Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Television

- Today on Milk Street, we're taking the steakhouse home.

And we start with a recipe we had in Argentina.

It's a steak served with a chimichurri sauce.

Now, two things-- it has a reverse sear, which is a great steak technique.

And the chimichurri sauce is bright red and full of heat, very different than the ones you're probably used to.

And then we do a skirt steak with a Vietnamese scallion sauce, which uses hot oil on finely chopped scallions, a little ginger and fish sauce.

It's a great sauce you can use for hundreds of different dishes.

And finally, we investigate do marinades really work?

And I have some very, as you know, strong opinions about that, so stay tuned.

So stay with us today as we bring the steakhouse home.

- Funding for this series was provided by the following: - MOWI salmon comes ready to cook, ready to grill, ready to season, or pre-seasoned and ready to eat.

In an assortment of flavors for an assortment of people.

MOWI Salmon.

- We pass down traditions here.

We create and connect.

We enjoy special moments-- some simple, some grand.

The heart of your home is the kitchen.

The heart of your kitchen is The Galley.

- Welcome to the Milk Street steakhouse.

Today it's all about steaks.

You're gonna learn two recipes-- one that is for that really special occasion weekend dinner and one that's for any Tuesday night.

But before we jump in, I thought we'd cover some basics, 'cause I think steak gets some people nervous.

And that's understandable.

It can be expensive.

You're worried you're gonna overcook it or undercook it or whatever.

So let's get comfortable, and then we'll dive into cooking with Chris and Bianca.

So you'll most commonly find that Milk Street calls for four different cuts of steak.

So this is flank.

This is quick-cooking, but it has a nice density.

It has a really good texture.

It sort of is the closest thing you'll get, in a quick-cooking steak, to the sirloin.

And this is our fancier, it's-a-special-occasion steak that has that really beefy flavor and a nice fat cap.

Skirt steak I sort of think of as the accordion, 'cause it's really, really, really quick-cooking, and it looks like an accordion.

You can see the grain so well on this.

And it has a lot of fat that you don't want to trim too much.

If you trim too much fat off a skirt steak, it's gonna end up tough.

You need that fat for flavor and also for tenderness.

And then you have sirloin tips.

We like to actually toss these in powerful marinades and give them a really quick cook in a wok or a skillet.

Equipment.

If you only cook a steak in one kind of pan, it's gonna be this, a cast iron pan.

They're really dense.

They hold heat well.

And you'll get a beautiful sear all across the top.

I actually put one of these on my grill when I make steak so that I don't get the grill marks because every space between the grill mark is a lack of flavor.

But if you heat this up on your grill, you get a really nice brown crust all the way across and that nice smoky flavor.

A carbon steel pan is what's used in restaurants.

Do you see how much lighter that was?

This one you really sort of have to pick up.

And this one, you know, it's like, whoo!

So these are also dense.

They hold heat really well, but they're much lighter, and they're basically indestructible.

You'll see in the two recipes coming up that we use cast iron in both of them.

But you'll see that we also call for skillets.

And if all you have is a stainless steel skillet, you can still make an excellent steak, don't worry.

The most important thing to me, as a cooking school teacher, when it comes to cooking steaks, is getting you comfortable cooking steak to the right temperature for you.

Whether or not you think you're supposed to like your steak rare or well done, you should cook it to the doneness you like.

The best way to understand that is to see.

So we've created a little visual demonstration here of what rare, medium rare, and medium cooked steaks look like.

So this flank steak here is cooked rare to 120 before it's taken out of the oven.

And then it's allowed to rest.

I'm gonna cut into it, but before I cut into it, one note about how you cut a steak.

You want to cut it against the grain.

So this is the grain.

You can see it here, running across the steak this way, from left to right.

So we want to cut it from top to bottom.

I'm gonna cut it in half first just 'cause my knife's not super long, and I want pieces of steak that don't make a mess when you're eating.

And now we're gonna cut it across the grain into slices.

