Steak Au Poivre with Miso & Sansho Pepper

 

Sometimes I really really crave au poivre sauce. Like, the sauce itself with a nice steak, fries, mashed potatoes, etc. So when cabagges.world showed this recipe on their Instagram, I knew I had to try it.

Guys. It was SO GOOD.

I think I only had cilantro instead of parsley but it was fine. Everything else was amazing. It makes enough sauce for 2 steaks very generously, or I'm sure you can stretch it out to four steaks. Make sure you season your steak but not too aggressively because the sauce has a good amount of salt in it from the miso and the beef broth.

Steak Au Poivre with Miso & Sansho Pepper
Adapted from cabagges.world

1 1-1.5" thick ribeye steak (or whatever kind you prefer)

2 clove garlic, minced

1 shallot, minced

2 tsp ground pepper (preferably fresh ground)

1/2 cup sake

1/2 cup beef broth

1 Tbsp miso

1 tsp Sansho pepper

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup parsley (or in my case, cilantro)

Make sure steak is at room temperature (take it out of the fridge about 45-60 min before cooking). Rub steak all over with a neutral oil and then season both sides with salt and pepper. Heat a cast iron pan on high-ish. Sear steak for two minutes, then flip to the other side for another two minutes. Repeat. Then do each side for 1 minute more. This should get you medium rare. Adjust the cooking time further if you want it more cooked but the steak should be flipped every two minutes.

Turn heat to medium and without adding more oil, add garlic, shallots and pepper. Cook for about 30-45 seconds until shallots are translucent.

Turn heat up slightly and pour in sake to deglaze. Scrape with a wooden spoon and then reduce sake by half.

Turn heat down to medium and add beef broth. Bring to a low boil, add in miso and sansho pepper, and stir to combine.

Turn heat to low, then add heavy cream. Stir and reduce until it thickens to a gravy-like consistency. Taste and adjust for additional salt.

Add butter and parsley, stir to mix through and then serve!

Chirashi & Sushi Rice

 

I don't know why it's been so long since I've made sushi rice. Like 12+ years. I remember making it once with my ex and it was SO CUMBERSOME. Maybe I was just younger and a more inexperienced cook back then. Or maybe we were trying to make it too authentically ... as opposed to this time, where I didn't care if a few grains of my rice were broken.

We had gotten amazing scallops from Lux Seafood so I went to the Japanese market and also got a block of chutoro and yellowtail (from Japan). Assembling our own chirashi bowls was super quick!

Sushi Rice

From Just One Cookbook

Makes 2 "rice cooker cups" (enough for approx 2-3 people)

2 "rice cooker cups" short grain rice

4 Tbsp rice vinegar

2 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp kosher salt

I use a Tatung rice cooker (the best rice cooker ever IMHO). Measure two rice cooker cups of rice, add water to the 2-line in the rice pot and add water to the rice cooker at the 2-measure on the rice cooker cup. If you're making regular rice, just make sure it's a bit drier than usual since you will be adding liquid to the rice ... more of a 1:1 ratio of water to rice. Soak for 30 minutes before cooking.

While the rice is cooking, combine the vinegar, sugar and salt in a measuring cup. Microwave for 30 seconds and then stir until the sugar and salt dissolve. Set aside to cool.

When the rice is steamed, spread it out while hot on a parchment lined baking sheet. Pour the sushi vinegar all over the rice and then use a paddle to "cut through and flip" the rice in order to even distribute the sushi vinegar. Fan the rice simultaneously to cool it down and encourage the rice to soak up the sushi vinegar but not get mushy - you may want to get someone to assist you with the fanning. Stop when the sushi vinegar is soaked up and the rice looks shiny.

Definitely click on the Just One Cookbook link to get a more thorough photo-demonstration. It's also more authentic to add konbu to the rice but we didn't have the time for that.

Sesame Miso Donabe

The weather is quickly warming up for Southern California but it's been difficult to stop making this sesame miso donabe! IT'S SO GOOD. We started making it when COVID-19 shut the entire world down and we ordered a CSA box to help some local farms who had lost their restaurant contracts stay afloat. The leafy greens were perfect in donabe.

That box was $25, which is a steal for how fresh the vegetables are! When I buy greens from the market, they usually last about a week. One of those Bloomsdale spinach bundles lasted THREE WEEKS before I got to it and it wasn't rotting at all!

This donabe (or you can make it in a regular pot) is totally adaptable with whatever vegetables or thin-sliced meat you have on hand (or seafood). Most of the time when I've made this, it's been totally vegetarian because it was the easiest, and we wanted to use as much of the CSA vegetables as possible. The most important thing is the soup base.

