Happy Sunday!

A few readers pointed out that we didn’t provide an oven temp for cooking the wings in last week’s newsletter. Whoops!

Thankfully, Jon wrote in to confirm that he had success crisping wings at “an oven temp of 400 F and it worked well at 35 minutes.” Thanks, Jon! Total time might vary depending on your oven and wing sizes, of course.

Now, onto this week’s content. As always, a full grocery shopping list in Notion is linked at the end of this email.

In This Week’s Edition

Try Something New 🤯 — Street Pad Thai

Throwback Time 🍳 — Steakhouse Quality Steaks at Home

The Leftover Shelf 🥡 — Lettuce Wraps w/ Chimichurri

Extra Helpings 🤤 — Making Beer Batter w/o Beer?

Grocery Shopping List ✅ — All ingredients sorted into categories for easy shopping!

Try Something New 🤯

The best meal I made this week — it’s a funkier, more savory counterpart to the sweet, ketchup-based takeout dish.

Street Pad Thai

Stir Fry Components

• Neutral cooking oil

• 1/2 lb (250 g) protein of choice like whole peeled shrimp, thinly sliced chicken, or firm tofu cubed

• 2 eggs

• 2 tbsp (30 g) dried shrimp, crushed to a rough powder with a mortar and pestle or food processor*

• 1 tsp (5g) garlic, smashed/minced

• 1 tsp (5g) ginger, smashed/minced

• 1 pack (~16 oz, 450 g) flat rice stick noodles

• 1 cup (100 g) bamboo shoots

• 1 cup (100 g) green onion, cut into 2-inch segments

Sauce Components

• 1/4 cup (75 g) tamarind puree, or paste, which needs to be prepared​

• 1/4 cup (75 g) fish sauce

• 1/4 cup (50 g) palm sugar or granulated sugar

• 1 tbsp (15 g) dark or sweet soy sauce, for color

Toppings

• Peanuts, crushed

• Lime wedges

• More bean sprouts, scallions, and optional chili sauces (like sriracha or sambal oelek)

*Key ingredient for making this a more savory, street-style dish. You should be able to find this at an Asian supermarket when you get the tamarind, if not, use more fish sauce.

Instructions

Prepare the noodles & sauce: Soak the noodles in hot water according to the package directions while you prep the dish. For the sauce, stir the tamarind paste, fish sauce, palm sugar, and soy sauce until the sugar has dissolved.

Cook the protein & eggs: In a wok or wide pan, sear your protein of choice on high heat until browned on the outside and just cooked through. Remove the chicken from the wok, reserving it in a separate bowl. Add in more cooking oil and then crack in the eggs. Scramble in the oil until just cooked through, and set aside with the protein. Wipe out the wok.

Stir fry aromatics & combine: Drain the noodles and get everything close by to stir fry. **Add a spoonful more cooking oil to the wok (over high heat), then add the crushed dried shrimp and fry for 30 seconds or until fragrant. Add in the garlic & ginger and sauté for another 15-30 seconds. Make sure the heat is really high, and add in the noodles, reserved egg & protein, and sauce mixture. Toss to stir fry until everything is well coated and the sauce clings to each noodle.

Finish & serve: Add in the green onions and bamboo shoots during the last minute of cooking. Mix and taste for seasoning — adjust with fish sauce, sugar, or a squeeze of lime juice if needed. Serve with crushed peanuts, lime wedges, more bamboo sprouts, and green onions.

Pro—Tip: If you don’t have a wok, cooking components in small batches ensures you will get a sear and browning on each set of ingredients. Adding all ingredients at once could overwhelm the heat source and result in a steamed, mushy dish.

Throwback Time 🍳

So you want to enjoy a restaurant steak experiment at home. Where do you start?

From picking the right cut to properly seasoning and searing the beef, cooking steak can be an overwhelming process. And, it can become pretty high stakes (no pun intended) if you just paid $29/lb for a filet or ribeye. You don’t want to screw that up.

​This video covers everything you need to know about perfecting steak at home, regardless of your budget, experience, or steak cut preferences.

If you’re left with some extra steak, no problem, because we’ve been waiting to share one of our favorite lunch recipes with you:

The Leftover Shelf 🥡

Leftovers are back in style…if you know how to use them.

