Special Shoutout to my friend Mitch for letting me use his kitchen while I was visiting him. He also cooks (and bakes too) so you should check out his instagram @mitrea32 to see what he’s been up to (we made a chocolate souffle recently which I will also share the recipe of later).
Quick Overview: This is another one of those sweet, salty, bitter triangles of culinary love that turns out pretty tasty assuming you taste your food while you’re making it. If you don’t do that while cooking it then you will be sad.
Surf and turf is…a thing. Basically someone decided that they wanted to do a fancier version of the land, sea, and air burger from McDonald’s but then decided that air was lame and that chickens don’t really fly. Anyways, this is a pretty prototypical Surf n’ Turf with the only thing special about it being the salad.
Ingredients:
- Tenderloin
- Lobster Tails
- Radishes
- Radicchio
- Lemon
- Shallot
- Green Onion
- Chives
- Olive Oil
- Butter
- Egg (only one)
- Maple Syrup and Apple Cider
- Salt, Mustard, Pepper, Paprika, Maple Syrup, Brown Sugar, and Thyme
Recipe:
Fair warning, I’ve broken down the recipe into its individual components. My recommended method of doing this would be to start with the prep side of things, then do the aioli, vinaigrette, and pickled radishes followed by the steak, lobster, and salad.
PREP: Get olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, pots, pans, water.
- Thaw your lobster tails in cold water (this takes about 30 minutes)
- Salt and pepper your steak while you wait for it to come to room temperature.
- Heat up a pan and a pot of water while you prep. You will need enough water to submerge the lobster tails completely.
- Preheat your oven to 425 degrees (for the steak)
- Cut and smash your garlic. You’re going to need a lot of it. Zest and juice the lemon while you’re at it since this recipe uses a lot of it.
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Aioli:
- Take one egg yolk, separate it from the egg white.
- Mix the egg yolk with some of the garlic to start your aioli, add a small amount of mustard to the mixture.
- Season with salt, pepper, a hint of lemon juice, and lemon zest.
- Slowly drizzle olive oil into the mixture while mixing vigorously.
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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA - Finished product should look slightly mayo. Don’t worry if it separates if you whisk it again right before serving it should reconstitute itself.
Vinaigrette/Salad:
- In a small bowl mix olive oil, smoked paprika, salt, pepper, lemon zest and juice, brown sugar, a splash of apple cider, and maple syrup. Whisk and taste accordingly. You want this to be fairly sweet and slightly sour as the radicchio itself is fairly bitter.
- Chop radicchio into shapes you find aesthetically pleasing.
- Do the same with the radish greens.
- Do the same with the shallots.
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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA - Toss products of steps 1-4 in a bowl.
Pickled Radishes:
- Wash/rinse radishes.
- Slice or mandolin those radishes into small slices. Save the greens.
- Throw those radishes into a bowl with approximately 1/2 a cup of white vinegar, 1/2 a cup of water, a small amount of lemon zest, about a tablespoon of sugar, a splash of apple cider, and a pinch of salt.
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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA - Set this aside for about 20 minutes and let it pickle.
Lobster:
- Using a reasonable amount of your smashed garlic, mix it with some finely chopped chives, green onion, and a small amount of lemon zest.
- Mix the chive, green onion, and lemon zest with some salted butter. Season with ground pepper.
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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA - Once the water has begun to boil, gently drop the tails into the water and let the cook for two minutes.
I honestly have no clue what I’m doing here when it comes to using squares vs circles vs mosaics for these photos. - Once two minutes have passed, take the tails out of the pot, straighten them, and then cut them in half length wise starting from the “non-mermaid” side.
- Once cut in half, pack each half of the tail with the herb butter from steps 1 and 2
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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA - Throw the tails into a pan for about 2-3 minutes. This pan should be hot enough that sizzling occurs when the butter hits the pan but not so hot that it burns and starts smoking.
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Steak:
- Pre-heat a pan for the steak on medium heat to medium-high. If it’s too hot we risk burning the butter.
- Pat the steak dry (optional, though it does help with the formation of a crust/the sear)
- Have butter, garlic, and thyme ready to go since you will have to dump them in immediately after you flip the steak. Have a spoon ready as well.
- Quickly sear the steak for about a minute or two on one side and then flip it to the other side.
- Immediately after turning it, toss in the butter, garlic, and thyme. Using the spoon, begin spooning the melted butter over the top of the steak for approximately the next minute or two minutes.
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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA - Once done, take the steak off of heat, put it on a rack, and place it in the oven for about 8-10 minutes. If you possess a meat thermometer use it here to monitor the internal temperature. We’re planning on getting it to about 115-120 F before we remove the steak from heat and allow it to rest.
- You can remove the steak around 115 because it should continue to cook itself a bit even after taking it out of the oven. If you’re concerned about it being underdone you can wrap it in foil to help stave off some of the heat loss.
After this is done you can put all the pieces of the puzzle together, marvel at it for a moment, and then devour it because food – while pretty – is still meant to be eaten. Enjoy!
Java, Food, Photos 