Steak Diane

Steak Diane is an evolution of an ancient dish that was “rediscovered” in the late 19th century by European chefs.  These dishes were not called Steak Diane. They were known by several names, most famously “Steak au Poivre.” Recipes for sauce poivre (pepper sauce) are found in both American and British cookbooks in the 1880s. The American Wine Cook Book (1941) has a recipe for “Noisette of Beef Rossini,” which would produce something quite similar to Steak Diane. The Waldorf Astoria Cookbook (published in 1981) prints a similar recipe.

According to the food historians, the true history of Steak Diane is a complicated affair. The answer may be one of semantics rather than straight culinary history simply because there are as many names for this dish as there are recipe variations. The history of cooking and serving meat with spiced sauces dates back to ancient times when sauces were employed to tenderize cuts and add flavor. Pepper was highly favored by Ancient Roman and Medieval cooks and figured prominently in many recipes.

According to the Larousse Gastonomique, Sauce Diane (Diana…aka Artemis…a powerful mythological huntress) is traditionally associated with venison. The description “a la Diane” is given to certain game dishes that are dedicated to the goddess Diana (the huntress). Joints of venison a la Diane are sauteed and coated with sauce Diane  . . . and are served with chestnut puree and croutons spread with game forcemeat.”
—Larousse Gastronomique, Competely Revised and Updated edition [Clarkson Potter:New York] 2001 (p. 416)

Other evidence suggests Steak Diane is an American invention of the late 1950s/early1960s, when French cooking (think Julia Child & the Kennedy White House menus) was all the rage. Rich wine sauces and flamboyant presentation were the norm for many top restaurants. If Steak Diane is an American recipe, then New York City is the most likely place or origin. Jane Nickerson’s article “Steak Worthy of the Name,” (New York Times, January 25, 1953) offers three likely candidates: “The Drake Hotel, the Sherry-Netherland Hotel and the Colony Restaurant each said, not knowing that any other dining place had done so, that their patrons praised their steak Diane.” The earliest recipes for Steak Diane were printed in Nickerson’s article. Craig Claiborne’s Steak Diane (New York Times Cookbook [1961]) is not served flambe. Julia Child’s The French Chef Cookbook, [1968] contains a recipe for “Steak au Poivre” with optional flambe.

The bottom line is that Steak Diane is a classic filet-mignon entree served in some of the finest restaurants but the dish  comes together so quickly that you can easily prepare this steak dish any night of the week and create a memorable meal without spending a lot of time in the kitchen.

Steak Diane

Ingredients:

• 4 (3-ounce) Filet Mignon medallions
• ½ teaspoon Salt
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground Black pepper
• 1 tablespoon unsalted Butter
• 4 teaspoons minced Shallots
• 1 teaspoon minced Garlic
• ¼ cup Cognac or Brandy
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• ¼ cup heavy Cream
• ¼ cup Beef stock
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 drops hot Red Pepper sauce
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped Green Onions
• 1 teaspoon minced Parsley leaves

Pat the beef medallions dry with a paper towel and season on both sides with the salt and pepper.

Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the meat and cook for 45 seconds on the first side. Turn and cook for 30 seconds on the second side. Add the shallots and garlic to the pan and cook, stirring, for 20 seconds. Place the meat on a serving platter and cover to keep warm.

Tilt the pan towards you and add the cognac or brandy. Tip the pan away from yourself and carefully (!) ignite the alcohol. When the flame has burned out, stir in the mustard and cream and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Add the beef stock and simmer for 1 minute. Add the Worcestershire and hot sauce and stir to combine. Return the meat and any accumulated juices to the pan and turn the meat to coat with the sauce.

Remove from the heat and stir in the green onions and parsley. Serve immediately.

Seared Scallops with Asparagus

A scallop (from Old French escalope, meaning “shell”) is a common name applied to many species of marine bivalve mollusks in the family Pectinidae. Scallops are found in all of the world’s oceans and many are highly prized as a food source. The brightly colored, fan-shaped shells of some scallops, with their radiating fluted pattern, are valued by shell collectors, and have been used since ancient times as motifs in art and design.

Scallops are characterized by having two types of meat in one shell: the adductor muscle, called “scallop”, which is white and meaty, and the roe, called “coral”, which is red or white and soft. Some markets sell scallops already prepared in the shell, with only the adductor muscle intact. 

Scallops that are without any additives are called “dry packed”, while scallops that are treated with sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP) are called “wet packed”. STPP causes the scallops to absorb moisture prior to the freezing process, thereby getting a better price per unit of weight. The freezing process takes about two days.

Scallops have lent their name to the culinary term scalloped, which originally referred to seafood creamed and served hot in the shell. Today it means a creamed casserole dish such as scalloped potatoes, which contains no seafood at all.

