to add to the point that she makes the edamame optional in her recipe.

I couldn’t resist seeing what the fuss was about.

My assessment, it was pretty good with it, and it didn’t scare off any of my friends who tried it.

All in all, it’s a damn good, and incredibly easy dip.

Here’s what I did, following the recipe (edamame and all):

Ingredients

1 (14 oz.) can brined, quartered artichoke hearts
½ c. heavy cream
1 c. shredded Parmesan cheese
1 c. shredded aged Gouda cheese
3 T. dry white wine (preferably Sauvignon Blanc)
2 T. chopped parsley
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 t. cornstarch
½ c. shelled edamame, fresh or frozen (optional, but come on, you want to try it!)
A baguette, sliced, or crackers for serving

Directions

Heat the oven to 325 degrees.

Drain the artichokes, and preferably, give each a little squeeze to release excess brine. Chop the artichokes roughly.

In a medium bowl, combine the artichoke hearts, cream, both cheeses, wine, parsley, salt and pepper, and cornstarch. Stir until well mixed. If using frozen edamame, ensure there are no ice particles on them, or rinse until they’re removed, and shake off any excess water, and add to the artichoke mixture.

Pour the mixture into a 9-inch skillet, and bake until the dip begins to brown at the edges and is bubbly, about 35 to 40 minutes. Serve with bread or crackers, or both, and enjoy!