Skirt Steak Marinade

The beauty of skirt steak is that it cooks quickly and the meat takes on the flavor of the marinade in as little as an hour.  Anything over two hours is marinade overkill (the acid will start to cook this thin cut meat and turn it mushy).  I found this recipe by Alton Brown and it infuses the perfect amount of flavor into the meat. 

Ingredients

1/2 cup - Olive oil
1/3 cup - Soy sauce
4 - Scallions (washed and cut in 1/2)
2 - Garlic cloves
1/4 cup - Lime juice
1/2 teaspoon - Red Pepper Flakes
1/2 teaspoon - Ground Cumin
3 tbsp - Brown sugar
2lb - Skirt Steak (cut into equal serving portions)

Canola Oil

1) In a blender (or using a hand blender), blend the olive oil, soy sauce, scallions, garlic, lime juice, red pepper, cumin, and brown sugar.  In a large zip lock bag, put in the pieces of skirt steak and marinade, and refrigerate for 1 hour.

2) Remove the steak from the bag and pat dry with paper towels. 

3) Add canola oil to a cast iron skillet on medium/high heat and sear the steak on each side for 2-3 minutes.

4) Rest the meat on a cooling rack for 10 minutes to let the juices redistribute and enjoy. 

Veal Scaloppini with Saffron Cream Sauce

Sunday dinner is an all out event - few things make me happier than trying a new dish (or having hours to make pork shoulder / beef short ribs).  After hitting up Trader Joe's / Fairway, I found a Giada recipe (I know the sacrilege, but it performed).

Ingredients 

1lb - Veal Cutlets (pounded thin) 

3 tbsp - Unsalted Butter 

3 tbsp - Olive Oil

12oz - Cremini Mushrooms (sliced)

2 - Shallots (finely chopped)

3/4 Cup - White Wine

1 Cup - Beef Broth

Pinch - Saffron Threads

3/4 Cup - Heavy Cream

1/2 Cup - Peas

8 oz - Farfalle Pasta

Kosher Salt

Pepper (freshly cracked)

Lemon (squeezed over the pasta/veal)

Parmigiano Reggiano (grated)

 

1) Season the veal with salt and pepper. 

2) Melt 1 tablespoon of butter with 2 tablespoons of oil in a cast iron skillet over high heat.
3) Saute until golden for about 1 minute on each side and transfer the veal to a plate.

4) Melt 2 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of oil in the same pan over high heat and add the mushrooms and shallots. Sprinkle with salt / pepper and saute until the mushrooms are golden brown about 8 minutes. 

5) In a separate pot, add the farfalle to boiling salted water and cook until al dente for 10 minutes (drain and set aside).

6) Add the wine, broth and saffron, and simmer until the liquid is reduced by half for about 5 minutes. 

7) Add the cream and stir often for about 4 minutes. 

8) Add the peas and season the sauce with salt and pepper. 

9) Add the veal and farfalle to the sauce and stir to coat.

10) Serve with Parmigiano and squeezed lemon.

Perfect Soft Boiled Eggs

Nature's perfect sauce is an egg yolk - it sits at the top of the food porn hierarchy and can get you salivating in seconds just thinking about its velvety viscosity.  What's more basic, simple, and delicious than a perfectly soft boiled egg?  Everyone has eggs and should be able to boil water.  I found the following recipe in Tim Ferriss' The 4-Hour Chef.  Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 tsp - Baking Soda (optional)

2 - Eggs

Drizzle - Truffle Oil

Pinch - Salt

1) Fill a pot with water, add baking soda (it makes the egg easier to peel), and get the water boiling.

2) Gently add the eggs to the boiling water with a spoon and remove after 7 minutes.

3) Run the eggs over cold water (to stop the cooking process and make them easier to peel), crack them on a flat surface, and gently peel the shell off.

4) Season with truffle oil and salt.  

Chuck Hughes' Short Ribs Recipe

I've tried countless short rib recipes and nothing is more satisfying than running your fork through short ribs that don't require a knife ("fork tender").  The secret is at least 3 hours of braising (you should also reduce the braising liquid to a thick sauce).  I prefer to use boneless beef shorts ribs from Whole Foods (Butcher Counter) - they are meatier, the fat is marbled and not a quarter inch of glob, and I hate trimming the gummy cartilage from the bone (for presentation purposes at the end).  Here is my take on Chuck Hughes' recipe.  This is not my "go-to" recipe, but what I love about it is it taught me to experiment with different flavor profiles (his use of cocoa powder / star anise / cinnamon and his omission of chicken/beef stock).

