Improv Cooking

Mad Men Era Bourbon Glazed Pan Steak

2010-10-16T21:07:00.005-04:00

Tonight we were going to make a family favorite - veal parmigiana. But there in the fridge were a week-old set of Beef Eye Round Steaks from Fairway, whatever those were, a few days past the sell-by date but smelling fine. Use it or lose it time. Table the veal, it'll keep.

The steaks were small but looked like they might cook up tender enough to eat like steaks. But somehow, too small to broil. Just a hunch. I don't even know what that means. The word "saute" kept creeping into my brain.

Dusting off the dim recesses, I remembered reading a recipe for pan-fried/sauteed steak in Craig Claiborne's venerable, trusty New York Times Cookbook (Copyright 1961). Ooh, 1961 -- prime Mad Men territory. There the recipe was, on page 91 -- Steak Au Poivre. Lots of butter and Worcestershire. Perfect with a high ball, a baked potato, and some overcooked vegetables and deep leatherette banquettes!

OK, time for the Improv Treatment. #1) The kid hates black pepper, Au Poivre is not going to lead to maximizing happiness. #2) Craig wants us to have thought ahead and pummelled the pepper into the steak and let stand 30 minutes. Nope, too hungry for that. Out with the pepper. #3) "Blaze with cognac" -- yee ha! Sounds like fun. With a match. Awesome. But: I have no cognac on hand. But I do have an unopened bottle of Knob Creek Kentucky Bourbon ("The Knob!"). That will more than do. #4) Fresh parsley and chives sound great, ain't got 'em. Dried parsley and nothing will be fine. #5) Tobasco? Can't find the Tobasco. We have some Frank's Red Hot, stuff that the kid likes to put on his scrambled eggs a la Camp Caribou. That works. #6) Heavy skillet. Don't really have one. Have a nice light non-stick skillet. Okey dokey.

So, here goes, with many apologies to Mr. Claiborne.

3 Beef Eye Round Steaks, whatever those are
Salt - kosher and table
6 teaspoons butter
Worcestershire sauce to taste
Lemon juice - a splash - go really easy
2 tablespoons Knob Creek Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
1 tsp dried parsley

For the chef:

3 oz. Knob Creek Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
1 8 oz. old-fashioned glass
1 ice cube

No explanation needed.

Cover bottom of skillet with a moderate layer of the salts. Turn the heat to high for about 10 minutes and wait for the salt to brown like Craig says. Salt never browns.
Sip The Knob and ponder probable impact of non-browned salts. Decide it will be negligible and besides, have no bright ideas about browning salt. Put the steaks in anyway on unbrowned salt.
Brown the steaks on one side. Maybe a minute. Sizzle!
While browning steaks, melt the butter in the microwave, 45 seconds on high. Then throw the parsley into butter and stir a little.
Turn steaks, lower heat. Cook for a couple minutes.
Add the butter, lemon juice, Worcestershire, Frank's Red Hot. Pour over steaks while cooking, let it all flow into a delicious sauce in the pan.
When the steaks are done to your satisfaction (we went for medium rare), turn the heat way down.
Blaze the Knob! Splash in, light with match, say a little prayer for the non-stick coating.
Swish the solution to put out the fire if you get nervous. I did. A little. Have sip of Knob to calm those nerves.
Plate the steaks.
Swirl the sauce in the pan over low heat for about 45 seconds.
Spoon a little over the steaks, that's what it's for. Don't forget to taste it, it's amazing.

Served with Vigo Yellow Rice from a package (why? we like it, that's why) and a Caesar-ish salad (a topic for another time).

And more Knob.

Chicken Avocado Chili Sauce Nachos

2009-09-27T19:24:00.000-04:00

So, my son and I were on our own one night and looking for something tasty, and sort of fall-like and not too strenuous. Let's go down to The Firehouse and get burgers or nachos or something, I suggested. "Nah, too expensive, way too much food." OK, what do we have? Let's see, Mom left us some chicken breasts thawed. And some corn. OK, we'll have the corn on the cob, but what to do with the chicken? "Dad, you said you wanted nachos -- chicken nachos!" OK, kid, you are on. Here's what we found, after dispatching kid to the corner store for some chips.

