**A Fun Date Night Class: Cooking with Mom and Dad**

Mom and Dad decided to spend quality time together, teaching me how to cook a delicious date night meal. They started by explaining that they had been looking forward to this class for a while, and were excited to share their culinary expertise with me.

As we began our cooking adventure, Mom mentioned that she was worried about how I would do with the instruction. She said that people often find it intimidating when asked to cook certain dishes, but I assured her that I was eager to learn and willing to give it a try. Dad chimed in, jokingly saying that he was sure I wouldn't be able to live up to their expectations, but Mom corrected him, saying "That's not how you do it exactly um okay that's good there let's line up".

**Flossing and Line-Ups**

As we started preparing the ingredients, Dad made a joke about needing to floss before we began cooking. He said that he couldn't even begin to tell me a story when I was young because of my dance skills (or lack thereof). Mom laughed and suggested that maybe in one of these classes, we could get Ally to dance, since I had two left feet. Dad playfully teased her about outing her for being bad at dancing, but ultimately agreed that he wouldn't want to see either of us dance.

**Appreciating the Details**

Mom took a moment to appreciate the details in the dish, saying that she was really kind of into the odd numbers when it came to arrangement on the plate. She explained that the scallops looked beautiful and had a translucent quality to them, bouncing to the touch. Dad agreed that three was the perfect number, as it drew the eye to the plate.

**Scallop Time**

Mom took charge of cooking the scallops, expertly seasoning them with salt and pepper before placing them in a pan. She explained that they were seafood and usually paired with white wine, but she had decided on Cabernet Sauvignon for this dish due to the earthy umami flavor from the mushroom cream sauce. Dad chimed in, suggesting that Pinot Noir or an old-world Pinot could also be good alternatives.

**Wine Pairing**

As we waited for the scallops to cook, Mom and Dad discussed their wine preferences. They agreed that Cabernet Sauvignon was a great choice for this dish, as it cut through the richness of the mushroom cream sauce. However, they also suggested that Pinot Noir could be another good option, depending on personal taste.

**A Date Night to Remember**

Mom and Dad wanted to make sure I felt comfortable and relaxed during our cooking class together. They reassured me that anyone who cooks for others should have fun while doing it, as it's all about sharing the experience with others. As we sat down to enjoy our meal, they both expressed their enthusiasm for trying new recipes and techniques in the future.

**Tasting the Dish**

Mom took a moment to appreciate the flavors in our dish, saying that she was really proud of how everything came together. She praised Dad's skills as a chef, especially when it came to cooking beef. The mushroom cream sauce added an extra layer of flavor to the scallops, which were cooked to perfection.

**A Lesson Learned**

As we finished our meal and prepared for cleanup, Mom and Dad reflected on what they had learned from their class together. They realized that cooking was not just about following a recipe, but also about having fun and experimenting with new flavors. They praised me for my willingness to learn and try new things, and thanked me for joining them on this culinary adventure.

