Umm... Good.

Here’s a riddle: Say you planned a dinner party for four people on a nice Spring day. You bought some meat to grill and a few sides. At the last minute, your party doubled to eight people!

How can you feed all those extra people without buying any more main ingredients?

Give up?

The answer is to pick up some flour tortillas and turn your dish into burritos! Burritos are one of the best ways in the world to extend ingredients. I use them all the time for leftovers or if I want a cut of something to go a long way.

It’s really pretty straightforward to make a decent burrito, but if you want to make an exceptional burrito, there’s a few tricks you may need to know!

Flank Steak Burritos

Yield: Serves 8.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

2 pounds flank steak, grilled
Paprika, for steak
Pepper flakes, for steak
Salt and pepper, for steak
8-10 flour tortillas
8-10 ounces Pepper Jack cheese, or your favorite
Other toppings could be: avocado, hot sauce, lettuce, salsa, onions, tomatoes, cilantro, etc.

Helpful Equipment:
Steaming Basket

Directions:

1) Rub spices all over both sides of flank steak. Don't go light on the seasonings!

2) Grill steak for 4-5 minutes per side on high heat for medium rare steak.

3) Let steak rest for 10 minutes and then slice across the grain.

4) TO prep burritos, set up steaming basket in a large pot with 1/2 inch of water.

5) Bring to a simmer. Then add tortilla and cheese.

6) Cover and steam for about 30 seconds.

7) Remove tortilla and pile high with steaks and other toppings.

8) Roll it up and serve it!

Prepping the Steak

Flank steak is one of my favorite cuts of beef to grill. It’s fairly economical, easy to season and assuming you grill it and cut it correctly, it can be just as tender and delicious as a cut of meat two or three times its price.

When seasoning a flank steak, I recommend going pretty heavy on it. For this steak, I used some pepper flakes, paprika, and a good amount of salt and pepper. Season both sides really well.

Go heavy on the seasoning.

After this is seasoned, crank your grill up to high and once it’s very hot, grill the steak for about 4-5 minutes per side.

If you don’t have a grill, you could also broil this guy for about the same amount of time. You want a nice char on both sides of the steak though.

Flanks good fast.

As you’ll see, I like my steak to be medium rare. If you like it medium, add on another two minutes to the cooking time per side. If you like your steak cooked more than medium, I can’t help you.

Just kidding, but I think you get the idea. The only real way to know what doneness your steak is though is to touch it. If you compare the feel of the steak to the below thumb chart, it’ll give you a pretty good idea of how your steak is cooked. Remember that a steak will become more firm as it cooks longer.

After your steak comes off the grill, let it rest for about 10 minutes. This is really important. Don’t try to slice this guy before letting it rest.

When you’re ready to slice it, be sure to slice it against the grain. So in this case, I sliced mine basically following the grill marks in the above photo.

Don't forget to let it rest.

Prepping the Burrito

One of my favorite burrito carts in DC steams their tortillas with the cheese on them. They had a special system for doing this, but it created awesome results. First, it made the cheese super-melty which is important. Second though, it made the tortilla really flexible so it could hold more!

So I figured out a way to steam my tortillas at home. This isn’t an essential step, but it’ll take your burritos to the next level. Start by pouring about 1/2 inch of water in a large pot. Then put in a steaming basket like you would normally use for vegetables.

The steam contraption.

The important thing to remember here is that you don’t want the water to touch the tortilla or it’ll end up being really soggy. So make sure you have a good amount of space between the water and the bottom of the steam basket.

Then place the tortilla with grated cheese on the basket!

This is a good idea.

It’s hard to tell from the photo, but you want to add the tortilla when the water is already steaming. Basically, you want to keep the tortilla on the steam basket for as short a time as possible.

It’ll probably take about 20-30 seconds for the tortilla to steam and the cheese to melt.

At some point, you’ll want to prep a few other toppings also!

Some other fixins...

Finishing the Burrito

Should be pretty straightforward to finish these guys once you have the steak grilled and the burrito steamed.

One tip though. When you’re taking your tortilla out of the steamer: USE TONGS. It’s really hot.

Then lay your chopped steak right on the cheese.

Steamed and Steaked!

Add on any other toppings that you like. I kept my first one pretty straightforward.

A basic version.

Then fold the ends in and roll it up! I think you’ll find that you can really stuff these very full and the tortillas won’t rip like they will sometimes do. The steaming leaves them flexible and sturdy!

Large and in charge!

I chopped mine in half just so you could see all the deliciousness inside.

A pretty perfect burrito.

My official Macheesmo taste tester said that these could use some rice. I thought they were pretty good without rice, but I can see her argument.

But I think you get the idea. You can put almost anything in these guys.

The trick is in the steam though!

A tasty way to clean out the fridge!

I’ll be the first to admit that cleaning is not my strong point. I like to say that it’s because I have a creative soul, but it probably has more to do with my general laziness. If I really focus my energy on it, I can clean, but most of the the time I do a pretty half-assed job.

I’m having to change my tune these days though because Betsy has already left for Colorado (she’s there actually!) so I’m left to my own devices and it’s my responsibility to make sure our apartment is spotless before I leave.

I’ve been saving the fridge for the last thing because who knows what lurks in its dark depths…

At the same time I wanted to make sure that I used as much of the food as possible before I left. After asking you all to comment on what one-pot dish I should make, it seemed like a stew-like dish was the favorite which worked out perfectly with my clean-out-the-fridge idea because turns out that you can throw almost anything into a beef stew.

