Anne, Alton, & ATK: Steak and Mashed Potatoes
For Christmas, I got myself Alton Brown’s latest book Good Eats: The Early Years. When I first found this show back in 1995, I was just shy of 18 years old and lamenting about how my mother’s cooking absolutely sucked. So I started cooking on my own. Sadly, I found many of the cooking shows to be boring. Alton’s show was different: Good Eats armed me with knowledge! Not just on how to prepare a single recipe of the day, but really how to cook. Good Eats was not only informative, but entertaining in a Mr. Wizard kinda way and funnier.
Good Eats lead to my discovery of Cooks Illustrated magazine, by the American Test Kitchen (ATK). My magazine archive only goes back to 2000, but I remember going to the library to scribble or photocopy recipes. I love ATK because, like Good Eats, it was very informative - again not just teaching me the recipe but also how to cook in general. I found their little side bar notes and kitchen hardware recommendations exceedingly helpful.
In 2010, I vowed to cook more at home and eating out less. So I went back to what I know and love best: Alton & ATK.
My first set of recipes of the year included Pan-Seared Rib Eye Steaks and Cognac Pan Sauce (Brown 14-15). For sides I selected Mashers (Brown 18).
The steaks required to set the oven to 500 degrees F. WARNING: do not do this unless your oven is clean!! At 500, all the carbon caked on to the sides of your oven will start to smoke, set your fire alarms off and your house cats into a mad stampede! After cooking, resting meat is important, and Alton suggests that you rest in a “resting rig.” For my rig, I opted for the thick slices of toast so that the escaping meat juices would get absorbed into a nice side treat.
The pan sauce needed a bit more work and perhaps real Cognac, I tried to substitute Burbon, but it didn’t work out as well. The instructions also say to use a blue cheese, but I found that Gorganzola was better.
Mashers are simple enough and it turned out great the first time, though a bit wetter than what the book intended. Maybe leaving the heat on a bit longer after draining should do the trick.
For this meal, I also used my plate warming drawer. Yes, my oven has one. It’s awesome! Cold plates suck heat away from the food, so if I had plated the mashers by the time the steaks were ready and served, the mashers would have gotten cold. Not so with a warm plate!
The hubby approved of the meal greatly, though would have liked the steaks with a crisper crust. Maybe a thicker steak next time, so I can get the crust without over cooking the meat into scary well-done land.
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America's Test Kitchen. The New Best Recipe All-New Edition with 1,000 Recipes. New York: America's Test Kitchen, 2004. Print.
Brown, Alton. Good Eats: The Early Years. New York: Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 2009.