Dry rub for anything

The picture has absolutely nothing to do with this posting. I just happen to like it.

I got a decent price on a rack of St. Louis-style ribs the other day and I have them in the fridge right now coated in a dry rub. I got this list of ingredients from someone at FoodNetwork and I don't remember who. In comparing it to a few other options I have determined that it is suitable for any meat or poultry. The quantity was enough for the rack of ribs and a T-bone steak coming up on Monday.

Here it is just in case you'd like to have it filed away somewhere for a rainy (or not) day. BTW, I am cooking the ribs in the oven and low-ish temp for probably 4 hours. But you don't need to learn how to cook ribs from me. I make it up as I go along.

Dry rub for meat and poultry
2 Tbs espresso powder (or ground coffee)
2 Tbs kosher
2 Tbs paprika (smoked is great if you have it)
1 Tbs chile powder
1 Tbs brown sugar
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp ground coriander

Rub all over your meat and refrigerate for up to 24 hours. Yield is enough for a full rack of St. Louis-style ribs plus 4 chicken thighs.

We've made honest men of each other

Peter and I were married at the DC Superior Court yesterday. After more than 30 years together it was marvelous to have our relationship legitimized in the eyes of the law. The setting, was tackier than anything in Vegas. The photo doesn't show the fake flower arbor we stood under. We were honored to have Peter's sister, Susan, and her husband, Bill, to stand with us along with our longest-known friends, Dana and Milton. We call each other "spouse" as opposed to "husband". I'm making a celebratory dinner tonight: steak done on my stovetop grill. We didn't eat dinner last night due to the quantity of lovely food we ate at the reception lunch (that's where we are in the second photo).

Steak with a coffee rub

I got a great deal on 2 NY strip steaks at Safeway the other day - $4.50. Remembering a time, long ago, that I prepared steaks with a coffee rub, that’s where we went. Yesterday we harvested all the green tomatoes in anticipation of the first frost of the season last night. Not sure if it actually got that cold, but now Peter has made a green tomato soup and green tomato pasta sauce. He actually got out of bed at 3:30 am this morning and started cooking.

The stovetop grill works well with steaks. The secret is to get it hotter than Hades. This recipe made me happy. Sides included baked potato and a salad (the last of the garden’s romaine lettuce and a few ripened cherry tomatoes.

Steak with a coffee rub
2 steaks (rib eye, NY Strip, or other according to your preference)

1/4 cup coffee beans
1 tsp pepper corns

1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp parsley

2 tsp flour
1 tbsp olive oil
kosher salt as garnish

Pre-heat your grill to a medium-high grilling heat.

Wash New York strip steaks under cool running water.
Fully dry the strip steaks (very dry) with paper towels.
In a food processor or chopper, coarsely grind and mix all dry ingredients together.
Rub each dry strip steak with the oil to very lightly moisten the surface. Remove all excess oil.
Evenly coat the New York Strips with the with the rub mixture. Press the rub mixture into the strip steaks using a flat-bottom plate, on a cutting board.
Grill the steaks over pre-heated direct heat for 8 to 10 minutes. Turn the strip steaks only one time when you see beads of juice over most of the surface. Remove the steaks from the grill to a platter or cutting board.
Allow the Cuban Coffee Crusted Steaks to rest under loose foil tent for 4 to 6 minutes before serving. Sprinkle with coarse kosher salt lightly over as garnish.

Breakfast for lunch

Uh-oh, breakfast for lunch again: leftover baked potato, green bell pepper, a bit of celery, and a couple of reconstituted dried shiitake mushrooms made for some hash; leftovers of the steak au poivre from last night's dinner, and 2 over easy eggs apiece. Nuf said.

Home-aged rib eye steak

We took an idea from Cooks Illustrated magazine and tried aging some steaks at home. The process was extremely simple: you wrap it in a few layers of cheesecloth, place it on a rack (for air circulation) and put it on the lowest shelf of the fridge for 4 days.

Then we cooked 2 of them steak au poivre style (salted and pressed with rough ground black peppercorns. Yummo! (Thanks, Rachel Ray.)

The baked potato was rubbed with olive oil and an Indian "chat" seasoning. When done (1 hour at 400 degrees in the oven), we split them open and doused them with butter and more chat.

Composed salad with steak

I’ve been lazy about posting lately. I’m going to make up for it over the next couple of days. Last night Peter and I made a constructed salad which we served with thin slices of rib eye steak. We had cooked a “cowboy” rib eye the night before. It was a whopping 2 pounds of meat with a single rib bone and a slightly regrettable amount of fat, much of which I trimmed away.

I didn’t (again the word regrettably) take a picture of it so I poached one from the internet. Here it is:


Is that magnificent or what? I had two meat rubs on hand, both left over from other recipes. One was by Anne Burrell, whose show, “Secrets of a Restaurant Chef,” I watch religiously. Unfortunately it was way too salty when I used it the first time. However, by mixing it with another rub which included ground coffee, it was transformed into a great concoction.

The one thing I will do differently when I cook a cowboy steak the next time is set a slightly lower target temperature. After browning one side thoroughly (4 minutes), I finished it in a 350° oven (which took about 20 more minutes), letting the internal temp rise to 135°. This gave us somewhat more of a medium steak instead of my preferred medium rare. I think 130° is a better temp, especially because you let it rest for 10 minutes before slicing. It tasted wonderful nonetheless.