Yield: Serves 2-4.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound good quality beef. I used a sirloin steak, cubed.
1 small onion, diced
1 small red pepper, diced
2-3 jalapenos, diced
Handful of carrots, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 can black beans
1 can corn
2 Tablespoons oil, (canola or grapeseed works best)
1/2 Cup red wine
2-3 Cups water
1 Teaspoon paprika
1/2 Teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted if you want
1/2 Teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 Teaspoon fresh thyme
Salt and pepper

Garnishes: Shredded cheese, Greek yogurt, sour cream, avocado, crackers

NOTE: This is my version because it's what was in my fridge. Add to it, subtract from it. Make it your own. The whole idea of this stew is that you buy as few things as possible. The only things I bought just for this dish was the beef and the avocado.

Directions:

1) Mince all your veggies to roughly the same size. If you're using jalapenos and/or garlic, you might want to mince them finer just so you don't get a big bite of one.

2) Cube the beef and dust it lightly with flour.

3) In a medium heavy pot, add a few tablespoons of neutral oil over high or medium-high heat. Once hot, add beef and brown well on all sides.

4) Remove beef but leave any oil remaining. Add vegetables to pot and stir. Turn down heat slightly if veggies are burning. If the pan is dry, add a bit more oil. Cook for a minute or two until veggies are just starting to soften up. Add a pinch of salt.

5) Add red wine and deglaze pan, scraping up browned bits from the beef with a spatula.

6) Once deglazed, add beef back to pot and cover slightly with water. Bring to simmer, add spices, and simmer for 10-15 minutes until liquid is reduced and beef is tender.

7) Add beans and corn if you're using them. Stir and simmer for a few more minutes.

8) Serve immediately with garnishes.

The Basics

Again, the key to a stew like this is to buy almost nothing. You could add a ton of different veggies. In fact, I think you could add almost any vegetable to it and it would probably be good.

Pretty random stuff.

I chopped up everything so it was roughly the same size except for the jalapenos and garlic which I minced a bit finer. This took a bit of time but it’s really the only work involved in this stew.

All chopped up!

The Beef

You could get away with a lot of different cuts of beef for this. Almost any roast or steak cut would work. The thing about roasts is that they tend to be a lot tougher so you’ll need to cook them longer to soften them up. I bought a small sirloin steak that I cubed up which was pretty tender to start with so it didn’t need as much simmering.

I dusted the cubes in a pinch or two of flour just to dry them out. This will help them brown and also make the sauce thicker in the end. A very light coating will do the trick.

Cubed and lightly floured

Starting the stew

Add a few tablespoons of a neutral oil to heavy pot if you have it. Ideally, you would have a dutch oven or something cast iron so it can get nice and hot and sear the beef well. I only have one medium-sized pot with me so that’s the one I used.

Add the oil and crank up the heat. When the oil is glistening, add all your beef and let it brown nicely on each side for a few minutes.

Wish I would've had my dutch oven for this.

See all that browned stuff that stuck to the pan? That’s the most important part. That’s where all the flavor and color is going to come from in the stew.

When the beef has cooked for a few minutes and is nice and browned, remove it but try to keep the oil in the pot. Add all your veggies to the pot next and turn the heat down to medium. If the pan looks really dry, add a bit more oil, but it’ll probably be okay.

Stir this all together and add a pinch of salt. The veggies will start to pick up some of the brown bits as they cook.

Smellin' good!

The Spices

I moved most of my spices already but kept a few standards that I figured might come in handy. The only thing I wish I had for this that I didn’t have was some good chili powder. It tasted fine without it though and I wasn’t going to buy it or make it just for one dish.

These guys provided plenty of flavor for me.

Chili powder would've been nice.

Back to the stew

When the veggies have cooked for a minute or two, add the red wine to the pot. It’ll sizzle and hiss, but use the liquid to scrape up any left over little bits on the bottom of the pan. This is called deglazing and it’s important.

After you scrape up all the bits, add the water to the pan along with the beef. Add enough water to just cover everything. Some recipes call for beef stock or something, but I think water is the best bet. It keeps the flavors really clean and as you can see, there’s plenty of color from browning the beef earlier.

Simmer simmer.

Bring this all to a simmer and add all your spices. Simmer for 10-15 minutes and then add your corn and beans.

Let this all simmer together for as long as you want! Try a piece of beef and make sure it’s seasoned well and tender. Adjust the salt and pepper if needed and also cook it until the sauce is fairly thick but not gravy thick or anything.

This was my finished pot!

Threw in some random canned veggies.

If you’re like me, then you like stew with avocado and some Greek yogurt or sour cream. I also love it with crumbled tortilla chips and cheese, but I had some yogurt so I went that route.

Very tasty.

This was very good.

So while I might not be good at cleaning in general, I think I’ve done an okay job at cleaning out the fridge at least.

And I’ve eaten well along the way!

Home cookin'!

Comfort food got its name for a reason. After you have a good homemade meal like chicken fried steak, it’s almost impossible not to smile.

Now I know that there’s a few different ways to make this dish. Some people actually deep fry the steak and in some places you’ll see the steak fried and then simmered in the gravy.

I like to make mine like I always had it growing up and like I prefer my chicken: pan fried. It makes for a perfectly crispy crust and then you have the base for a really awesome white gravy.

So that’s how I made it for this post and, like I said, it’s hard not to be happy while you’re eating this meal.