**A Final Toast**

As we sat down to toast our meal, Mom and Dad raised their glasses in celebration of the delicious food we had made together. They expressed their gratitude for sharing this experience with me, and I toasted back, feeling proud of what we had accomplished as a team.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's happening guys it's jet Tila and Ali Tila and we are so stoked to be cooking with you today today we're going to be making scallops and a filet mignon with a with a that's a great surf and turf for you to make with your partner at home absolutely uh it really is one of those dishes that looks super fancy you get a lot of street cred and Chef cred but it's very simple we're going to show you how to perfectly fire filet mignons on a super um hot cast iron pan we're going to tie that together with a very versatile mushroom cream sauce that ties into everything and Ali and I are going to show you how to perfectly sear scallops and get that beautiful crust and then we're going to finish it off with some asparagus which is excellent because it's elegant and yet it's quick and easy so before we get started we're going to make sure that our oven is preheated to 375 and then we have a plate lined with paper towels so let's get cooking this series of dishes might feel daunting but it's really not that hard break it down to the sum of its parts I'm going to start with the mushrooms you've got the filet uh all right so mushrooms right yeah how do you clean them because you can't just dump dunk them in water that's a good point yeah it's not good to run your mushrooms over water so what I like to do is take a moist paper towel and basically just kind of rub the top of the mushrooms here and then just kind of rub any dirt off and I'm always inspecting uh the actual stem of the mushroom and if it's super Woody I just cut it off right and that can go into the compost you could actually use it for stock if you're making stocks as well and it's really really simple mushrooms are super delicious do you like mushrooms I love mushrooms I think it's polarizing though our kids are like man I don't like mushrooms I think it's one of those those ingredients that you grow to love right yeah they're kind of like meaty they're kind of they're they have Umami I really I love the flavor I think you nailed it though I think the reason why people don't like mushrooms is because people haven't had them cooked well right people don't like mushrooms for all the reasons I like them yeah well yeah and so we're going to show you how to make mushrooms well firstly I'm going to slice them so if you're kind of new to knife skills what I do is you know find that flat section bait right like you know that stem kind of makes it move around if you kind of just flatten out the stem piece so the mushroom cap stays still it makes it really easy another good tip is to make sure you're cutting the mushrooms into even pieces because even slicing means even cooking in the pan and it's ritualistic for me the pan is always preheated as I'm doing the work because I think the big problem is uh people don't Heat their pans up enough and when you don't heat your pants up enough you're not going to have the sear that you require Ali do you want to um throw some butter into that pan sure yeah and and I'm a butter and mushroom guy I think olive oil is also delicious but there's something about just really high quality butter that makes mushrooms sing like really brings out the Umami so see this teamwork situation uh the butter was starting to get a little hot I just throw the mushrooms right in because a little bit of that brown butter situation I think tastes really delicious no Teamwork Makes the Dream work that's right that's right they're gonna they're gonna get sick and tired of hearing team Tila all the time um and that buggy for a little more butter sure here's the here's how to cook mushrooms perfectly right first thing is the initial sear you want to sear mushrooms just like Alex is going to sear the steak thank you just like we're gonna sear the scallops that caramelization Sears uh that surface area of the mushroom uh and then secondly is going to happen is butter or the fat be it better or olive oil is going to help leech out the moisture because mushrooms have a lot of water we're going to take advantage of that Ali's gonna throw in a decent amount of salt and pepper in here because this is the time to season mushrooms you ready ready sweetheart thank you very much uh we're using kosher salt by the way uh why Ally Why do why do you love kosher salt uh I like it because it's not as potent as table salt right um and then you don't over season as much with kosher salt did your parents use iodized salt when you're a kid yeah right but then you put a little bit and it's just way too much agreed agreed and look nothing wrong with iodized salt but I do feel you get a lot more control with kosher salt okay that's what I'm but I know that's what you meant I was just saying it again uh all right I'm taking a clove of garlic and I'm going to show you how we like to distribute garlic another good tip is smashing garlic with your fingers and your knife is great but this is called a planer and uh using this planer and look the Peel's even still on so uh so check it out the peel is still on this actually keeps your fingers from getting uh garlicky well are you worried about getting the peel in your mushrooms though not at all every single rustic culture my Asian culture the Italian teachers that I've had um you know garlic peel is totally edible believe it or not and when it caramelizes it works well and but here check it out in this instance by using the planer the garlic peel has protected my fingers is not being grated in and then here's where you see the garlic that's perfect garlic paste right there boom goes right in and I think I really think that is a phenomenal way to get garlic flavoring well now you don't have to wash your hands 12 times because they smell like garlic absolutely we wash your hands and we touch raw meat but you don't need to be washing your hands because uh you know because they smell like garlic uh all the time um okay check it out let's look inside the pan the mushrooms have released their flavor right the mushrooms have released moisture what are you looking for here uh here's what I'm looking for number one Browning of the mushrooms they look beautifully caramelized number two they have released their moisture you definitely and strategically seasoned that liquid no truly right and then now that seasoning of garlic salt and pepper has gone back into the mushroom and that's how you get a meaty and chewy mushroom and chewy is a good thing for mushroom and he smells phenomenal so you're bringing the liquid out and then you're absorbing it back in is that right absolutely right and I'm going to bring another layer Flavor now so I've got a nice kind of a dry white wine this pan is bone dried but there's there's a minute where bone dry becomes burnt so I got to be careful check check it out bone dry just a little bit of white wine and that's going to deglaze the pan meaning I'm just going to pull all that flavor out of the pan so you're going to get all those delicious Brown bits right back in your sauce on Francais we call that phone oh I know it's too fancy you're so fancy yeah so in French we call that fond anything that sticks to the pan Which you're going to get to we're going to pull out to a sauce so I'm in a good place right now I'm gonna let the wine reabsorb and we can kind of hold one thing we want you to learn from these date night uh classes is how to time things too because we're cooking four dishes uh but it's important that when it's time to eat dinner every dish is at that perfect pace so you're going to kind of learn how restaurant chefs uh time dinner so I'm in a good spot Ally um take it away great should we start on our steaks here heck yeah and I'm