Ingredients

3 - Onions (coarsely chopped)

3 - Celery (coarsely chopped)

4 - Carrots (Peeled, trimmed, & cut into 2 inch chunks)

3 - Garlic Heads (cut in half)

2 - Sprigs of Fresh Rosemary (I prefer more than 2)

2 - Sprigs of Fresh Thyme (I prefer more than 2)

1 - Cinnamon Stick

1 - Star Anise

6 - Beef Short Ribs

2 - Bottles of Red Wine (I prefer Cotes du Rhone)

1 cup - Flour

1 cup - Brown Sugar

2 tbsp - Cocoa Powder

2 tbsp - Butter (unsalted)

Handful - Black Peppercorns

Kosher Salt

Canola Oil

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2) In a large bowl, combine the onion, celery, carrots, and garlic.  Add the rosemary, thyme, star anise, and cinnamon stick (and set aside).

3) Trim the ribs of excess fat (you wouldn't have this problem if you got them from Whole Foods), season with kosher salt, and dredged in flour.

4) In a dutch oven, pour in enough canola oil to coat the bottom of the pan.  On medium/high heat, add the ribs to the hot oil and sear them on all sides.  Remove the ribs and set aside.

5) Add the vegetables from the bowl and stir to caramelize.  Add the meat back to the pot and pour both bottles of wine over the top.  If the wine does not completely cover the ribs/vegetables, add water.

6) Add the cocoa powder, brown sugar, and peppercorns and bring to a boil.  Once it is boiling, cover with a lid, and put in the oven for 3 hours.

7) Remove the ribs, strain out the solids, and reduce the braising liquid by half to make a complex sauce.  Once the sauce is to your liking, add butter, and reheat the ribs in the sauce.

The Simplest Thin Crust Pizza Recipe Ever

Nothing makes me happier than preparing a quick, delicious, and easy lunch using 'leftovers' in the fridge.  It doesn't get any thinner than a flour tortilla, plus who wants to mess around making dough or rolling store bought dough.  The recipe is simple, but the taste is complex: the prosciutto gives a subtle meaty saltiness, the shallot adds a light onion flavor without an overbearing dominant onion taste, the egg yolk is nature's perfect sauce, and the sauce/cheese join everything perfectly together. 

Ingredients

1 - Mission Brand Flour Tortilla (burrito size)

1 - Egg

1 - Shallot (chopped)

Prosciutto (torn)

Basil Leaves (torn)

Tomato Sauce (I had phenomenal sauce leftover)

Trader's Joe's Quattro Formaggio Cheese Blend

Kosher Salt 

Pepper

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lay the tortilla on a cookie sheet and spread tomato sauce with a spoon and sprinkle the shallots, prosciutto, and cheese evenly.

2) Crack the egg in the middle of the pizza and be sure to season it lightly with salt and pepper.

3) Bake it for 15 minutes (or until the egg is fully set and cooked).

4) Garnish with basil.

Scarpetta Spaghetti Recipe

Only in New York will you find a $26 burger (Minetta Tavern), $1,000 ice cream sundae (Serendipity 3), $10 grilled cheese sandwich (Morris Grilled Cheese Truck), and $24 spaghetti (Scarpetta).  Scarpetta's spaghetti is life changing - the beauty of the dish is in its simplicity: spaghetti, tomato sauce, and basil.  I came across (and modified) the following recipe from Food & Wine magazine (by Roy Choi) that attempted to recreate Scarpetta's recipe.  I love his addition of a mushroom stock and pureeing the fried garlic to make the flavor of the tomato sauce complex (its a far cry from sacrilegious Prego or Ragu).  

