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!

Guacuco Restaurant
44 Irving
Brooklyn, NY

The Restaurant just opened last week and was really spacious and cute. It wasn’t completely trendy or hipsterish, but it wasn’t completely divey or local, either. There was tons of light, it seemed like a family run business, and there was a good mix of diverse backgrounds there… and it’s not yet too crowded. We sat down and our host was really sweet and nice.

First of all, there was fresh juice, coconut milkshake, which I got, tamarind drink, which is what Tracy ordered, and sugarcane/molasses in lemonade, which is what Ryan ordered. They were all really good and Ryan and Tracy’s drink was tart and refreshing. Mine was creamy and delicious with lots of shaved coconut chunks. Actually, mine was quite filling. The drinks were a good size, but still pretty expensive, considering… around $3-4 dollars a cup.

Next we ordered fried plantains with Venezuelan cheese. The plantains were candied, and pretty delicious. The serving was a pretty large and the plantains were hearty with a thick fried outside. It was good, but I don’t think I would be able to finish the whole thing on my own. Definitely share. It was a great snack, though and we poured the arepas sauce that they offered over them. There was a “pink sauce,” the “house blend,” and finally a “spicy sauce.” I was a big fan of the “house blend” and the spicy sauce” together.

Tracy ordered the vegetarian arepas, filled with plantains, avocados, a chunk of delicious white cheese, and tomatoes. Ryan and I ordered the vegetarian arepas, as well, along with the ham and cheese and the shredded fish in herbs.

The vegetarian arepas was delicious. The cornbread was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. I think we are still a little partial to Caracas, but this place is a great substitute. The arepas are around $6.50, which I am told is definitely more than a little cheaper than Caracas. The cheese is different.

The ham and cheese was surprisingly delicious and different than what Caracas offers. It was hearty, a little salty, and the cheese was melty. There was a lot of ham and it was a great combination.

The fish… was VERY fishy and hearty, but in a good way. Does that make sense? It was really greasy and it actually made the arepas break and fall apart. Very hearty with herbs and cilantro and very satisfying… if not a little bad for you and FILLED with grease. All in all, I was very satisfied with everything I had. Come, visit me, get some arepas, and then get a drink at Bodega.