Two Guys with an Appetite

Ok, so the Two Guys know that you’re thinking “get real this is impossible to make and certainly impossible to make in less than an hour,” right? Well you would be wrong. This entire meal is so fast and easy to make, and you’d probably spend more time washing dishes (we did) than making it!

So John left work early (just because) and called Nick and said, “I have a special surprise for you tonight.” Here’s a hint what it was:

While Nick traveled home, John whipped up dinner.

One pound of mushrooms getting washed:

Nick is not the world’s biggest mushroom fan, so John was hopeful that he could pull off a creamy mushroom soup that Nick would eat.

Saute finely chopped mushrooms (and if you like, a bit of garlic and onion) in some olive oil (or butter).

The Two Guys don’t generally cook with butter, favoring oils instead.

Add the secret ingredient:

Cook all on high heat until the mushrooms reduce:

Then cover them and let them caramelize. It’s done caramelizing when they look like this:

Add some flour and a bit of chicken bouillon base:

Beef base would work just as well. Add about one cup water and one cup milk and let simmer:

Many recipes call for half and half (or worse, heavy cream), but we find that plain old milk is fine. Don’t get us wrong – we love anything made with heavy cream (who doesn’t?) but the extra fat, calories and cholesterol are rarely worth it. Also note that the Two Guys prefer soy milk over cow’s milk.

While the mushroom mixture is simmering, fill a saute or sauce pan with corn or peanut oil and crank it up to high. (This will be for the potato chips). Then use a mandolin (with the width set as thin as you can manage) to quickly slice up one golden potato. (Goldens work great for potato chips.  Don’t use Russets, as they have far too much starch and moisture to work for potato chips.) Lay out the slices on several paper towels:

This helps the starch leach out a bit. If you are feeling industrious, then you can do this step at the beginning (before the mushrooms are chopped) and put the slices of potato into an ice bath for about 15 minutes. This helps leach out even more starch.

So anyway, whether or not you do the ice bath route, after the potatoes are lying out to dry, pat them firmly with paper towels. Remember, you’re putting them into very hot oil, so the less moisture, the better.  Don’t salt them yet.  They will go into the oil naked:

They cook extremely fast, no more than 60-90 seconds.  Keep moving them around so they cook evenly and don’t get stuck together. Pull them out when crisp and sprinkle with salt and if you wish, a spice or two.  We like cumin tonight:

And you now have homemade potato chips. The Two Guys have a very bad habit of eating them off the pan before we get to the meal.

Now pour the bubbly mushroom mixture into a food processer:

Food processors are magic.  They take this mix of mushrooms, spices, garlic, onions, oil and milk (and that secret ingredient too), and turn it into liquid gold.  And while the magic is happening, we add another secret ingredient:

Meanwhile, take two filets and coat one side only with oil, crushed sea salt, and crushed black pepper (in that order):

While the filets are resting, toss raw butternut squash with a bit of olive oil, soy sauce, and brown sugar:

Sure, you can add ginger and garlic if you like. We decided to let the squash be the star though. Throw the mixture (less any liquid) into a hot pan:

And saute quickly until brown.  And right before they burn, squeeze the juice of one lemon into the pan:

Then cover and let steam until finished (which is about 10 minutes). As the squash further cooks, it will let off some liquid, which will render just a bit of “sauce.”

The food processor wasn’t emulsifying the soup as much as we wanted, so we threw it all into one of our favorite appliances – the blender:

Yes.  That did the trick.  Back to the pot it went for a quick heat before serving:

Here’s Nick pouring more wine:

The best part about cooking together is that we get to enjoy the wine along the way, watching it open up over the course of an hour or two.

Here’s how to make one version of creme fraiche. Whisk up cold sour cream and a bit of milk:

For our purposes tonight, we added crushed nutmeg:

Voila. Homemade creme fraiche:

We need to pipe out the mixture onto the soup.  A small zipper bag works just fine as a piping bag:

Now throw the steaks on to a very hot pan.  No oil.  Very important – just a very, very hot pan:

Cover it so that more magic can happen:

Flip them just once:

Then toss into a very hot oven. The oven should be at least 500 degrees F, and convection works best. While the steaks are finishing in the oven, it’s time to plate up. At this point, only 45 minutes have elapsed.

Pour the soup into ramekins:

Use the makeshift piping bag to top the soup with the creme fraiche. And add the squash, which is now soft as warm butter. We snuck a taste, and yes, they just melted in the mouth.

Pull the steaks out and let rest for a few minutes, then plate them:

Add the potato chips to the steak:

The little orange bits are chopped dried apricots that we added for color.

So here’s John’s:

Here’s Nick’s:

Light the candles. Turn down the lights. Put on some nice music. What could be better?

Let’s talk wine. The Three Dog never disappoints. Regular readers of this blog know that the Two Guys just adore the Three Dog, a small producer out of Santa Cruz (of all places) which releases only just a tiny bit of Cabernet each year. Our favorite vintage is the 1999, and we have at least a case stashed away in the cellar. But tonight, we opened a 2002. It was good but not on the same level as the 1999. It was brighter and fruitier, and for the steaks, it wasn’t as perfect of a pair as the 1999 would have been. The 1999 is austere, reserved, sublime, full of oak and dark chocolate. The 2002 is more aptly described as frisky and young, with a nose of licorice and spice, and a finish of cinnamon and clove. We don’t think the 2002 will benefit from aging the way that the 1999 did, as it seems to lack the structure necessary.

Still, we thoroughly enjoyed the wine and the meal, though the company was even better. And we finished just in time to unwind before Top Chef.

(And yes, for those of you paying attention, Nick ate all his mushroom soup.)

Until next time . . .