Cook's Country

-"Cook's Country" is about more than just getting dinner on the table.

We're also fascinated by the people and stories behind the dishes.

We go inside kitchens in every corner of the country to learn how real people cook, and we look back through time to see how history influences the way we eat today.

We bring that inspiration back to our test kitchen so we can share it with you.

This is "Cook's Country."

Today on "Cook's Country," Lawman and Bridget make Japanese Steakhouse steak and vegetables.

I tell the wild story of Benihana's founder "Rocky" Aoki.

Adam shares his top picks for cast-iron skillets, and Bryan makes Julia charred cherry tomatoes with bell peppers and mozzarella.

That's all right here on "Cook's Country."

Hiroaki Aoki is a poster child for living large.

Known by his nickname "Rocky," Aoki came to the US from Tokyo in the early 1960s on a wrestling scholarship.

He got a degree in restaurant management and began to pursue his dream of opening a Japanese restaurant in New York.

He opened the first Benihana in 1964, and it quickly became a hit.

Customers loved the theater and showmanship, twirling knives and onion volcanoes.

As of today, it's estimated that Benihana has served over 100 million meals.

Rocky's life was a series of intense highs and lows.

He bankrolled boxing matches, flew hot air balloons, and raced powerboats.

However, in the 1990s, he pled guilty to insider trading but never ended up serving time.

He died in 2008, leaving behind dozens of restaurants and the legacy of a life fully lived.

At "Cook's Country," our recipe for Japanese steakhouse steak and vegetables is a tribute to the dish made popular at Rocky's iconic restaurants.

-Today we're bringing all the excitement and drama of the Japanese steakhouse -- or teppanyaki -- home to you.

Now, "teppan" means the flat plate on which the food is cooked, and "yaki" refers to grill.

Now, the food and the excitement of that night is in no small part due to the great expert teppanyaki chefs.

And speaking of expert chef, we have Lawman, our teppanyaki chef, today.

-Flaming onion volcanoes... -Yes.

-...flying shrimp, and juggling.

-Uh-oh.

-I have fond memories of Japanese steakhouses, but one of my first real dates was at one.

If you can imagine, it was super romantic sitting at a table with eight strangers knowing that you're on your first date.

I want to bring that same delicious food home without the strangers and the theatrics.

-Okay.

-So first, we're gonna make a sweet ginger sauce.

I'm gonna start with 3/4-inch nub of ginger.

I'm gonna peel it.

-And a spoon does such a great job of just taking that outermost peel.

Gets into those little nooks and crannies.

-There we go.

Just gonna give it a little chop.

And we put that in the blender, along with 1/2 cup chopped onion, 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, 3 tablespoons of sugar... -Okay.

-...and 3 tablespoons of rice vinegar.

I'm gonna blend it for about 15 seconds so that at all emulsifies nice and smooth.

That's it.

-That's it.

Alright.

Oh!

Oh!

It smells so good.

-This is what we're looking for.

Gonna bring bright gingery flavor to the steak.

-A little bit of that's gonna go a long way.

-Next, we have an equally simple sauce.

It's a white mustard sauce.

So I'm going to take a 1/2 cup of heavy cream, 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 teaspoons of dry mustard, 1 teaspoons of toasted sesame oil.

-Mmm.

Magic ingredient.

-And 1 teaspoon of sugar.

We want to whisk this until it's just combined and starting to thicken.

-Okay.

Lovely.

-Yeah, and super simple.

The next sauce is the spicy mayo sauce, affectionately known as the Yum Yum Sauce.

-I love this sauce.

-I do too.

-Yeah?

-If I were to name it, I'd call it the delicious sauce.

So I have 1/2 cup of mayonnaise, 2 tablespoons water, 1 tablespoon of melted butter, tablespoon of red miso paste, teaspoon of tomato paste, 1/4 teaspoon of paprika, 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

Just want to whisk it till it combines.

That's it.

-That's it.

Three sauces, one minute.

-Exactly.

Next, we're going to prep the veg that you would see at a Japanese steakhouse.

I'm gonna start with the zucchini first.