Chicken Fried Steak

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound steak, I like to use a bottom round steak but you can use a lot of different cuts. Choose a leaner cut and slice it about 1/4 inch thin.
2 Cups all-purpose flour
2 Teaspoons paprika
1 Teaspoon cayenne
2 Cups buttermilk (or you can use a few eggs)
Salt and pepper
A few cups neutral oil for frying

For Gravy:
- 4 Tablespoons flour
- 2 Tablespoons butter
- 2 Tablespoons oil from frying
- 2-3 Cups milk
- Salt and pepper

Helpful Equipment:
Cast Iron Skillet
Tenderizer

Directions:

1) Slice steaks about 1/4 inch thin and pound out with a tenderizer. Season well with salt and pepper.

2) Add flour to a large bowl and add seasonings. Don't be shy on the seasoning.

3) Add the steak cuts to the flour and shake off any extra. Then move cuts to buttermilk (or a few whisked eggs). Then move them back to the flour mixture to make for a nice even coating over the steak. Let cuts sit while you prepare oil.

4) Add oil to a large pan over medium high heat until hot. Test oil by sprinkling in some flour. It should sizzle immediately. You just need a small coating of oil in the pan. The oil should come up about halfway on the steaks.

5) Add steak cuts to the oil and cook for about 3-4 minutes per side. Work in batches and make sure the steaks are cooking evenly and not touching.

6) Remove steaks to a plate lined with a paper towel to drain. Let oil cool off a bit in the pan.

7) Pour off all the oil in the pan except about 2 Tablespoons and leave all the browned bits.

8) Add butter pan and scrape up any stuck bits of steak. Put pan back over low heat.

9) Sprinkle in flour and whisk to make a roux. Cook for about a minute until roux is lightly brown in color.

10) Whisk in milk slowly, adding milk about 1/2 Cup at a time. Keep whisking and any lumps should smooth out. Add milk and cook until thick and smooth. Season heavily with salt and pepper.

11) Serve steaks with lots of the gravy along with sides like potatoes, steamed carrots, or biscuits.

Prepping the steak

The key to a good chicken fried steak is making sure that the steak is thin and also very tender. When you get your steak, it’ll most likely be too thick to use as-is. I was able to butterfly my steak so I got two cuts out of one basically.

The nice thing about this meal is that a pound of steak feeds four people pretty easily. Cutting it thin like this makes for a lot larger portion than you’d think.

If you have a tenderizer, give each cut a good pounding and then season them well with salt and pepper.

Tenderized and seasoned

Next, add some flour to a large bowl and season it well with paprika, cayenne, and salt and pepper. You can go pretty heavy on the seasoning here since only a small amount of it will stick to the steaks.

Don't go light on the seasonings

As far as the coating goes, I used buttermilk for my steaks because that’s what I’d use for chicken, but if you don’t have any you could just as easily whip up a few eggs and use that to coat the steak.

Whether you use buttermilk or eggs though, dip the steak first in the flour, then in the liquid, then back in the flour to get a nice even coating.

The steak on the left is finished. The steak on the right is just dipped in the flour.

Floured. Buttermilked. Floured.

Let this sit for a few minutes while you get the oil hot in your pan. As far as pans go I think a cast iron pan is your best option for this meal. It has really even heating and is great for pan frying things like this.

You seriously don’t need a lot of oil for these since they are so thin. Probably a cup or two of oil should do the trick depending on the size of your pan. To test the heat of the oil, sprinkle in some flour and if it sizzles immediately then it’s ready to go.

Carefully lay the steaks in the hot pan (keep the heat on medium-high). Make sure that they aren’t touching. You’ll probably want to work in batches to make sure the steaks are browned nicely.

The oil should only come about half-way up the steaks.

Hard to go wrong with this...

These guys will cook really fast. A lot faster than chicken. Probably three or four minutes per side and they’ll be done. Remove them to a plate lined with some paper towels so they can drain a bit. They should be really crispy and golden brown.

Nice and golden.

A Potato Aside

I had some extra cooked potatoes in the fridge and I thought they’d be perfect for a side dish for this meal. Instead of mashing them completely, I just kind of smashed them a bit and then laid them out on a baking sheet with a good drizzle of olive oil and some salt and pepper.

I baked them for about 20 minutes until they are starting to crisp up nicely.

These were fantastic and were great with the gravy and everything.

Smashed Potatoes

Speaking of gravy

After you fry all your steaks, you’ll be left with a good amount of oil and tons of browned bits in the pan. Turn off the heat and let the pan cool off for a few minutes. Then pour out most of the oil, but try to keep as many of the browned bits in the pan.

Ideally, you want to leave about 2 Tablespoons of oil in the pan, but just eyeball it. Then put the pan back on the heat over low heat and add a few tablespoons of butter.

Once the butter melts, try to scrape up as many of the browned bits as possible and sprinkle in the flour. Whisk everything together to form a pretty thick roux. The important part about this is that you want basically equal parts flour and liquid so you might need to add more flour or less depending on how much butter/oil you have in your pan.

Again, just eyeball it.

This is how mine looked.

Making a quick roux.

Once you get your roux made, let it cook for 30 seconds or so and then start whisking in your milk. Don’t add all the milk at once. Add it in about 1/2 Cup increments and whisk like crazy so the roux and milk combine into a creamy and thick mixture. Don’t worry if your gravy has a few lumps in it. Just keep whisking and they should smooth out.

