By far my favorite muffin recipe that I’ve tried is Smitten Kitchen‘s muffin recipe. The texture is just so lovely! I like the change this recipe for the fall and use fresh cranberries. (I wash and cut them into halves. I add TONS to the batter and some of them get soft, burst, and they get so delicious.)

Another favorite during the Summer was frozen yogurt. It’s SO MUCH easier to make than custard ice cream. I also feel like it’s a little healthier. You basically get some plain yogurt, add some honey/sugar/maple syrup as you want, and then any fruit (frozen is fine – I would add some more honey and let it defrost). I like to run some handfuls of berries through the food processor, so the yogurt gets colorful.

I’ve cooked some steaks on the cast-iron, too, although mine are usually salted, instead of marinating. Salting? No, I’m not talking about “seasoning” it. In fact, afterwards, I wash it off and pat COMPLETELY DRY. I’m talking about this technique. It’s mighty good. Ryan, on the other hand, swears by miso-marinading the steak and broiling in the oven.

He’s perfected the method, starting out with a pretty tough flank steak to our last rib eye, both from Wholefoods. This time, he wanted something special and looked up specialty butcher shops. We found a great one near Bedford Ave in Brooklyn and took a trip there.

Marlow and Daughters
95 Broadway
(between Bedford Ave & Berry St)
Brooklyn, NY 11211

This place is a little bit of a walk from the Bedford Avenue L train station, but really worth a trek. This shop has tons of lovely things like organic vegetables (picked me up some rainbow chard!), cold cuts (picked some up), sausages (I’ve never had hand made hot dogs, so we bought a couple and plan to eat them tonight on a toasted potato bun), cheeses and yogurts (picked up a tub to make frozen yogurt). You definitely go there for one thing and come out with $50-$100 worth of stuff. Anyway. This is how we ended up with a little over a pound of dry-aged NY Strip Steak. We were looking at the dry-aged rib eye, but it was lofty 2lb monster with the bone… so yeah.

They butcher in house and a lot of steaks were left over from requests from restaurants from that day. The meats looked really great and fresh, if more expensive for the authentic butcher experience. The people that work there are super attentive and helpful, and of course, knowledgeable about their meats. Unfortunately this isn’t the type of place I would trek to once a week, but a splurge per month is definitely in the picture.

Red Miso Marinaded Steaks

This is Ryan’s recipe for steaks, which resembles the Japanese miso-zuke technique of marinading fishes. It makes the meat really flavorful and the mirin allows the outside to caramelize (the sugar content – so if you’re cooking a thinner steak and you suspect the cooking time to be less, then add more mirin for more of an instant char). Use around 3 table spoons per pound of meat with a splash of mirin or more if the steak is on the thinner side. Our steak last night was over an inch, so the mirin was minimal. Marinade at room temperature for an hour. If you want a stronger flavor, marinade in the fridge for some time and leave out for the last hour.

Twenty minutes before cooking, adjust the bottom rack of the oven to be around 6 inches from the flame. Set the oven to broil and leave in your cast-iron pan. Once the steak is good to cook, be careful and take out the cast iron and heat on the stove at the highest setting. (Please double up your oven mitts, as the one touching the cast iron was blackened.) The idea is to char the steak of a super hot surface. Place the steak on the skillet and brown each side for 30 seconds-1 minute. Depending on the thickness of the steak, once the meat is browned, throw into the oven (still on broil) for 2-4 minutes. I like mine medium rare, where the very center is still rare (less cooked than pink), so we left the steak for 2 and half minutes. Finally, take the steak out of the oven and rest on a cool surface for 10 minutes. There will be drippings from the meat that you can use later for sauce.

The meat was just SO tender and buttery. The dry aged meat gave the steak a real beefiness. And in fact, the miso didn’t detract from that, since it added a slight funkiness, tang, and saltiness and didn’t taste over powering-ly like miso. It was definitely one of our most memorable steak moments at home. The cut and quality of the meat is so important. Once we bought this flank steak that was just so chewy, even after marinading (and then it was full of artificial flavor, but not much meatiness, you know?) it was still one tough mo-fo. That moment made me really appreciate better cuts of meat. And personally, I’m not a big filet minion fan. It’s tender, but lacks a beefy/meatiness. Eh.

Roasted Kale

The kale, I kept simple. After washing the kale, I dried it thoroughly before tossing with some virgin olive oil. I added salt, pepper, garlic powder (see a pattern?), cayenne pepper (TONS), and Japanese shichimi chili flakes (7 variety). I cooked for a couple of minutes until the edges of the leaves are slightly crispy and everything else tender and dark green.

Sauteed Rainbow Chard

To accompany this dish, we roasted some kale (left overs) and sauteed some rainbow chard. We kept it easy and cooked it with 4-5 cloves of garlic and olive oil. I sprinkled some garlic powder, salt, and pepper for good measure.