Cut off the ends, then we cut the long way.

Then you're cutting it into 3/4-inch pieces.

This is only one zucchini.

I've already prepped the other zucchini, so it's gonna be a total of two 8-ounce zucchini.

I'm gonna prep the second onion.

I'm gonna cut that into 3/4-inch pieces, as well.

We're using a total of 6 ounces of shiitake mushroom.

I prepped some of them.

This is the rest.

I love using the kitchen shears for this.

Easy just to cut off the stem.

And then the small pieces, we're just cutting in half.

-Nice.

-Larger ones we're gonna quarter.

And I'm just gonna clean up a little bit and then we're ready to prep our steak and cook.

-Sounds good.

-Now, Bridget, if you've ever been to a Japanese steakhouse -- and I know you have -- they're cooking on a huge flat-top surface.

Nobody has that at home.

-[ Chuckles ] -We're gonna emulate that with a 12-inch cast-iron skillet.

We want it to heat for about 5 minutes until it gets ripping hot.

-Mm.

-We're gonna get a nice sear on the meat.

-Gorgeous.

-So while this is heating, I'm gonna make this soy garlic butter.

We have 3 tablespoons of butter.

I'm gonna add 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and 2 minced garlic cloves.

They dollop this buttery, umami bomb flavor all over everything.

I'm gonna use that later, so I'll put it aside.

So for the steak, I have two 1-pound ribeye steaks.

Ribeye is one of my favorite steaks, but you could use a strip steak here.

-Okay.

-Now, you want to make sure that they're trimmed, that you pat them dry.

You want to make sure that the steak is super dry.

Otherwise, you're not gonna get good browning.

-Those are some beautiful steaks.

-Now we're gonna season them with 1 teaspoon of white pepper and 3/4 teaspoon of salt.

Now, this along with those sauces... -Whew.

It's a lot of seasoning, but those are big steaks.

-Yes.

-Mmm.

-Now, the pan has been heating for 5 minutes, ripping hot.

I'm going to add 1 tablespoon of veg oil.

Just gonna swirl it around a little bit till it's smoking.

And it is.

-Oh, yeah.

-Now we're gonna add our steaks.

We're looking for medium rare, 120, 125.

That's going to take about 10 to 13 minutes, and we're going to flip every 2 minutes so it cooks evenly.

-Okay.

-It's been about 2 minutes.

I'm gonna give it a little flip.

-Nice.

Starting to see some color building there.

-They have a little while to go, but starting to look nice.

-Okay, and you said we're gonna flip it every 2 minutes?

-Exactly.

-Okay.

-It's been about 11 minutes.

It's time to check our steaks.

Again, we're looking for 120, 125, about medium rare.

-Okay.

-122.

-I will take that.

-Alright.

Let's pull the steaks.

-Well, you can see that flipping every 2 minutes really gives it that beautiful brown color, too.

-Exactly.

Now we're gonna let the steaks rest a few minutes while we cook the veg.

-Okay.

-Gonna put some foil over them, but loosely, so they'll stay warm.

Now we're going to cook our veg.

It's gonna go in the skillet.

It's gonna cook in all that nice beef fat.

-Mm-hmm!

-Gonna add a 1/4 teaspoon of white pepper.

1/4 teaspoon of salt.

Give it a little stir.

And you want the vegetables to be in an even layer.

-Okay.

-And they're gonna cook for 3 minutes.

Until they get a little bit of browning, you don't want to touch them.

-I'm backing off.

-It's been 3 minutes.

Now we can give it a stir.

You notice the zucchini has some nice browning on it.

-Oh, yeah.

-I'm gonna let it go for another 2 minutes.

We don't want to touch it.

It's been 2 minutes longer.

I'm gonna give it a stir.

Now we're gonna add 2 tablespoons of mirin, which is a sweet Japanese cooking wine.

-Mmm.

-And 2 tablespoons of that soy garlic butter.

-Yes!

That is the sight I want to see and the smell that I want to smell.

Oh, my gosh.

The aroma in here.

-It's getting there.

2 more minutes.

