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For 34 years you’ve invited us into your homes to design and build
some of the most scrumptious kitchens we have ever seen. Many times as we run into you even years later, you’ll comment on the magnificent meals you have cooked for your friends and family and the wonderful times you’ve shared with them in your kitchens.
With Valentine’s Day literally around the corner we thought it would be fun to share a recipe and photographs that a customer recently shared with us.
You will see this as a fun, elegant, delightfully tasty, and most importantly, easy to cook recipe. At the outset, it looks like there a lot of moving parts, but it’s really three components that are easy to do. Follow along with the photographs.
First the ingredient list for a party of two:Strip Steak with Baked Garlic Shrimp and Bacon Wrapped Asparagus· 1 LB +/- strip steak, T-Bone, or Ribeye. · 6 fresh thawed small shrimp · A bunch of thin asparagus (called “pencils” in the trade.) Thick asparagus can get too “woody” for this recipe. · 4 slices of bacon · Breadcrumbs · Stick of butter · Extra virgin olive oil · A small wedge of Parmigiana Reggiano for grating · 1 lemon cut into wedges · Finally, a delicious bottle of red wine that you should uncork right away so it has ample time to breathe. |
The recipe uses a sous vide but you can also cook this steak in the oven or on the grill. Heat the sous vide water to 129°. Place the steak in a airtight bag (like a Ziplock) or vacuumed sealed bag and cook it for a minimum of one hour. This temp and time will bring it to medium rare. One nice feature of sous vide cooking is that it is almost impossible to overcook the meat and you don’t have to babysit it. While this steak took minimum of one hour to cook, you could leave it in the water for over 3 hours and it would still be medium rare.
Once the steak is done in the sous vide, a griddle was used to give it a nice sear. Some call this the “reverse sear method” which seems to be gaining in popularity. Turn the griddle to 450 degrees so it is piping hot.
Put a pad of butter on the griddle and set the steak on it. Sear the steak for about a minute and a half to two minutes. Then, flip it over, place another pad of butter on the griddle and set the steak on it for no longer than two minutes. You are doing this to sear the outside giving it a slight crust but still retaining its medium rare finish.
Note that when it comes out of the sous vide while it is fully cooked it does not look that attractive, it looks gray. Searing it will make it look and smell delicious. By the way, this is the method today that most high-end restaurants cook their meat.
Heat the griddle to 350 degrees and cook the bacon. Stop cooking just before it begins to get crispy. You need it soft so you can wrap it around the asparagus. Once it’s done, trim the ends off the asparagus so they are about 6 to 8 inches long. Put them in the bunches of four to six asparagus and wrap the bacon around it. Drizzle olive oil in a ceramic dish and place the asparagus wrapped in bacon and cook for about 20 minutes in the oven. After removing it from the oven, using a microplane, grate a dusting of Parmigiana Reggiano onto the asparagus. It is now ready to serve.
In a saute pan, add two tablespoons of butter and four tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil over medium heat. Strip the garlic of its cover, smash it with a knife and toss it in with the butter and olive oil. Allow it to sizzle for a few minutes to get aromatic, then put the shrimp in. In two to three minutes, turn the shrimp over and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Then, once three minutes has passed, remove the shrimp and plate.
Pour the wine, relax and enjoy!