A little interesting dish for a Sunday night ;  after a long tiring few days I figured I make something that would see us through the evening, and what better than a caffeine laced dish!  Have to say I was already half way through preparing the dish when my wife through in a bit of a curve ball, the old garden outside has just flourished a load of Kohlrabi, I turned round half way through preparation to see one sitting on my chopping board.  Hmm, not sure what to make of that I thought!

As usual the dish started with the sauce.  Kick ass sauces don't HAVE to take days to prepare, but I do find it helps.  I actually started the base of the sauce on Saturday - it was clean out the vegetable drawers of the fridge time so I rummaged through and started making a stock.  I love using brown mushrooms as presentation pieces, as it happens they come in packs with long stalks and the original fungal base - makes GREAT stock material.  Had some baby bellas that were looking worse for wear too - so those go in, celery, carrots, onions, leeks, parsley - pretty much anything that's going to add flavor to the water.  Add some peppercorns and bay leaves, fill up the pot with water, add a good shaking of red wine vinegar (I like a bit of acid to my stock base) and a touch of red wine and boil away.  After an hour or so you're left with a wonderfully deep base for any sauce. 

Sauce
1 cup instant espresso (after adding water, obviously - plus add 1/3 tsp chili powder for the kick and a tsp sugar)
2 cups stock
Half bottle of red wine

Stick that lot in a pan and bring to a boil - then reduce, reduce, reduce.  When you're down to about a cup or less you should have a nice final product to finish with.

Kohlrabi Puree
Half a head of Kohlrabi
2 slices bacon
2 shitaki mushrooms
1/2 a shallot
1/2 clove garlic
1/2 cup chicken stock

For the Kohlrabi I simply chopped half of it up into a medium dice and then through it in a pan with half a cup of chicken stock (or until just covered).  Simmer until the chicken stock disappears and then through it into the mini-prep (told you I loved it).  While it's doing its thing get a sauté pan and add a couple of rashers of bacon (sliced into 1/4 inch squares), half a shallot, some garlic and a couple of shitaki mushrooms.  Get the bacon fairly crisp before adding the rest of the ingredients.  When cooked through add that to the mini-prep, blitz, add a touch of cream and you're golden.

The fingerling potatoes simple as they come, simply half, steam for four minutes to par cook them then roast for twenty minutes in peanut oil, turning once.  Sunday being Sunday, SoCal being nearly 100 degrees I actually did this on the barbecue in an iron skillet.  Throw a few shitakis on top of the potatoes for a nice finishing piece to the dish.

Lastly the steak.  Beautiful piece of dry aged New York strip which I coated in an espresso rub from Surfas (http://www.surfasonline.com/) - so that's kind of cheating I know - but basically it's sugar, salt, pepper, espresso powder, onion, paprika and cayenne.  Can't be that hard to recreate can it?  Coat the meat for at least half an hour to an hour at room temperature to allow it to start working on the meat.  Stick it on the bbq or pan fry in a skillet for a few minutes either side to get that nice crisp coat then stick in a 400f oven for five-ten mins (depending on your done less liking) or move off the flame on the bbq.

While you let the steak rest on the cutting board it's time for final prep.  I had some figs left over which always make a beautiful presentation piece as well as adding a ton of flavor - chop a few in half along with some halved cherry tomatoes.  Heat up a non-stick pan on the stove and put them in cut side down.  Give them a good sizzle then turn them over for another minute or so then pull off to a reserve plate.  If you leave a tomato or two in the pan more's the better, it adds to the sauce flavor even more.  With the pan still hot pour a cup or so of your now reduced sauce into the pan and simmer down to a nice consistency - chuck a knob of butter in at the end to add some gloss.  While that's working, steam up some spinach (seriously this is the easiest thing on the planet these days - buy baby spinach bag from grocery store, snip off corner, throw in microwave for a minute and a half!  Healthy and tasty.  Slice your now rested steak and begin plating.

Fingerling potatoes down - check, spinach on top, check, sliced steak ; scallop out some of the kohlrabi puree for the side, lay down the figs and tomatoes, add a roasted shitaki on top and lay some of that sauce over the top.  Sorted.


And yes, that's some pea puree on the other side of the plate.  Had it left over, can't waste that!