here support you thank you so much the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to heat the pan because I want it really hot so I can get a good sear on these fillets so I'm going to get that going and is there a kind of pan that you're using right now I'm using a cast iron okay I'm just a big fan so about medium high heat I'm going to let that heat up for like two to three minutes but while I'm heating that up I'm going to season these steaks and the first thing we're going to want to do with our steaks is to Pat the dry because we want to really dry to get a good sear on them absolutely so cast iron all right yeah Number One cast iron of all the pans is going to hold heat the best number two you're genius because moisture and hot pans are the enemy so you're patting it dry to get the driest uh possible piece of fillet and also that's going to make the beautiful crust I'm going to put a little bit of thyme leaves in my uh in my mushrooms as they start to finish so great so I'm noticing that that the fillets are tied and is this your handiwork here yeah yeah yeah um here's uh more restaurant tips for you more more Chef tips for you um as as you're cooking I'll talk about the filet the filet uh or the tenderloin is the piece of beef that moves the leaves it's on the back here right uh and it's a long chain it actually tapers there's the thick piece and it tapers down to a thinner piece now there's only like 25 or 30 percent of this this filet or this chain that is perfectly put together that has no connective tissue through it so as you get down to the part of the chain uh we chefs know how to hack the steaks to make them all beautiful little rounds like that so if you get a piece of fillet uh and it's it's not perfectly like compacted and round take that piece of twine tie it around the middle cinch it really tight and just do two two overhand knots and you've just made perfectly thirty dollar fillets so that's all that's going on you do love me yourself steaks and my piece of relation relation advice is find someone who loves you enough to tie your steaks that's right um and you know what you get a lot of butcher cred that way so we've made a rub for our fillets and we're using sure and the secret the Tila trick here is to use sugar in your rub because that's going to beautifully caramelize the steaks yeah I mean if you've ever made caramel it's basically just a sugar in a pan we're taking advantage of that and getting this gorgeously brown crust and very controversial by the way but I'm standing by it 30 years in the kitchen it's always worked for me so uh you know what I mean don't at me family all right because it will work and it's worked for a long time so we're seasoning our steaks you want to put a lot of the rub on it they can take it they can take it and because we're using kosher salt it's bigger flake and it's not going to absorb any of the steaks as much but you're going to get a great crust please there you go I love how you're using a sheet pan with parchment and you're using tongs so you're not kind of doing that oh I've got raw meat on my fingers and I'm going for it well I'm lazy I don't want to have to wash my hands like every three minutes so yeah use your tongs I think you're smart I think that's called working smarter not harder so all right your pan is hot this is what we're looking for you see a raw cast iron pan is just smoking slightly on its own and that's looking amazing right there right but we're not going to put our oil in the pan because it's so hot we don't want a grease fire so we're gonna make sure that our steaks aren't sticking by putting drizzling a little bit of oil on the steaks themselves they're fancy you're so fancy here we go a little bit of oil perfect and then you can actually do one of these too like uh use the the parchment paper to get some oil use the parchment paper to get a little more oil that's genius and while you're gonna learn something every day from jatila yeah let's just and you'll see her and then I'll finish off my cream sauce all right so is that enough on this that's beautiful that looks great all right so here we go we're all ready oh let's see here's some steaks okay now how many sides do we need for presentation quiz how many sides of food do you see uh looking back at you on a plate is it one two or three what is it what what one absolutely so so why do you ask that question well because you only really need one good side so if you mess up one side it's okay yeah that's that's a good tip um your job as a cook or a chef is to absolutely nail one presentation side so Ally you've got two opportunities here's the point don't rush to turn the steak over right it's not about a 50 50 cook situation you're gonna put this in the oven which means the oven is going to cook it through to the middle so your job right now is just to get one to two gorgeous sides and then you can pick later as we plate which side you want to go and it shouldn't take long like one to two minutes right because our Pan's pretty hot and the nice thing is you can peek right why don't you why don't you have our shore friends how you peek all right we're just gonna take a little a little peek under here what do you think almost flip it out let's show them what do you think so almost that looks good for most but you know we're going to show them how to go all the way oh yeah well you like to live on the edge I do like to live on the edge absolutely okay as you're doing that as your steaks are searing I'm going to finish my mushroom cream sauce team as you remember the last thing I put in this pan was the wine the wine has absorbed almost all the way French term would be offsec versus demisec when the liquid is reduced in the pan so now I'm going to finish making the sauce which is very very simple um I've taken advantage of all those delicious bits on the pan uh the pan is just about bone dry I'm going to add some liquid now chicken stock I'm using chicken stock that I bought out of the box which is totally fine you've taken the time to really uh use all these other great ingredients it's going to be fine to use chicken stock that looks gorgeous Ally turn that over look at that done okay so I've got chicken stock in here now I'm also mentally I'm thinking how much cream sauce do I actually need I need enough for two fillets to get two really nice portions uh so I'm that that's a good amount in there and I'm also going to back that up with heavy cream now I know some of you are like oh my God that's so many calories it smells good though it's date night man this is the time to to just kind of go all out so I'm going to put a bit of heavy cream in there oh yum and then of course season every layer right salt and pepper right right I'm going to add some and again you again you don't have to peel it so I mean I'm into less work all day long so I have some nice sprigs of Rosemary I'm going to add in here and a little bit of thyme and then I think these are ready to throw into our 375 oven lovely um wow look at that that looks super cool uh all right so I'm gonna this is gonna reduce five to ten minutes until thick I'm gonna give you a really quick Chef note on what's happening in Ally's uh gorgeous pan here um in the restaurant world when you order a fillet all right and you're gonna have first course Secretary of course third course you can actually hold right here you could literally pull a towel put it off to the side and about 10 to 15 minutes if you know you're not going to be eating for a while you can hold this and then finish it in the oven then but you know what we're moving pretty quickly here so I think this is a good time also cast iron here you go ahead thank you so much super hot are we ready you got it let me get out of your way all right these are gonna go right in the oven remember kitchen talk as your date night cooking communicate say Sharps if there's a knife around say hot behind if you're coming behind someone