Want to cook it till the vegetables have softened and the liquid has evaporated.

-Alright.

-It's been 2 minutes.

Vegetables are done.

I'm gonna platter them up.

-They look beautiful.

Look at all that browning.

Oh!

[ Laughs ] -Now we're gonna slice our steaks.

I'm gonna cut against the grain so that it eats tender.

I'm gonna cut about 1/4-inch thick.

-Okay.

Beautifully done.

-Now we're gonna drizzle a little of that soy garlic butter over.

-Oh, sure.

-Really, you thought there was gonna be three sauces, but in fact... -Four.

-...four sauces.

-That's right.

-The moment we've both been waiting for.

First, I'm going to add some perfectly cooked vegetables to your plate.

Some steak.

-I see something else here.

-A little fried rice.

-Give that to you.

And you can get instructions for fried rice on our website.

-Here's our white mustard sauce, sweet ginger sauce.

I like to put this right on the steak.

And the Yum Yum sauce next to the mustard sauce.

-Don't know where to start.

Alright.

Going in for some steak here.

Big, huge beef flavor.

-Nice and tender.

-Oh, super tender.

Mmm!

Really well seasoned.

Very juicy.

It's kind of amazing -- You made zucchini taste really, really good.

Deeply flavored.

There's some char on there, and they're not soggy at all.

-Isn't this much better than eating in front of a bunch of strangers?

-What do you think we're doing right now?

-[ Laughs ] -Well, I didn't get a volcano onion or flying shrimp.

-No.

-But I don't miss it one bit.

This is amazing.

Master of the teppanyaki.

Thanks, Lawman.

-Thank you.

-So if you want to bring a little bit of the Japanese steakhouse to your home, prep everything before you start cooking, don't crowd the skillet, cook the vegetables and steak separately for best browning, and serve the steak with lots of flavorful sauces.

So from "Cook's Country," all the fun, flair, and food of Japanese steakhouse, it's Japanese steakhouse steak and vegetables.

And sauce.

And another sauce.

-If taken care of correctly, cast-iron skillets will last a lifetime, so buying the right one is important, and Adam's here to tell us more.

-Cast-iron is an interesting story these days, Julia, because 100 years ago, there were a lot of small producers in this country that made their own pans, but these days, most cast-iron pans are actually imported from China, where cast-iron was developed in the fifth century.

However, in the last decade, smaller producers have started to pop back up, and they're going for a couple of the characteristics of the old pans that disappeared with mass production -- lighter weight -- you know, cast-iron pans are totally heavy -- and also a smoother surface.

In the mass production, they're cast in these molds.

They don't really hand polish them, but these smaller producers are hand polishing them.

-Mm.

-We got super curious about this, of course, so we decided to test them.

We have our lineup of 11 cast-iron pans.

They're all 12-inch.

They're all pre-seasoned.

The days of cast-iron being reliably cheap are gone.

-[ Chuckles ] -The price range was stunning to me.

-$20 at a low to $295 for a cast-iron pan.

-[ Whistles ] Hello.

-Yeah.

This one was the lightest one of all.

Usually, they range from 6 to 8 pounds.

You know, that one's a little easier to handle than some of the heavier ones.

-Right, this is how I really test it.

-[ Laughs ] Yeah.

I'm gonna step away while you test that.

-No, that is pretty light.

-But, you know, in our test, testers found that actually it didn't sear or brown food quite as evenly.

It ran a little bit hot because it was a little bit lighter, and simple formula -- less mass, less heat retention, less even browning.

The second part of the story, though, is the finish.

These really smooth finishes -- I mean, feel this one compared to that one.

-Oh, this is nice.

This is almost like nonstick.

-Yeah.

Testers loved these smooth finishes.

-Oh, my gosh.

-They were super easy to clean.

Yeah!

-It's like a nail file.

-I hear that.

-[ Laughs ] -Don't have to get a manicure tonight.

[ Both laugh ] These were easy to clean, easy to season.

They had great stick resistance, so that was a real benefit.

In terms of dimensions, in every piece of cookware, we like as much cooking surface as we can get.

