40-Day House Dry Aged, Reverse-Seared Ribeye with Carmelized Onions & Mushrooms

This post sets a record and a few firsts. The new record is the length of the title: it is the longest of any post that I have written on this blog over the past eighteen years. As for the firsts, this post is the first time that I have cooked with a house dry-aged steak, the first time I have utilized a reverse searing technique, and the first time that I have prepared this side of caramelized onions and mushrooms. All together, this is also the first time that I have ever enjoyed a steak like no other that I have ever had before. 

It all began with an advertisement from my local butcher, Chop Shop Butchery. They advertised a wine tasting that featured a Portuguese red blend, a Spanish white roija and an Italian pink prosecco. All three wines caught my attention and, well, it is the Chop Shop, which I had not visited in a while. There were some meat-related items that I was definitely interested in buying while I was there. 

However, I ended up buying something that I never thought I would ... a dry aged steak. I travel a lot and eat at many different steakhouses. Some of the higher-end steakhouses boast of their dry aged steaks, which usually come with a sticker price over $100 for the experience. There is something inside of me that objects to spending that much for a steak, especially when I can buy one of a fraction of the cost and prepare it myself. When I went to the Chop Shop, I saw their in-house, dry aged ribeyes, and I asked the question: how much per pound? It was still a lot of money, especially for one steak. But, it was a lot less than what I would pay at the restaurant. Of course, I have to donate the labor needed to prepare the steak, something that I was more than willing to do. 

Given it was the first time that I was working with this type of meat, I decided that I would do another first ... reverse sear the steak. Now, I have made many steaks over the course of my life. (This blog serves as evidence of that fact.) However, my typical preparation, whether on a grill or a pan, is to sear first and then finish off at a lower temperature. I have not done the reverse ... start low and slow and finish off on a grill or under the broiler. 

The end product is perhaps the best steak that I have ever had. All of the steaks that I have eaten in the past follow a typical pattern: a nice crust-like envelope encasing medium rare to rare meat. And, while I love that pattern, this meal opened my eyes to what I have been missing. The dry-aged beef had the softest texture that I have ever experienced with beef. I could never picture a bite of a ribeye that could "melt in my mouth." But, this steak came very close to that experience. 

And, to go over the top, I prepared a side of caramelized onions and mushrooms, which was also perhaps the best side that I have ever made for a steak. The side helped make the entire meal something that I could have experienced during a meal at a high end steak house. My bill was a fraction of that cost. And, I enjoyed every minute of it. 

40-DAY HOUSE AGED, REVERSE-SEARED RIBEYE WITH CARMELIZED ONIONS AND MUSHROOMS

Ribeye Recipe from Steak Locker; Onion Recipe from Chef Bolek

Serves 1 Hungry Chef

Ingredients (for the steak):

• 1 ribeye steak, dry-aged for 40 days (buy from a local butcher)
• Sea salt
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 sprig rosemary
• A few sprigs thyme
• 3 tablespoons butter

Ingredients (for the Onions and Mushrooms):

• 1 Vidalia onion, sliced with 1/4 to 1/8 inch slices
• 8 ounces portabello mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon Port
• 1 tablespoon thyme, chopped
• 1 teaspoon flat leaf parsley, chopped
• 1 teaspoon pink peppercorns

Directions:

1. Prepare the mushrooms. Heat a cast iron or other pan over high heat. Add the mushrooms with a healthy pinch of Kosher salt, stirring occasionally until they start to release their water and begin to cook down. Add one tablespoon of olive oil, a pinch of black pepper, and continue to cook the mushrooms until they have browned. Remove the mushrooms from the pan to the bowl and set aside. 

2. Prepare the onions. Heat an cast iron pan over high heat. Add the onions, a healthy pinch of Kosher salt, and stir occasionally until the onions begin to release their water and begin to brown, about 10 minutes. Add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil, lower the heat a little, and stir occasionally until the onions are cooked down and brown. Add the Port and stir the onions, cooking about 1-2 minutes longer. Remove the onions to the pan and add them to the mushrooms. Mix the onions with the mushrooms. 

3. Prepare the steak. Season the steak on all sides with sea salt. Heat the oven at 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Add the steak and begin to cook the steak low and slow for 45 minutes. Check the temperature. Continue cooking the steak until it reaches 135 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove the steak and set aside.