uh with something hot but that's gorgeous 375 uh and 375 375 about six to ten minutes and that means medium rare because we're medium rare people yeah if you're not medium rare people we won't judge you right if you're not a medium rare person you know no judgment no judgment at all but the only way to know uh that you've nailed temperature is a thermometer 125 to 130 degrees internal temp of that steak is going to rest into a medium rare every 10 degrees is a doneness so 125 means medium rare 135 is medium 145 as well makes me cry a little inside but hey it's okay so what's going on with your cream sauce over here all I'm doing I'm in a restaurant hold meaning all right I'm basically waiting until we're about to pull together the cream is going to reduce the stock is going to reduce and I'm really just looking for it to coat the food I think French we call that napae like you nap a sauce over and it sits on the top if it soaks through it's it's too thin but if it sits on top that's the right consistency so so that's all I'm holding for I'm gonna get you a pan for your asparagus yeah should we get started on that absolutely I'm heating your pan for you excellent thank you right that should be muscle memory like before I cook anything the first thing I do is heat the pan yeah well you don't want to ever put anything any oil in a cold pan right absolutely not absolutely yes so all right do you have to snap asparagus and where do you snap in asparagus well asparagus have at the ends a really Woody part that you're not going to want to eat so you have to find the Woody part and then cut that off yeah so how do we do it where do we know well you just you just you see where it snaps right oh yeah one finger on the one finger on the end we could do it together this is date cooking snapping uh first yeah I'm looking at the asparagus and I'm looking to see where the the ends are actually turning purple which means that's probably gonna be really tough well I don't have any purple here so that means you're you're good they they really cut it deeper on this one Hold the End okay hold the middle and literally Bend bend it till it breaks bend it till it breaks and then you can take about two of them and be like you could take the average so okay so we just need to cut about that that that's what I have to go through and and break each one absolutely some people don't like this like if you're very particular about how things are cut you don't like Jagged edges I'm not saying anything at all I love you babe what are you talking about you're you're perfect so um so now you can find where to actually cut them to even out those ends great we'll get going on that so asparagus um I think the number one faux pas that people actually make is the overcooked vegetables okay and what I look for is uh you can tell a raw vegetable like a green bean or an asparagus is going to be opaque it's got a beautiful color but it's opaque meaning you know it's solid um really really aggressive cooking uh is the key and then just until you see how this one of the camera is going to catch us but I'm looking at how rigid the asparagus is okay right now as it's raw and I'm seeing where it it doesn't fit really Flex okay as this thing gets tortured under heat in the best way you always say torture your vegetables I do you have to torture your vegetables to make them delicious and let me tell you your tortured vegetables are some of the like best I've ever tasted well but we're going to show them how to do it yeah no I was trying to help you thank you all right these mushroom cream sauce is coming down out of these pan and it's nice and hot and that looks great that looks perfect so our pan is nice and hot okay we're gonna add some olive oil to the pan and then we're going to put in our asparagus and you can always be ready if your pans are smoking hot just get your items in there faster right don't play that game of oh it's too hot oh it's too cold oh it's too hot that's perfect white smoke all right look at that can I assist you of course excellent um all right so we're gonna cook these for about 30 seconds and while I'm cooking the ah you're way ahead of me I got you I got it I read my mind of course why we're married there you go I'll watch these if you want to get your garlic growing great thank you now it's crucial to get a really really hot sear on the asparagus and because they're super thin um you know they'll tend to to burn pretty quickly but that doesn't happen if you keep it moving okay I'm gonna do a steak check all right I think we should show our friends how to Temp a steak so hot open oven everybody open oven and yeah I don't want you you know what this is fine you you keep going and so again Ali why don't you try the the Flop test so grab that Tong okay and then uh see if it starts to bend more in the middle yet not yet so you're almost there all right so keep that cooking uh it should be about 30 seconds to a minute you think it all depends these are a little bigger Spears I'm looking for a really nice even sear which I think we can go more right I'm looking for a good sear all the way around just keep it moving I just keep it moving that's really it so friends I'm gonna show you how to Temp your steaks right because you went out and you spent a ton of money um on these fillets let's make sure they're we're getting the temp better to check periodically than to over nail that temperature so getting into the center center of the steak how are we looking one it's about 114 115 and remember the goal is 125 so we can give it a few more minutes but we're darn close because we still have to uh carry over all right so I'm gonna actually temp both and go to the center of the center but we are very very close uh I still we have we have an even 114 on both so I'm gonna go for another are probably four minutes or so but that's how to play guys it's not difficult if you know the fundamentals all right that looks good right there I think we're ready let's do it so we're gonna do the same garlic trick with our microplane and just give this a nice coating of garlic on top one clove there you go beautiful you can also lean it lean it there there you go leverage very nice just watch your hot pan so this technique of olive oil salt pepper garlic and lemon should work for any green vegetable that you love this is a preferred way that we cook in the Tila house not just for date night but when we want to get a very quick vegetable dish out for our kids exactly the same technique right there that's awesome like our kids eat vegetables uh you just already though out I think they're they're starting with green beans leave that planer out too that's perfect yeah you're doing great just keep smashing just keep grinding no that's good that's a huge garlic clove that's perfect look at that that's perfect let me pass the hand off thank you um another layer of flavor is going to be lemon zest okay uh and that is just the part of the lemon that is yellow as you go under you get into the pith which is bitter but this is where all those amazing essential oils are and you're using the same planer for that as you can see you get perfect zest that way so we're gonna do the zest of one lemon but we're gonna finish with just half the lemon in terms of juice that looks phenomenal I think we're going to want to plate that one uh because we don't want this one to overcook so you want to finish that with lemon juice sure and then uh we'll put that on the plate nice perfect and then you'll season that to finish do I have salt do you have salt I absolutely all right a little kosher salt perfect a little Cracked Pepper we'll give that a toss and those are done I mean they're really this is how easy it is to get restaurant style vegetables that looks awesome yeah yeah look at that so good vegetables delicious but you just made that you don't give me the credit you just cook that that looks awesome uh all right it's also okay to come over