Mark Bittman's Quick and Easy Recipes from the New York Times (23 page)

2.
Scatter the sauerkraut around the duck, then sprinkle it with paprika, moisten it with the wine, and tuck the bay leaves in there. Turn the heat to low and cover. Simmer for about 15 minutes, then stir and put some of the sauerkraut on top of the duck.

3.
Cook for another 15 minutes or so, until the duck is quite tender. Carve and serve.

VARIATIONS

As everyone knows from sad experience, a single duck provides skimpy servings for four people. You can make up for this with side dishes, but there are other solutions as well:

• Braise a piece of slab bacon and/or smoked or fresh pork along with the duck, after adding the sauerkraut; you’ll have to increase the cooking time a bit.

• Peel and cut up some potatoes (or carrots, parsnips, or turnips) and cook them along with the duck and sauerkraut.

• Finally, you can simply cook more duck—start with 2 ducks or use a couple of duck legs or, best of all, sear a duck breast and serve the slices separately.

NOTE

The best sauerkraut is sold in bulk, but you can buy perfectly good sauerkraut in jars or plastic bags in the supermarket. Just make sure the only ingredients are cabbage and salt. Inferior sauerkraut contains preservatives, and that sold in cans tastes tinny.

THE MINIMALIST’S MARINATED STEAK

OVEN-“GRILLED” STEAK

SKIRT STEAK WITH COMPOUND BUTTER

STEAK WITH BUTTER AND GINGER SAUCE

GRILLED FLANK STEAK WITH PROVENÇAL SPICES

GRILLED STEAK WITH ROQUEFORT SAUCE

SIRLOIN STEAK WITH CHIMICHURRI SAUCE

RIB-EYE STEAK WITH ANCHOVY-RED WINE SAUCE

BEEF WRAPPED IN LETTUCE LEAVES, KOREAN STYLE

NEGIMA (JAPANESE BEEF-SCALLION ROLLS)

ROAST SIRLOIN OF BEEF

POACHED BEEF TENDERLOIN WITH GARNISHES

ASIAN POT ROAST WITH TURNIPS

POT ROAST WITH CRANBERRIES

BEEF WITH CARAMELIZED SUGAR

JAPANESE-STYLE BEEF STEW WITH WINTER SQUASH

SAUTÉED CHICKPEAS WITH MEAT

OSSO BUCO

BRAISED VEAL BREAST WITH MUSHROOMS

VEAL STEW OF SPRING

VEAL STEW WITH DILL

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

TIME: 30 MINUTES

THERE ARE JUST
two reasons for marinating before grilling: to add flavor and promote browning and crispness. Neither of these requires much time, although dunking the meat or fish for a few minutes in what is best labeled a grilling sauce may contribute to a slightly greater penetration of flavor. (On the other hand, if you really have no time at all, simply smear the food with the sauce as it’s going on the grill.)

Promoting browning is easy: anything with sugar browns quickly—often too quickly, as you know if you’ve ever slathered a piece of chicken with barbecue sauce before grilling it.

Which flavor to add is a matter of taste. My favorite is soy sauce; I love its taste, and it always seems to contribute exactly the right amount of saltiness. Any marinade that is made with a sweetener will need some acid to balance it; lime goes best with soy, but almost any acidic liquid will do, from lemon to white vinegar.

One last note about marinades: Marinade that is applied to raw food should not be brushed on during the last few minutes of cooking, nor should it be used as a sauce unless it is boiled for a few minutes. And, as always, marinade brushes and other utensils that are used with raw food should not be used near the end of cooking.

1.
Preheat a grill until hot and put the rack no more than 4 inches from the heat source. Mix together the first 6 ingredients; taste and add more of anything you like. Turn the steak in the sauce once or twice, then let it sit in the sauce until the grill is hot.

2.
Turn the steak one more time, then put on the grill; spoon any remaining sauce over it. For rare, grill for about 3 minutes per side for steak under an inch thick. For larger or more well-done steak, increase the time slightly.

VARIATIONS

Many other ingredients can make this basic sauce somewhat more complex in flavor (as long as you don’t add too many at once and end up muddying the flavor):

• 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon mustard

• About 1 teaspoon sesame or other roasted-nut oil

• About 1 tablespoon peanut butter or tahini (sesame paste); some sesame seeds or finely chopped peanuts are good, too

• Some onion, scallion, or shallot, minced or pureed

• 1 tablespoon or more horseradish or 1 teaspoon wasabi powder

• Some minced lemon, lime, or orange zest

• About 1 tablespoon minced fresh cilantro, plus more for garnish

• Up to 1 tablespoon ground cumin, up to 1 teaspoon coriander, or a combination

• Some minced jalapeño, hot red pepper flakes, or Tabasco or other hot sauce to taste

• About 1 tablespoon Worcestershire or fish sauce (nuoc mam or nam pla, sold at most Asian markets)

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

TIME: 30 MINUTES

MAYBE YOU DON’T
have a grill, maybe it’s freezing outside, maybe you don’t want to eat dinner in the choking cloud of smoke that stovetop steak cookery unfailingly produces. Fear not: a minimalist preparation if ever there was one, this technique will put a great crust on your steaks and keep your kitchen (largely) smoke free.

1.
Preheat the oven to its maximum, 500°F or more, for at least 20 minutes; if it is equipped with a pizza stone, so much the better. About 10 minutes before you’re ready to eat, put a cast-iron or other ovenproof heavy skillet large enough to hold the steaks (or use 2) over high heat. Wait 2 or 3 minutes, until the pan is beginning to smoke.

