Bone-in Ribeye with Trashed Red Potatoes

1 inch-thick bone-in ribeye steak. Mine was .8 pounds.

a pound of new red potatoes
extra virgin olive oil
kosher salt
fresh cracked black pepper
garlic powder
milk
a quarter-stick of butter.

Pull the steak from the fridge half an hour before cooking. Salt and pepper liberally on both sides. (you CAN overdo this) Rest on paper towels to absorb moisture. Pat dry every so often as it rests.

Cut the potatoes into semi-identical pieces, slather with extra virgin olive oil, kosher salt, fresh cracked black pepper and garlic powder. Put on the bottom shelf of your oven at 350 for half an hour, move them around, then return to the top shelf for another half hour. I used an enamel casserole dish for this, but anything that's deglazable will do. I wouldn't use cheap nonstick, but then again I almost never do anyway.

Rub butter on the bottom of the pan you're using for the steak. Use something heavy. Make sure it's big enough for the steak. (mine wasn't really, sigh) You only want enough to coat. Heat thoroughly at 3/4 power (for me, anyway) until butter shimmers.

Add steak, laying away from you. Once that side has a good sear, flip the steak and add an eighth of a stick of butter. swoosh it around the pan to make sure it distributes evenly, and lift the steak so it can get underneath. This is not enough butter to baste with.

(It is, however, enough butter to set off the smoke alarms in my house. In the time it took me to run outside, put the pan down, and open enough windows to kill the alarms, the steak went from medium to well-done. If you live in a New York apartment, this may not be your dish.)

Pull potatoes from the oven. Deglaze the pan with milk, rubbing with a silicone spatula until all the brown bits are off. Occasionally poke at a potato chunk to break it up, but just keep stirring - the heat will bring everything together. Add butter to taste. I didn't want any more salt or pepper. Mash until as creamy as you want.

When the steak's gorgeous on both sides (may need to flip again to brown the top) serve it on top of the mash. Yum.


So why are the potatoes trashed? Because they're baked and mashed! At least they're not fried. *rimshot*

Tailgate MexiMac

1 family size box Kraft Macaroni and Cheese for Americans, or Kraft Dinner if you're not.
1 pound chorizo
milk
2 pounds cheddar cheese
buckwheat flour
onion powder
garlic powder
ancho chile powder

Cut the cheese into small pieces or grate it. Uniformity is unimportant here. I only rough-chop, though grated cheese is needed for one of the last steps.

Boil the noodles in water spiced with the onion salt and garlic powder. drain, and add onion powder and garlic powder. Toss and let rest.

Brown the chorizo on both sides till dark. Remove, scatter a handful of buckwheat flour spiked with ancho chile powder (toasting is tasty!) in the pan, and mix with a silicone spatula before adding milk.

The fattier the milk, the faster this will come together. You can do it with skim milk, but it'll take longer. Whole milk is best. 1 percent will take longer than 2 percent and so on. If it really isn't coming together and it should be by now, add flour or coat the chorizo with flour and add them.

I would not recommend using buckwheat flour with skim milk, but it's feasible. Whole with all-purpose is WAY faster. Don't cook the roux too long - you want it as blonde as possible, and remember like Emeril says, you don't know total thickness potential until it boils. With less fat in the milk, until it boils for a while, the same applies.

Stir constantly. If left unattended, this will froth over and destroy things. Like your hand if you grab the wrong part of the pan to move it to a cold burner. Ow.

(Ironically, while I was finishing this dish, my housemate's cocoa bubbled over just like my sauce did.)

Once it gets thick enough to pass the "draw your finger through the middle of the back of a spoon coated with the sauce, if it stays clear, your sauce is thick enough" test, add the cheese and don't fucking stop stirring. Failure to maintain vigilence now is an error exclusively for the weak-minded.

Once the sauce is tasty, balance its flavors. I added some more of that divine Gettysburg barbecue sauce because I always want vinegar and tomato in my mac and cheese, even if it's not coming from ketchup. Two dollops balanced an aggressive saltiness, which happened because I added the stock cheese packet as well. So if you do that, use some type of tomato and vinegar, be it ketchup or someone's homemade apple cider barbecue sauce. (Must go see Bill again.)

Fresh black pepper would be nice right here, and its flavor won't be wasted especially if you add it right before serving.



Top with breadrumbs and grated cheese, and put under the broiler until pretty. Let cool until non-molten. This isn't as thick as my other macaroni attempts.


Yum.

Absurdly Meaty Pasta Sauce

1 can Furmano's chunky crushed tomatoes with basil, oregano, and garlic
1 can Hunt's Four Cheese sauce
6 cloves garlic, pressed
half a big knob of ginger, ground or chopped medium
1 kielbasa
1 package maple sausage
canned artichoke hearts
1 block marble jack or cheddar (not sharp) cheese

Process the garlic, ginger (peel first!) and artichoke hearts. You could food-process the lot right now, or brown it in the pan first. I want you to brown it in the pan, cause it'll make yummy brown fond on the bottom which we'll then release with the crushed tomatoes. Set that pot on high and turn your attention to a skillet and paper towels for draining the meat after it gets all tasty.

Those cook together while we brown and drain the kielbasa (cut into thin rounds) and maple sausage (broken up into small pieces). Wipe out the grease but leave the brown bits if they're not burnt, then transfer some of the tomato mixture into the skillet. Toss it around to deglaze, then add everything back to the main pot.

Add the canned sauce. Put on medium and cook until it's the way you want it. Add much fresh black pepper and the cheese. Poke the cheese around while you stir the sauce, and it'll eventually break up. Keep stirring, and it'll permeate throughout the sauce. Yummy.