This week’s move:

Leftover Steak Slices → Steak Lettuce Wraps w/ Chimichurri

It takes minutes to blend up a chimichurri, and the steak is already cooked for the lettuce wraps. There’s no excuse not to make this the day after steak night.

Lettuce Wrap Components

• Romaine, butter, or gem lettuce leaves

• Leftover steak, sliced into thin strips

• Optional: extra sliced chili peppers

Chimichurri Components*

• Handful of parsley

• Handful of cilantro

• 1-2 garlic cloves

• 1 hot pepper of choice, such as a serrano, habanero, or Thai chili

• Extra virgin olive oil

• Vinegar of choice (such as rice, red wine, or white wine vinegar)

• Kosher salt to taste

*Any herb you have will work. Check out this video for more chimichurri variations.​

Instructions:

1. Make the chimichurri: In a blender or food processor, pulse together herbs, garlic, and pepper until finely chopped. Empty into a container and mix in equal parts vinegar and olive oil until your desired sauce consistency is reached. Add salt to taste, and adjust acidity with more vinegar if needed.

2. Assemble & serve: Add steak slices (cold or warmed through) to a lettuce leaf and garnish with a spoonful of chimichurri and more sliced chili or herbs if desired.

Extra Helpings 🤤

🚀 Viral Eats

Cooking trends explained.

Q: What’s up with corn ribs? Why not just eat the whole cob as is?

A: Taking bites out of a complete cob is out.

Long strips of corn coated in herbed butter and air fried to perfection became a TikTok sensation in 2022. The hashtag #cornribs has racked up over 56.4 million videos and continues to grow.

Creating corn ribs is surprisingly easy — the most challenging part is cutting the corn vertically into quarters, which creates that “rib” reminiscent shape. You can do this before or after cooking.

Cook in the oven, air fryer, pan, or grill with butter or oil, salt, and spices until golden brown. Dunk into some spicy mayo, and you have a vegetarian appetizer sure to impress at barbecue or tailgates.

We’re team ribs for three reasons: 1) The fun form factor of corn ribs is both more novel and shareable than a whole clunky cob. 2) Dividing the cob increases the surface area for seasoning and dipping sauces to adhere to. 3) What if you just want a few bites of corn but don’t want to commit to a whole cob?

🧠 Reader Q&A

Q: Hi Ethan, I cannot consume alcohol for religious reasons. What can I use as an alternative to cooking wines and beer in beer batter? - Fahad Syed

A: Great question, Fahad.

Cooking wine is usually added for acidity, sweetness, and deglazing aromatic fond off a pan in a recipe. If a recipe calls for adding in wine, you can deglaze with water instead, and then add in a bit of vinegar and/or sugar to reach a similar balance.

Beer can be added to recipes for 2 different reasons.

1) Beer is added for the flavorful malty notes, as in the case of beer bread or 1-hour pizza. Often darker beers are called for in these cases. You could actually buy malt syrup, or also experiment with adding molasses. If you’re not in a time crunch, then you can fall back on longer, fermentation-dependent recipes to get those same flavors without the alcohol.

2) In the case of frying batters, beer is added for textural reasons. When cooked, the alcohol evaporates more readily than water, allowing the batter to easily crisp up into a light and airy structure. Fortunately, you can sub in seltzer water because the similar ph and carbonation to beer also help achieve similar crispy textures.

🏆 Dinner Winner! Reader Photo Submission of the Week

This week’s winner is Abbie Welch, who made “gluten-free pho with braised pork, bok choy, soft-boiled eggs with everything but the bagel seasoning, carrots, and scallions” with her fiancé.

The glazed pork looks especially well executed.

Keep the photo submissions coming! Reply with a picture of the best meal you’ve cooked at home for a chance to be featured in a future email.

🍽 More Yummy Content

A Read: Is palm oil the worst ingredient on the planet?​

In a Minute or Less: Foolproof salmon​

What We’re Watching: What it’s like to be a NYC tuna vendor​

Food Science: Why you should cook chicken in water​

Upgrade Your Feed: Connect with Ethan everywhere​

Ready to shop? 🛒

​Shopping List 1/8 ✅