-Hi, I'm Dave. -And I'm Mary Beth.
-I'm just a guy who shoots video for The Washington Post
and brave enough to take on any role.
But the one thing that scares me -- cooking.
-And I'm the food host for The Washington Post,
which means I get paid to cook.
And now I get to do my dream job with a friend.
It's time to "Teach Dave To Cook."
-Mary Beth! -Hey, I'm here!
-You're here! -Kitchen's over there.
-Okay. Let's go to it.
-Yes. Just squeeze past the couch.
-Yeah. -Look at that cart go.
-Can I take a look at what you have in your kitchen?
-Yeah. -This is your stove.
It's very clean.
Is that because you don't cook in it?
-Mm.
Love to introduce you to the cup/glass/chip cabinet.
-So, you have a measuring cup for liquids.
-This little guy, too.
I got a little -- -This is a shot glass.
-Yeah, but it says "teaspoons," "tablespoons."
Don't open -- Don't -- -Oh, my God.
Wait, there's another jar back here!
-This is when I -- -Oh, God!
[laughs] -Oh, my God.
-So, for this, what is your goal?
What do you want to be able to make?
-I want to be able to make, like, a full-course meal.
Maybe an appetizer or just, like, a main dish and sides.
-Okay. -A dessert.
And just be able to do dinner better.
-Let's get started.
I want to see what you already know.
So, Dave, do you have a knife that you cook with?
-I have a knife that I use that's sharp.
-You know what -- -This is the only knife
I have that is sharp. -Look.
This is the way that lots and lots of people cook.
Think about our ancestors. They cooked with rocks.
Like, we can do this. This is fine.
You do need something that's sharp.
I'm gonna go over my in cart,
and I'm gonna take out a piece of paper.
Okay, here's a sharp knife.
-Whoa! -Yay!
-Yay!
-Having a sharp knife will really,
really improve your cooking experience.
-Sure. -But I want you to know
that you don't need to buy a 10-piece knife set.
So, I brought some steaks with me.
-Yes!
-At the very least, we'll be eating steak at the end.
-That's -- Yeah, that's the real goal here.
-All right.
I want to make sure that we can show
that it makes a difference if you salt a steak,
that it makes a difference the way you cut a steak,
that it makes a difference how you cook it.
So we're gonna do that. -I'm ready to learn.
-You need to dry off the steaks,
because it's really important to start with a dry surface
so that you actually get a nice crust on it,
a nice sear on it, right?
Like, see how this one is shiny?
You can see that there's water on it.
It's wet.
You just want to make sure that they're not shiny
and as dry as possible.
A rib eye is a quick-cooking steak,
so all you need to do to it, because there's so much
great flavor in it, is salt and pepper.
And the thing with the salt is that you want to feel like,
"Oh, my gosh, I'm putting way too much salt on this steak,"
because that's what's going to bring out
the flavors of the meat. -So we're just pinching,
then we're just kind of -- -Yeah.
And give a big pinch.
-Okay. -Dave, you're cooking.
-I'm cooking. This is it.
-Okay, so, now let's heat up the pan.
Perfect. Great.
-High high? -As high as it will go.
-Okay. -Because we want to get that,
like, near sear on the -- on the steak.
We're going to wait for this pan to heat up a little bit.
Go ahead. -Oh, oh.
Ooh, ooh. -You feel that?
-Oh, I can feel it. -Okay.
[laughs] So, we're ready to put the steaks on.
Put on two steaks, and put the seasoned side down.
-Right. Makes sense.
-Nice. Very good.
-That felt good.
-And then you want to season the other side.
Great. I never --
When I'm making rib eye steaks or anything
with a good amount of fat in it --
I mean, you can see, these are marbled, there's fat in them.
-Right. -The fat melts,
and it acts as a lubrication for the pan.
-As opposed to putting that oil
first before you even -- -Exactly,
or some people will oil the outside of the steak.
All right. Do you have a pair of tongs?
-I do. I have actually a few.
-So, now is the most important part.
Don't touch it. -Okay.
So you just had me get the tongs just to practice patience?
-Yeah. -Is this my "Karate Kid" moment?
You just stand in the corner?
-Wax on, wax off. Yes.
-All right.
-So, you want to make sure that you don't move the steak around.
You want it to sit.
You want it to get a nice crust on the end.
And the way to do that is to leave it the heck alone.
-Okay. I'll hold on.
-When the steak can move very easily and just flip over,
that's when it's ready to turn it over.
