Sauce Up A Great Meal

Eating naked isn't all it's cracked up to be: How to really sauce up a great meal

To sauce or not to sauce?

A really good quality steak, properly cooked, should stand by itself. A nice Akaushi or Black Angus filet mignon really needs nothing more than a little ground black pepper and a pinch of sea salt. Get a nice char on the grill and finish it in the oven with a pat of butter melted on top and you’re good to go.

But sometimes you might like to try a little sauce (no, not A1 sauce, or anything store bought). You can really make almost any kind of sauce for a steak, from cheese to booze, right at home. There used to be a cafe in Alamo Heights in San Antonio that served an appetizer of tenderloin chunks topped with chili con queso that was delectable. Although I have yet to find that on any other menu I do occasionally make it at home, because cheese and steak pair rather well together.

Sometimes a naked steak is just fine, but sometimes it’s fun to make a topping for a great cut of beef.

For a less Mex cheesy steak, try a sauce of blue cheese. It’s easy enough to crumble some blue cheese into a small saucepan, warm over a medium heat and add garlic or onions, milk and/or butter, maybe a splash of hot sauce and stir for a couple of minutes. Then pour over your steak for a cheesy meaty delight.

And Smith & Wollensky has a trio of tenderloins with different toppings one of which is a Gorgonzola crust that is wonderful. I have yet to try to recreate this at home but it looks pretty simple.

Not a cheese fan? You can also make a French cognac cream sauce that goes well atop steaks. It’s a simple sauce made with cognac, crème fraîche, beef stock and black pepper. Or if you’re feeling really French, go with a Béarnaise sauce. Here’s a good recipe from the Food Network’s Ina Garten.

And while you might think of horseradish sauce as something for the prime rib roast on the Sunday brunch carvery table, it’s actually quite good on any type of steak, even a nice filet mignon. And, according to Web MD, horseradish roots have medicinal benefits as well.

Saucy Secrets

One of my favorite cookbooks, TheGourmet Cookbook Volume 1 (I love old cookbooks and this two volume set is one of the best) from 1950, has a lovely recipe for this sauce based on a basic béchamel sauce, one of the mother sauces of France. There’s a pretty easy recipe here by William Sonoma.

So The Gourmet Cookbook horseradish cream sauce recipe is simple: To one cup béchamel sauce add one tablespoon of well-drained prepared horseradish and a tiny dash of mustard. Serve with corned beef, boiled beef or boiled lamb. (Or a filet mignon.)

I usually wimp out and buy a jar of horseradish but you can also grate fresh horseradish root (about 1/4 cup). And if you don’t want to make béchamel sauce from scratch you can make do with a sauce of horseradish, sour cream, a dash of white wine, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard and white wine vinegar and salt and pepper to taste.

So sometimes a naked steak is just fine, but sometimes it’s fun to make a topping for a great cut of beef.

Don't just pour tired A1 sauce on your steaks.

Make Midtown Great Again

New streetwear-inspired coffee shop and lounge sneaks into Midtown

Sneaks Houston Jordans clock

Courtesy of Sneaks

A clock uses 12 generations of Jordans to display the time.

Eddie Massa, Pouya Alavi, and Ash Tadghighi have a simple goal in mind for Sneaks, their new sneaker-themed coffee shop and “sneakeasy” cocktail lounge.

“We’re trying to make Midtown great again,” Massa tells CultureMap.

He remembers when Midtown was Houston’s premier party spot. After working on the crew at Clé when it was Houston’s hottest nightlife destination, he played key roles in the openings of both Chapman & Kirby and MAD. Now, he’s teamed up with Native Coffee owner Alavi and local attorney Tadghighi for Sneaks, a new project that adds to the trio’s two existing Midtown properties — nightclub/lounge PDA and sports bar/pickleball court 40 All.

Last year, the group opened a country music bar called Bandits in the space at 3030 Travis St. It drew crowds during the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo, but they’d thinned out by the summer. The owners decided to switch things up with a concept built around three things they know well: coffee, streetwear, and ‘90s hip hop and R&B. They’re hoping to draw a crowd of 30 and 40-something professionals who live in the nearby apartments and high-rises.

“We know coffee; we run two successful bars. Let’s combine the two together into one location: sneakerhead, ‘90s, hip hop, R&B — a lot of spots are opening with nostalgic music. Let’s make it a cool place for people to come hang out, have some coffee, get some light bites,” Alavi explains.

Part of the inspiration came from Tadghighi, a devoted sneakerhead whose collection of prime shoes runs into the hundreds of pairs.

“You have all these pieces of art that are sneaks. Let’s expose them in this place,” Massa recalls telling Tadghighi. “I got inspired when I went to his closet. ‘These deserve to be in a museum.’”

Instead of a museum, they’re on the walls of Sneaks. As seen in the picture above, one wall features a clock that uses Air Jordan generations one through twelve to mark the time. Similarly, patrons access the hidden cocktail lounge by pushing through a wall loaded with sneakers in display cases. To ensure that sneaky thieves don’t make off with any of the prized footwear, each case only has one shoe in it.

As for the coffee, it builds on the success of Native Coffee, the Montrose shop Alavi operates with his brother. Sneaks will use a Slayer espresso machine for its brews. They’ll be paired with some of Native’s most popular housemade syrups, along with a selection of bagel sandwiches named for different parts of Houston. CultureMap Tastemaker Award winner Underground Creamery will supply vanilla ice cream and a rotating monthly flavor for Sneaks to use in affogatos.

Ultimately, the trio want to create an entertainment district where people could spend an entire day or night. Start with a coffee at Sneaks followed by some pickleball at 40 All, for example, or watch a game at 40 All then go to PDA for drinks and the DJ. The offerings will get another boost with the opening of Rendezvous, a rooftop concept that will operate above PDA.

Sneaks began its soft opening last weekend. The lounge will celebrate its arrival with a New Year’s Eve party that will feature local DJs spinning ‘90s R&B. Wearing sneakers is, of course, highly encouraged.

Sneaks Houston Jordans clock

Courtesy of Sneaks

A clock uses 12 generations of Jordans to display the time.

sneaks coffee nightlife openings news-you-can-eat cocktails

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