One Pan, Two Plates (16 page)

2 tbsp minced fresh cilantro

1.
Sprinkle the beef with salt and pepper. In a medium bowl, stir together the chicken broth, ketchup, vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, cornstarch, and chili garlic sauce. Add the sirloin and stir to coat it with the sauce. Set aside at room temperature.

2.
Heat a 12-in/30.5-cm skillet over medium-high heat and add the vegetable oil. When the oil shimmers, add the onion and broccoli stalks to the pan and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add the bell pepper, broccoli florets, garlic, and ginger and stir-fry until
the bell pepper and broccoli florets begin to soften, about 2 minutes. Add the meat, with its marinade, and the mango to the hot pan and stir-fry it until the meat is almost cooked through, about 2 minutes. The sauce will thicken. Cover and reduce the heat to low. Simmer the vegetables and meat until the vegetables are crisp-tender, about 3 minutes longer. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Add more chili garlic sauce for a hotter dish.

3.
Mound the cooked rice onto two warmed plates, top it with the beef and vegetables, and garnish with the cilantro. Serve hot.

it’s that easy:
Fresh mangoes are easy to prepare once you’re familiar with their architecture. They have a large, wide, flat pit, kind of like the shape of your hand when your fingers are pressed together. Look down at the top of the mango; you can see that it is wider at one end. The pit runs right down the middle of the length, so there is of course more flesh on each side at the fatter end. Starting from the top (thinner) end, cut down just off center so that the knife slides along the flat surface of the pit. Cut down the other side, then peel and dice the mango halves. Choose fruit that gives lightly when pressed. If all the mangoes are hard, place one in a paper bag with an apple at room temperature for a few days to ripen it up more quickly.

extra hungry?
Add some thawed frozen edamame. The meaty fresh soybeans pack a protein punch that will fill you up and keep you that way all evening long.

in the glass:
A jammy, fruity, Australian Shiraz would be delicious with this sweet-tart meal. Look for bottlings from Rosemount Estate or Wolf Blass for intense flavor, fruit, and spice.

Skirt Steak Fajitas

with
PICO DE GALLO
and
AVOCADO

Fajitas make any day a party. They appeal to the control freak in me because they allow me to assemble everything on that warm tortilla just the way I like it (not too much meat, lots of avocado and salsa). If you haven’t tried skirt steak lately, you’re going to love it marinated with cumin and garlic and flash-cooked in a blazing hot skillet. The combo of lime-infused
pico de gallo
salsa, creamy avocado, spicy chiles, and cool sour cream ends a tough day on a bright note. Maybe even a fiesta.

........

START TO FINISH
40 minutes

...

HANDS-ON TIME
25 minutes

...

serves 2

........

2 limes

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1 garlic clove, minced

½ tsp ground cumin

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

10 oz/280 g skirt steak (see “It’s that easy”)

1 ripe tomato, cored and cut into small dice

1 small red onion, half cut into small dice, half thinly sliced

2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

1 tbsp chopped pickled jalapeño chiles (see Tip)

1 poblano chile, seeded and cut into ¼-in/6-mm strips

½ ripe avocado, peeled and sliced (see “It’s that easy,”
page 60
)

Four or five 6-in/15-cm flour tortillas

Sour cream for serving

1.
In a large zippered plastic bag, combine the juice of 1 lime, 1 tbsp of the vegetable oil, the garlic, cumin, ¼ tsp salt, and pepper to taste. Add the skirt steak. Mush the marinade around to mix well, squeeze out the extra air, zip the bag closed, and let the steak rest on the countertop while you prepare the other ingredients. (I like using a bag because the marinade really covers the surface of the meat, but if you’d rather just place it all in a casserole or shallow dish, that’s fine as well.)

2.
In a small bowl, combine the tomato, diced onion, cilantro, pickled jalapeños, ¼ tsp salt, and a sprinkling of pepper in a small bowl and squeeze half the remaining lime into it. Mix the pico de gallo and taste for seasoning, adding more lime, salt, pepper, or jalapeño.

3.
Heat a 12-in/30.5-cm skillet over medium-high heat and add 1 tbsp vegetable oil. When the oil shimmers, remove the meat from the marinade (discard the marinade) and add to the hot pan. Sprinkle the steak with salt and pepper and cook for about 4 minutes. Don’t move it—it’ll brown more nicely if left alone. Flip the meat over with tongs and cook it for 3 minutes longer for medium-rare, or 4 minutes for medium. Remove the pan from the heat and transfer the meat to a cutting board to rest while you cook the veggies.

4.
Add the remaining 1 tbsp vegetable oil to the hot pan and add the sliced onion and the poblano chile. Sprinkle the vegetables with salt and pepper and sauté until tender but still a little crunchy in the center, about 4 minutes. Squeeze the remaining lime half over the vegetables. Transfer the vegetables to a large platter and arrange the avocado alongside.

