Ribeyes, Caesar Salad, and Chocolate Cake
Plus: NY's Sugarfish, Dinner at Margot, and The Hills of California.
Hey everyone,
I highly recommend planning a dinner party for a Friday night. It helps if you work from home like I do, but I bet you can manage it if you prep little bits after work throughout the week. The point is that you have the whole week to look forward to it and after your work on Friday, you can sneak into the kitchen, crank up your music, and get to cooking. (Note: this only feels great if you love to cook, like many of us do. If you don’t, please ignore and also… why are you reading this newsletter?)
My friend Ryan had a birthday a few weeks ago and we went to Hudson to celebrate (remember?) but I promised to cook him a birthday dinner when we got back so that’s what happened on Friday night. I decided to make a Ribeye and Caesar dinner partially inspired by Carla Lalli Music’s latest newsletter.
My methodology is a little different. I bought two very thick ribeyes from Paisano’s, my local butcher. I seasoned them with salt and pepper and then, when my guests got there, I put them on a wire rack over a cookie sheet and reverse-seared them by cooking them in a 250 oven for 20 - 25 minutes until a thermometer inserted into the middle read 115. (You can read the full technique here.) Then, to finish, you just sizzle them in a pan until they’re golden brown and read 130 for medium-rare. Just listen to this sizzle:
I topped them with a quick salsa verde that I made by chopping parsley, garlic, pickled Calabrian chilies (I made them a few weeks ago), and lemon zest; then stirring that with lemon juice and lots of olive oil.
For the Caesar, I used my favorite recipe which I once demonstrated in this YouTube video (remember those?):
To shake things up a little, I used escarole from the farmer’s market instead of romaine (this is the stand I got the escarole from, it was expensive but amazing):
I also made garlic breadcrumbs by toasting panko in olive oil with five cloves of sliced garlic. I started them all around the same time, so the garlic never got golden; if I had to do it again, I’d toast the garlic first, then add the panko.
Ryan requested chocolate cake for dessert so I turned to my all-time favorite flourless chocolate cake recipe and even made a video:
It was kind of a perfect Friday night dinner, if I do say so myself. Who knew steak, Caesar salad, and cake could be so easy?
On Friday during the day, I met my pal Diana for lunch at Sugarfish — that L.A. sushi institution that we loved so much that opened in NY a few years ago. (This is her at the farmer’s market after, doing her best cookbook cover pose.)
As for Sugarfish, it was nice to get that “Trust Me” once again like we used to do on the corner of Sunset and Gower.
I remember when the reviews came out of the NY Sugarfish, they were kind of middling and I can see why. The restaurant didn’t have the same polish that the LA one does (I had a bone in one of my pieces)… though some of the sushi was sublime. And at $39 for a little tasting menu of sushi, it’s still a great deal.
On Saturday night, Craig and I had dinner at Margot before seeing Safety Not Guaranteed: The Musical at BAM. I enjoyed one of those things a lot more than the other, I won’t say which. (It was Margot.)
This was the trout with olive salad and Caraflex cabbage that I had for dinner… it felt nourishing and extravagant all at once.
Earlier last week, we had dinner at Bar Centrale (our theater district fave) and then saw The Hills of California, which I did really enjoy… though it was a bit of a slow burn.
(The guy in the cowboy hat did not, in fact, enjoy it… he left, along with his hat, after Act One.)
Hey, let’s look at some links!
The Best Recipes to Welcome Fall (Eater);
A Wildly Popular NY Taqueria Nails Its Sequel (NYT Food);
Not sure how I landed on this, but Ina Garten’s favorite dessert is an apple tart with a $750 Sauternes…. mine too! Lol (Tasting Table).
That’s all for today folks. I’m still on my Peloton + audiobook kick, so off to continue my juicy Miranda July novel while biking through Portugal.
Until next time…
Your pal,
Adam
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Loved reading this - and YUM!