Sesame Miso Donabe
Adapted from Just One Cookbook
Serves 4

3 Tbsp white sesame seeds
6 cups water
1 Tbsp Hon-dashi
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 dried shitake mushrooms
3-4 Tbsp miso paste

Vegetable suggestions:
Spinach
Bok choy
Tokyo turnips
Daikon
Green onions
Assorted mushrooms
Tofu, fish (cut into 1" chunks), shrimp, any shabu shabu meats

Toast the white sesame seeds in a small pan over low heat (no oil or anything required). Make sure it doesn't burn! Grind with a mortar and pestle, not too fine.

Boil the water with the Hon-dashi, garlic and dried mushrooms. Add the tofu and hard vegetables (daikon, carrots, turnips, etc), simmer for 5 minutes. Add leafy greens and quicker cooking vegetables (green onions, mushrooms, spinach, etc), simmer for two minutes.

At this point you can serve hot with ponzu sauce as an option. If you have any seafood/meats, add them now and simmer for three minutes, then serve. The seafood/meats will continue to cook in the hot broth.

Miso Pesto Ramen

So this recipe has been raging all across Instagram lately ... Bon Appetit's ramen noodles with miso pesto. I decided to try it out based on the rave reviews.

First of all, this makes WAY too much pesto for two people. We made three balls of noodles and as you can see in the photo above, the noodles were fully dressed and I only used half of the sauce. So use caution when tossing and dressing!

M didn't like it as much as I thought he would. I kept pressing him to see what it needed to make it better and he finally said ... "It needs more protein" ... SMH. A seared scallop or grilled chicken might be a nice addition if you are like M (haha).

Miso Pesto Noodles
Adapted from Bon Appetit
Serves 2

6 cups baby spinach
2 cups cilantro leaves with tender stems
1 Tsp white miso
1 garlic clove
1/2 cup grapeseed or sunflower oil
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
Kosher salt (I used sea salt)
Fresh noodles (flour or ramen, which you can find in the refrigerated section of all Asian supermarkets)
1 Tsp unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
Toasted sesame seeds

Boil a medium pot of water and cook the noodles according to package directions. Drain and do not rinse.

Meanwhile,  puree all other ingredients together, except the butter. Pour into large bowl. Once noodles are drained, add to 1/2 the amount of pesto and all of the butter. Toss together thoroughly. Add more pesto incrementally as necessary.

Divide between bowls and top with sesame seeds to serve.

The Walking Dead S3E8 - Miso Black Cod

Hello there, all. It's been a long long time since the last update. I know, I'm ashamed of myself. But in my defense, I've WANTED to update for the last week or so but there seems to be a problem with Internet Explorer. Don't laugh, I HAVE to use IE because I have a work laptop. I got rid of my desktop a few years ago after I got one for work and realized that having a portable computer was so much more useful and space-efficient. Plus, not my money and I always have the latest upgrades. I'm not gaming much anymore and only used the computer to surf the net; now I could surf the net and watch TV on the couch at the same time! But I digress ...

IE seems to have an issue to where it's not letting me upload pictures through Blogger, which is a major hassle when this site is based on pictures. I mean, you just want to look at pictures of food right? Oh and sometimes recipes. They can be helpful too. So now I'm resorting to using Boyfriend's computer while he showers to update the blog.

The Walking Dead ended weeks ago ... the midseason finale anyway. The second half of the season is coming back in a couple of weeks. Eep! To provide full disclosure, I did not watch or make dinner for episode 8 because my birthday was the day before and I had Book Club the day of. So I'm giving this recipe from Ms food, je'taime. I made the udon with whatever leftover ingredients were in the refrigerator from having shabu-shabu-slash-hot-pot during the week. But the cod was the best part.

You can buy the cod filets fresh from any Japanese market or you can buy them frozen from Trader Joe's for something like $8.99/lb, which is ridiculously low. I defrosted the filet and cut it in half before marinading it ... delish. I actually text Ms food, je'taime to tell her I was eating and loving it because I was so excited.

Miso Black Cod
from food, je t'aime

1/2 cup of miso paste

3 tablespoon mirin

1 teaspoon light-colored honey

2 fillets black cod (about 1 inch thick)

vegetable oil

 

Whisk together miso , mirin, and honey to create the marinade. You can adjust the marinade to your liking (saltier/sweeter) but it turned out perfect in the above ratio.

Pat the cod filets dry with a paper towel. Transfer the marinade to a ziploc bag and throw in the filets with it; gently mush around a bit to coat the filets with the miso. Don't actually squash the fish! Marinate for about 24 hours.

 

Before cooking, remove the fish from the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature for about 10 minutes. Preheat a nonstick skillet or grill pan over medium-high heat. Gently wipe off any excess marinade with your fingers. Oil pan and cook the fillet until golden brown on both sides, roughly 3-4 minutes per side, depending on the thickness of the fish. Serve preferably with white rice.