the top with a little more zest for the plate up too so you gotta make it look pretty that's right okay uh I think let's do a check I'm gonna take I want to grab I want to grab the steak hot hot super hot coming in so another piece of kitchen tacos hot oven there you go clearing your way here here's your thermometer alley if you want to do a check there perfect before tenting oh we still have the butter base don't we yes yeah so this is the time to butter base okay all right let's check in with mushroom sauce as you're getting butter ready all right I'm sure you can see you into this pan here overhead it's going to Napa beautifully over the dish this is also an opportunity right we have mushroom sauce on restaurants we don't make each one to order uh all the minute as we call it we have this mushroom sauce that is like 90 ready and what we'll do is just kind of finish it with a little bit of cream chicken stock and salt and pepper and that's exactly where I'm at so I'm holding a mushroom sauce we're holding asparagus at any point so why don't why don't we base these with some butter I love it bring in some extra flavor to the steaks go for it looks phenomenal so this is my favorite part of these steaks is basting them with some butter because butter is delicious butter makes everything even more it does it does so I'm gonna throw a big knob of butter in here and melt it that's for you thank you you got it I like this yeah tell everybody why you throw a towel on the handelo pan yeah so go ahead um more more kitchen notes good tips right uh this cast iron has come out of the oven in order to tell anyone in the vicinity tonight it's date night it's just alley myself but if the kids are here uh if you put a towel over a handle or anywhere someone's gonna grab that's gonna signify that this thing is hot don't touch it so you train your you train your family that way and you oh then you all of a sudden have like an army of chefs running around behind hot oven hot coming through Corner yeah Corner exactly all right so we're just waiting for it to melt and then we're gonna baste the steaks with the melted butter all right uh I think I'm gonna start on scallops then because that works for you sure can I move you over to one yeah do that let's put together over here hot pan perfect hot behind you thank you very much okay beautiful you got that okay Ally is basting the fillets to get all the herb flavor uh onto the fillet it also helps get more color it also just makes it more succulent so and and then she's gonna rest it there can we talk scallops really quick let's talk Cialis okay um so some rules to the road you go and you buy scallops first thing is going to be sizing these are jumbos all right uh and another way to signify jumbo is usually a u the letter U and then the count okay meaning so per pound how many how many scallops are going to make up a pound and for these if these are about two to three ounces a piece they're 16 ounces so these are probably like a five or or six I just did a lot of math if that's messing with your head don't worry about it but um I like we like these jumbo scallops about two inches wide another thing you want to look for is uh the designation of either a wet scallop or a dry scallop I want you to be buying dry scallops and that means they haven't been held in any solution or liquid these are basically what they call day boats they've been picked off the sea and there and they've been flown to you so these are very very fancy scallops what do you got what do you need there you want to give you a foil yeah that's right um and rest well that way the juices don't escape yeah uh think about the juices inside the steak right out of the oven boiling just like a pot of boiling water they're aggressive they want to expand they want to move if you cut that steak you lose all that moisture uh Ali's tented that allowing the steaks to rest that means the liquid in the steak is going to settle come back into the middle so when we cut into it need dinner they are going to be super juicy what is the key to cooking a perfect scallop yeah just kind of like everything we've talked about in this phenomenal date night is very aggressive heat and then understanding seasoning of your scallop and keeping everything super dry we're going to do one more layer of dry here and I'm going to show you what a dredge is so first thing get get the right pan Ali used a cast iron pan for the first steak to get a phenomenal sear and if you don't have a cast iron pan I'm going to use anodized aluminum I think that is also a really really great choice so I have a little bit of rice flour here now this doesn't have to be rice flour this can be flour this could be cornmeal this could be corn starch I like rice flour for a few reasons it's gluten-free just because you know a lot of people are gluten free and I think it's a very fine powder so it works quite well so so what I'm going to do is season this may I trouble you for something absolutely anodized aluminum means the actual core of the pan is aluminum and then it's cladded with another surface that works like non-stick but isn't going to flake off at very high temperatures and that's why I love using anodized aluminum as well as cast iron pans so in order to Brown anything you've learned by now you want to make sure it's super dry and the first step of of getting these scallops a crusted is getting them a nice pat dry single-use paper towels are a a Cook's best friend we use them anytime we're cooking meat I'll use them for the steaks I'm going to use them for the scallops so if you have any excess moisture which these are actually really beautiful scallops they don't they look gorgeous yeah they're they're gonna they're gonna be great so I'm gonna I'm gonna treat them with respect as they deserve you know what I mean salt and pepper and unlike the steak you don't have to go crazy because there's a lot of natural uh deliciousness and sweetness so I'm going to go just a light dusting of both steaks can absorb a lot of salt Seafood doesn't need that much salt then I'm going to turn them over and I already can tell in my periphery that this pan is getting hot it's got that kind of smoky thing going on so it's getting to where I want it um okay so in terms of oil we have used olive oil for the vegetables we are going to use a canola oil for the scallops but why because olive oil has a very low smoke point and it tends to burn at a low temp canola oil is phenomenal uh no because it doesn't burn until something like almost 500 Degrees so you could you have two choices that you can either oil the scallops or I can oil the pan so what I'm going to do is just do a very light coating and then I'm going to actually use my paper towel just to get coverage and then here we go I'm going to lay these in and that's what I want to hear the ch okay so um with a little bit of the oil down I'm just going to give them a very light dredge in the in the flower and what will that do uh so what I'm doing is two things number one I'm drying off every uh bit of moisture and number two I'm actually that that rice flour actually creates a crust and that's going to really help so looks amazing nice light coating get them in and again I'm using the side of the pan to get heat from two sides there and it's very light dusting let me give you a one that's that's close I think uh I think we're gonna track so I'm gonna get dust dust and if you notice it's not a lot it's just enough to build up a tiny little crust okay let's think ahead here uh scallops are only going to be just a few minutes and um so these are so fresh I get to have a little Sashimi on the side well it's just perfect I'm not I'm not mad at that okay so we're gonna monitor these scallops your steak is good our asparagus is good we're almost there we're almost there so check out this pan of sauce it is um reduced a bit you want to bring that back with just a touch of stock a little bit of cream