Chris Makes Steak With Umami Butter Sauce

If we've ever invoked Flavor Town before,

maybe we were misusing it

because this is actually a bullet train headed straight

to Flavor Town.

Full stop.

[upbeat music]

I am making strip steak with umami butter sauce.

This umami butter sauce starts with a base

of caramelized miso.

When I think about this sauce,

think about a mild Buffalo wing,

in terms of hot sauce and butter.

I like that this is something

that feels like you cooked it outdoors,

and certainly it's a meal you maybe want

to eat outdoors when the weather's really nice,

but it's just super easy to tackle in your kitchen.

No special occasion required.

[steak sizzles]

I like to use strip steak just because it tends

to be fairly compact.

Generally speaking, my default these days is

to just go like salt, and salt only,

but you gotta be generous with it.

I'll do both sides,

and then I'll do the ends as well.

Seasoning the fat cap, cuz why the hell I'm not,

and then all these edges.

Instead of oiling the skillet, okay,

which is gonna send up plumes of white smoke

in your kitchen,

I'm gonna oil the steak, lightly.

Nicely coated.

All right?

And then we can lay it in there.

[steak sizzles]

We're gonna build up a great sear over time here.

We're gonna flip every minute or so.

Every steak cooks differently. Okay?

Hold on. We're gonna flip.

[steak sizzles]

Every steak cooks differently,

depending on how much fat and how much lean it has.

It's eventually gonna get the same level of sear

you otherwise would've

if you were just leaving it on one side

for four or five minutes,

but it's doing it way more gradually

and more gently to the meat.

We have achieved like a really great sear.

You know, we're gonna keep this going a little bit longer,

just cuz we need to reach

the internal temperature we're looking for,

which is gonna be about 120, about.

I'm getting 112 here.

Now's when I might stand it up,

just to render out that fat cap a little bit more.

So I've always found

initially the temperature seems to climb very slowly,

and then it climbs very quickly towards the end.

I think we're there.

[upbeat music]

Steak is resting. Okay?

10 minutes minimum.

The unevenness in temperature distribution

throughout the different areas

of the steak are gonna even out,

to a degree, during the resting period,

as will the juices.

While the steak is resting,

we have just enough time to do our umami butter sauce.

While we're using sriracha,

we're calling for it specifically in this recipe,

because it is so widespread,

but it's not your only option here.

There is just such a wide range of hot sauces.

Anyway, the point being, you've got options here.

The thing that's really amping up the umami

in this is miso.

Miso, very high in glutamates.

It's a fermented product that has

just so many different uses.

We're just kind of getting some bubbling here.

That's still pretty like tan, okay?

Caramelizing the miso intensifies the flavor.

It's gonna bring out the savory side of miso,

cause miso has some sweetness to it.

Around the time that it starts to stick

to the bottom of the sauce pan is about the time

that it's ready.

So now quarter cup of water going in,

half a cup of sriracha,

and then we can just whack the butter right in there.

This is low fuss,

low muss.

This is already looking pretty nice.

Glossy, creamy, emulsified.

We need some salt here,

just to bring out those flavors a little bit further.

If you feel like you've got pieces of miso in there,

or it's not quite as creamy

as you want it to be for any reason,

I've got you.

Go, go, gadget, immersion blender.

So a quick immersion blend has

that wonderful ability to just create

an even tighter emulsion.

It also kind of brightens the color a little bit.

You see the difference?

It is bright.

It is glossy.

It is tangy.

It is rich,

and it's done.

[upbeat music]

Steak is done.

Sauce is done.

And then for garnish, we,

you know, you can use scallion,

any kind of raw allium, frankly, would work here.

These are lovely, gorgeous, purple spring onions

that I'm gonna use.

I like to use like a mix of the bulb

plus a little bit of the green as well.

I love a little bit of the punch

just from the raw onion on there.

This is like the moment of truth.

It's more of like a medium,

not too thin and not too thick,

and then just fanning those slices out

enough so that like when you sprinkle

a little bit of salt on it,

it kind of hits a little bit of the inside of each piece.

You wanna use this sauce warm.

So you can make this ahead,

even up to a week ahead,

but definitely rewarm it.

You know, you can obviously

just serve a little pool of it on the side.

I do really like what happens, you know,

when you just do like a nice kind of streak,

right down the length.

It just has this lovely drap to it.

But I like to break apart the rings of the onion,

just a little bit, before I scatter them.

And then they just need to kind of fall where they fall.

You can't be too precious about it.

There's so much aroma coming off of that hot sauce,

and then just this lovely burnished meat.

Listen, I don't think we should be eating steak every night,

you know, far from it.

But if I'm gonna be eating meat,

I want it to be really good.

I want a little extra dab of sauce on the side here.

It's a total flavor roller coaster.

You just get this wonderful,

all enveloping, mouth filling flavor.

It's hitting every taste receptor in a different way,

and I think that makes it a little bit unusual.

I cannot wait for you guys to try this,

and you need to get to it in the next five minutes.

This is like a [beep] rocket headed straight

to Flavor Space.