Sara's Weeknight Meals

(gentle music) - [Presenter] Sara's Weeknight Meals is made possible by Sunsweet and by-- - Cooking is the first kind of love you know.

It was starting when I was child with my grandmother doing fresh pasta and now I transmitted to all the guess, is something made specially for them.

- [Presenter] Oceania Cruises, proud sponsor of Sara's Weeknight Meals.

(gentle music) - [Presenter 2] Zwilling, makers of fresh and safe.

The vacuum food storage system.

One of the ways Zwilling has been helping cooks do it all in the kitchen for 290 years.

The Zwilling family and cookware is proud to support Sara's Weeknight Meals.

(light upbeat music) - That's me and Julia Child in 1979.

When we worked together on Julia Child & More Company.

Can you believe it?

She was six foot two and I barely made it to five feet.

Now even though we didn't see eye to eye physically, we became great friends for 25 years.

So, in tribute I'm making Fish Meunire.

The first dish Julia ate on French soil.

And this is very un-Julia.

I'll do it with just five ingredients.

That's what we're aiming for today.

Five ingredient surf and turf recipes.

Like the steak with homemade butter.

My brother, Peter, approves.

When you start with the steak this flavorful-- This flavorful.

- This is so good.

- It's essential.

My salmon is oh so posh with its crispy skin and tangy Greek sauce.

And halal, still only five ingredients.

And on Ask Sara-- - I can't quite yet get eggs benedict right.

So do you have tips for poaching eggs?

- You're way ahead of the game.

That's all coming up on Sara's Weeknight Meals.

- Welcome to the French Chef.

I'm Julia Child.

- That voice, who could forget it?

But it was Julia's height that launched her career.

During World War II, she tried to join the military, but they said she was too tall for the uniforms.

So she joined the CIA, then called the OSS.

They sent her to Sri Lanka and China, and there she met her husband, Paul.

Who introduced her to the pleasures of good food.

But newly wed Julia couldn't cook a thing.

Her true culinary epiphany came in 1948 when she and Paul moved to France.

(light instrumental music) Welcome to Sara's Weeknight Meals.

I'm just about to make the dish that changed Julia's life.

It was the first thing she ate when she moved to France with Paul.

And Julia ordered, not knowing what she was ordering, I guess Paul must've helped her, Sole Meuniere.

Which means literally Sole in the style of the miller's wife.

And where the miller's wife comes from is flour.

So essentially it's fish dipped in flour, sauteed.

But it was ethereal.

So I'm gonna get started on this fish.

We're using trout.

Because trout is just much more sustainable these days.

I'm gonna pour some milk on here.

Another trick I learned at cooking school and from Julia.

Julia was French-trained as we know.

After she had this iconic meal, she went on to go to the Le Cordon Bleu not to long after that.

Because she wanted to cook the kind of food that she had eaten at this restaurant.

And she learned all about French technique.

And so did I.

That was my training.

But anyway, one of the things that we learned is to pour-- Use milk as a, a better way to put it, as a deodorizer.

So you have something that's strong in flavor, like fish, or liver, or game.

You soak it in milk.

Milk is also a tenderizer but you don't really need to worry about that with fish, because fish is very tender.

So I'm gonna park this in here.

Let me just rinse my hands.

And while that's soaking, I'm gonna go out and get some parsley in my garden, 'cause I want some fresh herbs.

(light upbeat music) Okay, now I can cook the fish.

Now I wanna point something out while we can see it.

This is the pretty side of the fish.

This is the not so pretty side of the fish.

The not so pretty side is where the skin was.

And the reason I bring this up is when you cook fish, you only flip it once.

So you want the pretty side to be the last thing up.

So you put the pretty side down when you put it in the pan.

If you keep flipping the fish back and forth, back and forth, it will break.

Because fish is very delicate and it has no connective tissue.

So salt and pepper.

Now.

Julia in the classical way would've been to use white pepper.

White pepper for white things and black pepper for everything else with color.

I don't like white pepper.

So I'm sorry, Julia.

I'm gonna use black.

I can't help myself.

Kosher salt and black pepper.

(light upbeat music) So I just have to get this really, really hot.

Tell you about Julia at Le Cordon Bleu.

So she and Paul get to Paris and they find this cozy little apartment.

Very cozy.

I mean, Julia was a big person in a tiny kitchen.

And she wanted to cook for Paul.

