Changing of the Guard?

Throughout my childhood my parents cooked.  Mom cooked all week, and dad would construct grilling and other masterpieces for Sunday dinners.  Perhaps it is because of their affinity for cooking that everyone in my family cooks.  My mom likes to say that she is proud to have sent her four boys out into the world with the ability to cook and do their own laundry.  So while in San Francisco this weekend, my brother and I decided to return the favor and let mom and dad relax while we concocted a meal so delicious, so supremely awesome that they would be impressed by our culinary prowess.  Also it would make for a good blog post.


My young brother selected the menu and I strapped in to do what I do best, man the grill. (I call him little brother sometimes but that doesnt seem appropriate when he towers over me by 4 inches and can toss me around like a rag doll, so glad I got my shots in back in the day when I could) 


The menu: Grilled Chipotle-Rubbed Steaks with Lime Butter and Corn Cakes with Avocado Tomato Relish.  I like the way he thinks.  


Grilled Chipotle-Rubbed Steaks with Lime Butter
- 4 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 small garlic clove, minced
- 1/4 tsp finely grated zest from 1 lime (for those of you that don't know.  lime zest or lemon zest, or any zest for that matter means just using a fine grater to shave some of the outer peel of the citrus fruit)
- 1 Tbsp fresh juice from 1 lime
- Kosher salt
- 1 1/2 tsp sweet paprika
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 1/2 tsp chipotle powder
- 1 giant hanger steak




I was tasked with handling the steak while he took care of the corn cakes.  I was more than happy to take this on since I've been missing my grill for about two months.  The recipe is actually extremely simple but promised to be delicious.


I had never made "compound butter" before, but it turns out that just a fancy way of saying add the ingredient and mash/whip/mix altogether.  I divided the butter in 1 Tbsp increments figuring it would make the mixing part a little easier than dealing with one big 4 Tbsp chunk of butter.


Add the lime zest, lime juice, and garlic into a bowl with the butter and mix.  In this case the recipe calls for the garlic to be minced.  My parents don't happen to have a garlic press in their apartment, so I settled for chopping the garlic as finely as possible.   Sometimes you just have to make due with what you've got.


Once the butter is all mixed it can be set aside until the steak is cooked and ready to go.  In another small bowl, combine the paprika, cumin and chipotle powder.  Sift, shake, mix it all around into the dry rub that we will put on the steak.  


The actual recipe calls for 4 individual steaks, we're carnivores so we have one giant steak.  Rub the mixture over the surface of the steak, front and back.  Then head to the grill to get it done.

If you're dealing with a gas grill, fire it up and keep the lid closed to let it get nice and hot.  If you're dealing with charcoal, that's awesome, I actually have never been fortunate enough to have a charcoal grill of my own, so do whatever it is that you do to get the thing hot.


Generally with steak I will let the temperature get to about 400-450 degrees before putting the meat on. When you have gotten there, add throw the steak on there and close the lid.  If you are relatively new to grilling, resist the urge to open the lid and flip the steak over and over again.  It is not necessary at all and in fact it will take a lot longer to cook as you are letting the heat out.  The end result will be a charred overcooked outside and the meat will never get cooked inside.  I say all of this because this is how I used to cook everything. I'd flip a burger 5 or 6 times and then wonder why the center was raw when the outside was well-done.  You really shouldn't have to flip your meat more than once.  

View from the grill....not bad at all

Depending on the size of the meat will depend on how long you leave it before flipping.  Also grills are different, each grill will get hot at its own pace and so cooking times will vary.  Since this was an away game for me I actually got caught up in that myself, but I'll explain that in a minute.  With individual steaks on my home court I usually give them about 6-7 minutes on the first pass and then flip and give it another 5 minutes.  This leaves me with a wonderfully delicious and moderately still bleeding medium rare steak.  Because I was dealing with a bigger piece of meat I left it for about 9 minutes on side 1 and another 6 on side 2.  

I brought the steak into the kitchen and sliced into it to find that it was completely raw in the center.  I was then informed that the grill I was working with never really seems to get as hot as other grills.  So I ran back up and threw the steak back on the grill for another 5 minutes or so.  


