Coaching Cooking

Now that I’m on spring break, I can road-test some cookbook recipes that have lured me in with their pretty pictures and their tantalizing ingredients.

Williams-Sonoma has a cookbook series that focuses on different U.S. cities. I had to buy the San Francisco cookbook (it’s all about the local love). And the following recipes beckoned…

The weather is still a bit crisp during the day and I love nothing more on those days than a good steak and a creamy, delicious starch.

Rib-eye Steaks with Rosemary-Gorgonzola butter

Creamy Polenta with Teleme Cheese

Cooking notes:

The rib-eyes were fantastic. I usually buy great steaks from Whole Foods. They always have so much flavor and I don’t have to sweat the fear that they come from a run-of-the-mill factory farm. Boneless rib-eyes are easy to cook. I used a grill pan on my stovetop and cooked the steaks for 4 minutes on each side (at medium heat). Then I finished cooking the steaks in the oven (set at 400 degrees) for about 5 more minutes for medium-rare. The trick is to grill the steaks and to turn them once to sear the meat on each side and then once more before putting the steaks in the oven.

The polenta is another story. I love creamy polenta and the Williams-Sonoma recipe includes polenta, minced onion and Teleme cheese. Unfortunately, this recipe is bland, bland, bland!! I have a bunch left in the fridge so I will attempt to correct the blahness by adding some roasted garlic and cutting the leftover polenta into squares and pan-frying the pieces.

So, sometimes you just have to try something out and risk the results…the steaks were excellent and we capped off the evening with some vanilla ice cream-brownie sandwiches.