Happy Valley Cheesesteak

Well call up Pat and Geno down in Philly and let them know that there is a new cheesesteak in town. Then also let them know it was made by a diehard Pittsburgh Fan (LETS GO PENS!!). This is a pretty classic cheesesteak, but I did have to give it some of my own personal touches. I used some thinly sliced Delmonico Steak, sauteed onions, peppers, jalapeno (for good measure) and I made a Beer and Cheddar sauce. Of course, if I'm going to make a Pennsylvania sandwich, I better use some Pennsylvania Beer to make the sauce...probably my favorite cooking beer, Yuengling. I was really pleased with how this turned out...of course if I wanted to make it out of this world, I would have to give it the Pittsburgh touch by adding french fries and coleslaw...but I figured I'd just keep it simple. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 cup beer, preferably a lager
• 2 1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1 rounded tablespoon of all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons spicy brown mustard
• Few drops of Worcestershire sauce
• Few drops of hot sauce
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 Vidalia Onion, halved & sliced
• 1 Red Pepper, halved & sliced
• 1 Green Pepper, halved & sliced
• 1 Jalapeno, seeded, halved & sliced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 lbs Delmonico Steak, thinly sliced
• Salt and Pepper
• 4 hoagie rolls

Directions

Heat beer in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. In a separate bowl mix the cheddar cheese with the flour. Then whisk in shredded cheddar & flour mixture, spicy brown mustard, worcestershire sauce and hot sauce into warmed beer. Whisk until cheese is melted and smooth. Keep warm on low.

Melt butter in a large sautee pan over medium heat. Add in onions, peppers and jalapeno and sautee until caramelized, stirring occasionally for about 12-15 min.

For the beef, I asked the butcher at the grocery store to slice the delmonico steak as thin as possible (If they don't sell delmonico's, get a ribeye). Don't be afraid to tell them what you're using it for, that will give them an idea for how thin to make it. While the butcher did a good job, I actually ended up slicing the sliced steak into strips. 

Heat the olive oil in a large sautee pan, or use a griddle if you have one, over medium high heat. Add in the beef and sautee until cooked through about 7 min. Season the beef with salt and pepper.

Slice open the rolls and evenly distribute the beef into them. Add the caramelized onions, peppers and jalapeno and then top with a generous amount of the cheddar beer sauce. Have plenty of napkins on hand!

Since it's that time of year, I figured I'd post my favorite hockey goal of the season so far. GENO!! GENO!! GENO!!

Bacon Wrapped Filet Mignon

As most of you know, this has been a very emotionally draining week in Happy Valley. So what better way to lift our spirits than some soul food! Food that no matter what is going wrong in our life will make us forget for a brief amount of time what's going on in the outside world. This is definitely one of those dishes. A beautiful piece of filet mignon, wrapped in bacon, nestled in creamy smoked cheddar grits, topped with a spicy cajun hollandaise sauce. Bon Appétit!

Ingredients

For the Grits

• 3 cups Water
• Salt
• 3/4 cups quick cooking or old-fashioned grits (not instant!)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 ounces grated smoked white Cheddar
• Freshly ground black pepper

For the Filet Mignon

• 2 tablespoons of Olive Oil
• 2 Filet Mignons (4-6 ounces); at room temperature
• Salt, Pepper & Garlic Powder to taste
• 2 Slices of bacon

For Cajun Hollandaise Sauce

• 2 tablespoons Spanish paprika
• 2 teaspoons New mexican chile powder
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon chile de arbol
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne powder
• 3 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, clarified and melted
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Dash Worcestershire sauce

Directions

Preheat oven to 400°F

In a saucepan bring the water to a boil. Add a generous teaspoon of salt and the grits and stir with a wooden spoon to combine. When grits thicken, add the milk, cream and butter and return to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, partially cover the sauce pan and cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until grits are very tender, smooth, and creamy-thick. Add the Cheddar, season with black pepper, and stir until cheese is melted.

While your Smoked Cheddar Grits are simmering, heat 2 tablespoons of Olive Oil in a medium sauté pan. Generously season your filet mignon with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Next we want to wrap the strips of bacon around the outside of the filets. You want to wrap the bacon fairly snug around the filet in order to give the it a nice cylinder shape. The ends of the bacon should over lap and adhere to each other enough that it won’t come apart. If the bacon doesn’t stick together, slide a tooth pick in or wrap a piece of butchers twine around to keep it in place. Once your oil is nice and hot, we want to sear both sides of the filet until it’s nice and caramelized, about 2 min per side. Place steaks on a broiler pan and bake until internal temperature is 130° (Medium Rare). Please, for the love of god, don’t cook these beautiful pieces of meat to well done.

Filet's brought to Room Temperature

Filet's seasoned and wrapped in bacon

Filet's post sear

Stir together the paprika, chile powder, garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, oregano, chile de arbol, and cayenne pepper in a small bowl. Place the egg yolks and lemon juice in a medium stainless steel bowl, set over a pot of simmering water not touching the bottom of the bowl. Whisk the yolks until pale yellow and fluffy. Slowly add the clarified melted butter, a few tablespoons at a time and whisk until thickened. Season the sauce with 2 teaspoons of the spice mixture, salt, and pepper, and a dash Worcestershire sauce. Keep warm until ready to use. Hollandaise Sauce is a challenging sauce to make and does take some practice. If you are having trouble, refer to this video to aid in visualizing the techniques: Hollandaise Sauce Video

Kitchen Word of the Day

Tempering:  To bring to a desired consistency, texture, hardness, or other physical condition by or as if by blending, admixing, or kneading. 

In the case of this recipe we are talking about the temperature of the Filet Mignon. In general, tempering is very important when cooking any meat. Before we sear, bake, broil, sauté, fry any meat it is important that we bring it to room temperature. Think about it, in every cooking method we are setting the device to a certain temperature. If we add a cold or frozen piece of meat to that pre-heated device, we will in fact lower the temperature. Tempering your meat before cooking aids in lowering the cooking time and cooking your protein evenly. 

Surf n' Turf Sandwich

Hello Everybody and welcome to Happy Valley Chow! As you probably figured out this is my first ever blog so please forgive me while I'm growing accustom to this website and get a better handle on talking while I cook.  So, for my first blog post, I have decided to post the video of me creating my 6 Foot Surf n' Turf style sandwich that I made for the Nittany Tailgating Association (which I am quite proud of). It was in planning for about 3 months and finally putting it all together was a huge thrill and I couldn't have been any happier with how it turned out. Unfortunately there's no recipe for this post (that's a secret), but please enjoy the video and let me know what you think! Check back frequently for future recipes and other thoughts for foodies. Thanks again for visiting!