until it's pourable and salt and pepper wow these are good scallops foreign and from in terms of the strategy point of view when we do date nights like this and you have multiple courses we're gonna get everything to ready to eat we're gonna group them and then I'm going to use this area like a pass in a kitchen and we'll assemble dinner pour some wine and we'll be great to go so how far ahead can you make a mushroom cream sauce uh let's talk about each component how does that sound a mushroom cream sauce you can make that hour two hours ahead until the point where you just want to finalize it like you're doing over here uh yeah and then the asparagus I would say the asparagus and the scallops are the things you want to do right before you eat because they they can they tend to get cold or or what we call in the restaurant dye they get a little too limp but this is perfect you see that that's exactly what I'm talking about soy has a lot of crunch to it and then your steak you could do probably about 20 minutes it can rest a little bit and you can always warm it up so can I trouble you for salt and pepper absolutely here you go thank you thank you okay let's start checking scallops now and I'm I'm trying to remember the order so if I started at 12 o'clock I'm going to start at 12 o'clock and I'm okay to just check these oh I'm getting there I am getting there that's beautiful all right Disney Just Another Second and I'm doing a little turn on the end because remember I'm getting heat from two sides and I don't want them to overcook on one side I want them to cook nice and evenly how you doing Ally great that's it right there you nailed it you nailed it well you know what here's another way you can tell if somebody's ready team coat the back of the spoon and then when you run your finger through it it should make a line through the sauce that doesn't drip so this looks good yeah it looks perfect actually I think we've achieved Napa that's right and you can always uh bring a sauce back if you've over reduced a sauce you can always bring it back right you can always add a little more chicken stock and a little more cream and you're good to go you want to do a little more I think we're ready to plate a little more just a tiny bit more each and then let's just get a little more ball yeah no problem okay beautiful here no wine instead yeah no just a little bit of cream and we're good to go did you taste it I am about to taste it all right I'm gonna add a little bit more cream because you have to taste your food before you serve it I've turned these scallops over and I'm taking them off heat because I don't want to overcook them I think it's just about time to build our dinner so I'm going to clear the station a little bit all right Allie let's do a taste kind of taste do you want to taste it first no no no I trust you I absolutely trust you good yeah good we happy there all right so really flavorful all right so Chef Ali sauce check asparagus uh we got the steaks ready to go let's show our friends kind of the the finish of the steak then so oh look at that wow so they've rested you see a little bit of the of the the moisture there build up we have two sides those look gorgeous we have a little pan sauce as well um I can't wait I cannot wait all right let's clean it up you guys are you ready to play it I am all right may I do the honors okay sounds good uh how I like to set these up is if you have any kind of moisture build up on the steaks you want to take some scissors and then we'll clip the little strings there before we go uh I'm gonna pull the scallops so they don't overcook that's what I'm looking for look at that beautiful sear I got yeah I think we don't have no problem I'm gonna use a knife you want to grab me a little paring knife beautiful yes perfect date night all right the other thing you could do is you can get in this I don't want to butcher it you're not going to butcher it yeah there's you can't you didn't do anything you can't you can't mess this up so by taking the twine you have perfectly shaped fillets and again that's a really nice way to get um a nice shape without having to buy like that super Prime uh center cut fillet and when you hear the word center cut that's what they're talking about where they're talking about the pieces that are already uh together they're not the ends but if you don't get the ends now you know how to fix it so okay perfect shall we Let's Do It um all right another restaurant tip for plating for you is this may I give this to you uh take a take a uh single-use clean paper towel and uh you could actually do a little A little dab there don't do the dab no where to oh you did it that is awesome wow uh we'll do the little I can feel our kids embarrassment like oh my God if they were miles right now if they were here they'd be like seriously mom seriously dad they'd be like that's not how you do it exactly um okay that's good there let's line up if I dab you have to floss oh my God I couldn't even begin to uh you're just bringing up now story when Ally was young she took a lot of Dance so maybe in one of these classes we can get Ali to dance so I have two left feet are you outing me well because you just if I have to dance you have to dance with me there's no way uh our ratings would go we would plummet because no one wants to see any of that they'd rather see you dance uh okay scallop time um I am really kind of of the the odd numbers because I think uh you know they draw your eye to the plate a little bit those look beautiful yeah they're they're they're translucent they bounce to the touch that's exactly what you want three you want to do three let's see yeah three is perfect yeah I like that it's and we'll just eat those as Scooby Snacks later on you always have to have a little extra you always need some snacks oh for sure and then uh let's do the mushroom sauce perfect I'll use a different spoon here you go there we go and I'm gonna do that right over the steak because I think that's where that belongs oh yes yeah um so mushroom sauce again if you're making chicken if you're roasting any kind of protein even if it's not uh if you're doing a plant-based situation mushroom sauce is is really really phenomenal it's super versatile all right um I think we are looking good I think we need some wine so in terms of beverages uh we should talk about our preferences what do you like in terms of wine I mean I with this I I like a red you know that would be my choice yeah we're gonna go Cabernet here today because um scallops you know are seafood and you would usually think white but I think the dominating factor in the plate is going to be that mushroom cream sauce which has a lot of umami which is very earthy uh and then the the filet mignon definitely has a lot of kind of that iron flavor so I think you need a big a big red so we're gonna go Cabernet I think the other Alternatives though are going to be Pinot Noir and I think you could also probably do an old world Pinot you could do new world or old old or pinot and uh I'm kind of partial to the cab though because I feel like the tannins kind of cut through the richness of the mushroom cream sauce yeah I like that kind of contrast I want a bold cap but I don't want a super super 10 in cab because we do have scallops to play with this as well so um and then this one is not too big of a cabin I think that's the way to go um and that's if you're wine if you're not then you know big a beer I treat people we drink beer with anything yeah that's no problem um dude I mean not not difficult I mean I really think that I really think that a lot of people are super intimidated when they hear uh surf and turf when they hear filet mignon when they hear scallops we really wanted to do this date night class to really show you that you know what this is a phenomenal date night as a set but you can actually pull four different separate techniques from this class and maybe one day you just need to