Cook, and keep whisking, until the gravy is thick and smooth. Season really well with salt and pepper.

Smooth and creamy!

I served my steaks with the potatoes and some steamed carrots (healthy!).

Be sure to go heavy on the gravy…

Pretty good stuff.

There’s really nothing fancy about this meal but it’s pretty much my definition of great comfort food.

It’s not something that I would want to eat everyday, but sometimes it really hits the spot.

And I don’t think I really talked about the potatoes enough, but baked smashed potatoes are pretty spectacular with creamy peppered gravy. Just sayin’.

Spicy!

A few weeks ago I went on a pantry cleaning expedition. You see my pantry space is incredibly limited. In fact, I don’t really even have a pantry. It’s just a single cabinet that I keep all my canned/dried stuff in.

Ideally, it would be perfectly organized but it pretty much always looks like a bomb went off close by. Occasionally though I do get inspired when I notice that I have, say, four different bags of almonds.

While I was cleaning out my “pantry” this time around I found, tucked way back in the back, a gallon plastic bag with a random assortment of dried chiles in it. Of course, I had lost them long ago and already replaced them all, but dried chiles really keep forever so I figured they were probably still good.

So I put them to use! I’ve been meaning to make a good batch of chili powder for awhile now and this gave me the tools I needed!

Three Chile Steak

Yield: Serves 2.

Prep Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

1 pound steak. You could use almost any steak you want for this.
Ancho chiles
Chipotle Chiles
New Mexico Chiles
Salt and Pepper
Neutral Oil

Helpful Equipment:
Food Processor
Mortar and Pestle
or
- A plastic bag and a mallet or rolling pin

Directions:

1) Add your dried peppers in a single layer to a baking sheet and bake at 250 degrees for 30 minutes, turning a few times throughout.

2) Cool peppers for a few minutes. They should be very crunchy. Remove the stems from each pepper and shake out as many seeds as you can.

3) Grind up the dried peppers either using a food processor, a mortar and pestle, or just put them in a plastic bag and mash them with a mallet or a rolling pin.

4) The chili powder will keep for months in a plastic bag.

5) Rub your steak with the chili powder, covering the steaks in an even layer. Also sprinkle with salt and pepper and press the spices into the steaks.

6) Grill the steaks over medium-high. Depending on thickness and doneness you'll probably need to cook them for 8-12 minutes, turning once half-way through.

7) If you're using a cast iron skillet, add a tiny amount of oil to the pan over high heat. Once the oil is hot, add your steak and sear for 3 minutes per side. Then finish in a 350 degree oven for 5-10 minutes depending on thickness and doneness.

8) Rest steaks for 5 minutes before cutting.

Making the Chile Powder

If you’ve never made chili powder before, it’s pretty straightforward and almost guaranteed to be better than anything you can find in the store.

I used 4 New Mexico red chiles, 3 ancho chiles, and 1 chipotle chile. You could, of course, change this up, but I found this to be a really good ratio. It’s wasn’t a really hot powder at the end of the day, but it had a ton of chile flavor going on.

Anyway, just lay all your chiles out on a large baking dish.

The line up.

Bake them at 250 degrees for about 30 minutes, turning them once or twice throughout. Then pull them out and let them cool off. They should be really crispy at this point. Like you should be able to just crumble them in your hands.

Remove the stem from each pepper and shake out as many seeds as you can. It’s okay if there are a few seeds left though. You don’t need to be super-thorough about it.

You now have a few options for how to actually make the powder. You could just throw all your peppers into a food processor or coffee grinder and grind them up. You could also just put them all in a plastic bag and beat the heck out of them with a mallet or rolling pin.

For this batch though, I used my cool new mortar and pestle to grind them up!

Love this.

What I love about the mortar and pestle is that the texture isn’t over-processed. So you have mostly powder but occasionally there are small flakes of chiles also and it just makes for a much more interesting spice mixture.

I’ve made chili powder using all of those techniques though and it always works out. You can store the finished product for months in a tightly sealed bag. Mine never really lasts that long though because I put this stuff on all kinds of things.

Great texture and flavor.

The Steaks

My first use for this powder was some nice steaks I picked up. The thing to remember about rubbing steaks with something like this is that you can go pretty heavy on it. Some of the seasoning will fall off as it cooks and you want to make sure you have plenty of flavor to match the flavors of the meat.

Also be sure to season with some salt and pepper and really press the spices into the steaks.

Don't be shy with the rub.

Ideally, you could grill these guys, but I had to use my trusty cast iron skillet which is not necessarily a bad thing. It just heats up the house.

Wishing for a grill....

If you’re using cast iron, add a tiny bit of neutral oil to the pan and then sear on each side over high heat for about 3-4 minutes. Finish in the oven at 350 degrees for another 5-10 minutes depending on how thick your steak is and how you want it cooked. For medium rare, I finished it for about 5 minutes in the oven.

If you’re grilling it then you can obviously just keep it on the grill over medium-high heat until it’s ready (probably 8-10 minutes total).

Then transfer them to a cutting board to rest for at least 5 minutes.

Very important.

Resting the steaks is probably the most important part of cooking a juicy steak. You don’t want to cut into them right away or all the juice will just flow out of the steak. Letting it rest gives the steak a chance to finish cooking and also lets the juices redistribute through the meat. I sliced mine up for serving after it rested.

Perfect.