We came up with the idea for these composed salads as we scoured our brains for inventive ways to use lettuce and endive from our garden. The picture below is a combination of those two greens with some toasted garbanzos, sliced radishes, croutons, and sugar snap peas which were blanched for a couple of minutes and then shocked with ice water. You’d think we were having sex if you heard the sounds we made while consuming this consummate creation.



We have a great time pottering about in the kitchen together. Here’s a pic of our culinary work area:


It’s a little tricky jockeying around one another, but we’ve got it down pretty good.

Thai beef and wild rice salad

I forgot to take a photo of today's recipe. Sorry.

Yesterday I posted my harangue about making soup from bits and pieces of stuff you find on hand. Today I will compose a salad, again using small amounts of miscellanea sitting in the fridge, the pantry, the crisper drawer (another excellent hideout for stuff).

The problem with the crisper drawer is that everything in there is in a plastic bag. So it can take a bit of doing to get a clear picture of what you’ve got. This is where the inventory system I talked about yesterday re-emerges today.

Ironically enough, Mark Bittman (the “minimalist”) in today’s NY Times food section goes on at some length about lists so that things don’t get lost. I’d almost think he read my blog.

But seriously, folks, in our house Peter and I have finally begun to exhibit some discipline and keep frequently updated lists on hand for the contents of the fridge and freezer. I simply stick a piece of paper (actually from a notepad) on the door of the fridge and write and cross off whatever goes in or comes out. You can do it. Once you get a sense of how much more efficiently you use the food you’ve paid good money for, you’ll be patting yourself on the back (as we are now doing frequently).

Today’s recipe used only items I had on hand and fell into the category “use it, or lose it.” Here’s what the inventory led to:

Thai beef and wild rice salad
Juice of ½ lemon
¼ cup finely diced celery (with leafy parts if possible)
2 scallions, green and white parts diced fine
3 tbsp fish sauce, or to taste
2 tbsp chili/garlic paste
¼ cup Italian parsley, chopped
2 cups cooked wild rice
6 oz. cooked steak

Put the first 6 items in a medium bowl and stir to combine. Stir in the rice, mixing everything thoroughly. Give it a taste and add more of anything you think it needs (for me it was a bit more fish sauce).

Cut the steak into thin slices across the grain. Over medium-low heat, warm the steak in a non-stick skillet for a few minutes. Sprinkle with a bit of soy sauce. Serve the rice in bowls topped with steak slices.

Refritos (re-fried beans)

Buy a can of refried beans if you must, but there will be no comparison with the taste of homemade. My method is entirely made up by yours truly and must be considered “Nuevo Norte Americano.”

As so often happens with me, the inspiration for something comes from ingredients that are hanging around in the pantry, the fridge, or the freezer. In this case it was half a bag (about 1 ½ cups) of frozen black-eyed peas (which are actually beans), and some thin-cut top sirloin steaks which cried out for a good flattening and preparation as milanesa, breaded and fried thin beef as found in practically any Mexican restaurant. Oh, and a third thing: requeson, a Mexican ricotta-like cheese. We had this because Peter had made a Latino-inspired stuffed winter squash a few days ago.

You certainly can make this ahead by a day or two and reheat them while you prepare the milanesa. I’ll include directions for this just in case you want to try both of these together.

Refritos (refried beans)
1 ½ cups (more or less) frozen black-eyed peas
1 14.5 oz can pinto beans, well-rinsed
2 medium size tomatoes, peeled and chopped (canned are ok)
½ red onion, rough chopped
2 or 3 Hatch chiles, skinned and seeded (or substitute jalapenos to taste)
1 or 2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp dried Mexican oregano
3/4 cup chicken or beef stock
1/8 cup epazote leaves or cilantro, roughly chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp olive oil

In a large sauté pan, cook black-eyed peas according to package directions. Set aside and wipe the pan clean.

Heat the olive oil and sauté the onion and garlic over medium heat until softened but not browned, about 6-8 minutes. Place all ingredients in the food processor and whir them up to a rough texture (according to your preference).

Return the mixture to the sauté pan and heat to a low simmer, adding more stock if it seems to thick. Cook, covered, over low heat for 30 minutes after checking and adjusting seasonings. Remove the cover for part of the cooking time if the beans seems to wet.

Milanesa
Thin-cut steak
Egg, 1 per pound of steak
Breadcrumbs, unseasoned are best, but suit yourself
Salt and pepper
Vegetable oil

Pound the steaks to no more than ¼” thickness.

In a wide bowl, lightly beat the egg with a tbsp water. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper.

Dip each piece of steak in the egg to coat completely. Dredge in the bread crumbs, pressing them into the steak so that they adhere. Carefully lay the meat on a wire rack over a plate and refrigerate until ready to cook. Season the tops of the steaks with salt and pepper. (You’ll do the other side while cooking them.) If you have an hour it will help the bread crumbs to set up and stick better when you fry the meat.

Heat the oil in a large sauté pan until a tiny pinch of bread crumbs immediately sizzles when dropped in.

Cook the steaks in a single layer (in batches as necessary) for exactly 2 minutes per side, starting with the seasoned side up. When you turn them season the cooked side with salt and pepper. Remove to the wire rack which you have now covered with some paper towels. Cover with a sheet of foil and keep warm in the oven if you have to do more than 1 batch.

For a free excerpt of my book, “A Year of Food,” in which I opine, report, cook, muse and philosophize about everything that passed my lips for an entire year, write to me at: scrout1944@msn.com.