It ended up being all kinds of medium-rare perfection.  But I definitely had a minute of thinking that I was going to screw up the meat in my moment to shine.  


Slice the meat and serve putting a bit of butter on each serving.  


For the corn cakes I'll turn things over to my esteemed guest blogger, Matthew.

Hello Internet. 

So as Daniel started writing this, I realized that maybe my internet musing would best be spent discussing food, rather than a completely unguided hodge podge of sports discussion, ranging from high school basketball to internet memes related to the NFL.  That said, the Cantina is still open, feel free to go back and boost those pageviews!


I decided that Friday night while we were in San Francisco, Daniel and I should cook dinner for our parents, because why not.  I had seen this recipe online and was very interested to try it out, and so I paired it with the hangar steak recipe that Daniel has discussed. 


First off: corn....... Well no, first off, prepare all of your ingredients.  Both of these, the corn cakes themselves and the relish, had large ingredient lists, so lay everything out first for a little relief when actually putting everything together.  Yes, this may mean more dishes since, in my cases, you'll use many bowls of many different sizes, but it also ensures you don't miss anything along the way.


Corn Cakes with Avocado Tomato Relish:

• 3 large ears of corn, shucked
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup cornmeal
• ¼ cup red onion, finely diced, optional
• ¼ cup chopped cilantro
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 tablespoons buttermilk
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• Canola or vegetable oil, for frying
For the relish:

• 6-10 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 scallion, minced
• 2 tablespoons minced cilantro
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Juice of half a lime
• 1½ teaspoons olive oil
• 1½ teaspoons white wine vinegar
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 ripe avocado, pitted and diced

 First off: corn.  Schuck and cut the corn from the cob of three large ears of corn. When doing this, rest the flat end of the corn in the bowl itself.  This gives some stability to the corn, and contains all the kernals when they go flying off the knife. Its like a splatter guard of sorts. Then comes the fun part. Take 2 cups of the corn and plop it in a food processor, and pulse and chop that bad boy up until purreed, but slightly chunky.  Kind of going for a chunky peanut butter consistency, which is what mine looked like. Pour that back in with the remaining raw corn.

Add in the dry ingredients and stir.

Add in the wet ingredients and stir.

Add in a spoonful of sugar, it helps...wait, wrong recipe.

View from the kitchen....we should always cook here

Set the corn mixture aside for now. Pop it in the fridge. Do it. DO IT.

So here's where the recipe falls short. The relish is fantastic.  really not a whole lot to it. And thats part of the problem.  There wasn't a whole lot of it. Honestly. I'd double the recipe for the relish and have leftovers, since it tastes pretty damn good on its own.  I got so excited a about the relish that I forgot take a picture of all the ingredients in their prep bowls, so here's a pictures of a scored avocado still in the pit.

Take all the relish ingredients and mix them in a bowl, but do hold off on adding the avocado, as it may brown if you leave it out. But brown avocado has never really stopped me from eating guacamole before. Then again, not a lot of things have really stopped me from eating in general, but I digress.

So now comes the fun part.  Pour some vegetable oil in a skillet (I used a cast iron one) and heat until it sizzles.  Fun fact: to find out if the oil is hot, run your hand under tap water, then give the skillet and Emeril BAM! to the oil. If it sizzles, let the corn caking begin.


Dollop out tablespoons of batter if you're lame.  Dollop out generous tablespoons of batter if you're awesome. Let it cook for abouot a minute, then flip[ it out and let it cook for another minute.  You could probably get away with less, as my cakes came out a liiiiiiiiiitle dry. When done, remove them to a plate lined with paper towels. Repeat until all batter used.


These were awesome. Sweteness of the corn mixed with the creaminess/acidity of the relish provided a nice balance of flavors.






Recipe courtesy of Buns in my Oven.....yes, I said Buns in my Oven... http://bunsinmyoven.com/2012/06/04/corn-cakes-with-avocado-tomato-relish/

Thanks to Matt for his contribution.  Since we were eating with mom and dad, pops takes care of the wine selection.  Trust me, if you were me, you would always want him in charge of the wine selection.  We had a bottle of Zinfandel from V Madrone which was exquisite quite frankly.

And of course, it wouldn't be complete without a look at the final dish.