This steak had some spice to it but it wasn’t too hot at all. Just really good flavors. I served it with a baked potato and salad and it was a really awesome meal.

The leftover steak is perfect for a steak salad the next day also.

Steak or no steak, homemade chili powder is where it’s at.

Of course, when I tried it, my mind was immediately changed. Lettuce, you see, is nature’s wrap. It crunchy, healthy, and never over-powers the stuff that it’s wrapping. Plus, because lettuce tends to be smaller, it makes for either an appetizer or a meal. Just eat as many as you want!

This marinated beef dish, bulgogi, is a staple in Korean restaurants. The beef is thinly sliced and quickly seared and served with various toppings. Add some crunchy lettuce and you can make little bulgogi wraps!

The flavors are crazy in this.

While the steak is kind of the star of the show here, it’s also a perfect opportunity to use one of my favorite condiments: Kimchi. It can barely even be called a condiment when I eat it because I can consume it by the pound…

Beef Bulgogi

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound flank steak, sliced across the grain into 1/8 inch slices
1/4 Cup soy sauce
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 Teaspoons sesame oil
2 Teaspoons chili oil
1 bunch scallions, minced (separate the white and green parts and use green parts for garnish later)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 inches fresh ginger, peeled and minced
3 Tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
1 Tablespoon neutral oil (for cooking)

Accompaniments: Lettuce (I think romaine might work best), white rice, Kimchi, thinly sliced garlic, scallion greens.

Helpful Equipment:
Hands

Directions:

1) Slice the flank steak thinly across the grain.

2) Mix all the steak marinade ingredients together in a bowl and add your sliced steak. Let marinate for at least 15 minutes.

3) Prep all your other ingredients like washing the lettuce, slicing garlic or scallions, cooking rice, or just getting kimchi out of the jar.

4) Cook the steak in a very hot pan (I used a cast iron pan) for about 45 seconds per side. Don't overcrowd the pan.

5) As the steak is cooked, pull it off onto a plate.

6) Serve immediately making small wraps with lettuce, steak, rice, and toppings.

Adapted from Gourmet Today.

Marinating the Steak

The marinade for this bulgogi version is very delicious. Maybe my favorite beef marinade that I’ve tried. To start, get a good piece of flank steak and slice it thinly across the grain. That’ll make it really tender and easy to eat.

Pretty thin but not paper thin.

Then you’ll need some things for the marinade. If you start cooking with a lot of Asian flavors, you’ll notice that they tend to use the same things over and over again in sauces and marinades. For this one, I had almost everything except the scallions and fresh ginger in my pantry already.

Tasty stuff!

Mix all your ingredients except the neutral oil and scallion greens in a large bowl and then add your sliced flank steak. Stir it together and let it marinate for at least 15 minutes. There’s really no need to go longer than an hour on this marinade because the steak is so thin.

This doesn't need to marinate for long...

Other Ingredients

While the steak is marinating you can prep your other things. I really recommend making a pot of rice to go along with this. You can eat the bulgogi straight with the rice if you don’t want to do the lettuce wrapping thing, but the rice also works well in the lettuce wraps.

The star of the accompaniment show though, for me anyway, is definitely this stuff:

I could eat this whole jar. Wait... I did.

As far as lettuce goes, I used butter lettuce for my version here but if I were to make it again I think I’d use something a bit sturdier like Romaine. The butter lettuce was just a bit too frail to hold up to all the fillings in the bulgogi. Even when I doubled up my lettuce, it was still hard to keep the filling contained.

I also sliced up some raw garlic very thinly. The flavors in the beef and kimchi are really powerful so the garlic doesn’t really overpower them. One or two very thin slices works nicely.

Maybe not the best lettuce choice...

Cooking the Steak

You can use any number of pans to cook the steak in. I like using a cast iron pan just because it can get really hot and sear the beef nicely. Whatever pan you are using, get it going over high heat and then add just a bit of oil to the pan to get it lubed up.

When the oil it hot, add the beef in a single layer! Don’t add it all at once and make sure the pieces aren’t overlapping. I had to do mine in a few batches. If you cook too much at once then the pan will cool down and you won’t get a good sear on the meat.

Ideally, it’ll just take about 30-45 seconds per side to cook.

Sizzle sizzle!

As my steak finished I pulled it off the pan and heaped it all on a plate. It probably only took me 5 minutes to cook all the meat so make sure everything else is ready to go before you start cooking it. You want to serve the meal as soon as possible once the steak is done.

Perfect for sandwich size!

Making the wrap is pretty straightforward now. Add some rice to your lettuce and then a strip or two of steak. Don’t over-stuff these guys. You could either assemble a bunch beforehand and serve them to guests or just set out all the fixings and let people mix and match what they want.

Don't forget the rice!

The best way to keep these for leftovers is to keep stuff separate. The lettuce would get really soggy if you made a bunch and then tried to store them overnight or something. If you keep everything separate though, they keep just fine and make for a great lunch the next day!

These were really flavorful and seriously if you’ve never tried kimchi, go grab some. If you at all like pickled things and spicy things, you’ll love it.

Trust me though. I’m not complaining. I’m like a kid in a candy store. One of the gifts we received that I’ve been dying for is a really nice wok. In the past, when I made stir-fries, I used a normal pan, but now I can use a real deal wok and it’s a lot of fun.

My first meal with my new toy was this simple and delicious beef and broccoli stir-fry.

Saucy, but not too saucy.

