Steak And French Fries

This is a re-write of a blog wrote last year

Remember when you went off to college and pretty quickly put on 15 pounds from the dorm food and regular beer drinking? Now, many of us are “Sheltered in place” and eating pretty well with threat of the coronavirus and Covid-19. Hopefully, we can avoid getting sick and all we get is a few extra pounds (AKA “The Quarantine 15) from eating well.

Last night we splurged a little with:

New York Strip grilled to a perfect medium rare
French Fries
Chopped “Three Hour” Salad
Pan Roasted Shishito Peppers
Caramelized Onion
Phelps Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon

Talk about all the food groups!

Steak

We don’t eat a lot of red meat. When I get the green light to grill a steak, I like to work with a thicker cut of New York Strip. We bought a whole loin from Costco with our bulk shopping at the start of the lock down. I cut it into steaks that were 2 inches thick. The added thickness widens the window to get it cooked to the perfect medium rare.

French Fries

What is not to like about homemade French fries. The French really know how to make them. I will never forget my first trip to Paris and getting fries at a Bistro and thinking: These are better than McDonald’s. Growing up in the states, my gold standard for French fries were found under the Golden Arches. After working with a French chef, I learned that the Bistro in Paris and McDonalds both know the magic secret to a crispy fry. YOU HAVE TO COOK THEM TWICE. The key is to pre-cook them, let them cool and then finish them quickly in hot oil. It works every time.

3 Hour Salad

My daughter Jennifer has renamed my Romaine Wedge Salad with Gorgonzola Aioli as the “3 Hour Salad”. The combination of:

Roasting homemade croutons
Sautéing bacon
Whipping together a Gorgonzola aioli
Prepping a combination of green onion, olives and grape tomatoes with live oil and vinegar
Chopped Romaine Lettuce

What takes me about 30 minutes, will take Jennifer 3 hours. There is something to be said about trying to cook while at the same time keeping an eye on three kids under the age of 6.

Shishito Peppers

These are easy to make, taste great and add a perfect amount of zip/color to your plate. I love that they add the zip without too much heat, The funny thing is that 1 in 10 will have a real pop of heat, but that isn’t exactly a bad thing,

Caramelized Onions

These were a last minute addition. It just so happened that we have a lot of onions from our “Buying In Bulk” exercise. A wonderful offshoot is you will add something different

Phelps Cabernet Sauvignon

Talk about a little splurge. Phelps is one of our favorite vineyards that we first visited back in the 1980’s. Do their wines taste better to us because they remind us of a wonderful afternoon in an idyllic setting 40 years ago? Probably! Past that, Phelps makes a pretty tasty Cabernet.

We can’t eat the way we did last night or we will be adding and unwanted Coivd-19 POUNDS. But, we certainly had a pretty good meal last night. Tonight, may be a pan seared chicken breast with extra vegetables. Being “Sheltered in Place” doesn’t mean we cant eat well.

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.

Wines From Around The World

Grapes are grown, and wines are produced around the world. Wherever I have visited a vineyard, I have heard the local vintner claim that their growing climate and the wines they produce, are as good as those produced in France. Sometimes this is true and, sometimes not so much.

My theory on food is that people will gravitate to, and like, the food they grew up with. People from New York like New York style pizza. People from Chicago like Chicago style pizza. People from Memphis like BBQ on their pizza (yuck). While there is some semblance of truth to this paragon with wine, it isn’t as true as often. The beauty of learning about the world’s different wines is that you are quite often surprised at how much you like wines from a different geography. With this said, while it is great to spend an afternoon at a vineyard close to my mother’s place in Westhampton NY, the Long Island NY wines are not consistently great.

The “usual suspects” Roses, Bells, Lewins, Chaudoin and Floras enjoying an afternoon at a vineyard on the North Fork of Long Island

In the 1980’s friends from Connecticut spent two years in Australia and learned to love Australian wines. At the same time we spent two years in California and developed a love for Californian wines. To this day my buddy gravitates to his Australian wines and I, to my Californian favorites. Then out nowhere, a friend that grew up in France, but now lives in Poland raves about wines from Georgia. My first reaction was that I had been to a business meeting at Chateau Elan resort/vineyard outside of Atlanta, and while it was a nice venue for a meeting, the wine was not memorable. My friend’s Georgian wine was from the former Soviet state. The country of Georgia is between Turkey and Russia and is one of the oldest wine producers in the world. They have been making wine there for over 8,000 years (Think “Fred Flinstone”) so they must know what they are doing. It turns out that more recently, Georgia was a major producer of wines for the Soviet Union, but since the breakup of the Soviet block, and political strife with Russia, Georgia has been looking for new markets, hence my friend finding it in markets in Poland.