By far the largest wild scallop fishery is for the Atlantic sea scallop, which are found off the northeastern United States and eastern Canada. Most of the rest of the world’s production of scallops is from Japan (wild, enhanced, and aquaculture) and China (mostly cultured Atlantic bay scallops). On the east coast of the United States, over the last 100 years, the populations of bay scallops have greatly diminished. This decrease is due to several factors, but probably is mostly caused by a reduction in sea grasses due to increased coastal development and nutrient runoff. Another possible factor is reduction of sharks from overfishing. A variety of sharks used to feed on rays, which are a main predator of bay scallops. With the shark population reduced — in some places almost eliminated — the rays have been free to dine on scallops to the point of greatly decreasing their numbers. By contrast, the Atlantic sea scallop is at historically high levels of abundance after recovery from overfishing.

Seared Scallops with Asparagus

Ingredients:

• 12 ounces Scallops, thawed if frozen
• 1 Lemon
• 3 tablespoons Olive oil
• 1 pound Asparagus spears, trimmed and cut into 2 inch pieces
• 1 medium red Onion, sliced
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons fresh Basil, chopped

Rinse the scallops and pat dry. Set aside.

Peel one lemon and cut the peel into thin strips. Squeeze 2 tablespoons juice from the lemon and set aside.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the asparagus and onion and cook for 203 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to serving platter and keep warm.

Combine the lemon peel, basil and remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil in skillet. Cook for 1 minute or until heated through. Remove the lemon peel and discard.

Cook the scallops in the hot oil for 3-5 minutes or until opaque, turning once. Stir in the reserved lemon juice and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Place the scallops over the asparagus mixture. Serve immediately.

BBQ Chicken and Cheddar Omelet

In cuisine, an omelette (or omelet) is a dish made from beaten eggs quickly cooked with butter or oil in a frying pan, sometimes folded around a filling such as cheese, vegetables, meat, or some combination of the above. To obtain a fluffy texture, whole eggs or sometimes only egg whites are beaten with a small amount of milk, cream or water – the idea being to have “bubbles” of water vapor trapped within the rapidly cooked egg. Some home cooks add baking powder to produce a fluffier omelette; however, this ingredient is viewed unfavorably by traditionalists.

The omelette is a refined version of an ancient food. The French word omelette came into use during the mid-16th century, but the versions alumelle and alumete are employed by the Ménagier de Paris (II, 5) in 1393. Rabelais (Pantagruel, IV, 9) mentions an homelaicte d’oeufs, Olivier de Serres an amelette, François Pierre La Varenne’s Le cuisinier françois (1651) has aumelette, and the modern omelette appears in Cuisine bourgoise (1784).

According to the founding legend of the annual giant Easter omelette of Bessières, Haute-Garonne, when Napoleon Bonaparte and his army were traveling through southern France, they decided to rest for the night near the town of Bessières. Napoleon feasted on an omelette prepared by a local innkeeper that was such a culinary delight that he ordered the townspeople to gather all the eggs in the village and to prepare a huge omelette for his army the next day.

On March 19, 1994, the largest omelette (1,383 ft²) in the world at the time was made with 160,000 eggs in Yokohama, Japan, but it was subsequently overtaken by an omelette made by the Lung Association in Brockville Memorial Centre, Ontario, Canada on May 11, 2002 — it weighed 2.95 tons!

BBQ Chicken and Cheddar Omelette

Ingredients:

• 1 Tablespoon Unsalted Butter
• 1 Teaspoon BBQ Sauce
• ¼ Cup Rotisserie Chicken meat, shredded
• 3 Eggs
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• ¼ Cup Sharp Cheddar Cheese, grated
• 1 Tablespoon Green Onions, sliced

Melt the butter into a non-stick skillet over medium high heat.

Add BBQ sauce to the chicken and mix well.

Whisk the eggs with salt and pepper until combined and frothy; add to pan.  Allow the eggs to cook for 1 minute.

Using a wooden spatula, carefully lift the cooked portions of the egg from the pan, allowing the runny portions to reach the heat–do not scramble.  Continue in this manner until no runny portion remains.  Generously arrange chicken, cheese, and green onions onto one side of the egg mixture.  Using a spatula, fold over the other side.  Continue to cook until cheese is melted.

Serve immediately.

Chocolate Chip Espresso Muffins

A muffin is a type of semi-sweet cake or quick bread that is baked in portions appropriate for one person. They are similar to cupcakes, although they are usually less sweet and lack icing. Savory varieties, such as cornbread muffins or cheese muffins also exist.

The term also refers to a disk-shaped muffin bread, called an English muffin outside the United Kingdom. As American-style muffins are also available in Commonwealth countries, the term muffin can refer to either product, with the context usually making clear which is meant.

There are many varieties of muffins made with a specific ingredient such as blueberries, poppy seeds, raspberry, cinnamon, pumpkin, date, nut, lemon, banana, orange, peach, strawberry, etc. baked into the muffin. Muffins are often eaten for breakfast; alternatively, they may be served for tea or at other meals.

