Filet Mignon with Cognac sauce and garlic mashed potatoes

Every year for the Holidays I always end up making some kind of steak or red meat. Last year I made prime rib (Here) and even though I told myself I was going to make it again this year, my dad really wanted Filet. He brought over a large filet for me to trip and cut into steaks. I made the cuts 1 inch to 1.5 inch thick depending on who it was going to be for. There were a total of 5 of us so I sliced 6 steaks in case someone wanted more. There's about 2-3 steaks left after the cut (that we cooked up the next day) with the tail of the steak that I am just going to use for some sauté. They are sleeping in the freezer now.

The steaks were seasoned simply with Lawry's Garlic Salt and a good about of freshly cracked black pepper. I wanted a really high sear, so I decided to use peanut oil in my cast iron skillet. After I got great color on both sides of the steak, I turned down the heat to cook the steaks slowly. I don't use the oven. I've done it once and it turned the steaks to medium well. I'm sure there are techniques out there, but this works the best for me. Feel free to cook your steaks to your liking. I like mine medium rare, or just medium with a deep pink. I normally pull the steaks out when there's a nice spring when pressing on them (thumb and middle finger together, touch your palm slightly under your thumb. That's medium rare).

Cognac Sauce

1. 1/2 a stick of butter
2. 2 large shallots - diced
3. 2 garlic cloves - minced
4. salt and a lot of cracked black pepper (1 tablespoon or so)
5. 1/3 - 1/2 cup of cognac
6. I used about 1/2 a cup of milk. If you use cream I would drop it down to 1/3.

After the steaks are removed, I immediately added the shallots and garlic while scraping the bits from the bottom. 1/2 a stick of butter is added with the salt. Once the butter has melted, the cognac goes in and I light it on fire with a gas lighter. Let the alcohol burn off before adding the milk. I finish everything off with black pepper. Put this in a serving cup and just pass it around.

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Mash were just Yukon potatoes boiled with 3 large cloves of garlic. Drain out the water, add 1/2 a stick of butter, season generously with salt, add your cream of choice until you get the consistency you prefer.

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Hot Pot at Home

There's Hot Pot and there's Shabu Shabu. Without going into Google, I can give you my interpretation about the differences between the 2. Shabu Shabu is more about the quality of the meat, the ponzu, and the soup base which is normally a piece of kombu. Only a sophisticated tongue would be able to distinct a good kombu base from another. I don't have a sophisticated tongue, but I can tell the differences between ponzu's, goma sauce, and the quality of meats. Also, some Shabu Shabu's would end with ramen noodles. There's also Sukiyaki, but it's not the same cuisine, though similar. More contemporary restaurants will offer Sukiyaki, a savory soy based broth. I think offering sukiyaki is for those who are unfamiliar with shabu shabu. First timers will think shabu shabu is bland and flavorless. 

Hot Pot on the other hand comes with an array of soup base choices. From herbal to spicy. There's also tomato bases, thai tom yum bases, curry, and satay (and more). Herbal and spicy is more traditional for a Hot Pot set up and also my choice when I do have it, especially spicy. Hot Pot also comes with more than just sliced meats and veggies. We have a variety of beef/tendon balls, squid balls, fish paste, squid balls with filling, all kinds of tofu, bean curd, glass noodles, udon noodles, mushrooms, pig intestines, and all kinds of veggies. The quality of meats for Hot Pot has gone up over the years. There's not really a restaurant that serves $10 AYCE hot pot anymore since the beef quality has gone up to USDA, Prime, and US Wagyu or US Kobe. Throughout the years of doing this at home, we decided to cut down on the extras, and just focus more on the ingredients that we really wanted to eat.

 We bought 3 packs of rib eye, but 2 would've been enough. Some pork belly slices, imitation crab meat, bean curd, shiitake mushrooms, and veggies.

The pork belly was definitely the star. From time to time, I leave the pork belly in the soup. Just for flavor. But even if you eat it 10-20 minutes later, it's still very tender due to the amount of fat it has. We all agree to get more pork belly next time.

Watercress and pea sprouts. It looks like A LOT of veggies. And it was... but these will cook down so it's not as intimidating as it looks. Trust me, you would want to eat veggies with your hot pot.

Dried shiitake and bean curd were soaked in hot water to soften. This makes it easier for them to absorb the flavor of the broth as well as being able to eat them quicker.

Herbal Soup on top and spicy taiwanese on the bottom. Top brand is little sheep. The bottom one is by Baijia - Sichuan Flavor Hot Pot Seasoning. I loved the Baijia Sichuan flavor. It could be more numbing, but maybe I have to find the peppers and add them separately. I smashed a few garlic cloves to add in both soups and loaded them up with cilantro.

