MISO YUMMY

Miso and prune juice sounds like a recipe for diarrhea, but actually makes a VERY good and VERY easy steak sauce.  Miso's rich umami tones are perfect for steak (ever tried steak with a blue cheese sauce?  Miso gives you the same tones, albeit not as sharp), and the tartness of prune juice livens things up just fine.   This is another one of them let's-throw-together-anything-I-can-find-in-the-fridge dishes of mine, only that it turned out so well I'm going to pretend it's a real recipe   

Every fridge should have some miso.  It's the ultimate healthy fast comfort food - great for a 3 minute soup after a long day; and even better for a sauce for your steak. There are probably a thousand kinds and brands of miso out there, but they generally come in brown and the slightly sweeter white versions.   I use the brown for steak.    This sauce is basically made out of the brown bits from your steak + a dab of miso + a little prune juice and brandy.   The tartness of the prune juice helps a) to thicken the sauce, and b) to balance out the oil, particularly if you're grilling or frying a fattier cut of meat.  Throw in a couple of brandy soaked raisins, garlic and shallots, and you have your very own "MisoYummy Meat"  

Ingredients

meat for steaks
buncha raisins
cheap cooking brandy, couple of tablespoons
prune juice, around a quarter cup
brown miso, around a tablespoon
shallots and garlic, diced
tablespoon of butter
salt & pepper

optional - dash of balsamic vinegar & sugar to taste

1. Soak raisins in the brandy.  Finely dice garlic and shallots. 
2. Fry steak.  I could go on and on about time temperature and techniques for checking done-ness and pressing on the ball of one's palm and all that, but there's an Alain Ducasse article that sums everything up pretty neatly here.  (it's a cached version of a NY Times article ages ago.  Catch it before it disappears!)
3. During the last 2 minutes of frying, add the butter and toss in the garlic and shallots to flavour the beef.
4. Take out the beef and let rest.  
5. Turn heat down and toss in the raisins, brandy and prune juice and the miso; press down on the miso paste to dissolve. 
6. Add a little water if necessary and scrape all the brown bits together (fancy word for this is de-glaze).   Turn heat up to thicken the sauce.
7. Add salt with a judicious hand (the miso is already quite salty so go easy on the sodium).  Add pepper, and a little sugar & balsamic vinegar to taste if necessary. 
8. Reduce until desired consistency.  Pour over steak and serve !

 Wine notes - I'm thinking a big, indecently bold aussie shiraz. 

 
Steak supplier shoutout -  TC Deli in Hang Hau Village is now my main meat man.  They're so good they're worth the drive from the southside to Tseung Kwan O.  They stock a vast range of good quality US and Australian beef, plus NZ lamb, pork, and an assortment of frozen Aussie seafoods and cheeses, at prices around 30 to 50% lower than the so called gourmet supermarkets in town.  Their Australian Angus MB2*  tenderloin is the perfect steak - just the right amount of marbling for flavour and a melt-in-the-mouth texture without the icky oil-slick-in-the-mouth one sometimes gets from wagyu beef.   

   TC Deli
   Address: G/F, 10B Chap Fuk Road, Hang Hau Village
   Sai Kung, New Territories
   Phone: (852) 2358 0273

* The Aussies have their own marbling grade - click here for the paraphernalia.