But again, take a look.

This is what 120 looks like.

This is a beautifully cooked steak if you want a rare steak.

And I cut on a slight angle.

Oh, that's beautiful!

Perfect.

So this one's cooked to 125, which we call medium rare.

Then you let it rest.

So cook until 125 and then let it rest.

We're gonna cut with the grain.

I could feel a little more resistance 'cause it's cooked a little more well done.

This is cooked to 120 rare.

This is medium rare.

And you really can see the difference.

And then again, we're just gonna cut across the grain.

And I like to even hold my knife at an angle in nice long slices.

And then last, we're gonna go for medium.

Medium is cooked until 130.

And then rested.

And you should see much less pink.

It's only in the thickest part is there any of the darker red.

The rest is really nice and more opaque.

And so, again, we want to cut this across the grain.

So here are our three doneness.

This is how you know how to cook a steak perfectly for you.

So this is cooked to 120, rare; 125, medium rare; and 130, medium.

So we've covered equipment, our most common cuts of steak, and how to cook a steak to the doneness you like.

But we haven't actually cooked a steak yet.

So next up, you're gonna learn two different approaches to cooking a steak for a fantastic Milk Street steak night.

- I've mentioned in previous segments about how you can have a group of cooks with widely different opinions on the best way to cook one single thing.

But in Argentina, you will find an incredibly wide consensus on the best way to grill a steak.

Instead of doing a hot and fast sear right from the very beginning, and then letting the interior of the steak sort of catch up to where you want it to be, they do the opposite.

They start low and slow with raw beef.

They let the interior cook through evenly to the point of doneness that they want.

Then they finish with that hot, fast sear.

Now, this method does take a little bit longer, but I guarantee you this method is fail-safe.

To use this method, you do need a very thick cut of steak.

This is not your average weekday steak.

This is a special occasion steak.

We are using today strip steaks off the bone, and they're a good two inches thick.

We learned a very special seasoning trick from Gastn Riveira, who's an Argentinian chef who spent some time training in France.

He brought back the trick of using freshly grated nutmeg in the salt and pepper seasoning mix on meat.

Now, what that does-- it doesn't add a nutmeg-y flavor to the beef, but it actually helps sort of increase the beefy flavor that's already in the steak.

We'll start with a tablespoon each of salt and pepper.

If you can, use freshly ground black pepper.

That's going to give you the most intense flavor for pepper.

Then we have a tablespoon of freshly grated nutmeg.

And we add a little touch of sugar, which helps promote the browning on the crust later when we do that.

So we've got a little over three tablespoons of this mixture here.

We'll take out two teaspoons that we'll use a little bit later.

And then the entire rest of it is going to season all surfaces of these two steaks.

I'll start by sprinkling a little bit on top.

Now, you want to rub this seasoning in really well.

You want it to adhere to the meat.

The meat has a dampness to it, so it's really not difficult to do.

Turn it over.

You want to get the seasoning mix on all sides of the steak, even the fatty side.

Okay.

Now these are fully seasoned.

We're going to put them on a wire rack on a sheet tray and let them sit in the refrigerator for about 45 minutes to an hour.

What this does is it dries out the surface of the steaks just a little bit, and it helps promote a thicker crust.

All right, these are in the fridge about 45 minutes.

We have our oven preheated to 250 degrees.

These will take about 45 to 55 minutes to reach 110 degrees in the center.

Now, that's still undercooked.

We'll be finishing them off a little bit later.

Okay, when we went to Argentina to learn about steaks, we actually learned a lot of different things.

And we learned that chimichurri is not always green.

All right, we'll turn the heat on, medium high heat.

We are going to start with a little bit of neutral cooking oil.

To the cooking oil, we're going to add a lot of paprika... a lot of red chili flake... and a lot of dried oregano.

We're going to cook this just until it comes to a nice simmer-y bubble.

We'll take this off the heat right away.

And now we'll add our freshly grated garlic.