-Ooh, look at that. -Yeah.
-Oh, ho! -How do you like your steak?
-Medium rare. -Medium rare.
-Yes.
-So, do you know what temperature that should be?
-No.
-Medium rare steaks are about 130 to 135 degrees
in the middle. There we go.
That's about medium rare. -Oh, my gosh.
-So, this is one really important thing.
You've got to let your steak rest, because --
-Calm down, buddy.
-When you let the steak rest, the juices redistribute.
If you were to cut this open right now,
all the juices would fall out,
and it wouldn't be as juicy of a steak.
The other thing you need to remember is,
when you let your steak rest, it keeps cooking, right?
It's still warm.
That's why you want to take it off at about 130
so that, when you're done,
you get a 135, medium rare steak.
-Okay. -So, if you wanted to,
you could put some red wine in here,
cook it down a little bit,
scrape off the brown bits on the bottom,
and that makes a great just regular old pan sauce.
Here, I've got some wine in here.
-Oh. -Yeah.
-The magic bag. -I had some before I came.
Are you ready? -Yes.
Whoa!
-And you can see, the red wine reduces.
It gets a little syrupy. -Mm-hmm.
-The acid in the wine gets all the brown bits off the bottom.
And if you wanted to, you could finish this
with a little pat of butter.
-Sure. Why not?
-Do you have butter? -I do have butter,
if you can believe it. -Amazing.
So, start with a little.
-Okay. -Throw that in, and let it --
That's a little butter to you?
-I mean, I'm a large man. Oh, man.
That's really good. -So, the steaks are resting.
The juices are getting back into it.
And in the meantime, we're going to set up plates so that,
when the steak is ready,
we're going to put them right on the plate.
Okay, so, we've got a few lemons,
and we're going to slice them really nicely.
The way that you hold a knife is with the thumb on here,
on the fore blade, and then your index finger right there.
Yep, that's right.
So it's a little bit more control over your knife.
The really good way to cut is bear claw.
Hold this like this, and then you will never slice yourself,
'cause the knife will hit your knuckle
rather than the tip of your finger.
-So -- -Very --
Great technique.
Yeah. Disco.
You did it.
The great thing about this is that it's small.
So, if you put a warm piece of steak on it,
the juices of the steak actually soak in
and wilt the arugula a little bit.
So we'll put a little pile of arugula in the middle.
And again, if you really love arugula, put a lot.
If you don't, put a little.
Now, one of the rules of plating is that you always want
to have odd numbers of things on a plate.
It just looks better.
Why don't you put the third one on?
-Oh. Oh, boy.
I want to put it here.
-We've two really beautiful plates here.
-We do. -Let's take a look at these.
I'm proud of us.
-Me too. -Okay, great.
So, let's slice up the steak and put it on here.
-Okay. I'm ready.
-Oh, that looks so good. -That looks so good.
-Another thing is, is, like, give yourself enough
time to slice -- [laughs] Oh, my gosh, are you okay?
-It looks so good.
-So, you can see that the steak has a grain in it.
This is, like, the line sort of going through it.
You want to slice it against the grain to make sure
that you get as tender a piece of steak as possible.
-So perpendicular. -You're a curious cook
who likes a good piece of meal.
My butcher's gonna love you.
Usually what I do before I put the steak on is
I give it a little, like, zhush
because then the juices get redistributed.
So, you can either keep it on top
or you can put nice slices on it.
-Here's a nice heaping helping. -Oh, my gosh.
That looks beautiful.
You can just squeeze the lemon over it.
And then put some sauce on top.
And here's the thing -- again,
you can always put more sauce on.
It's hard to take it off.
So maybe just a little bit, and then put it in a little dish
on the table if people like it. -Okay.
-Should use the knives or the pizza cutter?
-Oh, my gosh.
-Okay, so, Dave, what did you learn today?
-I learned a lot, and I'm not even -- Like,
I feel like I'm putting that on or something.
I learned about pan sauce, knife skills as well.
-To your steak.
-And to your health and -- or whatever.
-Okay, yes. Okay.
-Yeah. Mm-hmm.
-On the next "Teach Dave To Cook."
This is where cooking starts.
This is the most important thing.
If you learn nothing else from this,
cooking starts with ingredients.
It's time to shop for everything we'll need
for our three-course meal.
And Dave will get to meet my main dish, Pam the Butcher.
'Cause, you know, what goes well with meat?
-Meat. More meat.
-More meat!