Recipes for muffins, in their yeast-free “American” form, are common in 19th-century American cookbooks. Recipes for yeast-based muffins, also known as “common muffins” or “wheat muffins” can be found in much older cookbooks. In her Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, Fannie Farmer gave recipes for both types of muffins, both those that used yeast to raise the dough and those that used a quick bread method.

Chocolate Chip Espresso Muffins

Ingredients:

• ⅔ cup Milk
• 5 tablespoons Butter, melted
• 3 teaspoons of espresso powder
• 1 ½ teaspoons Vanilla extract
• 1 large Egg
• 2 cups all-purpose Flour
• ⅔ cup Sugar
• ½ cup semi-sweet Chocolate chips
• 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
• ¼ teaspoon Salt

In medium bowl, mix together the milk, butter, espresso powder, vanilla and egg.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, chocolate chips, baking powder and salt.  Make a well in the center of flour mixture and add the milk mixture.  Stir just until combined – do not overmix!

Spray a 12 cup muffin pan with a non stick spray or line with muffin liners.  Divide batter evenly among sprayed or lined cups.  Bake at 400 degrees for 18 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove muffins from pan immediately and place on a wire rack to cool slightly before serving.

Pork Loin Chops with Herbs and Cream

Pork is the culinary name for meat from the domestic pig. It is one of the most commonly consumed meats worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BC. Pork loin is a cut of meat from a pig, created from the tissue along the top of the rib cage. It is very popular in the United States, where it is usually cut into chops (bone in) or steaks (boneless) then grilled, baked or fried. Loin can also be cured to make bacon; it is particularly popular in the United Kingdom where most of the bacon consumed is ‘back bacon’. Americans call this type of bacon ‘Canadian bacon’, as it was brought to Canada by British settlers.

The pig is one of the oldest forms of livestock, having been domesticated as early as 5000 BC. It is believed to have been domesticated either in the Near East or in China from the wild boar. The adaptable nature and omnivorous diet of this creature allowed early humans to domesticate it much earlier than many other forms of livestock, such as cattle. Pigs were mostly used for food, but people also used their hides for shields and shoes, their bones for tools and weapons, and their bristles for brushes. Pigs have other roles within the human economy: their feeding behaviour in searching for roots churns up the ground and makes it easier to plough; their sensitive noses lead them to truffles, an underground fungus highly valued by humans; and their omnivorous nature enables them to eat human rubbish, keeping settlements cleaner.

Pork is eaten both freshly cooked and preserved. Curing extends the shelf life of the pork products. Hams,smoked pork, bacon and sausage are examples of preserved pork. Charcuterie is the branch of cooking devoted to prepared meat products, many from pork. Originally intended as a way to preserve meats before the advent of refrigeration, these preparations are made today for the flavours that are derived from the preservation processes. In 15th century France, local guilds regulated tradesmen in the food production industry in each city. The guilds that produced charcuterie were those of the charcutiers. The members of this guild produced a traditional range of cooked or salted and dried meats, which varied, sometimes distinctively, from region to region. The only “raw” meat the charcutiers were allowed to sell was unrendered lard. The charcutier prepared numerous items, including pâtés,rillettes, sausages, bacon and head cheese.

Before the mass production and re-engineering of pork in the 20th century, pork in Europe and North America was traditionally an autumn dish — pigs and other livestock coming to the slaughter in the autumn after growing in the spring and fattening during the summer. Due to the seasonal nature of the meat in Western culinary history, apples (harvested in late summer and autumn) have been a staple pairing to fresh pork. The year-round availability of meat and fruits has not diminished the popularity of this combination on Western plates.

Note: Fresh pork may contain Trichinosis. USDA recommends cooking ground pork to an internal temperature of 160°F, followed by a 3 minute rest, and cooking whole cuts to a minimum internal temperature of 145°F, also followed by a 3 minute rest.

Pork Loin Chops with Herbs and Cream

Ingredients:

• 4 Pork Loin chops, approximately 1 inch thick
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1  teaspoon Allspice
• 1 teaspoon Thyme
• 2 tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1 Shallot, finely minced
• 1 small clove Garlic, very finely minced
• 1 cup dry White Wine
• 1 cup Heavy Cream
• 1 cup Rice
• 2 cups Water

In a large saucepan, over medium heat, stir together the rice and water.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and cook until rice has absorbed all the water. Remove from heat and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.

Pat the loin chops dry with a paper towel. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Divide the allspice and thyme among the chops. Place seasoned chops in skillet and cook until done and nicely browned on each side. Remove to serving platter and keep warm.

Add the shallot to the skillet and saute until translucent, stir in garlic and cook for 1 minute. Whisk in the wine to deglaze the pan, stirring to loosen any browned bits. Continue cooking until the wine is reduced by half. Stir in the cream, return to a boil and boil for 1-2 minutes or until slightly thickened. Remove from heat.

Arrange cooked rice in center of serving platter. Place loin chops on top of rice and drizzle with sauce.

Serve immediately.