It was about 10 inches for these guys.

One of the pans fell a little bit short.

That one down on the end.

-Ooh, look at this handle.

-A little smaller.

Yeah, that's a -- that's a great handle.

-This thing is heavy.

-[ Chuckles ] -And, yeah, look at that -- small.

-These are definitely hefty pans, so you want to have a good beefy handle to hold on to.

And testers liked handles that were larger rather than smaller.

You can tell that one down there that's really big, although it may not be comfortable for smallest hands.

This one here, both the primary handle and the helper handle -- Try those out.

Little skimpy.

Just a little skimpy.

In the end, it was one of these pans from a smaller producer that took the top spot.

This is the Smithey Ironware No.

12.

-Mm.

-Feel that baby.

-Ooh.

-That was among the heaviest of the pans from smaller manufacturers.

Look at that surface.

It's beautiful.

-Oh, it's nice.

-It was super stick resistant, easy to season, easy to clean.

Testers loved this pan.

It was not, however, inexpensive.

It was $200.

If you want to spend a little bit less, we have a Best Buy, which is old faithful Lodge cast iron.

-[ Laughs ] Yep.

-That's the Lodge 12-inch cast-iron skillet.

It's heavy.

It -- Actually, by the end of the testing, even though it was a little rougher at the beginning, it was smooth and stick resistant and well-seasoned, and it's $43.

-Oof, quite a difference.

-Yep.

-And both of these winners are made in the US.

-Absolutely.

-I like that.

So there you have it.

If you want a really nice cast-iron skillet, check out the Smithey Ironware No.

12 for 200 bucks, or for the Best Buy, check out the Lodge 12-inch cast-iron skillet for just $43.

Cherry tomatoes weren't a thing until the 1970s, when the owner of Marks & Spencer, the British grocery store chain, asked growers to come up with a better tomato with a sweeter flavor and longer shelf life.

Today, you can find a variety of cherry tomatoes in most supermarkets, and Bryan's gonna show us how to make the most of them in a simple salad.

-Yeah.

I actually love cherry tomatoes quite a bit, and I especially love a salad like this that takes a few simple key ingredients and treats them in a special way to make a really fantastic side dish.

-Mm-hmm.

-So today we're gonna treat our tomatoes in a special way.

We're gonna char them on the stovetop.

-Oh, very cool.

-Yeah.

In a cast-iron skillet.

So we're gonna preheat our cast-iron skillet over medium heat for 10 minutes until it's nice and ripping hot.

While that's heating up, we're going to make our dressing.

We want to make a really assertive, potent dressing for this salad.

So we're gonna begin by chopping up some garlic.

Just gonna do a coarse chop on it.

And then we're gonna mash this garlic into a paste.

To make it into a paste, we're gonna add a 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt.

-Yeah, that salt almost acts like sandpaper to help break down the garlic.

-Yeah, so we're just going to start on the corner of it and really start massaging the salt into the garlic.

This is a great technique for getting the most out of a single clove of garlic.

And if you do this in a lot of other recipes, you always want to start with less garlic than you think you might need 'cause it gets really, really pungent.

-It gets pungent, but it also rounds out the flavor.

I feel like you can eat it raw and it's not too hot.

-Yeah.

Nice garlic paste like that.

-Beautiful.

-Thank you.

And so we're gonna add that to our dressing bowl, and we can add 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.

-And this is the point where you want to use your good olive oil.

-Absolutely.

Then we're gonna add 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons of red wine vinegar.

-Just the right amount.

-Just the right amount.

Don't mess around with that amount.

And then 2 teaspoons of lemon juice.

-Ah.

-So you notice I'm using two different acids in this vinaigrette, and that's because both contribute a certain particular flavor that really elevates the salad.

-Mm.

-On top of that, we're gonna add 3 minced anchovies.

Now, I know you probably think this is gonna make the dressing taste, like, really fishy or something... -Mnh-mnh.

-...but it doesn't.

It really -- because of the charred tomatoes and all the other ingredients we're adding, it really just boosts the umami quotient in the salad considerably, so don't skimp on those.

