The Impatient Chef Recipe: Steak Frites

Steak Frites

Heart Attack?  Why Thank you.

While I'm planning (putting off) some of the major projects that I should be working on for this blog, I find that in a pinch, simple ingredients and cast iron can produce a post with both French cachet, and NASCAR dad appeal.  I merely throw a monkey wrench into it by using purple potatoes.

The unusual suspects

Cut the potatoes into strips.  Use a knife.  Any questions?

Get the steak out of the refrigerator at least a half an hour before cooking. That way the center of the steak will be at room temperature when it hits the pan.  Oh, and buy good steaks.  If you pay less than $15.00 per pound (full price) for a Ribeye or New York Strip, you're buying dog food.

Make sure that the steaks are as dry on the exterior as possible.  I use a paper towel or two.

I use a dry rub.  This helps further dry the exterior, and provides flavor.  My dry rub of choice is an obscure spice mixture from Buck's Seasonings in Mallory, NY.  It's called "Buck's Zestier BBQ."  They don't cater to the retail market, so you have to buy quantity.  I buy a 5 pound bag every couple years.  It goes good on everything (we tried it on ice cream once just for giggles.  It was good).  Use the rub of your choice.  Rub it on both sides.

Dry Rub and the Meat!

I make a couple incisions into the fat around the edges so that the steak won't dish while cooking.  The fat will shrink, and can lift part of the meat away from the pan.  This isn't as big of a problem on the barbecue.

Back to the fries:  I deep fry my fries in a large, cast iron dutch oven.  I lucked into a 5 gallon jug of fryer oil on clearance recently.  It's half peanut oil, and half canola.  I would use all peanut oil, but I spent that money on the steaks.  I place the fries into the cold oil, and then turn it on.  It's a technique I learned from America's Test Kitchen a few years back.  It works well.

I start the fries cooking first, and turn on the steak pan soon after.  I cook to medium rare.  With the fryer oil set to 8 (of 10) on the burner, and the steak pan set to 6, the steaks (usually at about 1 1/2 inch thick) need to hit the hot pan about 5 minutes after the fries are started.  Depending on the thinness of the steaks, I may wait a couple more minutes before starting the steak pan.

I fry the steaks in bacon grease.

Now, that's cooking with gas!

I save bacon grease after making bacon.  I never dump it down the drain.  You shouldn't either; not only because it's great for steaks, and burgers, but also because it stops up municipal sewer pipes. If you don't want to use it, let it cool in the pan, and then scrape it into the trash, or put it out for birds.  They love it, especially in the winter.

Get the steak pan good and hot before putting the steaks in. The grease (or oil) should start smoking just a little.

I used to flip the steaks often.  I don't do that anymore.  There is no truth to the rumor that searing quickly on both sides seals in juices.  For these steaks, I set a timer for 13 minutes. With 6 minutes left, I flipped them.  They had a good sear on both sides when they were done, and they were perfect medium rare.  I used to use touch to tell how done my steaks were, but my restaurant days ended 20 years ago, and that skill has atrophied.  I time them now.  Learn what time it takes to cook your steaks by desired doneness, and thickness with the meat at room temperature, and you won't go wrong.

You'll know that the fries are done when they float.  You should also hear a faint chirping from the oil. Fish one out, preferrably a thick one, and let it cool for a few seconds, and test it for crispness.  I leave them in for a short time after they start floating to get them nicely crispy.

When the desired crunch is achieved for the fries, and the steaks are done, plate them, salt the fries, and eat heartily.

Then walk a few miles.  It couldn't hurt.

The Impatient Chef Restaurant Review: Rivertap, The Dalles

Rivertap, The Dalles, Oregon

My notebook, and their bumper sticker

The second in my hopefully long-running series of Fish & Chips reviews will not start as the first one did.  I wore that joke out in the first paragraph (see the Baldwin Saloon review).  Instead, I will start this one by saying that I know Rivertap's secret to their unique batter flavor, BUT I'M NOT TELLING YOU.  Instead, I will say that if you live in the area, you must taste it for yourself.  

Why am I not revealing their secret?  First, I'm not certain that they would want me to.  Second, if you could do it yourself, what incentive would you have to stop in?  I will tell you that I figured it out, and the waitress confirmed it.  

As usual, I never review on my first visit.  I've been to Rivertap about 10 times over the last 3 years, and I've tasted a variety of their food, but I have never had the appetizer I ordered today.  Let me present to you... 

These 

Bacon-Wrapped Jalepeno Yukon Golds

These delightful bearers of ranch dressing and cardiovascular disease are put together exactly as they are named.  A wedge of Yukon Gold potato is very lightly breaded, and paired with a slice of jalepeno before being wrapped in bacon.  They are skewered, and then (I'm guessing) deep fried.  They get a light dusting cheese, and a decent ranch dressing.  If you were Odysseus, you would dash your ship to pieces on the rocks to get them.

