Steak and Potatoes
New York strip steak topped with a fresh gremolata. Mashed potatoes and asparagus
Ingredients
Steak of your choice (this is New York Strip)
1 pound Russet Potatoes
1 bunch asparagus
2 lemons (zest)
1 head of garlic
1/2 bunch fresh flat leaf parsley
60 oz fresh thyme
60 oz fresh rosemary
1 tbsp olive oil
1 pint heavy cream
1/2 - 1 cup whole milk (to taste)
8 tbsp melted unsalted butter
8 tbsp unsalted butter cold
Table salt and pepper to taste
Flake salt or large ground salt
Fresh cracked pepper
High smoke point oil, such as sunflower or vegetable oil
Meat thermometer (optional)
I bunch of asparagus
Instructions
The ordering here is meant to time everything just right so it will mostly be ready at the same time.
Potatoes
Take the steak out of the fridge so it is room temperature before cooking
Wash and peel the potatoes. Put them in a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then simmer until they can be poked with a fork and the fork comes out easily. About 20-30 minutes
In a small saucepan, pour in the heavy cream, add in the fresh rosemary, olive oil, 4 crushed cloves of garlic, and about 1 tbsp each of table salt and pepper, bring this to a gentle simmer as the potatoes cook
When the potatoes are ready, drain the water out and either use a potato ricer on all the potatoes or mash them in the pot.
Pour in 8 tbsp of melted butter and mix to combine
Use a strainer over the potatoes and pour in the heavy cream mixture. Mix to combine. From here, determine if the potatoes are creamy enough, if not, add in more warm milk, a little at a time.
Gremolata
Wash and roughly chop the parsley, about 1 cup loosely packed
Mince 2 cloves of garlic on top of the parsley. It should be chopped down to about 1/2 cup loosely
Zest half of one lemon on top of the parsley and garlic and chop a bit, repeat again with the second half of the lemon zest. Everything should be finely chopped at this point. Refrigerate until it’s time to plate
Steak
Pour in enough vegetable oil to coat the bottom of a pan, get it lightly smoking. While the oil is heating up
Season the steak on all sides with flake salt or kosher salt and large ground pepper. Lay the steak in the pan away from you.
Depending on the size of your steak, let it sear for about 5 minutes on one side. Check it at the 5 minute mark for a hard sear, if it is not seared yet - let it cook for 2 more minutes at a time
Sear the small sides of the steak for about 30 seconds each, then flip the steak fully
Add two 1 tbsp pieces of butter to both sides of the steak, 2 crushed cloves of garlic (skin is fine), and a handful of thyme leaves. Baste the steak with the melted butter and oil for the same amount of time you cooked in step 8.
Place the steak on a wire rack or a plate with butter knives across it to rest. Basically you want the steak to rest on something; but keep it form sitting in its juices. Pour the juices and herbs from the pan onto the steak. Let it rest for at least 10 minutes
Asparagus
Wash and cut the woody white parts of the spears off
Steam the asparagus for about 10-15 minutes. If you can’t steam it, boil it for about 8-10 minutes
Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Coat with the zest of 1 lemon and about 1 tsp olive oil
About this dish
Steak and potatoes, or meat n’ potatoes - this is a classic combination. It’s something hearty that is guaranteed to quell any appetite. My take on it is a pan cooked steak and mashed potatoes. The steak cut and potato flavoring is 100% interchangeable in my book.
For this particular dish, I used my favorite cut - the New York strip. This is a solid mid-range steak in terms of range and flavor. It’s a nice portion with all the fat off to the side. When it’s cooked properly, the flavor is amazing. It’s not too fatty and not too lean, every bite has the perfect ratio of fat to meat. I wanted to elevate this dish with something. I had some mistakenly bought parsley for another dish (it was supposed to be cilantro.) I decided to go with a gremolata because it is a bright note with a heavy dish like this. The way it plays with the salt is out of this world. Citrus and salt always get along.
Despite the mishap with my potato ricer breaking during the video of this recipe, the potatoes still came out well. My mashed potato method is to infuse the liquid with lots of flavors up front, that way they aren’t lost during mashing. Also with mashed potatoes, the name of the game is herbs and fat. That’s why I chose heavy cream for its high fat content. I infused it with thyme, marjoram, rosemary, garlic, and olive oil. As this combination simmers, the cream takes on the elements of all these ingredients. When I pour this in during the mashing phase - I get all that flavor with 0 inedible parts since I use a strainer. Homemade mashed potatoes are finicky, but with some tasting and experience, you can make it just right. In my case, I always have some whole milk on standby in case the cream and butter is not cutting it in terms of creaminess. Adding warm milk little by little goes a long way. It’s hard to over-milk or butter a mashed potato. The only danger is overworking the potatoes too much. Do that and you have wallpaper paste!
Kicking meat n’ potatoes up a notch with some vegetables. I steamed some asparagus with salt, pepper, and lemon zest to give it a kick. I choose to steam most green vegetables for the sake of not overcooking them. Vegetables should have a bite to them, they should not be mushy. A telltale sign veggies are overcooked, the water is green - that means all the goodness has been cooked out.
This trio is simple, but has a lot of different notes and flavors going on. You can even switch out the asparagus with whatever you prefer!
