But I will be gathering ingredients throughout the week for okonomiyaki. So look for that this weekend! And... no bonsai update either because... well... it looks exactly the same.
Anyway, seeing as how Friday was independence day, I decided to be uberly American and make a steak.
This is around a 12oz. rib-eye steak with a red-wine & beef-broth reduction sauce with sauteed mushrooms and potatoes roasted in a red-pepper and sun-dried tomato pesto.
With steaks, the general idea is to start on high heat, and with a steak that's room temperature. If you take a steak straight out of the fridge and onto the pan, it'll cool the pan down too quickly, and you won't be able to get a nice sear.
For medium done-ness, as pictured above, it'll take around three or four minutes on each side on medium-high to high heat. Of course, this varies depending on the thickness of your steak (mine was about a half-inch), your range (gas, electric, etc.), and what kind of pan you use (steel, iron, aluminum, etc.). Some pans will retain heat a lot better than others, reducing cooking time, and vice versa. I used my mini-teppan grill for this steak, because mini-teppan grills are awesome.
It's integral to let steak rest after you take it off the pan. In this case, at least 5 minutes. If you cut into it immediately, all the juices will flow out, and your steak will dry up very quickly. Resting gives the juices a chance to cool down, regain some of its viscosity, and redistribute itself throughout the meat.
Oh, and a trick with potatoes. After you cut them, put them in the microwave for about 2 minutes to par-cook them before you season them and put them in the oven. This drastically reduces the time it takes to roast potatoes like this.
The potatoes above only took about 25 minutes in a conventional toaster oven at 375 degrees.
Hope everyone had a good long weekend!
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