Ingredients

4oz - White Button Mushrooms (thinly sliced) 

2 heads - Garlic Cloves (peeled) 
2/3 cup - Extra-Virgin Olive Oil 

2 - 28oz  San Marzano Tomatoes (whole)
16oz - Spaghetti
Kosher Salt
Pepper (freshly ground)

Crushed Red Pepper Flakes

Basil Leaves (torn)
Parmigiano-Reggiano (Freshly grated) 

  

1) In a saucepan, bring the mushrooms and 3 cups of water to a boil. Simmer over moderate heat for one hour until the broth is reduced to 1 cup. Strain and discard the mushrooms.
2) Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, bring the garlic and olive oil to a boil. Simmer over moderately low heat, stirring, until the garlic is golden for 30 minutes.
3) In a stock pot, bring the tomatoes and the garlic and oil to a boil. Add the mushroom broth and use an immersion/hand blender to puree the sauce until smooth (if you don't have an immersion blender, in small batches, us a blender and hold the top of the blender with a kitchen tower to prevent the top from exploding on your kitchen wall). Bring the sauce back to a boil and simmer over moderately low heat for 1 hour. Season the sauce with salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes. 

4) Cook the spaghetti in a large pot of salted boiling water until al dente. Drain the spaghetti and return to the pot. Add 2 1/2 cups of the sauce and cook / toss for 1 minute. Transfer the spaghetti to bowls, top with basil, and serve with grated cheese. Mangia!

 

Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Every week we have been experimenting with different cookie recipes.  Making things from scratch are better and more satisfying than the mass produced store bought varieties (plus they have less artificial preservatives and additives).  I found this recipe on Smitten Kitchen and made my own edits by adding freshly grated nutmeg, using freshly grated cinnamon (not pre-ground cinnamon), using a different salt, and omitting the walnuts.  The recipe yielded about 15 small cookies, which was perfect because other cookie recipes will leave you with "obligation" cookies (cookies you are forced to eat every day until you are all "cookied" out).

Ingredients 

1 stick - Unsalted Butter (softened)
2/3 cup - Light Brown Sugar 

1 - Egg
1/2 tsp - Vanilla Extract
3/4 cup - Flour
1/2 tsp - Baking Soda
1/2 tsp - Freshly Grated Cinnamon

1/4 tsp - Fresh Grated Nutmeg
1/2 tsp - Kosher Salt 

1 1/2 cups - Rolled Oats
3/4 cup - Raisins

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla until smooth. 

2) In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt together. 

3) Mix this into the butter/sugar mixture. 

4) Stir in the oats and raisins.

5) Put the cookies two inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake them for 11 minutes.

6) Take them out of the oven and let them sit on the hot baking sheet for five minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

 

Is it Brussel or Brussels Sprouts?

Every kid hates and despises brussel sprouts - its just a natural reaction.  "Eat your brussel sprouts" elicits repressed memories that people have buried for years.  Luckily, my mother neither fed or forced me to eat vegetables that I was fearful of (though she did make spam which I will probably never eat again).  This avoidance of the "bum rap" vegetables (broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, etc.) has led me to discover them with new eyes and cooking techniques.  Special thank you to dell'anima for having the most amazing brussel sprouts. Here's a recipe that I have had the joy of tinkering with the last couple of weeks (I'm not calling it the best recipe yet because I want to experiment with roasting them, but it will make the most finicky eater come back for more):

Ingredients

12oz-16oz - Brussel Sprouts

6 - Cloves of Garlic (sliced)

1/3 - Red Onion (chopped)

Olive Oil & Canola Oil

Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
Dried Bing Cherries (do not use Montmorency cherries) 

Red Wine Vinegar
Kosher Salt

Pepper

Honey

Pecans

1) Chop the end of the brussel sprouts off.

2) Peel and reserve 3-4 leaves from each brussel sprout and keep them off to the side.

3) Cut and quarter the brussel sprouts into 4 equal pieces.

3) In a skillet or saute pan, combine olive oil and canola oil equally over medium heat (if you put olive oil alone, it will get too smokey).

4) Put the brussel sprouts in the pan and let them carmelize.

5) Season with salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes.  Drizzle a splash of red wine vinegar.

6) Add the onions, garlic, cherris, and pecans and give everything a good stir.

7) When the brussel sprouts are starting to brown, drizzle honey over them, and add in the reserved leaves.

8) Cook them for an additional 2-3 minutes and enjoy.

 

Artisanal Premium Cheese Class

I took their "Sexy Cheese & Sumptuous Wine" class and the last thing I felt was sexy or sumptuous.

I went straight to the class after work and I was paranoid that we weren't going to get a lot to eat/drink - I was completely wrong.  We were welcomed with a nice cheese spread (complete with fondue) and Cava (Spanish sparkling wine).  I was almost full heading into the class (instead of marbles, imagine a hungry hungry hippo going after different cheeses - that was me).