Speaking of sea faring beings (see the segue, nice, eh?), we arrive at the main course, and the reason for writing this post.

I am a connoisseur of fine Fish & Chips.  If you have read my earlier fish and chips review, you will know that the batter should be crisp, the tarter sauce may not be too sweet, and the fries must stand up to the salt test.  The salt test is simply ketchup not being necessary.  We will hit these points in turn.

 Presentation

The platter arrives

The presentation was appealing.  I am fond of square and rectangular plates.  I'm also fond of not placing the fish on top pf the fries like some restaurants do.  Most fish batters wick a little fryer oil after being plated, and the top layer of fries arrive a tad too oily.  Rivertap's rectangular plates are perfect for the job of separating the fish from the fries.

The Fish

Golden and crisp

The batter was not flaky like I prefer.  In fact, it was a bit caky, which I usually don't like.  A slab of fish wrapped in a pancake is not appealing.  These were pleasantly tasty.  The halibut had flavor without being overpowering.  I like to actually taste the fish, by the way.  I don't want to taste the fryer oil, which was not a problem with these.  The tarter sauce was on the sweet side, but the lemon wedges handily cured that.

I mentioned a secret to the batter.  Well...

Here it is:

The secret is in the color

Note the yellow color of the batter above.   It's not corn flour.

I would rate Rivertap's Fish & Chips well above average.  On the Rose and Thistle scale, they are a 7 (Rose & Thistle is a Scottish restaurant on NE Broadway St. in Portland, and makes the Fish & Chips by which all others are measured).

Next comes...

The Fries!

Crisp and delicious

 The fries (chips) are immaculately conceived with light breading, and thereby swaddled in a crispy layer which blankets the potato.  These stayed crisp throughout the meal!  No ketchup necessary.

Lastly,

Rivertap's taps.

Rivertap IPA

I, sadly, no longer drink, so I have it on good authority (my wife, Gaia) that Rivertap's own house-brewed IPA was delectable.  I can tell you that it had a pleasantly hoppy nose.

Overall impressions.  This is one of the finest Fish and Chips experiences that I've had in a while.

The Impatient Chef Recipe: Ground Beef Tacos.

The Impatient Chef Recipe: Ground Beef Tacos!

As a rule, The Impatient Chef is impatient, and prefers to buy taco shells from a local natural food store.  Every rule is meant to be broken, however, and everything must be tried at least once (in case it's really good).  I had heard that home made taco shells were the cat's meow, so when I found blue corn masa at a farmers market at Portland's venerable People's Co-Op, I took the plunge.

Ground Beef Taco

A diversion first... 

Previous experiences with phographing foods for this blog in my dimly lit, cluttered kitchen were somewhat less than enjoyable, and somewhat more than frustrating.  I will leave choice words to your imagination.  For this project, I needed a better lighting setup.  My studio strobes are way to big for such a small area, so I found a used set of smaller strobes, and, along with a pair of umbrellas and stands that I've carried to location shoots over the years, a new studio was born.  

Yup, it's still cluttered.

The paint splatters on the right umbrella were from a shoot that I did years ago with a nekked model flinging paint at a 6-foot canvas (No, you can't see it.  This blog is family friendly).  

With this setup, I should be able to get better pictures of the food and the preparation.  

I will remind readers that this is a working kitchen.  My cast iron pans date back to the 1800's, and I don't scrub the bottoms of my stainless steel.  The Impatient Chef has a day job, and a photography business on the side.  

The one disappointment about this house is that the kitchen was designed for folks who eat elsewhere.  There is no pantry, very little cabinet space, and cetainly not enough room for adventurous cooks (considering that the dining and living rooms also occupy the same space).  We have made do, but if you are expecting Harriet Nelson's prim and proper kitchen, you will be disappointed.  We keep it clean enough to eat off of, but there ain't no room for the stuff.

To the Recipe!

Things to do ahead:  

1.  Cube a large tomato.  

2.  Slice a few leaves of romaine lettuce into ribbons.  

3.  Make or buy your favorite salsa.

4.  Make sure you have sour cream.

5.  Slice a lime or two into wedges.  

Keep these things in the refrigerator until ready to serve.  

Things to keep in mind:

1.  The Impatient Chef likes spicy food.  Your mileage may vary.

2.  These recipes aren't emblazoned on stone tablets by an ancient god.

3.  The Impatient Chef isn't above thievery (with attribution, of course).

Which Brings Us To...

Blue Corn Tortillas.  

Recipe coutesy of Isabel Eats.  