My main problem with most beef and broccoli stir-fries comes down to two issues that most take-out joints fail at. First, the broccoli is normally WAY overcooked. Soggy broccoli sucks. Second, the whole dish is way over-sauced and goopy. I think this recipe and cooking method gets rid of both of those issues.

Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound beef, sliced thin (strip steak or flank steak work great)
1 pound broccoli florets
1 red pepper, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
3-4 inches of ginger, peeled and minced
1 Tablespoon neutral oil
Brown rice (or your favorite) for serving

Marinade for beef:
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 Teaspoon corn starch
1 Teaspoon chili oil
Pinch of red pepper flakes and fresh ground pepper

Sauce:
2 Tablespoons oyster sauce
2 Teaspoons rice wine vinegar or white wine vinegar
1 Teaspoon corn starch
1 Teaspoon soy sauce
1 Teaspoon chili oil
1/4 cup chicken stock (or water)
Fresh ground pepper

Helpful Equipment:
A wok! (But you can use any large saute pan.) I'm not going to link to a specific wok recommendation. More on that in the post.

Directions:

1) Slice the steak thinly. Whisk together marinade ingredients and marinade steak for at least 15 minutes.

2) Blanch broccoli florets in salted water for 1.5-2 minutes. Then dunk them in ice water to stop the cooking.

3) Prep all the other stir fry ingredients and whisk together your sauce ingredients. Make sure everything is ready before you start cooking.

4) Get your pan over high heat and let it heat until it's really hot. Then add a drizzle of oil and the steak. Cook it for about 90 seconds, until it's mostly cooked.

5) Next, add the red peppers and cook for another minute. Then add in the ginger and garlic and cook for another 15 seconds.

6) Pour in sauce and stir. Add in blanched broccoli and cook for another minute. Sauce should reduce down immediately.

7) Serve stir fry with rice!

Preparing the Beef

Marinating the beef before cooking for 15 minutes or so gives it a flavor boost and also the corn starch helps it to form a good crust on the outside of the beef as it cooks. Try to slice your beef pretty thin, but not deli style thin.

Slice it thin people.

Prepping other stuff

While the beef is marinating, go ahead and prep all your other ingredients. You want to make sure you have everything ready before you start cooking this meal.

To solve the soggy broccoli problem, blanch the broccoli florets in boiling salted water for about 90 seconds – 2 minutes. They should be bright green. Then transfer them straight to an ice bath (also salted) to stop the cooking process. The florets should be bright green and still have a little crunch to them.

Now you can add them right at the very end of the cooking process and they’ll be perfectly cooked by the time they heat up.

Don't go light on the garlic and ginger.

Making the sauce

If you cook stir-fries regularly, you’ll probably have most of these ingredients already. I actually was out of rice wine vinegar so I substituted white wine vinegar without any noticeable difference in flavor. Also, be careful with the oyster sauce. That’s the stuff where if you over-do it you can end up with the dreaded goopy sauce of take-out places.

But used correctly, it’s delicious.

Saucy!

The Pan in Question

The reason I didn’t really recommend a specific wok is because I’m not sure that I know enough about them to feel comfortable doing so. I can tell you that based on my somewhat limited research, it seems like there are only two kinds that are worth getting if you’re in the market: A stainless steel style with an aluminum or copper core or a more traditional carbon steel variety. These are the best styles for even heating and high heat cooking.

The cored stainless steel is easy to clean and maintain and the carbon steel acts like cast iron in that it needs to be treated and seasoned. For the home kitchen, I think both probably wok fine. (So punny)

I ended up getting the stainless steel version and I’m very happy with it after the first use. Maybe someday if I have enough room in my kitchen, I’ll pick up a carbon steel variety just for comparison (they are a lot cheaper also).

The beast.

Cooking the Stir-Fry

Regardless of what pan you are using, put it over high heat and get it hot. A drop of water should sizzle and evaporate instantly on it. Then add your oil to the pan and it should glisten immediately. Throw in your beef next and arrange the pieces around the pan. They should cook after just 30 seconds or maybe a bit longer.

Next add your red pepper and give everything a toss. If the dish looks really dry at any point, add a bit more oil.

So literally, you’ve been cooking for maybe a minute or 90 seconds at this point and it’s time to add the ginger and garlic. I made a little well right in the middle and tossed those in. Adding them that close to the end ensures that they won’t burn.

Wok cooking goes fast...

After 10-15 seconds of cooking the garlic and ginger, add the sauce to the pan. It should sizzle like crazy and start thickening right away. After another 15 seconds or so, add your broccoli to the pan.

Blanching this stuff is KEY.

Another 20-30 seconds and your sauce should be thick, but not goopy and everything should be perfectly cooked. Pour it out on a big platter and let people help themselves to some rice and stir-fry!

What's not to love?!

As you can imagine, there are a ton of variations on this dish, but this is a really good start.

Has anyone used or owned a carbon steel wok? This dish turned out great for me in the aluminum core stainless steel, but I’m naturally curious.

But I did exactly that a few weekends ago when I made a nice meal for Betsy and I for a Saturday night date. And yes, you can have a date and never leave your house. Turn off the TV. Turn on some music. Open an bottle of wine and throw aluminum foil balls at your cat. What more could you want for a date night?

For dinner, I made up a real meat and potatoes dish with a very lovely beet salad. For the meat, I cooked a pink peppercorn flank steak that was really good.

I'm such a carnivore sometimes.

