Kitchen Experiment #2: Trying to replicate a favorite steak dish from a restaurant 8,000 miles away

My 8-year old son has been bugging me the past few days about craving for steak. He remembers the steak we used to have at a restaurant in Manila called Mamou. I knew that unless I buy a dry aged cut of Angus beef, my experiment of coming up with something close to that will fail. Nonetheless, I had to try to satisfy his craving with whatever ingredients I could easily find.

Method:

I chose rib eye slices from Costco. I'm a rib eye devotee and so are my husband and kids mainly because of the extra moisture brought about by the heavy marbling. With the help of some basic seasoning and cooking gadgets, I took a stab at transforming these pieces of meat into chunks of heavenly bliss.



My basic seasoning repertoir consists of sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper. All of us prefer our meat unadulterated and free of any heavy rubs.



After generously seasoning the meat with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil, I laid them down onto a very hot grill pan to get a good char on both sides. I wish I had grapeseed oil on hand which has a neutral taste and works best when cooking at very high temperatures.



Once I got the char I wanted, off the slices went to bask in a 350°F oven until my instant read thermometer reached 135°F (I was aiming for a Medium Well). A generous dab of butter as soon as they got out of the oven was a must as well as another sprinkling of sea salt. I served the steak with sautéed fresh mushrooms, mashed potatoes (using Betty Crocker Butter and Herb -- didn't have energy left to make it from scratch) and summer sweet corn.

Steak by Mamouommy!



Results:

Kitchen Experiment #1: Trying out Peameal Bacon

Kitchen Experiment #1: Trying out Peameal Bacon

At the grocery store today, I chanced upon a different kind of bacon -- peameal bacon.  The information on the packaging screamed “I’m the healthier bacon!” with 85% less fat and 40% less salt. So I didn't think twice on putting it in my cart.

Peameal bacon....what is it? Obviously, I was not raised in Canada to know that this type of bacon originated from Canada and that peameal bacon sandwiches are considered to be a signature dish of Toronto with its most famous versions sold at the St. Lawrence Market.

Method:

When I opened the package, it did seem like the healthier brother of the traditional pork belly bacon since it came as slices of trimmed boneless pork loin rolled in ground yellow cornmeal. To cook them, I followed the suggested stove top cooking method which is to pan fry the slices over medium heat on a lightly oiled cooking surface 2 to 3 minutes per side, turning once.



I served the bacon with English muffins, cheese, soft scrambled eggs and some fruit to complete the meal. Breakfast is served !



Results: