Protein Fix

Most of the time I don't even come close to the  recommended 30% of daily calories from protein.  Tonight I far surpassed that.  The 3 most important factors to great steak at home are (duh) great steak to start with, using a well seasoned cast iron skillet, and letting them rest for at least 5 minutes before you cut them.

These strip steaks actually were not that great because they had been frozen.  But they started out pretty good.  I like to season steak liberally with Montreal Steak seasoning to get a really flavorful crust.  Then they're just seared in a hot (and I'm talking about preheating your pan on high for 2 minutes hot) pan- turn on your fan- left undisturbed until they have that nice char, then flipped for a total of maybe 6 minutes for rare/med rare.  This probably goes without saying but take them out of the pan to rest.

One big sweet potato, honey roasted.  And escarole.  That would be 'scaROlay if you're in my favorite Italian restaurant in Queens. I wanted to show how to cook it because I know a lot of people are unsure, and it's really tasty.  Below is the head of escarole.  Escarole resembles lettuce more than it does than sturdy greens like kale.  Just cut it into pieces the same way you would cut leaf lettuce for a salad, if maybe on the larger side.  Make sure the escarole is as clean and dry as possible. Then, it needs quick cooking over medium high heat in enough olive oil or butter to "dress" it.

Heat the pan, add good olive oil and a clove of minced garlic.  Cook until the garlic loses its raw smell, about 20 seconds.

Then add  the escarole.  This is that whole head.

Toss it around with tongs for no more than 2 minutes, until it is wilted but not browning or completely withered.  This is how much it cooks down.  Only salt it at the very end because salt draws out the moisture and instead of having a nice juicy dish of  lightly dressed wilted green, you'll have soggy lettuce water running all over your plate.

The finished product.  Now way did we finish all that red meat- there was almost a whole steak leftover!