Steaks, Smoky Orange-Chipotle Pan Sauce, and Braised Asparagus - Mariam

 Bet y'all thought I was going to talk the most and cook the least. 😏

I mean, same.

And yet, I have made three more recipes. 

I've always been afraid to make steaks. It's so complicated, you need like a PhD in cow butchery and at least a certification in meat thermometers. And I think they strip you of your American citizenship if you overcook a steak. But also, I've always wanted to try because so many people I know love them so much. 

So I bought a couple of ribeyes because it looked the most steak-shaped at the halal butcher's. I also decided that in case it came out tasteless, I needed to make a pan sauce to cover that up. And then I decided to throw in asparagus too. 

I made several of these decisions at around 5:30 pm on Monday evening at the grocery store, so it is possible I overplanned. 

Kenji doesn't believe in bringing steaks to room temperature, so that was easy. But he does believe in either salting the steak the second before you tossed it in the pan or minimum 40 minutes before. (He did an experiment for this.) The second before putting it on heat felt like too much pressure to me so I opted for the 40 minutes. 

I prepped the ingredients for the sauce and the asparagus and then decided to make the asparagus while I waited for the steaks

The asparagus was SO easy to make and SO delicious. You brown or char them a little in olive oil and then cook them in broth and butter. I've never had them cooked so soft but they were delicious.

Ok time to put the steaks on the heat. 

Side one done. Oh also he did an experiment and he doesn't believe it makes a difference if you turn the steak more than once, which I did:

Then add the aromatics which I don't know if it did anything to the steak but was a fantastic treat for me. It smelled amazing.

At this point, that fat started grossing me out so I tried to trim it in the pan. Kenji doesn't recommend this. It looked a little weirdly shaped after that. 

Steaks done and resting. Pan sauce next. This was a smoky orange-chipotle pan sauce. Brown the shallots in butter.

 Add all the rest of the ingredients which included orange juice and orange zest. Reduce. 

Done.

I also made a yellow rice because Silver Diner offers that with their steaks. 

I didn't take a picture of the inside after cooking it but I think it was quite good. I didn't have a thermometer. I think I will cook it slightly less next time. It wasn't strip citizenship cooked, but I can go a little rarer. The seasoning was amazing so really the pan sauce wasn't needed. The asparagus were SO good. 

The pan sauce was excellent too and I had planned to cook something this weekend to have it with but I've been pouring it over veggies and putting it in pasta so it's done. 

I don't love red meat. But I should eat it more for iron reasons. And this is a good way to eat it. I was SO full that I didn't even want breakfast the next day. I also think I'd make potatoes instead of rice next time and the asparagus last because they ended up being cold.