Sunday Gravy with yeah right: A Weak Excuse to cook a Steak. The Herbed Butter Episode!

Good morning folks.

Hope everyone’s spring is off to a decent start.

Now that the NCAA finals are all set, and wasn’t it exciting watching four number 1 seeds play! –  I guess the NFL Draft is the next sports milestone. Less than 3 weeks away. Basically folks, we should be in NHL and NBA playoff prep time. You can also be a baseball degen like some of us here but otherwise?

We’re deep down in the dregs of the offseason. Shit’s hard too, man.

EPL is all but wrapped, no World Cup or Olympics to tide us over. This odd year shit is fucked up, dude!

We will endeavor to persevere as we always do… With food.

That’s why my dumb ass is here after all.

So there I was in the kitchen the other dayyyyy…

Thinking “Fuck me, a steak and baked potato sure sounds tasty.” But ain’t we already done that shit? Like a fucking LOT?

Trying to be as fucking resourceful as possible I put some brainpower to the concept and came up with?

Compound butter!

Fuck off! That is NOT cheating! Compound butters are awesome and can level up some dreary ass meal in a big fucking way!

Besides, we haven’t done that yet and it STILL allows me to get away with a steak and baked potato.

Hope some of you have had a chance to fuck around with compound butters, because they really are simple and they unequivocally fucking WORK.

Let’s do a quick “Give and take” if you will.

Let’s say you’ve got some biscuits. How about a honey butter?

Staying with the sweet butters, if you’re making some plain-ass toast or an English muffin or fuck it, maybe even a bagel?  How about strawberry honey butter? That shit would be dynamite on a waffle too.

Yeah? You’re starting to see this shit now, ain’t you?

Compound butters don’t have to just be sweet, shit no! 

Making some pasta and want to lively it up a bit? You can make an olive, garlic butter.

Man make some basic garlic butter and you’re doing garlic toast in a fraction of the time!

Garlic lends itself to a whole fucking host of different compound butters. Get creative and shit.

Caramelized onion and roasted garlic butter?

Fuck yes! That’s a damn good one! You get the idea

Trust me, any weak-ass reason I can find to make a steak and a baked potato? I’m taking it. And just the idea of what type of compound butter to put on top of the steak made my brain do somersaults with the possibilities.

Oh fuck! Blue cheese garlic butter!

Stop it! Now you’re taking this shit a bit too far. Love the idea but re-focus dammit!

Basically give some thought to what you want to make and Google search for flavored butter or compound butter and you’re all set.

Let’s make some motherfucking garlic herb butter.

Acquire your ass some fresh herbage for this one. How about a little fresh thyme and rosemary today?

Nice! We’re back on point.

What is that a teaspoon each of rosemary and thyme? Yep. That shit works for me

And some fresh garlic. No you won’t need this much garlic for the butter, probably just a clove.

I just went ahead here and chopped up a bunch for my vegetarian soup too while I was at it.

The next part? This is some serious radical shit, man!

Combine them!

Oh shit!

Get a stick of butter up to room temperature. Yeah it’s a pain in the ass when it’s cold outside and takes fucking forever but in order to get the right buttery consistency, we can’t melt the butter with the application of heat. The milk fats and solids would separate.

And that would be bullshit for today’s application.

When the butter gets to room temperature, add in the garlic and the herbs and give everything a proper and thorough mixing.

Scoop the butter out onto a small sheet of plastic wrap.

Pull the plastic wrap over the wad of butter goo and do your best to shape it into a log or loaf shape.

Next twist the ends of the plastic and while rotating your wrists, toss it over in a circle a few times. Like your doing a yo-yo trick or some fucking thing.

It will also help shape the butter.

Fucking perfect over here!

Back in the fridge it goes for a couple of hours.

These same steps apply for any and every form of compound butter. Easy as shit.

Knowing that I was going to be making a compound butter for this episode, I thought long and hard what to serve it on…

.

..

…

And 30 seconds later knew I would be cooking a steak and a baked potato.

Get your steak(s) out of the fridge for at least 30 minutes to come to room temperature. My kitchen was running a little cold on this day so I left this shit out for a couple of hours. Ain’t gonna hurt nothing.

Use this time to prepare your baked potatoes for proper bakeage.

I’m the one who likes the potato coated in olive oil and then sprinkled with salt before baking directly on the oven rack. Maybe you prefer the prick with a fork and wrap in foil technique?

Do what works for you! I ain’t gonna give you grief over it!

Can’t fucking believe I’m instructing you all on baking a goddamn potato.

Now let’s get to seasoning our steak. Season that motherfucker with bad intent. Don’t go all “weak sauce” on me. Season that shit.

There you go.

Both sides too. Steak can take A LOT of seasoning, especially salt and pepper.

For mealtime, my preferred steak cooking technique?

That shit ain’t even close enough to call it a competition.

Cast iron motherfuckers!

Get that fucker hot, add in a small splash of oil and get busy.

I’m going after a medium rare/medium-ish prep today and I’m looking for a nice sear on the steak.

Five minutes then flip over.

Five more minutes then in the oven for 5 minutes.

Remove the steaks and the potatoes from the oven. Cover the steak with foil and let rest for about 10 minutes. This shit is CRITICAL! It allows the steak juices to settle and redistribute. This will also allow the potato to cool off so it doesn’t melt your fucking fillings when you eat it.

Grab some vino and get busy!

Be sure to get a good pat of butter on that steak, and what the fuck? Add some to your veggies too.

Shit yes, you could put some of that herb butter on your potato too but I’m kind of a purist with my baked potato. 

Although?

A chive butter would be the bright shiny tits on that potato.

By the way, I’m a HUGE fan of that pinot noir. It’s in the regular rotation for sure.

Worried that steak may have been cooked too long or not long enough?

Take a gander.

We’ve turned a nice steak and potato dinner into a dynamic steak and potato dinner. That butter does everything and more to the steak. Just a fantastic addition of flavors and additional fat.

Shit yes.

Before we get to today’s uplifting holidays from A Bit Of Good News, these are the results of it’s weekly online poll.

“POLL

Do with that what you will.

Today’s holidays!: “April 6 is National Acai Bowl Day, National Caramel Popcorn Day, National Carbonara Day, National Library Day, National Pajama Day, National Siamese Cat Day, National Tartan Day, National Twinkie Day, Fresh Tomato Day and Play Outside Day.”

Lot to work with there. You can decide.

Thanks to each and everyone of you for being a part of this here Sunday Gravy thing. YOU make it all worth the effort.

Same time next week?

Cool!

Until then…