Steak au poivre (pepper steak)

I've been wanting to sear a steak in my cast iron skillet for a while now.  I really like my cast iron skillet.  It is a no-name 10" skillet that I got a a junky tool show 15 years ago.  It has a decent finish on it now, pretty smooth and black.  I've reseasoned it several times, and I think I'll try again soon with flaxseed oil, 6-8 coats.

Anyway, I've heard about heating it up as hot as it can get to sear the steak, then finish in the oven.  This gives you a nice sear, and good control on the finish.  I was watching PBS, and Martha Steward pan seared some NY strip steaks on medium, then made a mustard cream sauce.  It looked good, so I went to the store to get the ingredients.

I got a pair of NY strip steaks, then started looking for the vermouth.  I don't drink much, so I wasn't familiar with all of the alcohol and couldn't find it.  I decided to make steak au poivre instead.  I had steak au poivre in a restaurant once, and I thought it was way too fancy for me to make myself.  The only different ingredient is pretty much cognac instead of vermouth, and I knew that I had congnac.

I followed a recipe from Alton Brown pretty closely.  It is actually really easy to make.  Here are the ingredients, right from that web page.

• 4 tenderloin steaks, 6 to 8 ounces each and no more than 1 1/2 inches thick
• Kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons whole peppercorns
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1/3 cup Cognac, plus 1 teaspoon
• 1 cup heavy cream

I used 2 strip steaks, probably 12-14oz each, so the same total weight.  They were only about an inch thick, though.  I let them warm to room temperature for an hour in some paper towels to remove moisture.  Martha Stewart said to make sure that they were dry to avoid steaming them, and not to season them until it was time to cook.

I heated up the pan.  I crushed some peppercorn.  I salted the steaks, then coated both sides of each steak.  That is a lot of pepper, but it ends up tasting just fine.  I added the butter and olive oil to the pan, which was set to med/med-high on a large burner.  I put the steaks on and left them alone for 3 1/2 minutes.  Then I flipped them, let them cook for another four.  I checked with a thermometer and pulled them at 125° to be tented.   I drained off the liquid and added the cognac. 

I have to admit - I have never lit cognac on fire before in my life.  It started boiling in the hot pan right away, so I should have known that there was a lot of alcohol vapor rising.  That didn't stop me.  I lit it and got a four foot fireball.  My wife ran to get a lid to put it out.  Like an idiot, I said no; it's supposed to burn.  As flames were licking up the cabinets.

I finally had the sense to move it away from the cabinets and shook the pan gently.  The flames went out, so I put the pan back on medium heat and added the cream.  I reduced it by about half, adding the steaks back in with the juice.  I should have added the juice back and reduced some more.  I ended up taking the steaks back out to do that.

The final touch was a little more cognac and salt.  Served with baked potato and plenty of sauce.  I guess french fries are typically served with this.  The whole family loved it.  It was pretty easy to make and tasted great!

Mac and Cheese

I've been trying to make a decent mac and cheese for a while using white cheeses.  I usually cook it on the grill and it ends up being a little thick from too much cheese.  I finally hit a good batch yesterday.

Of course, the only thing I measured was the milk, but here are the rough ingredients and measurements.

• 8oz elbow macoroni
• 2T butter
• 2T flour
• 2c milk
• 1/2t black pepper
• 1/2t white pepper
• 1t salt
• 1/2t basil
• 1t onion powder
• 2/3c smoked gouda
• 2/3c white cheddar
• 2/3c gruyere
• panko crumbs

Prepare the noodle a little al dente.

Make a rue (cook butter and flour) until slightly toasted.

Add milk to rue and whisk.  Add the spices or whatever you think will taste good.  Bring to boil while mixing so it doesn't scald.  Cook until it thickens; about 5-10 minutes.   Remove from heat and add cheese.  Stir until it melts.  Add to noodles.  Put in buttered 9x9 pan.  Add panko crumbs to the top.  If you feel like messing up more dishes, mix the panko with parsely, salt, pepper, and Parmesan in a food processor until it is fine.  Sprinkle on top.  Cook for ~20 minutes at 400° F.  I added a little milk (about 1/4c) because it had been so thick in the past.

It turned out great!  The smoked gouda is delicious in mac and cheese!

Grilling 1/2 Turkey Breast

So, it looks like a big bone-in chicken breast.  I read recipes online, and they say to cook 20 minutes on one side, then another 10 on the other at a lowish heat on the grill.  This seemed a little low to me, so I put it in on the upper rack expecting 45 minutes on medium heat.  45 minutes later, and it was 140 some degrees.  I cranked up the heat and let it ride.  After an hour or so, I pulled it out.  Crunchy on the outside, tender on the inside.  Actually more like blackened skin and done ok in the middle.

Lesson - grill your turkey breast slowly.

Intro

I've been meaning to start a blog for quite a while.  Like most people, I'll stick to what interests me, so I'll have a typical technology/computer security/gaming/car/flying/cooking blog.  Actually, other than the cooking, I guess that would be pretty standard for a teenager.

The primary reason for starting it today is that I just started my flight training today.  I want to document it while it was still fresh in my mind.  Hopefully this will help someone else, like other people's writings have helped me in the past.  However, I don't really expect anyone to read this.

Let me explain the topics.  First, technology and computer security.  I've always liked technology and have an engineering degree.  I enjoy building my own computers, playing with networks, and hacking anything that I can.  I'm an Offensive Security Certified Professional and just took my CISSP exam.  I'll try to document new technology, tablet, vulnerabilities, and other security topics.  I especially want to document exploits that I have researched.

Gaming.  When I have free time, I like gaming on many different platforms.  That changed when our kids were born.  Now that they are a little older, I can play some games with them, such a Skylanders.  Now that I'm in flight training, gaming time will probably be limited to X-Plane.

Cars.  My wife and I are looking for cars, so I've been doing a lot of research and will try to document my findings.  She's interested in a Mazda 5, and I'm interested in a Subaru BRZ with 50 more horsepower.  I've got my fingers crossed that 2014 will have an STI version.

Flying.  As I mentioned above, I just started flight training.  I've wanted to do this for at least 10 years.  The first flight was a little overwhelming.  By writing it down, I think I'll reinforce what I learned.  This will be kept in a different blog: jbisflying.blogspot.com.

Cooking.  Like I tell my wife, I don't like cooking.  I like eating.  Early on, I realized that meant I would have to cook food for myself if I wanted to eat well.  I can't/won't eat out every day!  Every once in a while, I run across a good recipe.  I want to make sure I keep track of them.