2 teaspoons of minced fresh thyme, 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes.

-Oh, you're not holding back.

That's some spice right there.

-Yeah.

We're gonna have a strong dressing here.

[ Both laugh ] And then a 1/2 teaspoon of smoked paprika.

-Ooh.

-So this is just enough paprika and enough smokiness to kind of really accentuate the char.

It's not enough to overwhelm the salad, but it'll really bring out the char on these vegetables.

Finally, a 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt.

-So you salt twice there -- once for the garlic and then once again in the dressing.

-Correct, correct.

And we're just gonna mix that up.

-That even looks like a potent dressing.

-You should try it.

-I kind of want to.

Is that alright?

-Give it a taste.

Yeah.

-Ooh.

-Yeah.

-That's delicious.

-Yeah, it should be sharp enough that you're like, "Wow, my eyes are gonna pop out of my head."

-But the fragrance of the thyme really comes through.

I wasn't expecting that.

-It's a really nice dressing.

So we can set that aside.

And our skillet is nearly ready, so we're going to toss our cherry tomatoes -- 1 pound of cherry tomatoes here -- we're gonna toss them with 2 teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil.

-I like the prep on those.

-Yeah.

-[ Laughs ] No prep.

-Zero, yeah.

And a 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt.

I'll just give that a quick toss.

-You've done this before.

That bowl action is not for novices.

-It's a pro move.

It's a pro move.

-[ Laughs ] -So now the skillet is really hot.

You can see it starting to give off little hints of smoke.

-Oh, yeah.

You can see just the wisps.

-Yep.

We can drop our tomatoes into the skillet, and we want to let those go for a good 4 minutes or so and without stirring them.

-Mm-hmm.

Oh.

-We want to develop a real nice char on one side of the tomatoes.

After that, we'll give them a quick stir and let them finish cooking for about 2 more minutes to soften up.

So while that's going on, we can prep our bell pepper.

-I love watching someone cut up a pepper because I have a very distinct way I do it.

You're doing it the way I like it.

-Oh, really?

-Yeah.

-I change it all the time at home.

-Oh, do you?

-Yeah.

I'm like, "What's -- What's the better way?"

I'm still trying to figure out what the best way is.

-Oh, I like this way, because when you're at this point, you have a nice flat sheet.

You can do anything you want.

-Yeah.

-You can throw it on a grill, you can chop it up for a salad, you can do a stir fry.

-We just want to cut this into thin strips.

You know, a lot of people say that this white part on the inside tastes bit-- -Is bitter?

I don't think so.

-I've never noticed that myself.

-Yes.

-Glad we could agree on that, you know?

-Yeah, well, and if it's less prep and a little bit easier, I'm all for it.

-Okay, so we can put these peppers in the same bowl that we used for the tomatoes.

-Ah, and you're saving on dishes.

-Yeah, absolutely.

See that, we're gonna treat them the same way as the tomatoes.

We're gonna add 2 teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil and a 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt.

-You're adding salt in different places and oil in different places so that everything is evenly seasoned and evenly coated.

-It makes a big difference.

-Mm-hmm.

-You can't add all this salt right at the end.

It won't taste the same.

-That's right.

-So you're building layers of flavor throughout the salad.

-Mm-hmm.

-Alright, so these tomatoes have just about another minute to go before we give them a quick stir.

It's been about 4 minutes, and we're gonna give the tomatoes a light stir just to kind of soften them on the second side.

And it's okay if the tomatoes begin to burst at this stage, you know, because that will add a little bit of juiciness to that really potent vinaigrette.

-Mm-hmm.

-So we're gonna let this go for another 2 minutes just to soften the tomatoes a little further, and then we can throw in our peppers.

-Alright.

-Our tomatoes are ready to come out and go right into our dressing.

-Those look beautiful.

-So these will leach out a little bit of the juice.

They'll also begin to absorb the flavors of that vinaigrette.

If you want to take the rubber spatula there and just give them a light toss.

-Mm.

You want me to be careful not to bust them up.

-Exactly.

-Okay.

-Just toss them just to coat them.