But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. I wanted something light to start the meal off and one of Betsy’s favorite salads is a roasted beet salad. The flavors pair really nicely with the meat and potatoes (and red wine) and it’s very pretty.

Meat and Potatoes

Yield: Serves 2.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

Roasted Beet Salad
Serves 4
4 medium beets, roasted, peeled, and sliced
4 ounces goat cheese, crumbled
1/2 Cup pistachios, roughly chopped
Greens (I used spinach)

Dressing:
1/4 Cup red wine vinegar
1/3 Cup olive oil
Pinch of salt and pepper

Roasted Garlic Potatoes
Serves 4-6 (leftovers are not a bad thing)

2-3 pounds new potatoes, washed and halved
1 head garlic, roasted
1/4 Cup butter
1/2 Cup milk
Salt and pepper

Pink Peppercorn Flank Steak
Serves 2 (plus some leftovers)

1 pound flank steak
2 Tablespoons oil (for cooking steak)
2 Tablespoons pink peppercorns
2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 Cup red wine
1 shallot, minced
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1) For beet salad, cut tops off of beets and set them on a baking sheet. Roast at 350 degrees for about an hour until a knife easily pierces them.

2) Let beets cool slightly and then peel and slice.

3) Mix together dressing ingredients and right before serving, toss greens with dressing. Then plate up each salad.

4) For potatoes, roast a head of garlic. Cut off the top and drizzle in some olive oil and a pinch of salt. Wrap the whole thing in foil and roast at 350 for 30-40 minutes.

5) Cube potatoes and boil in salted water for 10-15 minutes until they are fork tender. Drain and mash with other ingredients.

6) For steak, let it come to room temperature before cooking. Rub each side well with salt and pepper.

7) Sear steak for a about 3 minutes per side.

8) Let the steak rest for five minutes and then slice across the grain.

9) For steak sauce, gently crush pink peppercorns. Add wine to the pan that your steak cooked in and scrape up any little bits. Turn heat to low. Add shallot and peppercorns. Add butter to make it silky smooth.

10) Serve steak and potatoes with sauce.

The Beet Salad

To roast the beets, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Just brush off any dirt. No need to wash them since we are going to peel them later. Cut off the tops and set them cut side down on a baking sheet. Bake them for about an hour or until a knife will easily pierce one.

Roasting beets. Turns out it takes awhile.

Let them cool for a few minutes and then peel and slice them. I sliced mine into pretty thick slices. These will stain your hands, but they are so worth it.

The mark of the beet!

In the meantime, mix together your dressing ingredients and toss your greens with the vinaigrette. Then you can plate up each individual salad so it looks like this.

How pretty is that?!

1st course. Done.

You can prep all of the salad ingredients ahead of time and then just toss the greens with the dressing and plate it a few minutes before dinner. You don’t want to let it sit too long though or it will get all soggy.

The Mashed Potatoes

I love mashed potatoes more than anything. Ok. Maybe not more than anything. But more than anything that I can fathom as I write this post. I made this version a bit more rustic by leaving the skins on and also mixing it with a whole head of roasted garlic.

While roasting your beets, you should go ahead and roast your head of garlic. If you haven’t done this before, it’s maybe the easiest and most delicious thing in the world. Just slice off the very top of the bulb, drizzle on some olive oil, add a pinch of salt, and wrap the whole thing in foil. It’ll take about 30 minutes to roast.

Should look something like this.

You can do this while you roast the beets.

When you’re ready to make the potatoes, give them a scrub and then cut them in halves or quarters if they are larger.

No need to peel these guys.

Boil these in salted water for about 10-15 minutes until they are fork very tender. Then drain them and mash them with all the other ingredients.

The best way to get the roasted garlic out of the bulb is to use your fingers. Once it’s cooled, pull off a clove and squeeze it between your fingers. The garlic pulp should pop right out.

Mash up everything with a masher or a fork. I wanted mine to be pretty lumpy.

Yum.

Pink Peppercorn Steak

This steak was so good. Flank steak usually comes in pretty large sections. Since it was just two of us, I cut one steak in half and froze the other half for later.

Flank steak is relatively thin so it’s important to cook it right. The important things are:

1) Let it come to room temperature before cooking it. I gave mine a rub with some salt and pepper on each side and let it sit for about 30 minutes (covered) at room temperature while I prepped other stuff.

2) Cook it on high heat for just a few minutes a side.

3) Let it rest for 5 minutes before slicing it (while you make the sauce).

4) Slice it across the grain of the meat so it’s easy to eat.

So while your meat is coming to temperature or your mashed potatoes are cooking, you can get your sauce ingredients ready. It’s pretty straight forward.

A simple sauce.

Pink peppercorns are one of my new favorite ingredients. They are fairly mild but give a great color and flavor to a dish. They go perfect with this steak. To prep them for the sauce, I placed them between two sheets of foil and gave them a quick whack with a mallet.

I have a crush on these.

To cook the steak, heat some oil in a large cast iron pan over high heat. When the oil is very hot and glistening, add your steak (which should have been seasoned already). Once it’s in the pan, don’t touch it! Let it sit undisturbed for about 3-4 minutes. This will depend largely on the thickness of your steak so keep an eye on it.

Check out my more lengthy write-up on steak cooking for more info. I wouldn’t recommend doing the oven method for flank steak though like I do in that post – it’s not a thick enough cut.

Anyway, about 3 minutes on the other side and then pull it out and let it rest before slicing it. I’ve added some helpful slicing guides below to illustrate the idea of cutting across the grain of the steak.

