A perfect disaster

The plated image in my mind included steam rising from fresh broccoli with cheddar cheese on top, sitting on a beautiful baked potato with soft flesh and a nice crisp skin. Yet this paled in comparison to the main component of the dish, the porterhouse steak! Seared to a golden brown and delicious state, then broiled to a juicy medium rare perfection, topped with a savory pan gravy and sauteed mushrooms and olives.

...Yet the reality of what was on my plate was far from what I had imagined. Chunks of overcooked beef, the juices long left behind in either the pan or cooling plate.There was no potato because it was so grossly undercooked it had to simply be discarded. The broccoli turned out somewhat nicely, although there was no cheddar, and smoked gouda seems to be a cheese that simply does not melt, leaving only a sticky mess that bore a striking resemblance to a milk carton that had been tossed into a fire pit. And what about the smooth,savory, rich gravy I had planned? Well it was a mass of cereal and alcohol flavored starch. =/ If I wanted alcohol and cereal, I'd put beer on my wheaties for goodness' sake!

A staunch believer in the axiom of reaping what you sew, I ate my insipid veggies and burnt vittles. Doused in Worcestershire sauce, it was.....bearable.

What led to this? How did an aspiring chef screw up a staple dish of steak and potatoes? In the final analysis, I can think of a few reasons:

1. I did not follow "Mise en Place", or having everything properly prepared to cook. The chaos of running to the fridge, then the cupboard and the spice cabinet threw everything out of the synchronized ballet that a cooking session should be.

2. The food was too cold. It later occurred to me that I had taken both the potato and the steaks and began cooking them immediately, instead of letting them come to room temperature first. That meant I was essentially cooking the cold out of the food, not the food itself.

3. I *think* one of the problems with the steak was that I was going with Porterhouse. Much too large for pan frying, with the tenderloin being thicker than the strip end, and along with having the bone in. In retrospect, I think that a hot oven or broiler would be a better option for cooking this cut.

4. For the gravy, I don't really know what exactly went wrong, except that I need to study the proper gravy making procedure next time instead of trying to "throw something together" using only my intuition.

With all these lessons in mind, I feel somewhat better about the dismal outcome of my cuisine this time around. So tonight I relax, buy a New York Strip steak, a new potato, and in a freshly cleaned kitchen I will attempt this dish again. We shall see if I can not only identify my mistakes, but learn from and correct them. God I love the kitchen.

Still 478 to go.