So it occurred to her to enroll in the Le Cordon Bleu.

She only had GIs in the same program, all men.

And then eventually, she finished the whole program.

And she went back to take the exam.

But she didn't remember the recipes.

She flunked.

It was awful, she was devastated.

There we go.

And eventually, much later, she went back, she took it, she aced it.

Yay, Julia.

And I'm smelling it.

One of the things Julia taught me was, usually when you smell it, it's almost done.

Or it is done.

And this is particularly true with baking.

I wanna cut these lemons into sections, 'cause I'm gonna add the whole sections to the sauce.

So I'm gonna take off the top.

And the bottom.

And then we're gonna go down.

Either side.

We're making what's called a sauce Grenobloise.

It's a brown butter sauce and it means in style of Grenoble.

And it involves lemons, capers, brown butter and parsley.

And fish absolutely cries out for acids, so you have to add acid.

And because I'm really smelling that fish, I'm gonna go back over.

And see how we're doing.

For once I'm gonna use a fish spatula for fish.

Okay, when you flip it, you wanna tip all the oil away from where you're flipping it.

So that you don't end up flipping it and getting the oil back up in your face.

This one I'm gonna tip back this way.

There we go.

Ain't that beautiful-looking?

So I'm gonna turn on my green beans.

I'm gonna start warming them up.

So, what you do is you go through the sections.

I'm gonna section it.

So you go through the membranes.

You see the little white membrane there?

You go on one side.

Okay.

How do you know when fish is done?

When the knife goes through easily.

And that went through really easily.

Here it's gonna go through, it's done.

And the second side never takes as long as the first side.

So I'm gonna get these out.

Fish cooks from the outside in.

So if you like your fish medium rare, then you want a little resistance when you put the knife through.

And fish, like everything else, has carry over cooking time.

So take it out before you think it's done.

Let me get my butter in first.

I'm gonna do a couple of tablespoons.

I'm sure that Julia will do more than a couple of tablespoons.

But let me tell you something about Julia Child.

Her motto was, "Everything in moderation."

And she meant both of those words to be emphasized equally.

So, eat everything, just don't go hog wild with it.

Oh, you can see the butter's getting wonderfully brown already.

I'm gonna put in my lemons.

I'm gonna work quickly.

And some capers.

There we go.

Capers are the pickled bud of the Mediterranean flower.

I have no idea what genius stopped one day to look at these flowers and say, "I'm gonna go pickle that bud.

"I think that's a brilliant idea."

Okay.

In go the capers.

(upbeat music) Ah, this is beautiful.

My beans are ready.

I like this piece, I think, the first one I did.

There we go.

On the plate.

We have some beautiful potatoes.

I was trying to think of an appropriate French name to call them.

Maybe Pommes Persillade.

I don't know.

But they were roasted and just tossed with a little bit of parsley.

Persillade means parsley.

We like parsley.

Maybe I'll put a few of those on the plate.

And then last but not least, spoon over my sauce.

Grenobloise.

This is a very Julia dish.

I'm telling ya.

She loved her fish.

Wow, doesn't that look delicious?

Trout Meuniere in honor of Julia Child.

(gentle music) Of all the hats I wear on Sara's Weeknight Meals, this little segment here is my favorite, Ask Sara.

Today I have Naruby Bollom from Austin Texas.

Hi.

- Hi, thanks so much for inviting me.

- Tell us a little bit about yourself.

- We rent chicken coops and backyard chickens for families here in Austin Texas that wanna enjoy fresh eggs.

Because even with the freshest of eggs, I can't quite get eggs benedict right.

So do you have any tips for poaching eggs?

- The very first thing you said, which is that you have fresh eggs, you're way ahead in the game.

What happens when eggs are harvested is, like us, they start to go a little flabby.

That white starts to separate out into a very watery part.

I've strained this to get rid of the watery part of the white because then we will have a prettier-looking poached egg.

- That's one of the things I noticed when I made them, that they were watery.

So that's perfect.

- Yes, 'cause the watery whites give you those spidery edges.

All right, so now how to poach.

What you do is, you fill up a, you know, a straight-sided pan like this.

I've got in here two and a half quarts of water that I brought to a boil.

And I'm adding two and a half teaspoons of white vinegar.

White vinegar helps the egg to set up.

So that you get fewer of those little strands.

I break my eggs into ramekins.