We like to add the garlic off the heat to keep its flavor bright and fresh, sort of, you know, give you that raw garlic edge, which is so delicious.

Now that has to sit and cool a little bit before we continue.

There's not much left to go.

All good chimichurris have vinegar in them.

We learned something else from Chef Riveira-- not only the nutmeg, but the fact that he prefers balsamic vinegar.

Balsamic has a little bit of sweetness, and it also has a deeper flavor.

We'll add a teaspoon of salt and then stir that together until the salt dissolves.

We'll let this sit around until the spiced oil mixture has cooled down enough, and then we'll bring the two together, and our chimichurri will be done.

I will say up front, these are not pretty steaks at this point.

They're still pretty kind of wan-looking.

Doesn't matter, because we're going to get there in the end.

Now, there's a particular way you should take the temperature of a steak that is like linear like this.

You don't want to stick this right down dead center.

You want to come from one of the side edges.

And that's when you know you're getting right into the center of the steak.

And you want about 110 degrees, because these will continue to cook while they sit here a little bit.

It takes a good five minutes or so for this cast iron skillet to get up to heat.

We're talking medium high heat.

All right, I don't know if you can see that, but we've got a little smoke coming off the cast iron.

That's when we know it's ready, which is great.

We'll add about two tablespoons of a neutral oil.

That oil helps spread the heat and intensifies it, actually.

(steak sizzling) Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Give these three minutes undisturbed.

Whatever you do, don't go moving them around.

Then we'll flip them.

Another two to three minutes.

We want an internal temperature at that point of 120 degrees.

Now we have three good minutes to finish off the chimichurri.

This is nice and cool.

We have our balsamic vinegar with a little salt in it.

The first time I made this recipe, which was years ago, I saw the quantity of red pepper flake.

(chuckling): And I was like, "Holy cow, I'll never be able to eat that."

And then I couldn't stop eating it.

You'd be surprised.

With the oil and the paprika, the heat of those red pepper flakes is tempered a little bit.

You still get lots of spice in there, but it's not going to be as hot as you think it is.

Whew!

Okay.

I just flipped one of these steaks 'cause it's been three minutes, and you can see-- oh, my gosh, look at that char.

Look at the gorgeous crusty edge on that.

All right, two to three more minutes, and you want the internal temperature to be 120 degrees.

Then they come out of the pan.

These are looking quite beautiful.

Now, I said don't fuss with them, but the only thing I like to do in addition is do a little bit of time on the sides.

Not the same two to three minutes, but just about 30 or 40 seconds on each side.

And that gets that, you know, everything gets a little bit of char and crust on it.

Now, when we take these out of the pan, we'll put them directly on the cutting board and let them sit and rest for ten minutes.

The meat fibers tighten up with this heat.

And then if you cut them while they're still this hot, all those juices are gonna run out.

When it sits and rests, it does literally just that.

It rests, the fibers relax, and it lets those juices settle back in so that when you cut into the steak, you've got a juicy, succulent interior.

Ooh!

Turn this off.

Okay.

Don't forget to turn your cast iron skillet off.

So these grains are running this way like this.

I'm going to cut like that.

Opposite.

(sighs) Cuts like a dream.

Ooh.

And if you'll notice something, inside of a steak that has been given the chance to cook low and slow first and seared later, look how even that color is.

You've got a really even pinkness, a medium rare almost from end to end.

And then you have that hard degree of crispy crust as you're cutting through it.

All right.

Take these slices and start fanning them out on the plate.

A single strip steak can have grain going in different directions.

This one, we have to turn a little bit and slice this way.

You can give someone one of these hunkin' steaks on a plate and let them cut it themselves.

But it really is nice if you do the slicing in advance, fan them out.

It also looks beautiful in the platter.

We'll take our bright red, intensely flavored chimichurri and just drizzle it over or serve it on the side, or heck, do both.

That little bit of spice rub that we reserved, this is when you use it now.