5.
Carve the meat across the grain into thin strips and arrange it on the platter with the veggies. Warm the tortillas on a plate covered with microwave-safe plastic wrap in the microwave for about 30 seconds, then add to the platter.

6.
Serve the platter of meat and vegetables and warm tortillas immediately. Pass the pico de gallo and sour cream at the table so the two of you can make your own personal fajitas just the way you like them.

tip:
Small cans or jars of pickled jalapeños are readily found in Latino markets or the Latino section of supermarkets.

it’s that easy:
Skirt steak is a flavorful cut from below the rib. It has long muscle fibers, so cutting it across the grain will make all the difference between a tender or chewy slice of meat. Just look at the meat and cut it across the fibrous lines, with your knife blade turned at a diagonal. Flank steak will work in a pinch, but it’s a thicker cut, so note you’ll need to cook it a few minutes longer.

extra hungry?
Open a can of refried beans and warm them up in the microwave. Either load the beans onto your fajita or serve them alongside.

in the glass:
Just hearing the word fajita makes me want a cold Corona longneck plucked from an icy cooler. But if wine’s your thing today, try a Rioja from Spain. Marqués de Cáceres Rioja Crianza Red is easy to find and a bargain.

Rib-Eye Steaks Florentine

with
PARSNIP-
and
-POTATO GALETTES

Ahhhhhh . . . rib-eye, one of the lushest cuts of steak, thanks to the generous marbling that runs through a steer’s juicy ribs. Add a crispy-on-the-outside potato cake perfumed with parsnip and thyme, a few shavings of Parmesan, a drizzle of olive oil, and a splash of lemon and you’ll summon a taste of the fertile valleys of Tuscany. But only if you feel like reliving a scene from the movie
Stealing Beauty
. Yes, it’s that good.

........

START TO FINISH
40 minutes

...

HANDS-ON TIME
30 minutes

...

serves 2

........

Two 8-oz/225-g boneless rib-eye steaks, (see “It’s that easy”) about ¾ in/2 cm thick

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 Yukon gold potato, peeled and grated

1 parsnip, peeled and grated

1 tbsp all-purpose flour

¼ tsp dried thyme

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

6 oz/170 g baby spinach (I use the bagged variety so I don’t have to wash it)

Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

Parmesan shavings, preferably Parmigiano-Reggiano, for garnish

½ lemon

1.
About 30 minutes before you plan to eat, transfer the steaks from the fridge to the kitchen counter. (This step removes the chill from the meat so that it cooks faster and more evenly, resulting in a juicier steak.) Pat them dry with paper towels and season with salt and pepper on both sides.

2.
While the steaks warm up, combine the potato and parsnip in a medium bowl and add the flour, thyme, ¼ tsp salt, and pepper to taste. Stir to mix well.

3.
Heat a 12-in/30.5-cm skillet over medium-high heat and add 1 tbsp of the olive oil. When the oil shimmers, add the potato-parsnip mixture in two mounds, flattening them into galettes (or pancakes) about 5 in/12 cm wide. Using the back side of a fork, scrunch and press on the top and sides of the galettes to make them neat and compact. Don’t try to move them until they’ve browned on the bottom and firmed up overall, about 3 minutes. Using a thin-bladed spatula, carefully flip them over and press lightly with the spatula to flatten and
compress. Cook until browned on the second side and cooked through, about 3 minutes longer. Transfer the galettes to a warmed plate and keep them warm under aluminum foil or in a low oven while you cook the steaks.

4.
Add the remaining 1 tbsp olive oil to the hot pan and return to medium-high heat. When the oil shimmers, add the seasoned steaks. They should sizzle and spit a little. Remember how you didn’t bother the pancakes until they’d browned? Same thing here. Cook the steaks until a crust forms on the bottom, about 4 minutes. Flip the steaks and cook the other side for about 3 minutes longer for medium-rare meat, 4 minutes for medium. Transfer the meat to a warmed plate and let it rest while you cook the spinach.

5.
There should be some oil left in the pan along with some cooked on steak juices and seasoning, which will effortlessly add flavor to the spinach. Add the spinach (it can be wet if you had to wash it) to the pan along with the nutmeg and cook it just until it’s wilted, about 1 minute. Add a splash of water and scrape up the browned meat bits on the pan bottom if they haven’t already incorporated into the spinach. Taste for seasoning and remove the pan from the heat.

6.
Put a galette on each of two warmed plates and top them with the spinach and steak. If you feel like living like an Italian tonight—and who wouldn’t—garnish the top of the steaks with the cheese shavings, a drizzle of olive oil, and a squeeze of lemon.

it’s that easy:
As the name suggests, a rib-eye is cut from the rib section of a steer (it may also be called a Delmonico). Meat from the rib section is tender and marbled with the fat that makes a steak juicy and flavorful. Nearby are the loin and top sirloin cuts, so this steak comes from a pretty good neighborhood. It usually appears in your grocer’s case in boneless form and that’s how you want it here.