the minimalist's 101 Thanksgiving

Did you catch Mark Bittman's piece in Wednesday's NY Times?  How fantastic is this? 

I find his cookbooks to be such essential tools in the kitchen, and his blog is so entertaining. Whenever I see pictures of his tiny NYC kitchen it makes me feel better about my own kitchen in the city. If he can develop and test recipes in that space, then I most certainly can attempt to too. 

There are so many delicious recipes in this list. I think I'll try this one this weekend: # 56 Cook lentils, thyme sprigs and chopped carrots in a pot with water to cover until tender; drain and remove thyme. Cook chopped onions in oil until soft; add chopped kale and allow to wilt. Add lentils, stir to combine and cook until kale is tender. Add chopped parsley. 

I've been trying to get my daughter, Vivi, to eat lentils (and greens!) but it hasn't gone over too well. This is probably not the best recipe to try getting a five-year old to eat them (kale, anyone?), but it sure does sound good to me. 

Have a good weekend!

Coffee-rubbed steaks

I've been collecting a few recipes from my email and went through them with my partner, Fred. We looked over  Heidi Swanson's broccoli and cheddar soup and ginger scallion noodles from Momofuko before settling on coffee-rubbed steaks from rachaelraymag.com. I was drawn to the levels of flavor in the recipe—beef, coffee, chili powder—and the heartiness of a New York strip steak on a chilly Sunday night really grabbed our attention. 

There was one thing about the recipe that really puzzled me. The ingredient listed simply as steak seasoning. I did a quick online search to find out what constitutes steak seasoning and I kept finding references to Montreal steak seasoning. I can't figure out what the difference is between standard steak seasoning and Montreal seasoning. Can anyone shed some light on this?  
A little side note: Costco opened their first store in Manhattan last week. Fred and I thought it would be fun to check it out and pick up a few things. See what all the hoopla is about. So we packed up our daughter, Vivian, and my sister Kathleen into the car and drove across town to East Harlem. Fred braved the line for new memberships while the girls and I headed into the behemoth of a store. A half hour later we were barely through the snack section when Fred caught up to us and said that he had had enough. Well I hadn't. And Vivi hadn't had a chance to check out the toys! So we kept going. And lo and behold what should suddenly appear in front of me on the shelf: Montreal steak seasoning. I grabbed the giant container and read the ingredients. Simple enough, I can make this rather than buying a huge bottle of it. Fred and Kathleen thought it would be so much easier to just buy the seasoning mix, get to know the flavors, and then figure out how to recreate it. I thought about it for a minute and then took the plunge. So, long story (not so) short, I used the Montreal steak seasoning on the recipe from rachaelraymag.com. 
Now keep in mind that this recipe is not for a steak purist at all. After trying the recipe, we decided that it calls for too much seasoning all around. The steak seasoning even overpowered the coffee. So I reduced the steak seasoning to allow the rich taste of the coffee to come through (or what I'll try next time is not using the seasoning mix at all and see how well the coffee shines—big bottle of seasoning be damned!). Rachel's technique for pan frying the steak was interesting. The former editor-in-chief of Cookie magazine, Pilar Guzmán, taught me her trick to pan fry a steak: drizzle a little olive oil on the steak and season it with salt and pepper, get a cast iron skillet  or grill pan scorching hot, put the steak in the pan and let it cook undisturbed for 5 minutes, flip and cook for another 5 mintues, let sit for 5 minutes on a cutting board. Viola, steak is done. Rachel's approach is similar except she oils the pan instead of the steaks and lets the steaks stay in the pan off heat and tented with foil for the last few minutes. This keeps the meat very hot and continues the cooking process but very slowly. We cooked the steaks a minute longer per side than Rachael suggests and the meat was a perfect medium. To our surprise there were quite a few drippings left in the pan, so we heated them after removing the steaks, added a splash of beef broth (next time: red wine) and about one tablespoon of butter to make a little sauce for drizzling. Delicious. 
Here's the recipe. 

Coffee-Rubbed Steaks (adapted from rachaelraymag.com)  

Two 16-ounce strip steaks, at room temperature

1 tablespoons steak seasoning

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 tablespoon finely ground dark-roast coffee 

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Heat a large cast-iron skillet over high heat. Rub the steaks evenly with the steak seasoning, chili powder and coffee. Add 1 tablespoon oil to the skillet and spread it around with a folded paper towel. Add the steaks and cook, turning once, for 8 minutes. Turn off the heat, tent the skillet with foil and let rest for about 10 minutes, turning once halfway through.