Feral Cooks

Good food shouldn't be tame

Steak with Dijon & Worcestershire Pan Sauce

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More steak! I’ve been on a steak rampage. I love steak! And this is just another reason to love it. I was never a huge fan of making sauces to put over steaks, but I’m now a convert: sauce will sometimes make the steak! Like this sauce, too.

Per my preference, I used a well-marbled ribeye, although a strip steak would work nicely, if you prefer a leaner cut.

This recipe is just for the sauce, so just get it ready, cook your steak to your liking and enjoy it with the sauce. This post has a good way to pan-cook a steak, along with the sous vide method—just don’t add the teriyaki sauce.

This is based on a Bon Appetit recipe.

What you’ll need

  • 1 small shallot, peeled and finely chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed with the flat side of a knife
  • 0.25 cups (0.5 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1T pieces
  • 2 sprigs thyme
  • 2T Dijon mustard
  • 1–2T Worcestershire sauce (I used a very similarly flavored Japanese tonkatsu sauce)
  • Kosher salt
  • Ground black pepper

What to do

Place a heavy frypan (preferably cast iron) over medium-low heat let it heat up for a few minutes. Add the shallot, garlic, thyme sprigs, and 2T of the cold butter. Swirl the frypan to melt butter and cook, stirring often with a whisk, until the shallots are golden brown—about 2–3 minutes.

Add 0.5 cups water to the frypan and whisk to dissolve any stuck-on shallots or garlic. Whisk in the Dijon mustard and Worcestershire sauce until smooth.

Remove the frypan from the heat, and add the remaining cold butter, whisking constantly until the butter is dissolved and the sauce is smooth and thick—about 1 minute. Add a pinch of salt, if needed, along with a couple of shakes of pepper, mixing both in.

When your steak is done, let it rest for 10 minutes under tented foil, before cutting it against the grain into 0.5-inch-thick slices and pouring the sauce over them. Transfer to a serving dish and enjoy!

Mac & Cheese with Pepperoni

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Here’s an interesting recipe based on one from Food & Wine magazine. The original version called for mozzarella cheese, but I wasn’t paying attention to the recipe and used a very sharp cheddar, to an excellent effect.

Whichever cheese you decide to use, the recipe will turn out great.

What you’ll need

  • 8 oz. uncooked pasta, preferably cavatappi or something similar
  • 2T unsalted butter
  • 2T all-purpose flour
  • 2T tomato paste
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2t Italian seasoning, plus more for topping
  • 0.25 dried and crushed red pepper, plus more for topping
  • 2.5 cups whole milk
  • 8 oz part-skim mozzarella (make sure not to buy pre-shredded)
  • 3 oz (84g) sliced peperoni, half of it chopped and separated from the whole slices
  • 2 oz (56g) Parmesan cheese, grated (I used Asiago, which tasted great)

What to do

Begin heating your oven to 425 degrees F. Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente, or about 7 minutes. Drain and set it aside when done.

Melt the 2T butter in a 10-inch cast-iron frypan over medium heat. When the butter is melted, mix in the flour and cook, whisking constantly until the mixture is lightly browned—about 2 minutes. Whisk in the tomato paste, garlic, Italian seasoning and red pepper until smooth. Gradually whisk in the milk until everything is smooth, then begin bringing it to a simmer over medium-high heat, whisking occasionally. Reduce the heat to low and simmer the mixture, whisking often, before removing it from the heat. Add the cheddar or mozzarella and stir it in, until it’s melted and smooth, before stirring in the cooked pasta.

Add the chopped pepperoni and stir it in until distributed, then evenly top the dish with the shredded Parmesan and peperoni slices. Bake in the oven until the dish is bubbling and the top cheese has browned—about 10 minutes.

Remove it from the oven when it’s done and sprinkle with additional Italian spices, red pepper and Parmesan, to taste.

Reverse-sear Prime Rib Roast

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Prime rib roast is a wonderful for any occasion, but it really comes to prominence over the holidays. So you may ask, “Why didn’t you post this for the holidays?” And my answer would be: “I have right here.” With the permanence of the internet, his recipe can easily be found for any year’s holiday season.

Prime rib is most assuredly an expensive cut of meat, only to be eclipsed in price by ultra-tender, and ultra-lean beef tenderloin and the simply outstanding Japanese Wagyu and Kobe beef. Here’s the thing with prime rib though: you do get what you pay for.

If you’re going to spend $60 on a small (<5 lb) roast that turns out to be of limited quality, I strongly recommend spending $80-$100 for a top-quality roast. You’ll thank yourself. I bought this roast on a whim at the local grocery store, knowing that the per-pound price made it a quality gamble—that really didn’t pay off. Yeah, it was good, but not outrageously delicious like previous prime ribs I’ve made from top-quality butchers. Of course, if you’re willing to spend even more money, dry-aged beef is the way to go.

Regardless of the price of the meat, this recipe will give you the best possible outcome that makes for a wonderful dinner.

I first read about a reverse-seared roast at Serious Eats, but thought some improvements to their process could be made. So, I made them and it paid off. This recipe is really similar to sous vid cooking a steak with a slow cook and a sear at the end—it’s just missing the water and frypan.

Be sure to note that this recipe calls for days of uninvolved prep time, so plan ahead!

What you’ll need

  • 1 standing rib roast (think about serving about 1 lb per person, so buy accordingly)
  • Salt and pepper (better yet, use shio koji—look up on the web for use.)
  • Instant-read thermometer / meat thermometer

What to do

Give the entire outside of the roast a heavy sprinkling of salt and pepper then let it sit in the refrigerator uncovered on a rack within a roasting pan for 1 to 4 days (yes 4). This step will allow the salt to penetrate the meat and the outside layer to dry, making for a better sear. Alternatively, use shio koji for this step, but marinade for only up to 24 hours and wipe off the excess shio koji before cooking. Having meat rest in the refrigerator for up to 4 days presumes that you’re using a fresh roast that hasn’t already been in the refrigerator for some time.

When ready to cook, set your oven at its lowest temperature, which will vary from brand to brand. For example, our new GE Profile’s electric range’s minimum temp is 170° (75° C). (Side note: if you buy a GE Profile oven, spend the extra $1K on the glass-panel touch controls. They’re well worth it!) Put the roast in the oven and let it cook until the inside of the roast reaches the desired temperature: 120-125°F (~50° C) on an instant-read thermometer for rare, or 130°F (54°C) for medium. Depending on your oven’s lowest cooking temperature, this should take between 5 to 6.5 hours—maybe start checking the temp at about 4 hours, to completely avoid the chance of an expensive overcooked piece of meat. Roast weight shouldn’t affect cooking time too much because heavier roasts are generally just longer, not thicker.

When the roast has reached your desired temperature, remove it from the oven and put the roasting pan on the counter with foil tented over the roast for 30 – 90 minutes. This gives you enough time to cook most accompanying dishes—provided you’ve prepped.

When you’re ready to finish off and the roast, note that this last step—minus the oven heating up—takes less than 10 minutes before the roast is ready to carve and serve. Heat your oven to its highest temp (up to 550°). When the oven reaches its high temp, put in the roast and let it sear in the oven for about 6 – 10 minutes. It will smoke and be VERY hot when you remove it from the oven.

Immediately put the roast on a cutting board and trim off the bones before slicing however thickly you like and serving.