4. Finish the steak. Heat the oven to 500 degrees. Add the cast iron skillet to the oven for 20-30 minutes. Once the cast iron pan is heated, place on the stove top, add 2-3 tablespoons of butter, 1-2 cloves of garlic, springs of rosemary and thyme. Add the steaks and sear for 2 minutes on each side. Remove the steaks, tent with aluminum for 10 minutes, and then serve. 

5. Finish the onions and mushrooms. Return the onions amd mushrooms to a pan over medium, heat. stir. Add the thyme, parsley, and pink peppercorns

PEACE.

Bajan Hot Sauce

"Yuh don't need to eat a whole pig to know yuh eating pork."

-- G. Addington Forde, De Mortar-Pestle: A Collection of Barbadian Proverbs

The words set forth above come from Barbados, wisely suggesting that one needs only a small sample of something to understand the value of what they are enjoying. That can be said of one truly Barbadian product: namely, Bajan Hot Sauce.

My introduction to Bajan Hot Sauce came with a bottle of Lottie's Yellow Hot Pepper Sauce. I would find bottles of it occasionally on the shelves of a local general store (attached to a brewery). The label reads, "just add a little of this national and international award-winning gourmet hot pepper sauce and all of your dishes and recipes will explode with flavor." That label evokes the above proverb. I don't need to consume much of Lottie's Hot Pepper Sauce to know that I am tasting Scotch Bonnet peppers. Just a little reminds me of why that Bajan hot pepper sauce ranks as one of my all-time favorites.

If one were to travel to Barbados to visit Lottie's production facility, as someone from Fiery Foods Central did, they would come across a building with fourteen people working around a table. The workers would be performing tasks like cleaning Scotch Bonnet peppers, chopping onions, and mixing spices. Some workers may also be putting labels on bottles of sauce. The owner of Lottie's, Jackie Heath, previously sold insurance. However, she decided she needed a change in careers to become a producer of hot sauces. And, as one of her consumers in the United States, I am glad she made that decision. 

However, Lottie's Bajan hot sauce is not always on the shelf of the stores where I buy hot sauce. So, while I continue my search, I also decided to try to make some of my own in my kitchen. I found a recipe on the website of Chili Pepper Madness, which is a site that I strongly recommend if, like me, you are into really spicy foods. Although I was not able to find some Scotch Bonnet peppers around me, I simply substituted a close relative to the Scotch Bonnet: habanero peppers. I wanted to make sure that I wanted to ensure the golden yellow color of the hot sauce, so I bought some orange peppers. (In any event, the use of mustard and, in particular, turmeric, nearly guarantee a yellow or gold color.) 

Once the recipe was done, it brought back memories of Lottie's Yellow Hot Pepper Sauce. It also confirmed to me that, if I cannot find a bottle of Lottie's on a shelf, I can spend about a half hour making the sauce myself. 

BAJAN HOT SAUCE

Recipe from Chili Pepper Madness

Ingredients:

• 4 ounces chopped Scotch Bonnet or Habanero peppers (about 12), stems removed
• 1/2 cup chopped white onion
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
• 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 1/4 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice or to taste

Directions:

1. Prepare the sauce. Add the chilies, onion, garlic, mustard, vinegar, turmeric, brown sugar, salt and black pepper to a pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. 

2. Finish the sauce. Transfer the ingredients to a blender and add lime juice. Process until smooth. Adjust for lime and salt. Transfer to a clean sealable bottle and enjoy. 

PEACE.

City Chicken

There was a trend at one point in American culinary history where cooks would create "mock" dishes. One such dish was "mock chicken." As early as 1908, there were recipes -- such as one that appeared the Winchester News (a newspaper in Winchester, Kentucky) that called for two pounds of veal being cut up into pieces, breaded and fried in oil. "This is excellent," the article boasted, "equal to fried chicken."