2.
Add the steaks and let them sit on top of the stove as long as you can before the smoke becomes intolerable—probably no more than a minute. Immediately transfer the pan to the oven. Roast the steaks for about 4 minutes, or until nicely browned on the bottom, then turn and cook on the other side for another 3 or 4 minutes, until done. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve immediately.

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

TIME: 30 MINUTES

THE EASIEST WAY
to make compound butter is to mince all the flavorings and then cream them and the butter together with a fork, just as you would butter and sugar in making a cake. But if your butter is ice-cold (or frozen), use a small food processor to combine all the ingredients quickly; there will be some waste here, as you’ll never get all the butter out of the container and blade, but the process will take just seconds.

Skirt steak, the long, thin band of wonderfully marbled muscle (actually the cow’s diaphragm), was not easy to get even a couple of years ago but is now almost ubiquitous. It ranges as high as ten dollars a pound, but can often be found for well under half that, especially at supermarkets. It’s a moist, juicy steak, but not exactly tender—a little chewier than good strip steak—and does not respond well to overcooking. If someone insists on having it cooked beyond medium-rare, take no responsibility.

1.
Preheat a grill until very hot—so hot you can hold your hand over it for only a couple of seconds. (Or preheat the broiler or pan-grill the steak if you prefer.)

2.
When the fire is ready, grill the steak for 2 minutes per side for rare, about a minute or two longer for medium-rare to medium. Season the steak with salt and pepper as it cooks. Let it rest for a few minutes after it comes off the grill before dressing it with the compound butter.

3.
Spread each steak with about a tablespoon of the flavored butter and serve. Wrap and refrigerate or freeze the remaining butter for future use.

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

TIME: 20 MINUTES

LIKE OVEN-“GRILLED” STEAKS,
this is a great way of cooking steaks indoors without sacrificing a good crust or setting off the smoke detector: sear the steak quickly, then remove it from the pan before building a quick sauce in which you can finish cooking the meat. This is such a good technique, with so many options, that you’re sometimes likely to eschew the grill just to do it this way. Use fairly thin steaks for this recipe. Judging the doneness of thicker ones can be tricky, and inevitably the sauce evaporates before the meat is cooked through. The ideal setup for four people is four small, boneless steaks, cut from the top blade, sirloin, or rib. But two larger steaks will work nearly as well, as long as they’re thin. And though it isn’t necessary to use butter in this preparation, a small amount—there is little more than a teaspoon per person in the recipe—adds not only creaminess but also flavor.

1.
Preheat a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat until it begins to smoke. Add the steaks and cook until nicely browned, 1 to 2 minutes. Turn and brown the other side, another minute or two. Remove the skillet from the heat and transfer the steaks to a plate.

2.
When the skillet has cooled slightly, return it to the stove over medium heat. Add the butter and, when it melts, the ginger. About 30 seconds later, add the soy sauce and stir to blend. Return the steaks to the skillet, along with any of their accumulated juices. Cook the steaks for a total of about 4 minutes, turning three or four times. (If at any time the pan threatens to dry out entirely, add a couple of tablespoons of water.) At this point, the steaks will be medium-rare; cook for a little longer if you like and serve with the pan juices spooned over.

VARIATIONS

• Use garlic or shallots and a few leaves of tarragon instead of the ginger, and vinegar in place of the soy sauce for a French flair. Season the steak well with salt before you add it to the pan.

• Go Mediterranean: Substitute extra virgin olive oil for the butter, garlic for the ginger, and fresh lemon juice for the soy sauce. Be sure not to forget to salt the steaks.

• Give it a Thai accent: Substitute minced lemongrass for the ginger and nam pla for the soy sauce. You can substitute peanut oil for the butter or not.

• Add any minced herbs you like to the sauce, at about the same time you return the meat to the skillet.

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

TIME: 30 MINUTES

FLANK STEAK, MORE
than most others, is tolerant of medium doneness, but in any case it must be thinly sliced. Slicing meat against the grain is especially important for tougher cuts like flank and skirt: it cuts the long, tough muscles into shorter, easier-to-chew pieces, giving the impression of tenderness.

If you have a garden or a windowsill, both rosemary and lavender are easy to grow and maintain (and the small investment you will make in those plants will save you from paying the king’s ransom supermarkets charge for fresh herbs). If you can’t find any lavender, up the rosemary to 2 tablespoons. In any case, do not substitute dried herbs for fresh in this recipe: they will rob it of its charm.

1.
Start a grill or preheat the broiler. Combine all ingredients except the steak in a small food processor and blend until minced (you can, of course, mince by hand) but not pureed. Rub all over the steak.

2.
When the fire is hot, grill for about 4 minutes per side, or until nicely browned, for medium-rare, turning only once. Remove from the fire and let rest for about 5 minutes before slicing thinly and serving.

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

TIME: 20 MINUTES

THIS DISH, WHICH
often appears on bistro menus in France, fits the need for a good steak served with something powerfully salty and rich (anchovy butter or a combination of butter, soy sauce, and ginger will also do the trick). Some might consider the sauce overkill, but not those of us who crave it.

My favorite cheese for this sauce is Roquefort, which is made from sheep’s milk. But it’s entirely a matter of taste—Stilton, Gorgonzola, Maytag blue, or any high-quality, fairly soft blue cheese will work equally well. Don’t bother, however, trying to make this sauce with commercially produced domestic blue cheese, such as that sold precrumbled for salads. Not only will its taste be inferior, but it will not give the sauce the same creaminess.