The anachronist

I think it’s good for you to eat something anachronistic on a regular basis. You don’t have to delve all the way into the Gallery of Regrettable Food, but baked ziti wouldn’t hurt.

That was my justification, at least for having steak and eggs for breakfast this morning.

After making the traditional Thanksgiving Cornish pasties, there was half a rib-eye steak left over. I know, cutting a rib-eye steak into chunks and cooking them well-done inside a pastry crust is wrong. It hurts me as much as it hurts you. But I’ve tried other cuts of meat and they don’t work as well, and it’s only once a year.

I seared the steak last night and reheated it this morning while I made the scrambled eggs. The best way to reheat steak, I’ve found, is the one I learned from reading Robert Wolke in the Washington Post. I sliced the steak and put it in a Ziploc bag, then ran hot water over it from the sink for a few minutes. It’s hot enough to warm the steak but not hot enough to cook it further.

Steak and eggs is notable for the way the eggs act as a buttery sauce. I think a steak and egg sandwich would be brilliant. Apparently it’s a menu item at Subway, which strikes me as less than brilliant. It’s also a former menu item at Dunkin’ Donuts–do you suppose it was served on a split glazed donut?

9 thoughts on “The anachronist

  1. Neil

    Now that you’ve discovered the joys of sous-vide cooking (or reheating in this case), maybe it’s time to get yourself and immersion circulator?

  2. mamster Post author

    Good point. Didn’t you love it on Top Chef last week when Marcel was saying that his turkey roulade would have been good if he’d had an immersion circulator?

  3. Neil

    Oh, man – we all thought that was hilarious back in the kitchen. It’s like he just used one for the first time a few months ago and now he can’t cook anything without it. So nobody could cook a roulade properly before immersion circulators? I’ll bet you anything he thinks you can’t poach an egg without one either.

  4. Andrew Feldstein

    Oh man, now I have a yen for Duck a l’Orange. I can sometimes fine the bing cherry duck around here, but I’ve not seen a good orange duck in a looong time!

  5. mamster Post author

    Oh, that’s a good one. It’s quite easy to make, although obviously I’d avoid the orange glaze packet that comes with the duck.

  6. Great

    Would you be willing to share your recipe for Cornish Pasties with me (or Grandpa, though I doubt he would want to get involved. But, having seen your photos, I believe I could be inspired to attempt it.
    Great

  7. MySiuMai/Megan

    My dear fellow, take it from a your fellow MFer and head up to the Tulalip Casino for their Joe’s Special, in which prime rib replaces the typical ground beef. Mmmmoooooo to the max!

  8. Susan

    So reheating a steak works, but how about reheating a roulade? Marcel’s failure resurrected the roulade idea for me and I made a duck roulade ( breasts filled with smoked duck leg meat and sour cherries soaked in rum). I rolled it in the pounded out skin before roasting and it was great – crispy on the outside, moist on the inside with a nice port-cherry sauce. Alas, my only friends in town are vegetarians so I ate 20% and have all hese left-overs. Any suggestions? If nothing else, I thought I might throw it all into a gumbo.

  9. mamster Post author

    It sounds like you sort of made a ballotine. Serve it cold and it’s a galantine. (I’m sort of showing off here and therefore possibly misremembering.) That said, I’m guessing it won’t be that good cold unless the fat was scrupulously rendered out.

    Duck skin crisps and recrisps amazingly well. I wonder if you could roll it around for a few minutes in a pan and end up with basically a cold galantine but with crispy skin.

    That’s all I got. Let me know how it turns out.

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