So you have it on the crispy crust.

It gets a hot, hot sear on it.

And then you add a little bit of fresh salt, pepper and nutmeg at the very end, and it will pop out at you as you eat this.

Okay, now, finally.

This is tender, beautifully cooked throughout.

Mmm.

Mmm!

Even the steak all by itself has incredible flavor.

So what we have here is Milk Street's oven-perfect strip steak with chimichurri.

This steak is perfect for serving to others, just for yourself, even, and it is truly unforgettable.

So for over 40 years now, I've been saying everybody is wrong about marinades.

Now I think I know why a lot of people are really into marinating, because brining, or koshering, does work.

But it works for reasons that have nothing to do with adding flavor.

So why does brining work?

Well, salt has a very small molecule.

It's just two atoms, chloride and sodium.

And finally, there's diffusion, which means that outside of the meat it's very salty, inside is less salty.

Nature abhors an imbalance, so it sucks in that highly salted water, that brine, evens it out.

So why can't you just throw in a bunch of spices or garlic or whatever into your brine and have that go into the meat?

Well, we did a little test here using a red dye on chicken, and you can see it barely gets in.

Well, why don't those flavors get in?

Allicin, which is the key component of garlic, has a huge molecule, has, like 19 atoms in it.

So sodium molecules, uh, salt molecules, are small.

They go in easily.

Big molecules don't.

So instead of doing that, that is trying to add garlic or spices to a brine, you're better off making a sauce or a marinade, whatever you want to call it, and serving it with the meat, for example, off the grill.

You'll have plenty of flavor that way.

Now, there is one exception to the rule.

I have to admit, I was partially wrong.

(chuckles) That is yogurt.

Oddly enough-- we just did this a few months ago-- yogurt actually works with chicken and pork.

Is it the acid in the yogurt?

The lactic acid?

Is it the calcium in the yogurt?

I've talked to a bunch of food scientists.

Nobody really knows the answer to that.

If you know the answer, please let us know.

But if you marinate, uh, chicken or pork in yogurt, especially a little, let's say, kebabs or on a skewer, it'll actually make a difference in texture.

So that does work.

So, just to summarize, marinades don't work.

They don't get in very deeply.

They don't change flavor.

They don't tenderize meat.

Brines work great, but marinades-- skip the marinade and just serve that meat, that grilled meat, with a sauce instead.

So today we're gonna cook one of my favorite cuts, which is a skirt steak.

But also it's a great lesson on making a simple sauce.

This is a Vietnamese scallion sauce that you could use with thousands of dishes.

And it's super simple to make.

So we're gonna start with some oil, just vegetable oil.

I tend to use grapeseed oil a lot, which I like.

We're gonna heat that up.

And we're gonna take a few scallions and just, essentially, dice them or chop them finely.

To make sure that the pieces are really... ...small, I'm gonna slice vertically, as well.

And this is a time, by the way, when you really do want a sharp knife, because a dull knife is just gonna pound and mangle the scallions, as opposed to actually getting a clean cut.

The other thing I'm gonna do is do that.

And then, instead of pounding down like this, you're not mashing the food.

you want to slice through it.

Um, so it's a slicing motion.

I want to get this really finely chopped.

So I'm gonna put that in a bowl.

Second thing we're gonna do is put a little salt in, and we're just gonna massage.

This is like massaging kale for kale salad.

It's gonna bring out a little bit of flavor.

Some pepper.

Okay.

Now we want to get this oil so it just starts to smoke.

It's already shimmering.

And by the way, this hot oil technique, you can put minced ginger, scallions, etcetera, on top of, let's say, a bed of cooked vegetables, and just pour this oil on top of it.

You get that sizzle and drizzle.

Now we have a little smoke.

(oil sizzling) That's really gonna bring out the flavor.

But since enough is never enough, some minced, uh, ginger, of course, and some fish sauce.

Okay, sauce is great.

So why skirt steak?