I like the trim the chard from it’s stems and cook the stems extra long. I divided them up, and initially cooked the stems in oil and garlic for 5 or so minutes. I used around one clove of garlic and reserved the rest for when I sauteed the leaves. I put the stems aside and heat some additional oil and throw in the rest of the garlic into the pot. I used a pot to contain all the chard, but the leaves quickly wilted and shrunk to 1/4 it’s size. After 5 or so minutes, I threw the stems in, tossed around, and took the pot off the fire. Just sprinkle some lemon and grate some parmesan on top. Delicious.

Bon appetite!

We plated the steaks on top of brown and white rice respectively, each tossed with a small slab of butter, lime, salt, and parmesan (we know how to do it up!).

Feel free to adapt this for the grill. You just need to get the temperature really high. Let us know if there are any steak recipes that you recommend!!

Next post: We’ll report back on their hot dogs and yogurt (although I tasted that it was definitely yummy! I love that the 3 ingredients next to the yogurt are: organic whole milk, cultures, and vanilla) tomorrow!

Ryan’s mother got us a Cookbook by the Barefoot Contessa, How Easy Is That? And it’s really good and fairly simple.

French Lentils out of Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

You cook the lentils with onions, carrots, celery, etc… and in the end she has a simple sauce of spicy mustard, oil, vinegar, etc… You toss them together, and it’s creamy and delicious. We added some tonkatsu sauce and Japanese mayonnaise on top.

Tonkotsu Ramen w/ ham, cabbage, and a poached egg

This is a quick and dirty tonkotsu ramen that you can get at any Japanese grocer (not to be mistaken for cheapo $1 ramen noodles). When you make the broth, I always add some minced garlic. You can add some powdered dashi and/or pork broth (they sell them in Japanese stores and I use them all the time to add some depth into whatever I am cooking).

I’d thinly cut some onions/cabbage/ anything you have on hand and boil them in the soup. Once soft, remove until the noodles are ready.

Cook the noodles separately and leave them firm. sear some ham or chashu (Chinese style pork – if you have any on hand). Poach an egg / fry an egg / or if you are feeling adventurous, make some soft boiled eggs (Onsen tamago?).

All weekend, the two thoughts in my head were CREAM PUFFS and TAXES! I had it planned that on Saturday, I was going to plan for both, then we head into the city EARLY Sunday, come home, and then off to the dinner. I thought we would have some time in between and it wouldn’t be a big deal. Then certain things came up, namely WORK things, which were really annoying. I’m not going to get into what I do here, but I work in interactive online marketing, namely email marketing, and there were urgent messages that needed to go out Sunday morning and possibly Sunday night for two different properties within my company.

I feel like all I did Saturday was, cook brunch, bake some pâte à choux, egg custard, strawberry puree, and try to get stuff done for work. Those cream puffs… man. They aren’t too time consuming, per se, but you use SO MANY EGGS. Did I mention I went through 3 full carton of eggs for those things? I also have a tupperware filled with like 12 eggs work of egg whites. (the custard)

SUNDAY… I was still unprepared for. I usually always wake up right before 7am and go back to sleep… most days, even on weekdays. However, on Sunday, I forced myself to pick up my iphone and look up LIRR schedules. Fuck. I had to leave for the 9:42 train in order to make it for our 1:15pm appointment in Port Jefferson. The train ride itself is two hours, but the next train after that gets us in around 1:30 (at 11:20). Shitty, right? AND I was planning on making extra custard in the morning. AND I had to send messages to our database in the morning, but I didn’t have the lists I need. Regardless, I hop out of bed and I need to run out for more eggs and milk. CUSTARD requires like 6 egg yolks. Like wtf, right? There were no stores open in my neighborhood at that time, except for a 24 hour scary bodega. I take it. So at 7am, I’m making custard, and I calculate that we should get out of here at 8:30. I kick Ryan awake and of course we end up at Penn Station at around 9:25… like minutes after the train left.
: (

I call the accountant and I explain my situation and that I’m traveling 2 hours to see them on the weekend where there is a train only every 2 hours. They claim that they will see us as long as we come in before 2pm, so we decide to buckle up and find some breakfast. You know, not many places are open around 9:30-10am. We walk all the way to Resto, on 29th between Park and Lex, but they only open around 10:30. We spoke to someone who worked there and he suggested we go to Les Halles, because he wouldn’t risk waiting and missing our train. We weren’t very interested in Les Halles, so we went to K-town to have some Bibimbap and stew for breakfast. MAN. Delicious, filling, and hit the spot. The only damper to that situation is that I found a stray wifi signal and started trying to do that piece of work… I couldn’t log into marketedge and a coworker and I started to freak out. Yes, I could have gone to the office, but I didn’t want to subject Ryan to that and deny him his breakfast. That would be cruel and … you know, f it. Readers, I have my priorities in place. Bibimbap before slaving away for an annoying piece of work.

