PS7s possibly becoming South American Steakhouse

Rumors have circulated for months about whether PS7s was closing, and if so, what would become of it. It's been pretty clear for at least the last month that it was closing, but until now, there hasn't been much information. Today the Washington Post reported that it would be replaced by "Del Campo," a South American restaurant focusing on the pleasures of the grill. The chef behind it is suggested to be Victor Albisu, former chef at BLT Steak and Taco Bamba. However, there's still no word from PS7's chef-owner Peter Smith. [Washington Post]

Marinated Hanger Steak

One of our favorite cuts of beef is the Hanger Steak, so-called because it 'hangs' from the diaphragm. It has all of the beefiness of rib-eye at a much lower price. Due to the coarser structure of the meat, it also takes well to marinades, and that's what we decided to do this past weekend. I used a recipe from Serious Eats as a baseline, but I added some Arbol peppers, since that's apparently what I was doing that weekend.

One of the reasons hanger steaks are as cheap as they are is that they're a bit of a pain to trim. There's typically a lot of excess fat and silverskin you need to remove before cooking. And you need to remove it! I tried it without once, and it wasn't nearly as good. Not to mention that if you're grilling, all that fat will cause massive flare-ups. After trimming, you'll see a thick sinew running down the middle of the steak. You need to cut the steak in half to remove; it's too tough to eat. I always recommend cooking steaks medium rare, but with hanger, it's almost a necessity. Any less, and it'll taste mushy.

I enjoyed the recipe below. I marinated for about four hours, and that probably wasn't quite enough. There was some spiciness from the pepper, for example, but with a few more hours, there could have been a better level. Also, I should have used some indirect heat to finish up the thicker bits. But it was still really good, and I look forward to cooking more hanger in the future. Recipe after the jump.

How to cook a steak

I always used to have a lot of trouble pan-frying steaks. I could never get the interior warm without just burning the outside to ciders. However, after a great deal of research and experimentation, I happened across the answer -- stick it in the oven! Of course, if you just put it in the oven, you might get a well cooked steak, but you won't get the crust that makes a good crust great. You need to start it off in the pan, give it a crust, and then transfer it to an oven. Cast iron is a natural for this, since you can just take the pan you're frying it in, and stick in in the oven.

The other key is the amount of time. If you want to cook your steak medium-rare, which you should, you need to cook it for 10 minutes. This is pan frying and oven roasting combined. However, it depends on how thick the steak is. 10 minutes is for a steak roughly an inch thick, and you need to adjust if it's thicker or less thick. It's mostly an art, though I usually do 8 for a steak that's 1/2 of an inch thick, and I don't usually cook steaks that are more than an inch thick.

So here's how it goes. Grab a steak, about .4 pounds per person. My wife always wants .25 pounds per person, but I never think that that's enough, especially when it comes to steak. But you know what you like. It should be room temperature, so take it out of the fridge at least half an hour before you intend to start cooking it, give it some salt and pepper, and let it sit.

Once it's sat on the counter for a while, put a cast iron pan on the stove and get it really, really hot. It doesn't need to be at the highest setting, but it needs to be up there. Fry it for between 1.5 and two minutes each side. Don't move it! You need to let it sit for it to develop a nice crust. Technically, you want to leave it until it slides freely and doesn't stick -- that's how you know it's developed that crust. But I'm vigorous enough in my shaking that that's a fine line. So I just really on the times above, and it works out fine. Once you've seared both sides, and maybe a bit before that second side is finished searing, stick it in a 450 degree oven. If you need the oven a different temperature for the vegetables you're doing with the steak, don't worry about it, you'll be okay.

After the time you've spent cooking the steak (frying + roasting) is 10 minutes, or whatever seems good to you, take the steak, put it back on the counter, and put some aluminium foil over it. Let it rest for about 5 minutes so the juices can redistribute themselves. After that, do what you want, you've got steak!

Bourbon Sauced Steak

For dinner, we had a peppercorn steak in a bourbon sauce, based off of a recipe I found on Epicurious. Some time I'll belabor you with the details of how I prepare steak, but I want to focus specifically on this recipe. I'm still working on an easy way to crack peppercorns without them becoming too fine. I suppose I should buy a burr grinder, but that really seems like too much. The steak was good -- a New York Strip. It was a bit thin, but it worked just fine with the recipe. The sauce, consisting predominantly of heavy cream, bourbon, shallots, and beef stock, was quite tasty, but it was thinner than is ideal. On the other hand, the quinoa did a good job of sopping it up! Next time, I'll either reduce it more before adding the cream or add some corn starch. I think I'd also add some Worcestershire Sauce to make it a bit more savory. We paired it with a Brewer's Art Green Peppercorn Trippel, which is a lovely beer, and paired really well with the dish.