Freshening up.

Come summertime, I'm always interested in ways to eat well while using the stove and/or oven as little as humanly possible. This, of course, leads to thinking about how best to impart flavor without heat, which leads to thoughts of fish sauce, lime juice and chiles.

The Thai beef salad I made for dinner on Sunday is the perfect example. In exchange for about five minutes in stove time, I feasted on a dish that brought together many of my most favorite things. Riffing on a Patricia Wells recipe, I subbed in rare hangar steak for the roast beef and left out the cilantro. (The devil's herb, people!) The cucumbers, tomatoes, red onion and bird chiles all stayed, though, and the combination made for a delectably refreshing, satisfying meal.

If you don't have some of these ingredients already, it's worth investing. (I say "investing," but fish sauce is about $2 a bottle, max.) Both the soy sauce and fish sauce will come in handy, even when you're not cooking along Asian lines. For example, a tiny bit of fish sauce can really perk up a vinaigrette, and soy sauce adds complexity to marinades and pestos from here to kingdom come.

Thai Beef Salad
Adapted from Patricia Wells

1/2 pound hangar steak
1/4 cup salted peanuts
1 1/2 tbs. fresh lime juice
1 tbs. fish sauce
1 1/2 tsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp. freshly grated ginger
1 large garlic clove, minced
4 oz. cherry or grape tomatoes, halved lengthwise
1 kirby cucumber, washed, dried (not peeled), sliced in half lengthwise and then across on the diagonal
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1 red bird's eye chile, halved lengthwise, seeded and sliced into long, thin strips
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves, torn
1 cup fresh basil, leaves torn

Prepare the steak:

Heat a skillet over high heat. Meanwhile, lightly salt and pepper the steak on one side. (Cut the steak into two pieces if necessary to fit it into the skillet in one layer.) Once the skillet is very hot (a drop of water should dance across its surface), place the steak in the skillet, seasoned side down.

Lightly season the other side and cook for 1-2 minutes. Turn the steak and cook on the other side for 1-2 minutes, until the steak is nicely browned but still rare most of the way through. Remove to a plate and allow to cool to room temperature.

Prepare the peanuts:

In a small skillet set over medium heat, gently toast the peanuts until they are fragrant. Remove from the heat and chop roughly.

Prepare the salad:

In a small bowl, whisk together the lime juice, fish sauce, sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic and ginger. Taste for seasoning.

Thinly slice the steak crosswise, then lay the pieces flat on a plate or in a shallow bowl. Pour half the dressing over, cover the plate with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for two hours, occasionally turning the pieces of steak.

Once the steak is ready, toss it with the cucumbers, tomatoes, red onion and chili. Add the remaining dressing and toss gently. Arrange the salad on a plate and top with the herbs and peanuts.

Serves two.

This is the life.

I love my job. I like my life. And, most days, I'm pretty darn content with the demands they place on me. But, every once in a while, I sneak a glance over at the other side. What might it be like to be feckless and free, to be one of the ladies who lunch? One recent afternoon, I caught a whiff of luxury, and I liked it.

Lunch at Brasserie Ruhlman, Laurent Torondel's vast indoor/outdoor restaurant in Rockefeller Center, is most definitely a luxury. Menu highlights include steak frites, a lobster roll, oysters and sole meunière. Starting with shrimp cocktail, therefore, does seem the thing to do. What's more classic, or more perfect for a warm summer afternoon?

And I know you know that a true lady who lunches always orders steak tartar. After all, what good is a meal if it doesn't need to be mixed tableside? (Actually, this is the place to tell you that the service at Brasserie Ruhlman was a bit odd. Our waiter didn't seem to care for us much, and instead of offering to mix up my tartar himself, he said, "Would you like to stir?" and kind of walked away. Lame.)

And this is excellent steak tartar. The meat was fresh as could be, and the sauce and, er, fixins were wonderful: big, juicy, salty capers, chopped shallots, dill and parsley, all topped with a piquant dressing and a teeny, perfect quail egg. Yum.

The fries were pretty freaking awesome, too. If not terribly ladylike. Whatever.

Brasserie Ruhlmann
45 Rockefeller Plaza
212.974.2020

Queenie's Treasury

The holiday craziness has descended upon me, my friends. I've been cooking up a storm for two days now, getting ready for the dinner party I'm throwing with Louisa tonight. It's going to be quite a feast (if I do say so myself), and I promise full details shortly. In the meantime, here's some Treasury goodness to keep you going.

First, from New York Magazine's annual Reasons To Love New York issue, a look at the best and brightest of the city's soups. Just in time for the bitter cold weather we've been having (and my two weeks off from work). Score! (For those of you not lucky enough to be in New York right now, the magazine's Grub Street blog offers guides to soup in Boston, Philly, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles.)

You all know how obsessed I am with Serious Eats' Food Lab series (mainly, I think, because I could never be patient enough to be so scientific about my food), and this week's edition is no exception. Just in time for Christmas (Does any other holiday scream "big piece o' beef" quite so loudly?), a look at how to make the perfect prime rib.

