Debbie: Hi, I’m Debbie Agugnani and welcome to Strip house. Today, we’re going to do a modern interpretation of some steakhouse classics, so let’s go behind the burner and meet the chef! So I’m here with Chef John Shank. John, what are we making, I see lots of potatoes.
Chef John Shank: This is something that actually my mom made for me a couple of years ago in the fourth of July and it actually uses old baked potatoes that we grate. So anytime I come across a recipe that uses leftovers in a new way—
Debbie: So does it make you think of your mom?
Chef John Shank: And these need to be cooked the day before—so it’s not too moist. You don’t want it super wet, otherwise, it’s going to mush out on you. And it’s really just charlottes, cheddar cheese, sour cream, salt and pepper.
Debbie: Those are easy ingredients that you have at home that you can have in your-
Chef John Shank: Exactly, Michelle! It’s really nice to have that white—it has a really mild onion flavor. You want to get your salt and pepper, toss your salt and ground white pepper and you really want to—you’ve got to season it before you add the sour cream. Once you have the sour cream, it just gets too gloppy and you can’t get an even distribution. So then, what I’d like to do is just cook—
Debbie: Wait, I’ve got to get in there. You can’t do that alone.
Chef John Shank: I just want to be able to taste the salt. And then I’m just going to add the charlottes, raw and minced charlottes, okay, now you notice how I’m using—I’m not using a spoon, I’m really using my gloved hands. Always a hygienic, you want to keep it nice and light and fluffy.
Debbie: I notice the technique, you're kind of lifting it up and like incorporating more air.
Chef John Shank: Exactly! And then I’m going to add some cheddar cheese, and so you have cheddar, you’re going to go in and sometimes, you’re going to have to put on top.
Debbie: So there are two different textures, the melted cheddar inside the potato and then the kind of crusty cheese on top.
Chef John Shank: Right, and then you add your sour cream and then you want to just lightly incorporate. It’s very important that it will be nice and broad, but hear that ripping sound.
Debbie: Yeah.
Chef John Shank: That means that you're good to go. Take your container and just stand before me. I’ll just give you a nice light—I’m just putting it in. I want to give it a little bit of room to shrink, kind of settle, put that nice air in there so I’ll keep it a little bit more, almost soufflé, then put your cheese over the top, and then you just bake it in a 375-degree oven in a water bath for about 15 minutes. Hot water works, it just speeds up the whole process.
Debbie: So why the water baths? So it doesn’t break?
Chef John Shank: Well, it just wants gentle heat and that’s pretty much it and you just bake it and then serve.
Debbie: So potatoes are done, it’s time for steak.
Chef John Shank: Now, here, we’re going to do our signature strips steak—we have strip stake 16 ounces, prime. So this is our 22 ounce bone and rib chop and you really get them a lot in the supermarket with this bone taken off and it’s just a rib-eye steak, and I really suggest this for the home cook because of the nature of where it comes on the animal, it has this great marbling that works throughout the entire—
Debbie: Marbling is so important because having those little grains of fat going makes it so juicy.
Chef John Shank: Fat is flavor. We do just a light oiling of the steak. When we put on the heat, that’s going to make that surface sizzle really quickly. All we really do here is just fresh cracked black pepper and we do it in-house and Kosher salt. Flip it over, I’d salt first, not too much. Allow what’s going to fall off in the process, so you guys start with a little bit more of everything because you’re going to end up with the right amount at the back end. This works—the broiler works, although there was an outdoor grill. We really want that heat on that surface. It’s almost like making your roast to be brown most. The other important thing is when you’re turning your meat, we’ll get in there and flip it over. Don’t drag it across the grates. Now, the real key to outdoor grilling or any type of grilling meat is to let it rest after it’s done grilling. And really, I just wanted to add simply, get that muscle relaxed because like any kind of cooking, this is an invasive technique, if the muscles are going to tighten up a little bit, those juices are like going to scatter and you really want them to come back and evenly distribute through the meet.
Debbie: So John, what are we eating?
Chef John Shank: Well, this is our signature New York strip steak and as you can tell, here’s the rest of the thing, look how nice and how little juice is coming in all of this thing when you get that slice.
Debbie: Amazing crust outside, crisp! And it’s juicy inside.
Chef John Shank: Exactly! Look at that nice—a little bit of texture difference brings it out pretty well.
Debbie: Well done! Well, John. Thank you so much for having us. Stay tuned to Behind the Burner where we give you the tips, tricks and techniques that are lighting the culinary world on fire.