get a vegetable on that's your asparagus one day you want to cook scallops you know the extra scallop and if you want to nail a steak you can apply any of these steak tips to any steak that you like you're you're filet mignon I love filet yeah and look I think that anybody that you're cooking for or with is going to be impressed by this dish oh oh for sure beautiful work Ally cheers likewise cheers very very nice oh yeah okay I'm going for it this is my favorite part tasting it's a meal I mean it's it's really like yeah this is a serious date night it's like you get to hang out you cook you better have time for a nap after I mean it's real kids do not nap time you nailed the filet it's beefy that mushroom cream sauce comes over the top it compliments well it really you know I think mushrooms and beef are a natural pair and the grass let's dig into your scallops here I'm so excited to try that warm middle of the scallop nice and bouncy hmm good stuff oh mission accomplished what a fun date night two years cheers to you cheers to you and to you thank you for taking our class with us we had so much fun cooking with you and we hope that you had a great time cooking with uswhat's happening guys it's jet Tila and Ali Tila and we are so stoked to be cooking with you today today we're going to be making scallops and a filet mignon with a with a that's a great surf and turf for you to make with your partner at home absolutely uh it really is one of those dishes that looks super fancy you get a lot of street cred and Chef cred but it's very simple we're going to show you how to perfectly fire filet mignons on a super um hot cast iron pan we're going to tie that together with a very versatile mushroom cream sauce that ties into everything and Ali and I are going to show you how to perfectly sear scallops and get that beautiful crust and then we're going to finish it off with some asparagus which is excellent because it's elegant and yet it's quick and easy so before we get started we're going to make sure that our oven is preheated to 375 and then we have a plate lined with paper towels so let's get cooking this series of dishes might feel daunting but it's really not that hard break it down to the sum of its parts I'm going to start with the mushrooms you've got the filet uh all right so mushrooms right yeah how do you clean them because you can't just dump dunk them in water that's a good point yeah it's not good to run your mushrooms over water so what I like to do is take a moist paper towel and basically just kind of rub the top of the mushrooms here and then just kind of rub any dirt off and I'm always inspecting uh the actual stem of the mushroom and if it's super Woody I just cut it off right and that can go into the compost you could actually use it for stock if you're making stocks as well and it's really really simple mushrooms are super delicious do you like mushrooms I love mushrooms I think it's polarizing though our kids are like man I don't like mushrooms I think it's one of those those ingredients that you grow to love right yeah they're kind of like meaty they're kind of they're they have Umami I really I love the flavor I think you nailed it though I think the reason why people don't like mushrooms is because people haven't had them cooked well right people don't like mushrooms for all the reasons I like them yeah well yeah and so we're going to show you how to make mushrooms well firstly I'm going to slice them so if you're kind of new to knife skills what I do is you know find that flat section bait right like you know that stem kind of makes it move around if you kind of just flatten out the stem piece so the mushroom cap stays still it makes it really easy another good tip is to make sure you're cutting the mushrooms into even pieces because even slicing means even cooking in the pan and it's ritualistic for me the pan is always preheated as I'm doing the work because I think the big problem is uh people don't Heat their pans up enough and when you don't heat your pants up enough you're not going to have the sear that you require Ali do you want to um throw some butter into that pan sure yeah and and I'm a butter and mushroom guy I think olive oil is also delicious but there's something about just really high quality butter that makes mushrooms sing like really brings out the Umami so see this teamwork situation uh the butter was starting to get a little hot I just throw the mushrooms right in because a little bit of that brown butter situation I think tastes really delicious no Teamwork Makes the Dream work that's right that's right they're gonna they're gonna get sick and tired of hearing team Tila all the time um and that buggy for a little more butter sure here's the here's how to cook mushrooms perfectly right first thing is the initial sear you want to sear mushrooms just like Alex is going to sear the steak thank you just like we're gonna sear the scallops that caramelization Sears uh that surface area of the mushroom uh and then secondly is going to happen is butter or the fat be it better or olive oil is going to help leech out the moisture because mushrooms have a lot of water we're going to take advantage of that Ali's gonna throw in a decent amount of salt and pepper in here because this is the time to season mushrooms you ready ready sweetheart thank you very much uh we're using kosher salt by the way uh why Ally Why do why do you love kosher salt uh I like it because it's not as potent as table salt right um and then you don't over season as much with kosher salt did your parents use iodized salt when you're a kid yeah right but then you put a little bit and it's just way too much agreed agreed and look nothing wrong with iodized salt but I do feel you get a lot more control with kosher salt okay that's what I'm but I know that's what you meant I was just saying it again uh all right I'm taking a clove of garlic and I'm going to show you how we like to distribute garlic another good tip is smashing garlic with your fingers and your knife is great but this is called a planer and uh using this planer and look the Peel's even still on so uh so check it out the peel is still on this actually keeps your fingers from getting uh garlicky well are you worried about getting the peel in your mushrooms though not at all every single rustic culture my Asian culture the Italian teachers that I've had um you know garlic peel is totally edible believe it or not and when it caramelizes it works well and but here check it out in this instance by using the planer the garlic peel has protected my fingers is not being grated in and then here's where you see the garlic that's perfect garlic paste right there boom goes right in and I think I really think that is a phenomenal way to get garlic flavoring well now you don't have to wash your hands 12 times because they smell like garlic absolutely we wash your hands and we touch raw meat but you don't need to be washing your hands because uh you know because they smell like garlic uh all the time um okay check it out let's look inside the pan the mushrooms have released their flavor right the mushrooms have released moisture what are you looking for here uh here's what I'm looking for number one Browning of the mushrooms they look beautifully caramelized number two they have released their moisture you definitely and strategically seasoned that liquid no truly right and then now that seasoning of garlic salt and pepper has gone back into the mushroom and that's how you get a meaty and chewy mushroom and chewy is a good thing for mushroom and he smells phenomenal so you're bringing the liquid out and then you're absorbing it back in is that right absolutely right and I'm going to bring another layer Flavor now so I've got a nice kind of a dry white wine this pan is bone dried but there's there's a minute where bone dry becomes burnt so I got to be careful check check it out bone dry just a little bit of white wine and