So while our skillet is still hot, we're gonna add our bell peppers.

We'll spread them into an even layer and cook them pretty much the same as the tomatoes.

We'll let them go for 4 minutes without stirring till they get a nice little char-kissed side.

-[ Chuckles ] Char-kissed.

-A very romantic salad.

-I like it.

-[ Chuckles ] Okay, Julia, it's been 4 minutes.

We're going to give these a nice little stir.

-Ooh.

-Just to mix them around and try to cook the second side.

We're really looking to just kind of cook them through a little further.

We're not trying to char the second side.

And one of the great things about this salad is that you're gonna get this variety of textures.

So between these al dente bell peppers, the soft mozzarella, these squishy tomatoes... -Mm.

-...it's really nice.

Okay.

It's been another 2 minutes on these peppers.

We can shut off the heat, and we're just going to add them to our vinaigrette with the tomatoes.

Give them a light toss with that rubber spatula just to make sure they're evenly coated.

So because we're gonna be adding mozzarella to this later on, we want to let it sit for a good 30 minutes to cool off because we don't want the mozzarella to melt when it hits the salad.

You can actually let this sit for up to 2 hours, but we'll let it sit for 30 minutes, come back, and add the mozzarella and basil.

So our salad has had a chance to sit and cool down for 30 minutes.

-Mm-hmm.

-And now we can add our final dose of ingredients.

So we have a 1/2 cup of basil leaves that we're going to tear into coarse 1-inch pieces and add those.

-Well, that looks fun.

-Yeah, jump on in.

-[ Chuckles ] I love tearing fresh basil.

This is how I like to do basil.

-Yeah.

-I don't like chopping it up into grass clippings.

-No, I'm the same way.

-I like ripping it with my hands.

-You get these big bursts of flavor.

-Yeah.

-And visually it looks really nice as well.

-Yep.

-On top of that, we're going to add 8 ounces of fresh mozzarella.

And rather than cut this mozzarella with our knife and make clean cuts, we're gonna tear it into bite-size pieces.

-Mm.

-The great thing that this tearing does is it creates all these nooks and crannies within the mozzarella that really absorb the dressing.

-That's really clever.

-Yeah.

-I actually don't think to do that.

I always just slice it into rounds.

-I actually threw away all my knives in my kitchen.

-[ Laughs ] -I just use my hands now.

So you're just looking for like 1-inch or so bite-sized pieces.

-Alright.

About like that?

-That is perfect.

Gently toss all this together.

We're just trying to coat everything.

Again, taking care not to burst those tomatoes, but we want to coat all the ingredients nicely.

Alright, so now we are ready to transfer to our serving platter.

You can see, it's like visually a really beautiful salad.

-Stunning.

-It's just one of those things where we didn't do much, but we just made a few key choices with how we treated the ingredients.

-Yeah, you treated each ingredient with care.

-Yeah.

What do you think?

You ready to dive into it?

-Yes.

Am I!

-Alright.

So I'm gonna serve us up a couple, and I'll give you a little serving.

-A little serving?

You can ramp that up to a medium to large serving.

-Give you a little drizzle.

-Yes, please.

-How about let's break bread together?

Let's dig in.

-Mmm.

Mmm.

-That's way better than it should be, right?

Such a great salad.

-I have never had a cherry tomato salad taste this good.

-I love this thing so much.

-Well, the little bit of char on the tomatoes and the peppers really brings them to life, and all their flavors meld with that dressing.

Oh, and then the mozzarella.

-And then the mozzarella.

-Mmm!

The bread sopping up that sauce.

Bryan, this is terrific.

-Thank you so much.

-Thank you.

-To make Bryan's killer tomato salad, get a cast-iron skillet ripping hot.

Don't stir the vegetables as they char and let the vegetables marinate in the dressing for at least 30 minutes.

From "Cook's Country," charred cherry tomatoes with bell peppers and mozzarella.

You can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with select episodes and product reviews at our website, CooksCountry.com/tv.

Alright, this is my new favorite.

I can't wait to make this at home for my husband.

-Oh, yeah.

-He's gonna flip.