I had never made these before, so I needed to start somewhere. These seemed simple enough.  

Ingredients:

8 oz blue corn masa*

1 1/2 cups hot water, plus more if necessary.

1/2 teaspoon sea salt (I use kosher salt)

*The original recipe on Isabel Eats didn't specify blue corn, but The Impatient Chef loves colorful flavors.  Masa is starting to show up in natural food stores such as Whole Foods, and even some supermarket chains.  Soon, Trader Joe's may even carry it, if they don't already.  You can get it online if you must.  The Impatient Chef is waaaaaay too impatient to make his own masa.  Another change that I made was to weigh the masa.  Using weights rather than measures makes cooking with any kind of grain easier.

Adding the water

Directions:

In a large bowl, mix the salt and masa together.

Pour 1 1/2 cups of hot water (I fired up my tea kettle for the occasion) into the mixture, and mix with a spoon at first, and then by hand as it cools a little to form a big ball.  The dough should be firm, and springy when touched, and not dry, or super sticky.  If the mixture is too dry, and it needs some more water, add it in small amounts until the dough is the right consistency.

Cover the bowl with a cloth napkin, and let the dough rest for about an hour.

Pause the tortilla recipe.  We'll return to it in a bit.

While your masa ball is resting, it's time to make the taco meat.  You want to time the completion of the taco meat to be about the same time as it takes your dough ball to rest.

The Taco Meat Recipe!

The Usual Suspects

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef (not the lean type; you need the fats)
1 medium red bell pepper, diced
3 jalepeno peppers, diced (remove the seeds and membrane for sensitive palates; adventurous types can leave them in.)
1 Cubanelle pepper, diced (or another mild, green pepper other than a green bell pepper if you can't find cubanelles)
1/2 bulb garlic (crushed while laughing maniacally)  
1/2 medium onion, diced
3 scallions (optional), chop the oniony bits off, and reserve the rest.  
2 tbsp bacon grease or grapeseed oil
Salt to taste, both coarse sea salt, and kosher salt.
1/4 cup ground cumin (yes, that much)
1 tbsp ground, dried aleppo pepper
1 tbsp red chili powder
freshly ground pepper
A good handfull of fresh parsley or cilantro (about 1/4 cup rough chopped), and the same amount of fresh chives.  
Corn, about a half cup freshly cut off of the cob, but pre-cooked (optional)

Directions:

Melt the bacon grease in a large skillet or cast iron pan with the burner set just on the high side of medium.  My stove has numbers 1 through 10.  I use 6.  Add the peppers and onion (aromatics).  

Sautee until the onions are translucent, and the peppers are soft.

While the aromatics are cooking, rough chop the garlic, parsley (or cilantro), and chives.  Use a mortar and pestle with a good-sized pinch of coarse sea salt to crush them.  You want to release the oils in the herbs.  The salt is used to help grind the garlic and herbs as well as to season the dish.  

Once the aromatics are sauteed, add the spices, and continue to sautee for another minute.  You may have to add more oil if the mixture is too dry.  You don't want too much, though, because the hamburger will add a little more fat to the party.  Then, move everything to the outer edge of the pan, and add the hamburger.  Use a flat-tipped wooden spoon to chop it up as fine as you want it as it cooks.  Then, stir everything together, and cook until the ground beef is done.

Add the Meat, and Chop, Chop, Chop!

When the meat is chopped up, start heating the griddle (or large frying pan), and in between stirring, start forming the masa dough into golf ball-sized balls.  I got eleven this time.  You should be able to get twelve out of it. 

When the hamburger is just about cooked through, add the herb and garlic mixture to the pan, stir, and cook for an additional minute.  Add the corn if desired at this point as well.  

Turn the heat to low.  

Press the Masa dough balls into tortillas.  Use wax paper in between the press plates to make the tortillas easier to release.  

Gently remove the flattened masa from the wax paper, and cook on the hot griddle for 30 seconds to 1 minute, depending on how hot the griddle is.  You want the tortilla to have some brown marks on it. 

Flip the tortilla over, and cook on the other side for another 30 seconds to 1 minute.  The tortilla may start to puff up in the middle.   That's okay.

Remove the tortilla from the griddle, and place it between a cloth or tortilla warmer to keep it warm.  Repeat until the dough balls are gone.  

Serve by placing some lettuce, and chopped scallion ends onto the tortilla, add a small amount of the meat mixture, and place a few strategically located cubes of tomatoes on top, followed by salsa and sour cream.  A wedge of lime finishes the plate. 

Served

I'm still working on the photography part of this.  I''m suddenly feeling in awe of the people who make this look easy, and good. 