Resting is important

While your steak is resting, add your wine to the same pan that you cooked your steak in and scrape up all the little bits. Turn your heat to low and add your pink peppercorns and shallot. Let the sauce reduce for just a minute or two and then add your butter to make it silky and delicious.

This should go without saying, but serve the sauced steak with the mashed potatoes and a big glass of red wine.

This made me the happiest guy ever.

If you want someone to fall in love with you, and they like meat and potatoes, this is one way to do it.

The home cook is at a disadvantage when it comes to cooking steak. Restaurants have tons of tricks to give steak a great taste. They let it age (which can be reproduced at home, but that is a separate post) and they have high heat devices which is tough to impossible to replicate. My favorite way to cook a steak is actually on the grill, but I don’t have a grill these days so the stove top is all I have to work with.

But that does not mean I cannot make a good steak. In fact, I argue that I can make a near-restaurant quality steak on the stove top. With a few tips and tricks, it is actually really simple to cook a beautiful steak. One like this:

If you ask me, this is perfection.

There are a few things I want to address before we jump into the cooking. First, when I say steak in this post, I’m taking about a steak at least 1/2 inch thick and with good marbling. The process I’m using in this post would do nothing on a skirt steak (one that is very thin) or any lean cut. By steak, I mean a ribeye, T-bone, or something of that nature.

Second, fat is the key in this cooking method. You would not want to cook Filet Mignon like this. It is too lean. When I say that the steak should have good marbling, I mean that it should have veins of fat within the tissue. Like this:

A very good hunk of meat.

Now, you may already know this, but this is not an economical meal. If you are going to get a real steak like the Prime grade ribeye above, you are going to pay for it. The good news is that it is so tasty, that I never need a full steak to get full. Could I eat a full 1 pound steak? Probably. But Betsy and I usually split one and it makes for a perfect meal.

Low heat. The first key to cooking a good steak in your kitchen is to relax the steak. If you were to feel the above steak, it is rigid and hard. That’s because all of that marbling in the meat is solid. We want this fat to relax a little bit. There are a few ways to do this. First, you could just let it sit at room temperature for at least 30-45 minutes. I don’t like this option because I don’t always have that kind of time and it still doesn’t get the meat very relaxed.

Second, and the method that I use, is to actually put the steak in the oven on the lowest possible setting, with the door slightly open. If you are a seasoned chef, this may sound completely blasphemous, but trust me, it works. It actually perfectly simulates a real restaurant kitchen. Typically, a steak house will take the meat out as soon as the order comes in, but they will let it sit for 15-20 minutes by the stove before cooking it. The difference being that in an industrial kitchen, it is much hotter than your room temperature house.

A low setting (200 or lower) oven approximates this setting. It needs 3-4 minutes on each side. Again, you are not cooking the steak at this point, you are just getting it ready.

I was scared the first time I did this, but trust me. It works.

When you pull your steak out, you will notice immediately that it is much more tender. It’s almost like your steak has had a few cocktails. It’s just having a good time.

Compare the below photo to the one above to see how just a few minutes in a low heat oven (like 200 or under) can really start to melt those veins of fat.

Relaxed.

Seasoning. The next step is to season this guy. I’m a complete purist when it comes to this. If you have a quality cut of meat, all it needs is salt and pepper. Feel free to give it a liberal amount of both, but I have no desire to put anything else on it.

Hot Heat. Your steak is now seasoned and relaxed. It’s time to do our best to give it that characteristic steakhouse char on the outside. The way to do this is blazing heat. If you don’t have an industrial strength salamander (who does?), there is no better way to do this than a cast iron skillet. Put it over high heat with a few Tablespoons of butter in it and let it get hot until the butter is just starting to smoke.

Then toss in your steak. If you are cooking more than one, be sure not to crowd them. If you crowd them then the heat will not transfer well and you will end up with a strange gray hunk of meat.

Seriously. Don't touch it.

Once your steak is in the pan, don’t touch it. Seriously don’t touch it. It will smoke and steam and hiss and be generally unhappy about the situation. That’s fine. Just let it complain, but don’t touch it!

When to turn it is when experience comes in a bit. For a perfect medium rare steak that is a bit under 1 inch thick (like mine in this post), I do 4-5 minutes on the first side. When in doubt, I always shoot low as I despise overcooked steak.

Flip it and forget it for another 4 minutes. By forget it, I mean don’t touch it!

Beautiful crispy crust.

Touch it. After four minutes on the second side, you can touch it. Notice I didn’t say move it. Don’t move it! But you can touch it. By touching the meat, you can tell a general level of doneness. This has never failed me with steak. It’s slightly different with other meats but with steak it tends to be right on.

If you push your thumb and your fingers together lightly, the section of muscle right below the thumb feels almost identical to a steak at different levels of doneness.

Ooops = Med-well to well done.

This is because as it cooks, the proteins in the meat tighten and the fat melts away. If you poke a well done steak it will feel like Arnold’s flexed bicep.

Rest it. After you pull this off the heat, let it rest for five minutes before chopping into it. This will let the juices redistribute through the meat.

Very important to rest.

Then serve it up! I served these with some of the tarragon compound butter I made a few weeks ago.

Meat and potatoes.

Like I said at the beginning of this post, there are a lot of ways to cook steak. This is one of them that I think is very accessible to most people and results in a perfectly cooked steak time and time again.

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