I always do my taxes myself… and last year I did Ryan’s taxes for him. However, I thought it might be beneficial for Ryan and myself (I had some questions about my mother) to have someone look over them for us. Gabby RAVED about this guy’s company (family owned) and he answered some questions for my mother’s old taxes for me months before… so I decided to check him out. I traveled over two hours, on two trains and a taxi ride to get there. They got me a good refund, AND they saved the day and put me in their conference room so I can work on my day job. YEAH. REALLY. I was like, “I know you’re doing my taxes, but… can I use your internet to finish my work? I have my laptop and everything” – yes, I’m a dork and a nerd. That piece of kindness allowed one of my coworkers to not have to go into the office (Oh yeah, something I did Saturday night … GRRRR – which added to my loss of time). It all worked out. The timing was good, but we were so close… like 5 minutes too close to missing our train back at 3:40, which would have meant waiting 2 hours until 5:30 and get back into the city by 7:30. DO YOU KNOW HOW PISSED OFF I WOULD HAVE BEEN? All these things are just… man. Got to me. Tired me out. I passed out for 2 hours back. Thankfully, we got back to our apartment before 6:30. I hadn’t drunk any water since 11am, and I was head achey and dehydrated. We were both pretty cranky. We would not have survived that trip without the Bibimbap to fortify us.

Ryan had to sit and he watched few minutes of Prison Break (like really? Is that what relaxes you? Seeing a prison inmate television show?), and I had to check up on a few evening work things. Then I had to fill the choux, which took a few minutes. I was stressing out that we were late and I couldn’t find the address to the place… etc. I just want to mention here that this morning I checked my personal email during a lull at work and there it was… his address in the last email he sent. DUH. I have a bad habit of not checking personal email in the weekend. I just… don’t. I usually don’t want to be near a computer on the weekend, so … yeah.

Ryan needs to be recognized for being able to put up with my Type A-ness sometimes. It crops up at times of stress and I have a list… and if things don’t stick to MY LIST, I freak the fuck out. And he just sits there and reasons, “Finish your Bibimbap, sweetie.” And he eats there in silence while I have my head buried in my laptop, and not once complains.

I didn’t have much to worry about, since everyone at Shai’s place is SO CHILL. They greet us warmly, I have a drink, and I feel a little better. Then, I saw it… the Porchetta… and angels sung and my shoulders relaxed… and my stomach grumbled. It’s so funny. I keep seeing Shai in that shirt, with the pig cuts. And he proceeded to demonstrate on his shirt (I guess that was the point), where the porchetta came from. It’s the area from the loins to the pork belly, and he rolled it up with delicious herbs, tied, brined, and cooked. It was SO moist and so juicy. I don’t think I have ever cooked a pork that juicy. (I NEED TO COOK IT WITH SOME PIG FAT, THAT’S FOR SURE) And everyone brought sides and there was SO MUCH food left.

The mac’ n’ cheese was awesome, haricot verts was refreshing, and all the potatoes with the pork gravy was great. I had like… almost 4 … technically 3.79888 plates of pork… Mmmm… I don’t need dessert, just pork. I’m not ashamed to say that I ate the big chunks of fat on the pork belly and it melted in my mouth. One of the best porks I’ve eaten ever.

Oh yeah, and there were cream puffs, and people seemed to like them. The best compliment of the evening was by the chef himself. Yay.

I might have been a bad guest and ate and run. I was exhausted, and it might have been too much of substances, like alcohol… snorting pig fat… pig coma… I got home, and in bed by 11pm. And this morning I was still tired, but in a much better mood.

Itemized: 4 Filet Mignons, 4 Top Sirloins, 8 Gourmet Franks, 10 Beef Steaks, 4 Pork Chops, 2 Stuff Sole Fillets w/ Crabs, 10 Potatos Au Gratin, and a 7 piece cutting board. Like what?

I laughed about other coworkers getting inappropriate packages at work, such as Victoria’s Secret, weird food stuffs, and cases of wine, but I think I take the cake for inappropriate office delivery. HUGE PACKAGE OF RAW MEAT. How was I suppose to get this home?!

In the end, the office handyman and comedian fashioned Ryan a tape strap so that he can carry the icebox home. (You didn’t think I was going to lug this sucker home, did you? I called him to pick it up at my office and to bring it home. He did. We ate meat.)

So, we made the Filet Mignon, broiled in our oven with a port reduction sauce. Yum. The top sirloin, I encrusted with chopped rosemary, pressed garlic cloves, and thyme overnight. An hour before cooking, I took out of the fridge and did a salt crust all over it… like a salt lick. Covered it up with sea salt. After an hour, I washed everything off completely, patted it completely try on a paper towel, and cooked in the cast iron. It was herby, garlicky, and nicely seasoned.

I like my meat almost bloody.

We also made chili dogs with some weekly chili we like to concoct. It was pretty good topped with Japanese mayonnaise. I liked it, because it was beefy with a hefty texture. It also had a good meaty taste. Ryan says that he still like the Hebrew National smokiness and flavor. In the end, I think I prefer the latter, but the “Gourmet Franks” were huge and filling. It was pretty good. Especially in a chili dog.

For $60, I would certainly recommend this package. It’s beautifully packaged in flash frozen airtight plastic that you can easily pull apart. Each meat is then individually boxed. Like Ryan says, it’s as far from a live animal that you can get raw meat to resemble. It’s almost amazing and no messy cleaning. Also, if you’re in a hurry, you can submerge the whole plastic package in water to thaw, because it’s vacuum sealed.