The Impatient Chef Recipe: Southern Red Beans and Rice

Red Beans and Rice is a staple of the south, especially around Louisiana.  I decided to try my hand at it.  The cooking went nothing like the recipe used said it would, so I improvised.  What I got was the recipe I am sharing here.  It was the best I have ever had.

Ingredients:

For red beans:

• 4 tablespoons olive oil, or better yet, bacon grease.  
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 medium red bell peppers, chopped
• 6 cloves garlic, pressed, or thoroughly crushed in a mortar and pestle
• 3 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 large carrot, diced
• 2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 pound smoked ham hock, bone in
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme
• 1 teaspoon Louisiana hot sauce, or approved equivalent.  
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 quarts water
• 1 pound red beans (not kidney), rinsed and picked of debris.  

For rice:

• 6 cups spring or filtered water 
• Fine sea salt 
• 7 ounces (1 cup) Anson Mills Carolina Gold Rice 
• 2 to 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces 
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 

Directions:

For beans:

Soak the beans in water with a teaspoon of salt stirred in overnight in a crock pot.  Use enough water to more than cover the beans.  In the morning, drain the beans, and add a fresh 2 quarts of water to the beans, and turn it onto high.  I have an older crock pot, so I have Off, Low, and High for settings.  I prefer this kind of crock pot over newer ones with programs and Wifi.  When the beans are starting to simmer lightly, turn it to low.   

1. About 2 hours before you want to eat, dice the peppers, onion, carrot, and celery.  You probably don’t have a mortar and pestle like the one pictured, but you should.  Put the garlic in the mortar, and smash it up good.  add the thyme, and kosher salt.  I start this with a coarse kosher salt because it adds a little grinding action.  We want to release the oils in the thyme leaves.  
2. In a 7-quart Dutch oven set over medium-high heat, add the oil (or bacon grease), and let it get hot.  Don’t use extra virgin for this, because the smoke temperature is too low.  Add the onion, bell pepper, celery, carrot and pepper.. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onions and celery are semi-translucent and the bell peppers and carrots are tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Add the garlic and thyme mixture, and cook for 1 to 2 more minutes, stirring constantly.  Add the ham hock, bay leaves, thyme, hot sauce, cayenne pepper, water and pour the beans from the crock pot into the dutch oven, and increase the heat to high.  Eat a bean to test its firmness.  If they are soft, and not at all gritty, skip the lid-on part of the final cooking.  If they are not soft, continue with the next step.  
3. Cook, stirring frequently until the mixture comes to a boil, approximately 6 to 8 minutes. Decrease the heat to maintain a simmer, cover and cook for at least 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.  Keep an eye on how tender the beans are.  When they are just about as tender as you want them, move to the uncovered cooking.  
4. After the covered cooking is done, uncover the pot, remove the ham hock.  Let it cool on a plate.  
5. Increase the heat slightly to maintain a steady simmer and continue to cook, stirring often, for another 30 to 40 minutes.
6. When the ham hock is cooled, remove it from the bone, remove the fat, and tear it up with a couple of forks.  Return it to the pot.  
7. When the beans are tender and the sauce is thickened to your liking, they are done.  If they aren’t thickening, cook a little longer.  You don’t want to turn the beans to mush, though.  You may not get this right on the first try.  You can adjust your cooking times on future attempts.  It’s worth it. 

For Rice:

Follow the Anson Mills recipe for Carolina Gold rice as follows:  

For this recipe, you will need a rimmed baking sheet, parchment paper, a heavy-bottomed 3½-quart saucepan, a wooden spoon, a fine-holed footed colander, and a spatula.

Directions:  

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 300 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a heavy-bottomed 3½-quart saucepan, bring the water and 1 tablespoon of salt to a boil over high heat. Add the rice, stir once, and as soon as the water returns to a boil, reduce the heat to low. Simmer gently, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the rice is just tender with no hard starch at its center, about 15 minutes. Drain the rice in a fine-holed footed colander and rinse well with cool water. Shake the colander to drain off excess water.
3. Distribute the rice evenly on the prepared baking sheet. Place the baking sheet in the oven and allow the rice to dry for about 5 minutes, gently turning the grains from time to time with a spatula. Dot with the butter and sprinkle with the pepper and salt to taste. Return the baking sheet to the oven and allow the rice to warm through, occasionally turning the grains, until the butter has melted and the rice is hot, about 5 minutes more. Transfer to a warmed serving bowl and serve immediately.

Why Use Anson Mills Rice?

If you’re asking this question, you haven’t tried it.  You can use rice from you local supermarket, or natural food store, and this dish will be good.  Just remember to add some butter, salt and pepper to the rice in the quantities listed above.  However, the Anson Mills ice kicks the deliciousness up a notch.  Give it a try.