Kusina Maria

Our aunts decided to have me and my cousins take charge of the Noche Buena. They made the menu, while we prepared everything on it. It was a steak dinner that they wanted, so that’s what we prepared.

My cousin Tinky was tasked as our purchaser in Manila. She scoured the Salcedo Market to find good quality but affordable Angus Ribeye Steaks. On the 22nd, Kuya Andrew and I did the shopping for the marinate, appetizers, and side dishes.

The real work began on the afternoon of the 24th. We began with mise en place, lining up the ingredients for each dish, but we did little measuring. We added ingredients according to taste.

We marinated the steak with standard marinade which is olive oil, mustard, rosemary, thyme, and pepper. We used fresh rosemary and thyme for this one, but you can use dried ones if there’s no fresh herbs available. We then arranged it carefully on trays and sealed it with clear wrap ready to be grilled when the assigned grill man arrives.

We then proceeded to prepare the mashed potatoes, gravy, and the blue cheese sauce. We boiled the potatoes, peeled it, and mashed it. We added some butter, milk, and cream. And we seasoned it with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. We also prepared some corn as side dish by heating canned whole kernel corn with some butter seasoned with salt and pepper. Ate Joanna, Gwing, and Ate May helped me out with this.

I prepared the gravy using a cream of mushroom base with some beef stock (substitute for steak drippings), butter, salt, pepper, rosemary, and thyme. The blue cheese sauce was done by simmering cream and adding blue cheese, pepper, and nutmeg into it. The blue cheese sauce was done so the diners can have a Roquefort steak if they want to.

An hour before dinner, our grill man, Kuya David grilled the steaks to medium or medium well depending on the preference of the person who will eat it. To cook a steak properly, season it with salt right before cooking then sear each side (in the pan or in the grill) for 10 seconds to seal in the juices. Then, continue cooking according to your preferred doneness.

While waiting for our steaks to be grilled, we ate various cheeses with crackers, grapes, and some Jamon Serano aka Jamon Iberico. Some of the cheeses and the jamon were purchased by Tinky. The raclette cheese was served on top boiled potatoes, as prepared by Tinky, Luan, and Tricia. We also had some salmon sashimi which I had filleted a few hours before dinnertime.

The steaks were also served with delicious Asian Salad, Pasta alla Puttanesca, and Seafood Curry by my aunts. And oh, we also grilled some Wagyu beef strips. I felt my arteries clogging. SRSLY! Suffice to say, the steaks, the gravy, and the blue cheese sauce were big hits. As were the other dishes.

We ended the noche buena with pastries from our favorite pastry shop, Lachi’s Sans Rival Atbp.

I was stressed the entire time, but very much happy that we were able to deliver a memorable meal that a lot of people have been jealous of. Merry Christmas!

Tagged with: blue cheese • blue cheese sauce • cheese platter • gravy • mashed potatoes • roquefort steak • sashimi • steak