The skirt steak actually comes from the, uh, rib section, and it's right here.

And if you go back a little bit, keep going down under the loin and short loin, you get the flank steak.

You all know flank steak.

And there's another one, uh, as well.

There's something called a sirloin flap.

And it's also called in France a "bavette."

That's really inexpensive.

It's one of those cuts very few people know about in this country.

So skirt steak is great.

Flank steak is great.

Bavette is also great.

These are, you can see, bigger grain, sort of a looser meat.

They tend to be thinner steaks, and they have a ton of flavor.

So I know Americans tend to like really tender meat, like tenderloin.

But if you want the big flavor, you should look at the diaphragm, this part of the cow, sort of underneath the cow, has really, really delicious meat.

So, now we're going to take that and cut it into three pieces.

Okay.

We're gonna put a little oil in the pan.

You don't need too much oil.

So we're gonna wait till that oil just starts to shimmer and almost smoke.

Then we'll put the steak in and cook it pretty quickly.

This will cook in just a couple minutes a side.

So it's starting to smoke.

Put it in like that.

So if you have food going into a pan, lay it in going away from you.

Anytime you're cooking meat, or especially chicken in a skillet, you don't want to move it around right away.

The meat will release after a few minutes, and you can move it around.

If you try to move it around too early, you'll tear the skin.

It'll get a attached and fused to the bottom of the pan.

So a little patience.

Uh, you can take a little peek like that.

Another thing you can do with steak is take it out of the fridge about an hour before you want to cook it.

Salt it liberally on both sides with kosher salt, put it on a rack, a cooling rack on a pan, and let it sit for an hour.

It's not gonna come up that much in temperature, but that salt is gonna start to get into the meat, which flavors it and will help it cook up so it's not too dry.

I often use an instant-read thermometer for chicken or thicker cuts.

It's a little tough with a thin cut like a flank steak or a skirt steak.

You can do it, however, if you want, but you can't go in like this because there's not enough thickness.

You have to go in that way.

And that tells me we're at 97.

Or we could just cut in and take a little peek here.

So I'd just give that about 30 seconds more.

Okay.

So we're going to let that sit for five or six minutes.

I wouldn't let this sit 20 minutes because it's going to lose heat.

You can tell the grain is going this way, so we'll cut across the grain.

Mmm.

The meat is really well cooked, if I say so myself.

(chuckles) It's not tough at all.

This is why I love skirt steak or flank steak or bavette, because you get a ton of flavor and you slice it thinly.

It's a thin steak.

It's not going to be tough.

So let's go back to something I said earlier about marinades.

You know, yeah, we could have marinated this.

But I got to tell you, by simply serving this without a marinade, cooking it to medium rare, and serving it with a Vietnamese scallion sauce, you get a thousand times more flavor.

So the idea of trying to, you know, push the flavor into the meat like this in a marinade just doesn't work.

And you're so much better off just serving the steak with the sauce at the end.

You can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season of Milk Street at MilkStreetTV.com.

Recipes and episodes from this season of Milk Street are available at MilkStreetTV.com, along with shopping lists, printer-ready recipes and step-by-step videos.

Access our content anytime to change the way you cook.

- The new Milk Street Cookbook is now available and includes every recipe from our TV show.

From cacio e pepe and skillet spanakopita to Brazilian-style carrot cake and Thai coconut soup, the Milk Street Cookbook offers bolder, fresher, simpler recipes.

Order your copy of the Milk Street Cookbook for $27, 40% less than the cover price.

Call 855-MILK-177 or order online.

- Funding for this series was provided by the following: - MOWI salmon comes ready to cook, ready to grill, ready to season, or pre-seasoned and ready to eat.

In an assortment of flavors for an assortment of people.

MOWI Salmon.

- We pass down traditions here.

We create and connect.

We enjoy special moments-- some simple, some grand.

The heart of your home is the kitchen.

The heart of your kitchen is The Galley.