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I have a little problem. I'm addicted to cookbooks, food writing, recipe collecting, and cooking. I have a lot of recipes waiting for me to try them, and ideas from articles, tv, and restaurants often lead to new dishes. I started losing track of what I've done. So now I'm taking photos and writing about what I've prepared—unless it's terrible in which case I forget it ever happened.

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Wednesday, May 5, 2010

You can imagine Kurt’s excitement when a book with the title Steak with Friends arrived in the mail. Steak! Naturally, my first thought was: what’s in the salad chapter? I received this review copy of Rick Tramonto’s newest book, and it’s devoted to home cooking for casual entertaining. It’s full of ideas for gathering friends around the grill and sharing fun, hearty meals, and it’s also about cooking the things that partner well with steak. So, in addition to steak recipes, you’ll find soups, salads, cedar-plank salmon with mustard and maple, rubs and sauces, grilled chicken with roasted squash salad, bread pudding with gruyere and shitake mushrooms, waffle-battered onion rings with maple-chili sauce, and even desserts. And, while this book is all about entertaining at home, it is clearly from a chef’s perspective with recipes like pan-seared foie gras with peaches and mint, hamachi sashimi with pineapple bubbles (foam), and filet oscar topped with an asparagus and crab salad layered with bread cut in rounds the size of the filet. I like that about this book. I appreciate learning chefs’ techniques as they’re adapted for home cooking. So, of course, Kurt was not deprived of a steak meal, but the first dish that caught my eye was the peanut noodle salad.

I made the peanut salad dressing in advance. Peanuts were finely ground in a food processor, and then peanut oil was pulsed into the ground nuts to moisten them. Rice vinegar, soy sauce, chopped ginger, garlic, a chopped red chile, dried chile flakes, ground Szechuan pepper, a little sugar, and some salt were added, and the mixture was processed until smooth. The sauce was transferred to a bowl, and sesame oil and chili oil were added. Interestingly, before adding the dressing to the cooked noodles, it was thinned with hot, Chinese black tea. Thinning the dressing with tea was something I hadn’t seen in other peanut sauce recipes before, but I have to say I’m not sure I noticed the tea flavor among the other ingredients. Chinese egg noodles should have been used for the salad, but I was lazy about making a special trip to buy them and used spaghetti instead. After the cooked pasta was tossed with the dressing, it was topped with sliced cucumber, bell pepper, jalapeno, scallions, and peanuts, sesame seeds, and lime wedges.

The flavors in the dressing made the salad addictive, and all the fresh, crunchy toppings just made it more so. No kidding, I ended up having this salad for lunch every day until it was gone, and then I missed it. This could be topped with chicken, or even steak I suppose, and the vegetables could be added to or changed. I think the cucumber and scallions are necessary though, as those flavors marry with the dressing so perfectly.

Kurt grilled his own New York strip, and I whipped up Tramonto’s gorgonzola crust to top it. In the steak chapter, there are three different ‘crusts’ to place on just-grilled steaks, and they are gorgonzola, horseradish, and parmesan. They’re called crusts because the choice ingredient is mixed with panko bread crumbs, and as the mixture melts onto the steak, the bread crumbs give it a layer of crunch. Gorgonzola was mixed with panko, butter, cream cheese, lemon juice, and salt and pepper. I sliced the chilled mixture and placed two pieces on the steak, and Kurt grabbed it and ran to the table with knife in hand before I could get a shot of them melting into the meat. He said it was delicious.

What a lovely, bright and tasty salad, Lisa! Tea probably is too mild a flavor to make a difference in this flavorful dish. Interesting, though.The steak, on the other hand, wouldn't last long enough for a photo around here either! (Besides, sometimes I forget!)

I've been craving for salads lately. Hahaha...funny how you'd immediately go towards the salad section of a cookbook. Well...come to think of it. I probably would, too. Yummy noodle salad. Reminds me of a Thai salad I once had.

If I got a cookbook that featured a peanut noodle salad, no matter what else was in it, I'd probably still be most excited about the noodle salad! It looks delicious. And you know. The steak looks good too. but it's no match for peanut butter :P

Interesting bit about thinning out the peanut sauce with Chinese black tea. Without having tasted it, I kind of thought that might be an unnecessary step. The flavor of the sauce is so strong (look at all the ingredients in it!!!!) that I doubt the delicate flavor of the tea will be detectable. So it's good that you have confirmed my theory.

Sometimes, I feel these attempts are made unnecessarily to make recipes appear more authentic or exotic.

I love peanut salad dressing, good idea to make a bigger batch so can be used for several times. It's good idea to thin with Chinese tea. There are dishes that use chinese tea leaves. After reading your post, I need to add peanuts in my shopping list : ) I have made this before but your presentation with a Western touch is inspiring.

Wow, they both sound yummy - I'm with you the peanut noodle salad is always a winner for me. I have to say that the single photo of the steak looks equally tempting. I usually keep me steaks fairly simple, but after this post I may have to get more elaborate.