We were led into the class and my knees almost buckled. Each table setting had 7 cheeses and 4 full wine glasses (why didn't I pace myself!?).   The cheeses were:

- Humboldt Fog
- Ossau Iraty Pardou Arriou
- Edwin's Munster
- Uplands Pleasant Ridge
- Adelegger (***my favorite***)
- Prima Donna
- Bleu de Laqueuille

It was a vast variety of cheeses: goat milk, sheep milk, cow milk, soft, blue, hard, nutty tasting, etc.  Erin (our cheese instructor) retired from her corporate job and made her love of cheese into a new career.  She was very knowledgeable, had great handouts, and went through the history of cheese (and why it's so damn sexy).  But wait.....it gets better!  They also had full glasses of the following wines:

- Verdejo / Viura Rueda
- Chenin Blanc
- Grenache / Cinsault / Tibourin
- Shiraz

We were supposed to try each cheese with each wine to decide which ones pair well together.  I played the pairing game for awhile, but your palette will be overloaded and your taste buds will go numb. Robert (our wine instructor) was equally knowledgeable and poured freely if you had space for more.  Good luck finishing everything and remember to pace yourself. 

Weisses Brauhaus (Munich, Germany)

Before Weisses Brauhaus:
- The thought of beer at breakfast seemed foreign.
- The thought of boiled white sausage and pretzels at breakfast seemed unappetizing.

After Weisses Brauhaus:
- When in Munich, do as the Munichers do (drink beer at breakfast).
- There was nothing more than I wanted to eat every day than a typical Bavarian breakfast: I went with the dark beer (instead of the traditional wheat beer), the delicious white sausage, the freshest baked pretzel, and sweet mustard.
- Everyone has their own method to removing the sausage skin (I preferred to surgically remove it versus ripping it off by hand).

St Stephan's Cathedral / Stephansdom (Vienna, Austria)

If there is one thing that Europe has tons of are beautiful cathedrals, imposing castles, and plenty of statutes/fountains (just look through all of my vacation photo albums).  For a non-religious person, I always find myself visiting churches in my travels (it combines history, art, and awe inspiring architecture).

If you've seen one church, you've seen them all was definitely not the case with Stephansdom.  From the outside, it was undergoing construction and the scaffolding was covered with a tarp of what the cathedral would look like if it wasn't there (there was a picture of the cathedral superimposed on the tarp).  I've seen stained glass before, but it creates a stunningly beautiful effect inside of the church (it looks like a color prism projection over the columns and statutes).  Its definitely a must see while in Vienna and there are plenty of shops/restaurants nearby.

Hofbrauhaus Beer Garden (Munich, Germany)

How to act like a tourist at Hofbrauhaus:

A) You stand around waiting at the entrance as if a hostess is going to seat you.
B) After you realize that no one is going to sit you, you walk around the entire beer garden looking for a mythical empty table.
C) After finding a place to sit, you don't hang up your coat, but instead create a 'fort' of coats around you.
D) Instead of ordering a beer right away, you decide to ask for an English menu and delay the time it takes to get a beer exponentially.
E) After finally getting your beer, you decide to take a thousand pictures of you holding the beer, drinking from the beer, comparing the size of the beer to your head, holding 2 beers, etc.

This place is massive with different rooms, floors, and an outdoor beer garden area.  It has tons of atmosphere with the diversity of people drinking here (we witnessed a 7 year old girl drinking with her parents).  The food is ok (Weisses Braeuhaus has better white sausages/pretzels and Haxnbauer has a better pork knuckle), but let's be honest....you're not here for the food.  Good luck not getting hungry watching other people eating food at your table. 

Haxnbauer (Munich, Germany)

Not all pork knuckles are created equal.  This is the place to go for a hunk of burning 'pork' love.

Sure, you can order a pork knuckle anywhere in Munich...but why ruin your experience and go with subpar knuckle?  Haxnbauer roasts their pork over a wood fire for 3 hours and it smells divine when you walk in (I thought I died and went to porky heaven).  If you order an entire knuckle (good for 2 people), the waiter will let you pick your own (with price tags included).  The skin was perfectly crispy and the meat was absolutely delicious (I didn't want to stop eating until there was just a bone left on the plate). It's definitely a must do.