I made some white rice to accompany our hot pot. Meats and veggies were served with Bulls Head Satay Sauce. I mixed and egg with my satay sauce with a splash of soy sauce. This is how we hot pot.

Total spent: around $60. If you were to have this at an AYCE "All-you can-eat" restaurant it will cost you $20-$25 NOT including tax/tip. This fed 5 of us and we still had a pack and a half of meat left over. I do like eating out at restaurants for Hot Pot because of the clean up, but having it at home is so fun as well. That plus you could really pick out the quality of the ingredients.

If you have questions about hot pot-ing, just email me (daisy@foodwithinreach) or just leave a comment.

Bacon Jam Burger with Garlic Aioli

I've heard of bacon jams almost around the same time I discovered chocolate covered bacon. Bacon is everywhere and I haven't met one person that denies it making all food that much better. Even it's own fat can make a dish delicious. Bacon is also extremely common, now, to be used on not only savory dishes, but sweets. I discovered the existence of "The Bacon Jams" a few weeks ago and was in total dilemma on what to make. But, it wasn't long before I decided to make a Bacon Jam Burger with homemade Garlic Aioli sauce.

I went to the butcher and requested some chuck meat be grounded up for my recipe. I didn't want to use the pre-ground meat packaged and ready to go. I find a weird taste in those. I'm not sure why, but I am always pleased with ground chuck.

This burger was pretty amazing and the bacon jam stuff is so addicting that it made the burger utterly umami. (See below for video or click HERE).

Beef patty
1 pound of ground chuck meat.
Salt and Pepper, olive oil

Grilled onions
1 white onion diced not too small.
Bread: sesame bun

Garlic Aioli:
1/2 cup of mayonnaise
5 cloves of garlic grated
1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt
3 cracks of black pepper (optional)
Mix and let rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

The ground beef is just lightly compacted until the shape is perfectly formed to the side of your liking. I learned the trick to press slightly to create a small well. This will plump back up as it cooks, and normally my indicator to flip the burger. I don't season the meat when mixing, only on top and bottom.

The white onions are cooked in the same pan as the beef. Season lightly with salt and pepper and let it cook until it starts getting caramelized.

The bread is lightly toasted. After this, start building your burger to your liking. Some garlic aioli, bacon jam, burger patty, grilled onions, tomato, avocado and arugula for your own gourmet burger at home!

Thank you,

Daisy

Huevos Rancheros

I made the simplest huevors rancheros over the weekend. The ingredients used are little, but it is packed with flavor. And hey, who wouldn't want to make this after a night full with drinks? Trust me, it was a hard morning to wake up to, but this plate of goodness really kicked me out of the slum.

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Ingredients:

• 1 28oz crushed tomatoes
• 1 15oz black beans
• Blue Corn Tortilla
• Chipotle in Adobe sauce (I used 2)
• Eggs (I used 2)
• Salt and Pepper
• 1/4 cup of honey
• 1.3 cups of water
• 1 clove of garlic
• Cilantro for garnish.

The black beans are rinsed before heating. This step is optional. I didn't want too much starch so I reconstituted fresh water. The beans are heated up with 1 grated garlic, 2 teaspoons of salt, 2 teaspoons of cumin, 2 cracked black pepper, and then 1/3 cup of water was added with the heat turned off.

The ranchero sauce was made with 1 can of crushed tomatoes and 2 chipotle peppers. If it's too spicy, just use one and remove the seeds. I added about a 1/4 cup of honey and 1 cup of water to thin out the sauce as well as mellowing out the spice. 1 tablespoon of cumin was added with 1 tablespoon of salt. Feel free to add more honey and water to your liking (or another pepper if you want it spicier).

The egg was cooked for 2 minutes on medium high with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. I didn't add any salt since it's already on the chips, beans and sauce.

Start layering your plate. My combo was chips, beans, sauce, egg, sauce, and topped with a Louisiana green sauce. Cilantro was plucked and sprinkled as a garnish plus more on the side. If available, I would recommend adding queso fresco and avocado (WHICH I HAD AND FORGOT TO ADD).

Watch the full video here:

Enjoy!

Organic Heirloom Tomatoes with Truffle Salt

Hello! I am happy to share my first Youtube post with all of y'all. I've been extremely inspired by fresh local ingredients found at the Farmer's Market. I also want to take advantage of all the summer ingredients that we received from the hot sunny weather. These Heirloom tomatoes were tiny, but plump. They also came in various of sizes, but I stuck with the smaller ones since they had little to no imperfections. 

But here is the video below if you haven't seen it yet!