So that they're very easy to just drop into the water.

I'm going to turn off the water completely and then put the lid on.

And two to two and a half minutes later, they'll be done.

- No swirl necessary?

- No swirl required.

Okay Naruby, are you ready?

Here we go for the ta-da moment.

Okay.

Ta-da!

Oh, that looks awful.

I only strained the one I showed you and the other three must've been very old eggs.

So I'm gonna take the very pretty one.

If you wanna serve it right away, you just take it out while it's still hot.

Just dry it on a little napkin, or you know, side towel.

And then I'm gonna put it, this little guy, on top of a salad.

Yikes.

There we go.

I hope that was helpful.

I wish I had fresher eggs.

- Thank you so much.

That was super helpful.

- Thank you.

And for all of you there, send me your questions to the website.

I would love to meet you this way.

And talk about your big issues in the kitchen.

(light upbeat music) Every July 4th my family has a new England tradition of cooking up whole sides of salmon, either grilled or baked with a buttery sauce.

I mean yummy, but I'm gonna take my salmon this year in a different direction.

I'm gonna try and replicate that crispy skin that you get in restaurants.

I just love it.

And I'm gonna top it with a Greek sauce.

And guess what?

It's gonna be really exciting.

And it's gonna be really tasty.

And it's only five ingredients.

Let's start with the salmon.

So I have some in here.

I've got filet that we cut into pieces.

And it's been air-drying for an hour.

But, we're gonna dry it out even more.

The secret to crispy salmon is dry skin.

We need the skin to be really, really, really dry.

And I'm gonna pat it dry first heavily with paper towels.

And then, we're gonna get off any extra liquid by scraping all the way across.

You can't maybe see it but there's a tiny little bead, not much, and that's because of all that air-drying in the fridge.

Most wild salmon comes from the Pacific North West.

The only problem is it doesn't have a very high fat content.

But now you can get organic, sustainably grown, East Coast salmon that I find has a higher fat content.

So I tend to like that.

All right, I've been heating my pan for quite a while.

I'm gonna use grape seed oil here.

About a tablespoon and a half.

What we're looking for here is a high smoke point in your oil.

'Cause we need to cook the skin over very high heat.

Oil should just shimmer when it's very hot.

Right before it smokes.

That's how I know that it's hot enough for me to add the salmon.

(salmon sizzling) The second thing we're looking for is the sound that the fish is gonna make when it hits the pan.

A nice sizzle like that.

Skin-side down, 'cause the point is to get the skin crispy.

We're gonna press it down and we're gonna do this several times.

So you can see now that it cooked from the bottom up about a quarter of the way.

I know it's now time to pop it in the oven.

But first, gotta season it with a little salt and pepper.

(gentle music) All right, I'm gonna go wash off my knife.

And I've gotta make the sauce.

It's a mayonnaise-based sauce.

But the first ingredient is pepperoncini.

I need about two tablespoons minced.

Now, pepperoncini are Tuscan pickled peppers.

However, I have never seen them in an Italian recipe.

I've only seen them in Greek salads.

But they're wonderful.

They have brine, they have acid, and they have heat.

And that's what they're gonna bring to the sauce.

(gentle music) I'm gonna add about a tablespoon of the pepperoncini liquid.

Why not?

It's got all that flavor in it.

And one to two teaspoons of lemon juice.

I'm just gonna eyeball it.

Add that garlic that I minced earlier.

And finally a half a cup of mayonnaise.

I am sure my fish must be done.

So I'm gonna grab it our of the oven.

Just gonna give it a quick touch.

Oh yeah.

All right, this is good.

Oh, this looks so, so, so delicious.

I think I've got the crispy skin I've been looking for.

(gentle music) I'm gonna take this one here.

I can see that there's a little bit of gib, which means there's a little bit of medium-rare in there.

Now skin-side up, here we go.

And we're gonna put our delicious sauce on there.

And there you go.

With my peas and a little twist on the usual July 4th Moulton celebrations.

Five ingredients, who knew?

(light upbeat music) There is nothing quicker to cook than a steak.

And that's why it's the perfect candidate for a weeknight meal.

You cook in no time at all.

You let it rest, you take those juices, you make a sauce.

So that's what I'm gonna do right now and I brought in some troops.

My younger brother, Peter.

He is my little brother, although clearly he got the better genes in the family.

He happens to be a New York State Supreme Court judge, which I still can't believe.