Finally, from one of my favorite blogs - Cherrypatter - comes a fantastic idea for how to spend your Christmas Eve. Apparently, a group of people gathers each year to carol around the tree in Washington Square Park. All are welcome - nay, encouraged - to join the fun, which begins at 5 PM. Let me know if you go; can't wait to hear all about it!

Whatever the birthday girl wants, Thomas Keller provides.

After a day of burgers and champagne, what's a girl to do? Well, when she has a 30th birthday to celebrate, she piles into a limo with her closest friends and family (and a few bottles of champagne) and drives from Sonoma to Napa for dinner at Thomas Keller's Bouchon.

In his cookbook of the same name, Keller famously describes Bouchon as the place he likes to eat after a night of cooking at the more formal French Laundry, just down the street in Yountville. It's a traditional French bistro plopped down in the middle of Napa Valley. (You might think it would be lonely, but it's actually just a few doors down from another traditional bistro, Bistro Jeanty.)

The food at Bouchon is traditional, but not boring. In fact, I can safely say that it's among my top ten favorite places to eat in the entire world. The food is beautifully & meticulously executed, made with loving care and the best ingredients available. Case in point? Jeremy's French onion soup, made with a deeply rich beef stock and loads of sweet onions. Topped with a brioche crouton the exact size of the bowl and covered in melted gruyère, it's the most sinful soup you've ever seen. (Except maybe for the butternut squash soup, which Keller finishes with a stick of browned butter.)

For my starter, I ordered a special: an egg poached in red wine (oeuf en meurette), served with another of those inimitable croutons, extra red wine sauce, bacon and frisée. It was essentially a frisée aux lardons salad, minus most of the salad part, and it was delicious. Rich and silky, smoky from the bacon and just slightly dry, thanks to the red wine.

A couple of years ago, I spent a few months having nothing but disappointing steak after disappointing steak. I went to Bouchon and, with great trepidation, ordered the steak frites. And while it broke my losing streak, it ruined me for all other versions, possibly forever. I didn't order the steak frites this time, but Jeremy did. The steak at Bouchon is off-the-charts, thanks in part to the paste of shallots, butter and herbs decorating the top. The steak is cooked on a flattop, spread with the shallot mixture, and then finished under the broiler.

For my main, I had the duck: magret de canard and confit. The sear on the breast and legs was great, but my favorite parts were the huckleberry gastrique and the savoy cabbage. Sweet sauces pair beautifully with duck, and this one was no exception. The cabbage, with its peppery, slightly sour flavor, offered a nice contrast to the rich duck and the sweet fruit.

I somehow missed taking pictures of dessert, but I can assure you that it lived up to the rest of the meal. I ordered the restaurant's signature dessert, the bouchons - little cork-shaped brownies made with bittersweet chocolate. They were supposed to be served with mint ice cream, but since I pretty much hate mint in my desserts, I made a special birthday-girl request for coffee ice cream, and my wish was granted - all before I blew out my candle!

Let there be light!

If you saw Louisa's comment, you probably figured out that we had lunch at Cookshop over the weekend (on Friday, to be exact), and promptly discovered that they do a salad as well as they do a cookie - and it's a lot easier to take photos when the place is flooded with light.

I started off with the beet salad, which also appears on the dinner menu. Roasted beets, strained yogurt, and grapefruit segments are topped with a generous handful of chervil. (Sidenote: Does anyone know a good, reliable place in Manhattan where chervil is regularly available? I have the hardest time finding it!) This was delicious, if you like beets, which I do (though Louisa does not). The root vegetables and grapefruit are pure winter, but the chervil nods to the coming spring - it's both cool and hearty, tangy and meaty. Big hit.

Louisa's cocktail - also a big hit. It was the Gin Jersey, a combination of gin, Boylan's cherry soda, and mint. Refreshing and so pretty. While the rash of really bad cosmos that swept the city in the early 2000's almost spoiled me for pink cocktails, I can still appreciate the combination of hard-ass and girly that is a spiked blush-colored drink.

I had another (ok, I had two, what can I say) St. Germain Collins, and Nick had an excellent (and very, very strong) Sidecar. I like my friends because they like their cocktails - they have superb taste in booze.

Our second course was full of lunch-y goodness - Louisa had a delicious chicken salad, I had the juicy and thoroughly satisfying steak salad, and Nick had a ridiculously good burger with pickled onions - ALL burgers should have pickled onions. All of them. Every. Last. One.

Finally, dessert, which I enjoyed solo, since Nick and Louisa have given up dessert for Lent, those crazy kids. I had the milk chocolate bread pudding, which comes with a tangy, almost lemony cream which I'm guessing was a buttermilk creme anglaise - cut right through the richness. Loves it.


I'm trying hard to find a bad thing to say about our lunch, a piece of constructive criticism, but I honestly can't think of anything. It might have something to do with the two cocktails, but I was really impressed. Oh, and - they have a $25 prix fixe three course lunch. Go, and go now. Escape from midtown!!!