Grilled steak, Searzall'ed

I know that I've posted a million pictures of a steak (or pork, or onions, or you get the idea) and the Searzall ... I thought that it might make sense to talk a little bit here about my infatuation with it.  The Searzall was invented by the resident geniuses at Momofuku's Booker and Dax food lab and  I was introduced to this miraculous device by Chef Nick Pfannerstill at Dovetail NYC.  While used by many restaurants to get that perfect sear on meats that have been cooked Sous Vide, I have found other uses for mine as well!

What you're seeing in this picture is a one inch thick, dry aged porterhouse steak from Whole Foods.  I grilled it over high heat for about 8 minutes (2 minutes, quarter turn, 2 minutes, flip, 4 minutes) and then onto a cutting board covered with a light towel to rest for 5 minutes.  Then it was time to sear!

I brushed the steak with a bit of browned butter that I had infused with a Harissa spice mix and then used the Searzall until the steak was sizzling and a bit of crust had formed.  Immediately I sliced the two cuts off of the middle bone and then plated over white beans ... medium rare filet for Shells and rare (pictured to right) NY Strip for me.

If you've made it all the way through this post without purchasing your own Searzall yet, good for you and your commitment to reading this blog ... now off to Amazon with you and enjoy!

Farmer's Market time

It's Farmers Market time, and that means one thing ... Shells coming home every Saturday with a bounty of goodies for me to cook with!

For this dinner she came home with a batch of spring onions and I had just the idea in mind for those.  I started the onions by cleaning and trimming off the roots and then I tossed them lightly in a bowl with olive oil, salt and black pepper.  The trick then is to let them sit for a bit ... while heating up an oven on broil, for instance.

Start them face down under the broiler and cook them for 10 minutes.  After that, flip them and cook them another 10 minutes until they are charred on top and soft in the middle.  If you're lucky enough to have a SearzAll (like I used in the picture above) then only cook them 5 minutes after the flip and use the SearzAll to get that beautiful char on them.  Either way, enjoy!

A post about Onions? Yes, really!

The weather is getting warmer and the farmer's market is back open ... those two facts mean that me cooking meals outside is pretty much a foregone conclusion.

Shells came home with some great produce from the market, including some awesome spring onions and green onions.  So I decided to grab a couple of steaks and see what I could turn out with this fun stuff.

 For the spring onions I decided to pan cook them so I sliced them down the middle and then drizzled them with olive oil salt & pepper.

The first trick to getting them nice and crispy on the outside and soft on the inside is a very hot pan.  So for this, I used the burner attached to my grill ... cranking the temp to high and letting the pan get nice and hot.  A little bit more oil into the pan and then the onions went down.

The second trick is to leave them the heck alone.  Seriously; don't shake the pan, don't turn them 10 times ... just leave them there for about 5 minutes.

After five minutes I used a pair of tongs to flip them over.  Instead of trying to grab the sides, slide one side of the tongs underneath and then lightly hold the onion as you flip it.  If you go to flip the first one and it doesn't look like the ones pictured here, leave it for two more minutes before flipping.

Cook the onions for another 5-7 minutes on the other side and then you will be ready to serve them.

For this dinner, I decided to serve the onions paired with some sliced steak that I had prepared on the grill and then finished with the SearzAll.  The broiler effect from the SearzAll gives that steakhouse style crispy crust on top of the steaks, while not cooking the inside.

Finally, I served the steak and onions over mashed potatoes and topped them with a mixture of garlic, green onion bulb and sliced green onions that I had simmered in beef stock for about an hour.

I highly recommend giving all of these things and try ... enjoy!