Recipe: Ribeye, Bordelaise Sauce, Potato Parsnip Puree, Asparagus

I LIKE THE CLASSICS. Movies: Rebel Without a Cause, Star Wars & The Goonies. Books: The Count of Monte Cristo [Edmond Dantes was the OG Batman], 3 Musketeers & Huck Finn. Music: Jawbreaker [a personal classic band], Thelonious Monk & A Tribe Called Quest. Food: Mom'z baked mac n cheese, Grandma's Eggplant w/ soy+calamansi sauce [for you suburban white folks, it's a Pacific Islander staple] & my good old Irish stepdad's MEAT & POTATOES. Here's my take on my Dad's classic. #HackTheClassics
  
The GC Blue Collar Meat & Potatoes Special

Ribeye steak w/ punk rock cremini shroom bordelaise, potato+parsnip puree, charred asparagus+ribboned asparagus salad & meyer lemon vinaigrette

Ingredients:

• Radically marbled ribeye steaks
• Cremini shrooms & some underappreciated white button shrooms [1cup sliced]
• 1 lg shallot [minced]
• 4 garlic cloves [minced]
• Beef stock [a cup or 2]
• Dry red wine [1/2 cup of a cheap, crappy brand that you'd get laughed at if you ordered it at a restaurant in Bordeaux will do]
• Worcestershire [a splish, a splash or a boatload...max cool points for being on a boat]
• 1 bay leaf
• A few sprigs of thyme [chopped]
• A few more sprigs of tarragon [chopped]
• Cornstarch [1tbs]
• H2O
• 2 lg potatoes [peeled, cubed]
• 2-3 parsnips [peeled, cubed to the same size as the cubed taters...I know they're cylindrical, cube away]
• Heavy cream [1/3 cup]
• Handful of asparagus
• 3 Meyer lemons [juiced, 1tsp zest]
• White wine vinegar
• Dijon mustard [1tsp]
• Rosemary [chopped, 1 tsp]
• Mint [chopped, 1 tsp]
• Sugar [1tsp]
• Canola oil
• Olive oil
• Parsley [chopped, a pinch or 2]
• Sea salt
• Fresh cracked pepper
• Butter [room temp chunks & clarified]
• Your sweet Tribe Called Quest playlist blasting from the speakers. If you don't have a sweet Tribe Called Quest playlist, turn off this computer & contemplate your purpose in life.

[Serves 2]  

Caramelized & Charred Ribeye: Go to your local butcher & pick out a couple of nice, marbled cuts. Let temper aka come down from cold-in-the-cooler-at-the-butcher-shop to room temperature. Cooking cold meats = Uneven cooking [If you like undercooked rawness or overcooked well done/shoe leather steaks, go ahead & cook up those meat ice blocks & use as werewolf bait & hockey pucks respectively]. Fire up the oven to 475d w/ your cast iron pan pre-heating inside. Season steaks well w/ sea salt, fresh cracked pepper & canola oil. When the pan is re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere hot, take out of the oven & place on a burner on hi heat w/ a little canola oil & let heat up some more. TURN OFF ALL YOUR SMOKE ALARMS! Sear steaks for 30-45 seconds [do not touch or poke] then flip & sear for another 30-45 seconds. Charred & caramelized crust of flavor awesomeness. Place steak while still in the cast iron pan back into the oven for 3min. Flip & top w/ some butter & roast for another 3min. Take out of the oven, brush w/ a little clarified butter [how steakhouses cheat & make their steaks taste like steakhouse steaks...tip from Bourdain] & let rest/don't slice into it yet for the love of all things good, juicy & not balsa wood dry. At this point, your kitchen should resemble a scene from the movie Backdraft.

Mushroom Bordelaise Sauce: On med heat, saute in butter some minced garlic & shallots for a bit. Add cremini & button shrooms & a little more butter [b/c Julia Child is your hero] & cook til browned. Add beef stock, worcestershistershireshire, cheap red wine, bay leaf, thyme & tarragon, s&p [a veal demi-glace would be the classic way to go but who's got 5-7hrs to waste, so punk rock it]. When it begins to boil, reduce heat to med-lo, let reduce for 20-25min & sip some really crappy red wine while trying to think of an opening album track better than Tribe's "Excurions" from The Low End Theory. Whisk a little cornstarch in some H2O then stir that mixture into the reduced yet slightly still liquidy [is that a proper cooking term?] sauce to thicken. Take off heat & trash the bay leaf.

Potato+Parsnip Puree: Cube up the taters & parsnips. Boil in salted water 20min. Blitz w/ blender along w/ garlic, shallot & a little of the boiled salted water, butter, heavy cream, s&p. Smooth & simple.

Asparagus Salad: B/C you need some greens in your diet & asparagus are rad b/c they're referred to as spears, like those olden day weapons. Ribbon the asparagus [use a potato peeler, mandolin, sharp knife, magic, whatevs]. Reserve the tips & char them on a super hot grill w/ canola oil, lemon, s&p. Hot/cold salads are cool. Dress w/ a citric vinaigrette [recipe below].

Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette: Combine meyer lemon juice & zest, white wine vinegar, dijon, chopped rosemary & mint, minced garlic, sugar, s&p. Then whisk in a thin, slow stream of extra virgin olive oil til emulsified. Easy, quick, fresh & you'll never have to buy those overpriced bottles from the store & stare at Paul Newman's face every time you open the fridge [he was a badass in Cool Hand Luke though]. 

Plating: Plop down the silky smooth potato+parsnip puree on the plate. Add the citric dressed asparagus side salad on the side. Slice the steaks into thin slices. Check out that juicy, pink med-rare goodness w/ the salty caramelized crust & fan it on one side of the plate. Ladle down the savory/umami bomb flava bordelaise sauce on the steak. Sprinkle on some fresh chopped parsley. Done. 

Oh hey, KICK IT w/ the GC facebook page. Recipes from these pics coming soon to this here online cookbook.

#CookOrDie

Soundtrack: "Can I Kick It?" - A Tribe Called Quest