Hanger Steak, Asparagus, Peas, Shiitake, Pasta, Pan Sauce

Ingredients

Makes 2 Servings

• 225g Hanger Steak (about 8 oz, or 1/2 lb)

• 100g Pasta (about 1/4 lb)

• 75g Asparagus tips (roughly the tips from one bunch, about 1 cup)

• 75g Frozen peas (about 1 cup)

• 10g Dried Shiitake mushrooms (about 1 cup)

• 10g Olive Oil (about 1 tablespoon)

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Recipe

1. Preheat a water bath to 55˚C (131˚F). Put the steak in a ziplock or vacuum seal bag, remove as much air as possible, seal, and drop the bag into the water bath. [If you needed me to tell you to seal the bag, you have bigger problems to worry about.] Cook for an hour. It’s fine if it goes over and hour. It could be 2 hours for all I care… That’s one of the benefits of cooking in a water bath!

2. Remove the steak from the bag and reserve the juices and the steak separately. I swear to the gods I will find you and slap you if you discard the juices from that bag.

3. Bring a large sauté pan full of salted water to a boil. Taste the water BEFORE YOU ADD ANY INGREDIENTS. It should taste like the ocean. Don’t know what the ocean tastes like? It’s salty. Add the mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes. [You could also just pour a little boiling water into a bowl to rehydrate the mushrooms, but this way is simpler, less cleanup, and it flavors the pasta water! [Yay for lazy!] Remove and reserve the mushrooms.

4. Sprinkle kosher salt on every side of the steak. Heat 10g of olive oil (~ 1 tablespoon) in a large frying pan over high heat. Just as the oil starts smoking, add the meat and sear for about a minute on each side. High heat ensures maximum flavor from browning. We’ve already cooked the steak, but it looks absolutely terrible (see attached scatological mise en place photo) and needs some flavor.

5. Reserve steak to a warm area near the stove.

6. Reduce heat to medium. Deglaze the pan with the reserved juices from the steak. If you forgot to do that, you can use a few tablespoons of water and shame. Deglaze just means “add liquid to a hot pan so we can scrape the brown stuff (fond) off the bottom, which means more flavor in our sauce and easier cleanup.” [You can see why, for the sake of brevity, I prefer deglaze.] Add the reserved mushrooms. Don’t touch them. Do NOT fucking touch them. Just let them brown. They’re like children, the more hands off you are the tastier they get. [I don’t have kids.]

7. Add pasta to the water and cook for a minute less than the al dente recommendation on the package. About 5 minutes before the pasta finishes, toss the veggies in with the mushrooms.

8. Add pasta to the mushrooms and veggies (I just use tongs to grab and dump) and mix.

9. Plate with the steak. And eat.