Recipe #1 from the Hells Kitchen Cookbook: Chicken Fried Ribeye with Yukon Gold Mashed Potatoes and White Truffle Cream Gravy
First, a disclaimer:
- I am not a trained chef. I'm not even a "home cook" that could be considered for Masterchef. I'm just a mom/huge nerd with a love for all things Gordon Ramsay and I figured I should maybe own a cookbook of his. I was taught the basics by my mom and have been learning various things ever since.
Now onto the experience of cooking this:
Honestly the cracks started early when I realized I needed to peel the potatoes, which I hate doing, plus it did nothing for my carpal tunnel but I persisted and they were peeled, chopped, and boiled. Then came the plethora of mistakes. I overcooked the potatoes so when I riced them (I was shocked we even had a ricer) all the liquid came out. I added the cream and butter and it basically turned into a soup, even my 3 year old said as much. So I broke form and out came the instant potatoes as a way to thicken them up. They were kinda lumpy but there was consistency.
I over salted the steaks. Man they were salty! Also we could not find any thin ribeye steaks around so we brought some regular ones and my husband butterflied them because my knife skills are awful. I honestly don't know how someone only uses eggs and flour and then fries a piece of meat and the breading stays on and doesn't look so soggy. But I was following the recipe religiously so no corn starch for me. I burned the breading a little bit but luckily I have experience in frying meat so they were cooked and moist.
The damn gravy was nearly the death of me. I had no idea how 1/4 cup leftover fry oil and 1/4 cup of flour was going to turn into gravy when mixed with 3 cups of whole milk. So I added more flour and oil. Then it boiled, thickened, and tasted like flour. Once again my husband came to rescue as he's made tons of gravy. Some more milk and oil, salt and pepper, and the truffle oil saved it. With that the meal was done.
Side dish was some garlic carrots cooked in the instant pot. Super easy, super delicious.
My husband liked it, I somewhat liked it, and my girls didn't eat a bite of it but I wasn't surprised by that. They're 20 months and 3.5 years, they live off of cheese, graham crackers, and juice. There were leftovers so I get to see the "reheat and eat" factor tomorrow at work.
If this was a signature dish, Ramsay would spit it out, say it's salted as fuck and give me a 1.
If I brought this up to the pass, it would get thrown at my face and the whole team would be kicked out.
If I make this again, I'll drain the potatoes much earlier, add corn starch to the flour mix, add very little salt to the steaks, and let the gravy mixture boil before I add anything else.
Anyways, I'm making one meal a month this year per my husband's request so stay tuned for next month.
Also sorry this is long. Tl;dr: recipe was hard, lots of things I would change but it was edible. Also I hate peeling potatoes. And bless my husband for keeping our girls occupied and cleaning up the mess I made in the kitchen.