I mean, sometimes he's dignified, I don't know.

But anyway, you cook a lot.

- Yes.

- [Sara] You cook steak a lot.

- Absolutely.

- I hope you learn something today.

- Well, I brought you a secret weapon.

- What?

- Actually I brought you three secret weapons.

- Oh dear, what?

- This is from my-- Grew these on my terrace.

This is a aji dulce pepper, which is-- - Oh, I love those, I know those.

- It's more like fruity.

- This is like a Habanero, without the heat.

It's got all the fruit and the mangoness.

I love these.

- This is a black checkle Szechuan.

Which is roughly around a serrano pepper's heat.

- [Sara] Okay.

- But then this one.

- Yeah, what's that one?

I don't recognize that one at all.

- It's the famed and feared ghost pepper.

Four times or 10 times, I think, the habanero pepper's heat.

- Oh dear, I think-- This guy will go over here.

I'm just gonna get him out of the way.

- [Peter] Yeah, don't even look at him.

- Yeah, there we go.

But we're gonna use the aji dulce.

Let me get the steak, let's get started.

- What kind of steak did you get?

- We'll be using a different kind of steak.

So here's what.

I'm gonna have you season this on both sides.

Okay.

And then we can hose down on the water back there.

So, salt pretty nicely.

So this is a Denver steak.

There's other wonderful steaks that you can get now.

A petite tender, a flat iron.

I'm gonna put this in the fridge and explain why in a second, that we salt that ahead of time.

Guess what we're gonna make that you've never made before.

I know you haven't.

We're gonna make butter.

As Julia would say, "Butter."

But briefly, while you salt the steak ahead of time, if you salt a steak beforehand, it taste really steaky.

If you salt it after you cooked it, it taste like steak with a salt hat.

Up to four hours is great, why we refrigerated it.

Wanna pop that back in the fridge?

- If you use truffle salt, would it like infuse it with truffle flavor?

- Yes, brilliant!

I like the way you think.

So we're gonna use heavy cream to make this butter.

It takes 12 minutes on a stand mixer.

So I'm gonna turn this on, let it rip.

And we're gonna go have a cup of coffee.

- Oh good.

- Yeah.

There we go.

So let's go over here.

(light upbeat music) (mixer whirling) Wow, see, look at this.

It's starts splattering when it gets this far.

Isn't that a miracle?

Ain't that fun?

- Oh my God.

- But you see how-- Let me just move this over here.

You see how watery it is?

I'm gonna just lose this and if you could just move the machine and then we're gonna clean the butter.

- Okay.

- You know, the first time I made butter I was so excited.

It looked like this.

I was like, "Wow, I did it, I did it!"

So I just threw it into a little ramekin.

And the next day I went to reach for it-- Well, it was a couple of days later and it was stunk.

Because you need to get rid of all these milk solids that are in there or it turns bad.

So we're gonna wash it.

So I got enough butter out.

So what you have to do, and I'm gonna let you do this.

Is you knead it with your hands.

You just keep squeezing the butter in the water.

We'll change the water several times.

We keep squeezing it and washing it until the water is clear.

(light upbeat music) Okay, so while you do the last round, I'm just gonna mince our little aji dulce.

Put the butter in here.

Put the bowl in the sink.

And hose down.

- Okay.

- And I'll finish chopping these.

And I'm gonna mince some garlic.

What we're gonna do now is make steak butter.

What we're gonna do is add to that, we're gonna add about a tablespoon of Worcester.

Yeah, here's this.

- Okay.

- Okay.

And then you're gonna add half a tablespoon of Dijon.

A half a teaspoon of garlic.

Some of our chilies.

And then just a tiny bit of salt.

A quarter teaspoon.

Okay, so now what you do, this is sort of fun.

We'll just do this smudge butter, that looks good.

And you sort of shape it.

Smooth it out.

And then you use the parchment.

You wanna just twist in the ends, like a party flavor.

Yeah, there you go.

Ain't that fun?

- [Peter] Yeah.

- Now what you do, is you pop these in the freezer.

And then anytime you need them-- We have one we've already chilled.

Very good.

Isn't that fun.

We have one that we've already chilled.

I'm gonna take that out and our steak I salted earlier before you came, to make sure it had some more time with the salt.

So here's some butter that we made before.

So let's get this started.

Okay.

This is actually a nonstick pan.