1 lb boned chicken breasts, cut into strips, and the strips cut into thirds.
Corn tortilla chips, about 10 per person
2 slices ripe avocado, cubed, more or less
Shredded sharp Wisconsin cheddar cheese
Secret ingredient: Mare-O-Lin's Garlic Blend Chili Sauce
Cooking oil (PAM Organic Canola in this case)
Garlic powder
Salt
Black pepper
Red pepper flakes

When we were thinking through the salsa thing, the kid said, "Dad, we have that awesome salsa thing we got upstate." Not really salsa, but actually better for this dish. Tastes like you worked on it all day. And this stuff is awesome. Oh my goodness. What a find. Full credit to the kid. Track it down via http://www.mare-o-lins.com/

OK, enough editorializing, on with the cooking.

Spritz a skillet with the PAM. Don't be stingy.
Throw in the chicken.
Douse with garlic powder to taste.
Salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes.
Stir it all around. Mix it up nice. Saute until just about cooked through, 10 minutes or so.
Spoon chili sauce over chicken in skillet. 5 rounded teaspoons of chili sauce worked for us. Just enough to spread around the chicken and get it covered.
Simmer chicken covered for another 5-10 minutes. Don't dry it out.
Get a plate. Put 10 chips on the plate, spread evenly.
Cover the chips with pieces of chicken, maybe about 4 oz. per plate. You can spoon a little sauce on, too.
Put on 6-8 avocado cubes.
Top with shredded cheese.
25 seconds on high in the microwave.
Repeat steps 8-12 for each plate!

That's it. Serve. This stuff is tasty.

Makes 4 servings. 30 minutes prep and cook time. About 7 to wolf it down.

You might want guacamole instead of the avocado, but I was feeling a little lazy. Black beans would also enhance. Cutting the corn off the cob and throwing it in might work, too, but it was just fresh enough corn that on the cob was the right call.

Inspirations:

Chilaquiles, La Cocina (R.I.P.), 85th near Broadway
Nachos Grande, The Firehouse, 85th and Columbus
Mexican Chicken, Chicken, Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Library, Time-Life Books, 1993

Improv Cooking Principles

2009-09-27T19:07:00.001-04:00

Sometimes, I like what I cook. I mean, really like it. Enough to write it down! Might as well share it.

I'm just a guy with some time in the kitchen every now and again. Food is good. Food is fun. There's lot of great stuff out there. Recipes are just guidelines, usually. Don't take them overly seriously.

The basic ideas of my kind of improvisational cooking are:

Look around your kitchen -- what's there?
But try to keep seasonal, fresh, and high quality staple ingredients lying around. I mean, really. You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Luck = preparation plus opportunity.
List the available ingredients in your mind. Free-associate. Quickly re-arrange, kind of like Scrabble. What would go well together? What are you in the mood for? What was that thing you had at that little place last week that was so good?
Drawing a blank? Pick a cookbook off the shelf and flip through the sections relevant to your main ingredients. Don't sit down while you are doing this or dinner will never get finished. Those cookbooks are pretty darned interesting sometimes.
If it's going to take more than 30-40 minutes to make on a week night, it's not going to happen. An hour and a half on the weekend is about right.
Even if you do find something close and tasty sounding, you'll be missing some ingredients. Think about what the core of the dish is, and make sure you have those, more or less. Otherwise, move on, hombre. Make a note to stock up on the next food run (that's what the notepad on the refrigerator is for).
Found something close enough? OK, start cooking. Don't think about it too much.
Leave out the really hard parts. Is there a sauce that takes like 3 hours to make? Well, shoot, don't you have some tomato sauce and spices, or some pesto, or some chiles or some salsa? Close enough. Dump some in. Look around the spice closet. Try stuff, but think through the implications. How will that taste? What have you had that was like it? What are you missing? What would be a close substitute?
For goodness sakes, don't measure all that carefully. This is cooking, not brain surgery.
Make a bit of mess, it's part of the fun. But clean up as you go, you don't want to fritter away karma.

Here is the most important point of all: no fear. I mean, it's only dinner. If it's really terrible, there's a pizza joint around the corner and better luck next time. But if you want to make discoveries, you have to risk a little something each time.