Tag Archive for 'Meat'

Japanese Style Broast Duck

Published
by
marc
on August 24, 2008
in Duck, Japanese and Uncategorized
. 5 Comments

Okay, this is admittedly a terrible name. I always cringe when I see any recipe that starts with “Japanese style” (replace Japanese with any country). It tells me that the creator either didn’t feel confident enough in the authenticity of the dish to give it its proper name, or they were just too lazy to come up with a better name for their new dish (which doesn’t bode well for the recipe). In this case it’s more the later than the former, but this one is tasty, I promise!

What the hell is a broast you ask? Well it’s a rather un-witty name I came up with for half braising / half roasting something. As it turns out, it’s also a trademarked technique of pressure frying chicken, but I’m too tired to think of a better name, so until someone posts a comment with a better name, this dish is forever blighted with its rather unoriginal trademark infringing name.

So how did it come to be? I had 4 duck legs sitting in the freezer waiting to be turned into confit, but I just wasn’t in the mood to do a real confit, so I started thinking of other ways I could cook this. One of my favourite Japanese dishes is Buta Kakuni (braised pork belly); it’s a great way to prepare fatty cuts of meat and duck legs squarly fit in that category.

One of the best parts of duck though is having crisp skin, and several hours of braising aren’t exactly conducive to that end. Braising then broiling won’t work because the skin would absorb too much moisture, and I could always braise and deep fry it, but I really didn’t feel like using up a quart of oil for 4 legs. So how could I make the the meat moist and fall-off-the-bone tender while having crisp golden brown skin? Broasting!

Broasting starts off with a quick browning under the broiler, then with just enough liquid to braise the meat half of the duck, it goes in the oven allowing the skin half to slowly roast, unimpeded by liquid. It finishes up with a few quick minutes under the broiler to make sure that the skin is nice and crisp.

It worked! The meat was tender and moist, with a thin layer of creamy melt-in-your-mouth fat, topped with a crisp layer of skin. It’s similar in flavour to its more porky cousin, but but the roasting intensifies the flavours of the dashi and soy sauce creating a slightly sweet glaze on top.
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Steak with mint chimichurri sauce

Published
by
marc
on July 21, 2008
in Beef and Latin
. 11 Comments

Perhaps it’s your body telling you that you need more iron, or maybe it’s a commercial you saw on TV, but sometimes you get a hankerin’ for a big juicy steak that just can’t be satisfied by any other means. In New York that usually means you head to Peter Luger’s, Strip House, Craft Steak, or one of the other dozen premium steak houses in town. This also means your wallet will be about $150 lighter.

Being on a budget, I almost never go to a steak house as it’s about the easiest thing you can make at home and it will cost less than 1/3 of the price. All you need is a good cut of meat, a heavy bottomed pan and timer. I went with two 10 oz. dry aged rib eye steaks from Whole Foods at $25 a lb. It’s not the best piece of meat I’ve ever had, but it was a heck of a lot better than most steaks I’ve had in restaurants and took me about 10 minutes from start to finish.

The trick is to get a heavy bottomed pan (which means the heat is distributed evenly) really hot then sear the steaks on either side for a few minutes. Doing it over medium heat ensures an enticing brown crust without destroying a stainless steel pan and a sheet of aluminum foil prevents a huge mess of splattered grease.

Chimichurri sauce is an Argentinian condiment served with meat that usually consists of oil, parsley, and some kind of acid, but for my version, I opted for mint and lime. It lightens up the heavy hunk of beef and provides a nice tart contrast while the olive oil adds some extra body to the meat.

I served this a with truffle creamed chard which I’ll tell you more about tomorrow.

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Ohmi Wagyu beef (a.k.a. crack)

Published
by
marc
on April 28, 2008
in Beef and Japanese
. 17 Comments

Wagyu beef has become synonymous with beer fed, massaged beef that no-one can afford. Just one look at the menu’s of many New York steakhouses and you’ll see that Wagyu from Japan lists at around $30 per OUNCE!

Now I’m definitely one to pay the extra buck for quality food, but 30 bucks a bite is a bit steep even for me. I’ve tried both Australian, and American raised Wagyu which are both cheaper than the Japanese kind and while admittedly good, they left me wondering why I paid so much for something only marginally better than a good grass-fed steak.

So Saturday I’m at the Mitsuwa in Edgewater, New Jersey doing my monthly Japanese food run and I noticed these big banners advertising Ohmi Wagyu beef. I’ve seen them carry Wagyu before but they were expensive, and given my past experiences I had no desire to spend $40 for a small steak. As I worked my way to the meat section, I noticed a massive crowd gathered around a table that was wafting a heavenly scent. Samples!

As you probably guessed by now, one taste is all it took before I was hooked. I had the beautifully marbled steak you see above in my cart before the buttery flavor of the sample had left my mouth. A quarter pound of beef for two people isn’t much, but really you have to think of this as foie gras or caviar. It’s something you savor for its deliciousness, not something you’d make an entire meal out of. And delicious it was. I sliced it up, got a pan super hot and quickly seared each side, dipping it in some cherry wood smoked salt and sesame oil on the way to my mouth.

So what is Wagyu and why is it so good? It’s actually a breed of cattle that has been breed specifically for a high fat content. The ones raised in Japan are fed a mix of corn, wheat, rice, sake and beer and are cared for on an individual level (no overcrowded feed lots). Some ranches even massage their cows as it is believed that a calm and stress-free cow yields better meat. Over the past 20 years, some of these cattle have been exported to the US and Australia where ranchers have tried to emulate their production, but having had both, I’d have to say that something in the water ain’t the same.

For those of you in the US that don’t live near a Mitsuwa, you can order it online directly from the importer at ADiRECT Foods.

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