By 1926, "mock chicken" got a new name, "city chicken." Newspapers, like one in Binghamton, New York, and another in Washington, D.C., published recipes for "city chicken." The moniker came from an article published in a Binghamton, New York newspaper. The recipes followed the initial steps of mock chicken, starting with 1 pound of veal and 1 pound of pork. The instructions called for the meat to be cut into chunks and then threaded onto wooden skewers. The skewers were then rolled in beaten eggs and cracker crumbs. The breaded skewers were then fried in a pan until browned on all sides. At this point, one would have been "equal to fried chicken," but these recipes went a few steps further. They called for the browned chicken skewers to be put in a roaster with two cups of water (or alternatively, add the water to the pan), covered and then cooked for an additional length of time. Once the skewers were finished, one was supposed to remove the skewers, add a cup of "rich milk" and then make a gravy.  The mock chicken got all dressed up. 

By the time of the Great Depression, the city chicken became a very popular dish. The reason involved basic economics: chicken was too expensive. There were no factory farms at the time, and, the farms that existed needed chickens more for their eggs than their meat. (A dead chicken produces no eggs; a dead rooster ultimately meant no new chicks.)  Given the scarcity of chicken meat, and consequently, its high price, most Americans -- who were already struggling to make ends meet -- turned to beef, pork and even veal. This reality was one of the reasons why pork farmers referred to pork as "the other white meat." The farmers were not boasting about the health benefits of eating pork, they were trying to convince people to substitute cheaper pork for the chicken that they really wanted.  Moreover, the dish returned to its more basic "fried chicken" roots, with the extra steps for "gravy" disappearing from recipes. 

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Eventually, chicken became more abundant and, as a result, more affordable. Yet, city chicken lived on, mainly in immigrant communities and working class families across the midwestern United States. Polish and Ukrainian families -- from Detroit, Michigan to Scranton, Pennsylvania, and many points in between -- adopted the dish. That was the case for my family, even as late as the 1980s. I can recall my grandmother making city chicken for us to eat, as well as extra servings that would be frozen and taken home with us for dinners on other days.   

As is the case with many dishes, city chicken began to recede on to the pages of history. As I grew up and moved out, I never thought about the dish, let alone prepared it or ate it. It was not something that I searched out, and, having moved out of the Midwest, it was not something that readily appeared on menus or tables where I lived. Yet, on a recent trip to visit my parents, I was sitting at the kitchen table and I got to thinking about city chicken and my childhood. The memories of seeing breaded pork skewers, both in the freezer and on the plate came back to me. I then decided that it was time to try to make this recipe myself. It would be the first time that I have ever made City Chicken and it would decades after I had last eaten the dish. 

I found a recipe from a PBS Western Reserve, which is the public broadcasting service in Cleveland, Ohio. That seemed appropros. I followed the recipe, but, my lack of artistic skills revealed themselves as my skewers resembled anything but chicken legs. Still, the endeavor was worth it. A chance to revisit a little of my own culinary history, as well as the more broader American culinary history. 

CITY CHICKEN

Recipe from PBS Western Reserve

Serve 4

Ingredients:

• 1 whole pork tenderloin
• 6 6-inch bamboo skewers
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Dried thyme
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste
• 2 eggs, beaten or more, as needed
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, or as needed
• 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs, or as needed
• 2 cups vegetable oil, or as needed

Directions:

1. Prepare the pork. Cut tenderloin into three sections, the thick center section and the two end sections. Cut the thinner end portion into chunks. Slice the thick center section lengthwise into even halves. Cut the center sections and thicker end portion into 1/2-inch slices. 

2. Prepare the skewers. Thread the pork pices, starting with the smallest pieces and working up to wider pieces, onto each skewer to resemble chicken drumsticks. Season skewered "drumsticks" with salt, black pepper, thyme and cayenne pepper on all sides. 

3. Prepare the breading. Whisk eggs together in a bowl. Pour flour into another bowl. Put the bread crumbs into a third bowl. Gently press the "drumsticks" into flour to coat and shake to remove excess fluor. Dip "drumsticks" into egg and press into bread crumbs. Place finished drumsticks on a plate in a single layer and refrigerate, uncovered for 15 minutes. 

4. Finish the dish. Heat the oil in a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat until the suface of the oil is shimmering. Cook "drumsticks" in the hot oil until golden brown on all sides and cooked through, 4 to 5 minutes per side. Transfer to a paper-towl lined plate, lest rest for five minutes. Season with salt and serve immediatey.  

PEACE.