Tag Archive for 'howto'

How to Cook a Steak

Published
by
chrisandcamri
on October 4, 2006
in Food
. 1 Comment
steak on the grill

steak on the grill

Camri and I like red meat, but it’s not a big part of our diet. We like a steak every couple of weeks though. Buying a steak at a restaurant is pretty expensive, especially if you want a really good cut of meat. Most steaks come out really well on the grill. Put a little bit of oil and seasoning on a sub-one -inch piece of beef, cook it for a few minutes over medium high heat on a grill, and you’re good to go. It gets trickier when you want to cook a thick restaurant style filet mignon. A $30 restaurant steak can be had at home for less than $8 per steak. We promise. We’ve done it. After a lot of experimenting, and some guidance from Cooks Illustrated, this is the formula that works best for us:

  1. Pre heat your oven to 450 degrees. Your oven? Yeah, your oven. Don’t fret. It’ll all be clear in a minute.
  2. Heat up a non-teflon pan on your stove top. It absolutely, positively, has to be a non-teflon, sticky metal pan. If possible, it would be great if it’s the sort of pan you can put in an oven without the handle melting off. We got a really nice set of cookware as a wedding present, which included this All-Clad skillet. We’ve used it a bunch of times, and have been really happy with it, until we discovered the joy of cooking with cast iron. Now we use this Lodge Logic cast iron skillet for all our steak cooking needs. It’s also great for eggs, bacon, sausage, corn bread…just about anything. It rules. We’ll write about it soon. Anyway, get your skillet really hot.
  3. Season your meat. Make it really simple, a little olive oil on both sides, then some pepper and salt. Not hard. Don’t overthink it.
  4. When your skillet is really really hot, drop the meat into it. Once it hits, it’s going to sizzle an awful lot. You’ll be scared. You’ll want to move the meat around. Don’t touch it. You have to let the crust form. Don’t move. Don’t. Let it sizzle for two minutes, then flip it over. If possible, grab it by both sides with tongs and pull it straight up. Don’t get a spatula in there to break that yummy crust. Let it sizzle for another two minutes on the other side (four minutes total).
  5. Turn off your burner. Plug a Polder thermometer into your meat. Not just any meat thermometer, get one with a digital readout and a long cord that lets you put your meat in the oven, or on the grill, and monitor the temperature from afar. They’re usually around $30. We’ve had ours for over five years. If you have a oven-worthy skillet, take the whole contraption off the burner and pop it into the oven. Set your thermometer to beep at 145 degrees (medium rare). If you’re not into a little blood, then check out this USDA meat temperature chart. Keep in mind, the meat will continue to cook when you take it out of the oven, so set your alarm five degrees lower than your target temperature.
  6. Drink a beer.
  7. When the temperature is right, take the skillet out of the oven, take the meat off the skillet (leave the thermometer in for now, if you pull it out lots of juices will leak out.) and let the meat rest on a warm plate with foil over top of it. Don’t eat it yet. Let the meat rest for at least five minutes.
  8. While you’re waiting, you can ad a half stick of butter, some rough chopped garlic, some shallots, and a little more olive oil to your hot skillet, and work it over with a metal spatula. Scrape up all those fun little black bits and swirl it around with the melting butter. It’s better than A-1.

    9. Once the meat is rested, plate it up, pour some sauce over the top of each steak, and enjoy. Although there’s a small investment up front ($25 cast iron, $30 thermometer) you make the money back after just two steaks. Plus, you can use both of those things for lots of other stuff.

How to Roast Your Own Coffee

Published
by
chrisandcamri
on September 20, 2006
in Drink
. 0 Comments

About a year ago I started to roast coffee on a sideburner on my bbq grill. I’ve only bought pre-roasted coffee a handful of times since. Coffee roasting is a simple process, very inexpensive, and lots of fun.

Getting Started

Start by buying this book:

As far as I know, it’s the only book dedicated to roasting at home. It’s well written, and has just about everything you need to get started roasting on your own. While it’s on its way, go to Sweet Maria’s and start looking around. All the equipment you’ll need, plus green beans, can be bought online at Sweet Maria’s.

Equipment

We roast using a Whirly Pop popcorn popper on the side burner of our outdoor grill. Roasting creates a lot of “chaff” and smoke, so it’s best if you can do it outside. You’ll also need a good thermometer that can read temperatures up to 500 degrees or higher. Sweet Maria’s gives full information on the stovetop method here. You can also order a popcorn popper kit direct from the site. It even includes a few pounds of green beans to get you started. The one item that the kit doesn’t come with is a thermometer. I recommend spending a little extra to get the Cooper thermometer on this page. Although it’s a little bit more expensive, the big face makes it much easier to read.

Where to Get Beans?

Sweet Maria’s. Hands down. No question. I ordered a five pound bag of green coffee from an Ebay auction when I was just starting out, and was very dissapointed. Coffee farms, unlike vineyards or artisan cheese shops, are in some of the poorest countries of the world. Many of these farms have substandard living conditions, or use insecticides that you don’t want to drink. Tom, the chief buyer and owner of Sweet Maria’s, is very aware of the state of the coffee buying world. He doesn’t buy from farms that mistreat their workers, or use harsh chemicals on their plants. He’s a very progressive buyer, and is helping to encourage well managed farms to be more productive. Plus, he doesn’t stock bad beans.

Roasting

Read the chapters on roasting from the Davies book before trying it out for yourself. My own roasting technique follows the Davies book almost to the letter.

I’ve found that the Whirley Pop is ideal for roasting a half pound of beans at a time. I put the empty roaster on high flame until the temperature gets to around 450. Then I dump the beans in, and start turning. The temperature naturally drops to around 330 while the green beans absorb the heat. As the beans heat up, the little bit of moisture in them starts to steam. The beans “crack” at around 6 minutes. This is called “first crack”. It sounds like popcorn popping. Lots of smoke will start poring from the seams of the popper. At first it will smell very “green”, but will start to smell more like roasting coffee.

After first crack starts, you need to decide how deeply you want to roast your coffee. There’s an excellent guide to coffee roasts at Sweet Maria’s. Each bag of green coffee comes with a brief description of what Tom believes is the ideal roast. I usually go with his recommendation. One thing you’ll find over time is that Starbucks roasts way too darkly. The lighter roasts on high quality beans preserve the flavor. Starbucks wants you to taste the roast, Tom wants you to taste the bean. Go with Tom.

As time goes by, the distinctive first crack will stop, and second crack will begin. Second crack sounds more like rice krispies than popcorn. When second crack begins, you’re at full city +. I typically like to stop the roast here, just as second crack is beginnning. The beans are a deep brown, but there’s no oil on the surface. Here’s a picture from Sweet Maria’s:

Dump the beans into a wide colander and shake them to remove the chaff. Let them cool for a while, until you can touch them with your hand. In most cases you can grind the beans immediately for brewing, however, it’s best to rest them for 24 hours. Store them in a cool dry place, like your counter top, and grind them just before brewing.

Get Started!

Roasting coffee at home is shockingly easy. Camri and I really like to make our own food when possible. I always thought that coffee wasn’t something you could roast at home, and was amazed to find out how easy it actually is. It’s just like brewing your own beer, except without all the chemistry and tedious bottle cleaning. Don’t be afraid, don’t overthink it. If you’re at all interested in roasting at home, buy a popcorn popper, drill a hole in it, buy some beans, put them over heat, and do it. It’s easy and never ceases to amaze the Starbucks crowd.