Chateau Elan outside of Atlanta Georgia U.S. A., Great venue, not so great wines

We got together via zoom the other night with friends in Florida, Washington DC, Arizona and Poland. Even with the time zone challenge we had a great time. Besides the highlight of catching up with old friends, it was great to learn something about wines from around the world. The winners in the interest category were the Georgian wines and a bottle of Cabernet from California

Wines from the country of Georgia

My wine guru recommends this Napa Valley gem

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/wine group/supper club lessons follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.

Virtual Cooking Class

A few weeks ago I got an email asking if I could conduct a virtual cooking class? It came from Patty Rose, the daughter of our friends Peggy and Phil Rose who live in Nashville. Patty lives in Chicago and her 3 siblings live around the country. Patty was trying to find a way to celebrate Phil’s 39^{th (?)} birthday. Peggy and Phil are original members of the infamous “Impromptu Friday Night” crew so the prospect was a promise a good time from the get-go.

The first question was when? Patty responded that it will need to be soon given that both she and her sister Allison were expecting in 4 weeks. That made setting a nearby date a priority.

The Menu

The next question was about the menu?

The goal is to have a meal that is:

Fun
Easy to prepare
Gets multiple participants involved.

The key is to build the menu around:

Proteins that can be cooked quickly
Side dishes that can be prepped and forgotten
Combinations that taste great and can be replicated
Learning opportunities

To expedite the process I provided a few options:

PAN SEARED BEEF MEDALIONS

– Pan seared and oven roasted beef medallions
– Pan Sauce
– Mashed Potatoes
– Roasted Vegetable Medley
– Dessert

CHICKEN PICATTA

– Pan seared and oven roasted chicken breast
– Piccata sauce with artichoke and bacon
– Pasta
– Steamed asparagus
– Dessert

HONEY GARLIC CHICKEN THIGHS

– Pan seared and oven roasted chicken thighs
– Honey, garlic soy sauce
– Mashed Potatoes
– Steamed Broccoli
– Dessert

SHRIMP SCAMPI

– Pan seared shrimp
– Scampi sauce (with lots of garlic)
– Pasta
– Steamed asparagus
– Dessert

PORK MEDALLIONS SALTIMBOCCA

– Pan seared pork medallions
– Pan sauce
– Pasta
– Roasted Carrots
– Dessert

After conferring with her siblings, Patty let us know that the consensus was the beef medallions. This was a really good choice because it hits all the criteria and I knew that the sauce is surprisingly easy to make and simply tastes great. Besides that, based on past experience with Phil, it was a sure thing that the birthday boy would like it.

The Participants clockwise: Paul, Susan, Patty, Jon Paul, Phil, Peggy, Allison (Kevin was putting Henry to bed) Claire, Erin, Paul, Kelly, Olivia, Mark, Ellie and Emma

In preparation for the class, I put together a document with the:

Menu
Recipes
Shopping list
Mise en Place
Equipment
Game Plan

Pan Seared Beef Medallions

Mise En Place

Mise en place is key for a virtual session. The goal is to make the actually cooking as easy as possible. The more you do prep work and precooking, the less chance you have for mistakes. The one downside is with multiple parties involved, you are never really sure how each party will interpret the instructions. Its amazing how different the interpretations can be. To this end, I provided descriptions and pictures. Additionally, I saved the prep of the beef to be done together via zoom because having the beef thickness right, is critical to getting the right doneness.

The Class

The night of the class was a lot of fun. It was great to catch up with all of the Rose family. While Zoom is great, there are always a few technical challenges. The pace of a presentation is always a struggle for me. I am from New York and have a tendency to go too quickly. Remembering that what is simple and familiar for some, is not the same for others is also important. Catching up and checking in with each of the participants was hard. I was working with an iPhone on a phone holder device which was great, but actually seeing the details of the others cooking on a small screen was a challenge for a man “of a certain age”.

Participants: Jon Paul, Patty, Kevin, Allison, Olivia, Mark, Ellie, Claire and Paul

Game Plan

The evening started with a review of a game plan. This gave everyone a could picture of what was to come and provided me with a syllabus for the class.

Hors d’oeuvre
Situation
- Menu
- Mise en place
Roasted Vegetables
Mashed Potatoes
Prep beef
Sauté beef
Pan sauce
Mash Potatoes
Heat beef
Plate
Dinner
Dessert

The Toast

A highlight of the evening was toasting Phil’s birthday

Clockwise: Allison, Phil, Peggy, Claire, Paul, Patty and Jon Paul

The Final Products

Dessert

In putting together the menu, we discussed the options for dessert. Given that the birthday boy loves his dessert including one was a given. We put together this quick Peach Melba that was a winner.

In Closing

By the end of the evening I think everyone had a good time. Two things were certain, no one was hungry and everyone had heard a bunch of my stories. While I had been thinking that a virtual class was a “pandemic option”, the consensus of the Rose siblings was that pandemic or not, a virtual class would be a great way to connect with friends around the world. So who knows what’s next?