But this is one that really retains the heat, so we're gonna get a nice shear on our steak.

- [Peter] What kind of oil are you using?

- Grape seed oil.

Which I like 'cause it's so neutral.

'Cause we're gonna have plenty of flavor otherwise.

- It can stand higher heat?

- Good point, thank you.

You do know a thing or two.

(laughing) - It's just from watching you.

- No, no, that's not true.

I'm just patting these dry and we'll wait till it's really good and hot.

And then we'll get-- Oh, Pete, you wanna do some pepper for me?

- Yeah, absolutely.

- On both sides.

- Does the pepper burn at all?

Do we have to worry about that?

- No, pepper's okay.

Now a couple of important things about shearing steak is that it's gotta be really, really dry.

If it isn't it will sweat and you won't get that shear.

We want that nice crust.

The pan has to be very hot.

We need to hear a sound when we get it in there.

(steak sizzling) I think that's good.

We're gonna give it about two, three minutes a side.

We don't turn it until you can feel it move.

That means it's already got that crust.

And you don't wanna turn it or mess with it too much, 'cause that cools down the pan, and it won't seal properly.

- [Peter] Oh, that's beautiful.

- Isn't it?

So we're gonna give them a couple of minutes a side, you know, for rare we're looking at a 120 degrees.

And then we're gonna let them rest because you need to let the juices redistribute, even in something as small as a steak.

'Cause if we took it out right away, all of the juices will come streaming out.

(steak sizzling) Doesn't it smell wonderful?

- Smells great.

- Yeah.

So you wanna put the foil on top of there.

Let's turn this off.

All right.

Okay.

Doesn't that look so delicious?

We're gonna save those juices and pour them over the steak along with the butter.

So let's see.

Let's take the thicker one, right.

- Okay.

It's not a very pronounced grain, is it?

- No, but you were saying you thought it was going this way.

- I think so.

- It's very nice.

So we're gonna cut it this way.

And we're gonna cut it thin.

And again, the whole point is that if you don't have a sharp knife, this is not gonna work.

It's gonna be hard to cut the steak.

- Do we need this piece right here?

- Oh dear, okay.

Now I want you to comment on the salt.

- Yeah.

- It tastes like a beautifully seasoned steak, right?

- It's got a lot of flavor.

- Now we're gonna pour our juices over.

There we go.

You don't wanna waste these ever.

That's the best stuff.

And then we're gonna put our butter on top.

And it will slowly melt.

I'm just gonna cut it a little bit more.

And then I'm gonna have you lift up those chilies.

Okay.

All right, so sprinkle those on top.

You like to dine El Fresco, your New York-- Of course you always eat on your patio.

- When I cook I like to call myself El Fresco.

(laughing) - Okay, you grab that.

And I'm gonna grab this beautiful salad and let's head outside.

- All right.

(gentle music) - Will you pour the wine?

We've got a Ctes du Rhne there.

Look at all that wonderful juice.

This is very colorful.

- It looks fantastic.

- Oh yum yum.

All righty.

Well, I want you to take a little bite of that butter too.

And tell me what you think straight up with the butter.

- Okay.

- Yes.

And I wanna thank you all for joining us.

When you start with a steak this flavorful-- This flavorful.

- This is so good.

- It's essential.

I'm Sara Moulton, here with my brother Judge Peter Moulton.

Thanks so much for joining us and I hope you join us again for more of Sara's Weeknight Meals.

- Can I have some of yours?

(laughing) You can.

There's plenty left.

- [Peter] The butter is amazing.

- Isn't it?

Homemade butter just can't be beat, really.

- That's incredible.

- And that deeply flavored steak.

- To chilies.

(gentle music) - [Sara] For recipes, videos and more, go to our website saramoulton.com.

(light upbeat music) Sara's Weeknight Meals is made possible by Sunsweet and by-- - Cooking is the first kind of love you know.

It was started when I was child.

With my grandmother doing fresh pasta.

And now I transmitted to other guests, it's something made specially for them.

- [Presenter] Oceania Cruises, proud sponsor of Sara's Weeknight Meals.

(gentle music) - [Presenter 2] Zwilling.

Makers of fresh and safe.

The vacuum food storage system.

One of the ways Zwilling has been helping cooks do it all in the kitchen for 290 years.

The Zwilling valiant cookware is proud to support Sara's Weeknight Meals.

(gentle music)