that's going to deglaze the pan meaning I'm just going to pull all that flavor out of the pan so you're going to get all those delicious Brown bits right back in your sauce on Francais we call that phone oh I know it's too fancy you're so fancy yeah so in French we call that fond anything that sticks to the pan Which you're going to get to we're going to pull out to a sauce so I'm in a good place right now I'm gonna let the wine reabsorb and we can kind of hold one thing we want you to learn from these date night uh classes is how to time things too because we're cooking four dishes uh but it's important that when it's time to eat dinner every dish is at that perfect pace so you're going to kind of learn how restaurant chefs uh time dinner so I'm in a good spot Ally um take it away great should we start on our steaks here heck yeah and I'm here support you thank you so much the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to heat the pan because I want it really hot so I can get a good sear on these fillets so I'm going to get that going and is there a kind of pan that you're using right now I'm using a cast iron okay I'm just a big fan so about medium high heat I'm going to let that heat up for like two to three minutes but while I'm heating that up I'm going to season these steaks and the first thing we're going to want to do with our steaks is to Pat the dry because we want to really dry to get a good sear on them absolutely so cast iron all right yeah Number One cast iron of all the pans is going to hold heat the best number two you're genius because moisture and hot pans are the enemy so you're patting it dry to get the driest uh possible piece of fillet and also that's going to make the beautiful crust I'm going to put a little bit of thyme leaves in my uh in my mushrooms as they start to finish so great so I'm noticing that that the fillets are tied and is this your handiwork here yeah yeah yeah um here's uh more restaurant tips for you more more Chef tips for you um as as you're cooking I'll talk about the filet the filet uh or the tenderloin is the piece of beef that moves the leaves it's on the back here right uh and it's a long chain it actually tapers there's the thick piece and it tapers down to a thinner piece now there's only like 25 or 30 percent of this this filet or this chain that is perfectly put together that has no connective tissue through it so as you get down to the part of the chain uh we chefs know how to hack the steaks to make them all beautiful little rounds like that so if you get a piece of fillet uh and it's it's not perfectly like compacted and round take that piece of twine tie it around the middle cinch it really tight and just do two two overhand knots and you've just made perfectly thirty dollar fillets so that's all that's going on you do love me yourself steaks and my piece of relation relation advice is find someone who loves you enough to tie your steaks that's right um and you know what you get a lot of butcher cred that way so we've made a rub for our fillets and we're using sure and the secret the Tila trick here is to use sugar in your rub because that's going to beautifully caramelize the steaks yeah I mean if you've ever made caramel it's basically just a sugar in a pan we're taking advantage of that and getting this gorgeously brown crust and very controversial by the way but I'm standing by it 30 years in the kitchen it's always worked for me so uh you know what I mean don't at me family all right because it will work and it's worked for a long time so we're seasoning our steaks you want to put a lot of the rub on it they can take it they can take it and because we're using kosher salt it's bigger flake and it's not going to absorb any of the steaks as much but you're going to get a great crust please there you go I love how you're using a sheet pan with parchment and you're using tongs so you're not kind of doing that oh I've got raw meat on my fingers and I'm going for it well I'm lazy I don't want to have to wash my hands like every three minutes so yeah use your tongs I think you're smart I think that's called working smarter not harder so all right your pan is hot this is what we're looking for you see a raw cast iron pan is just smoking slightly on its own and that's looking amazing right there right but we're not going to put our oil in the pan because it's so hot we don't want a grease fire so we're gonna make sure that our steaks aren't sticking by putting drizzling a little bit of oil on the steaks themselves they're fancy you're so fancy here we go a little bit of oil perfect and then you can actually do one of these too like uh use the the parchment paper to get some oil use the parchment paper to get a little more oil that's genius and while you're gonna learn something every day from jatila yeah let's just and you'll see her and then I'll finish off my cream sauce all right so is that enough on this that's beautiful that looks great all right so here we go we're all ready oh let's see here's some steaks okay now how many sides do we need for presentation quiz how many sides of food do you see uh looking back at you on a plate is it one two or three what is it what what one absolutely so so why do you ask that question well because you only really need one good side so if you mess up one side it's okay yeah that's that's a good tip um your job as a cook or a chef is to absolutely nail one presentation side so Ally you've got two opportunities here's the point don't rush to turn the steak over right it's not about a 50 50 cook situation you're gonna put this in the oven which means the oven is going to cook it through to the middle so your job right now is just to get one to two gorgeous sides and then you can pick later as we plate which side you want to go and it shouldn't take long like one to two minutes right because our Pan's pretty hot and the nice thing is you can peek right why don't you why don't you have our shore friends how you peek all right we're just gonna take a little a little peek under here what do you think almost flip it out let's show them what do you think so almost that looks good for most but you know we're going to show them how to go all the way oh yeah well you like to live on the edge I do like to live on the edge absolutely okay as you're doing that as your steaks are searing I'm going to finish my mushroom cream sauce team as you remember the last thing I put in this pan was the wine the wine has absorbed almost all the way French term would be offsec versus demisec when the liquid is reduced in the pan so now I'm going to finish making the sauce which is very very simple um I've taken advantage of all those delicious bits on the pan uh the pan is just about bone dry I'm going to add some liquid now chicken stock I'm using chicken stock that I bought out of the box which is totally fine you've taken the time to really uh use all these other great ingredients it's going to be fine to use chicken stock that looks gorgeous Ally turn that over look at that done okay so I've got chicken stock in here now I'm also mentally I'm thinking how much cream sauce do I actually need I need enough for two fillets to get two really nice portions uh so I'm that that's a good amount in there and I'm also going to back that up with heavy cream now I know some of you are like oh my God that's so many calories it smells good though it's date night man this is the time to to just kind of go all out so I'm going to put a bit of heavy cream in there oh yum and then of course season every layer right salt and pepper right right I'm going to add some and again you again you don't have to peel it so I mean I'm into less work all day long so I have some nice sprigs of Rosemary I'm going to add in here and a little bit of thyme and then I think these are ready to throw into our 375 oven lovely um wow look at that that looks super cool uh all right so I'm gonna this is gonna reduce five to ten minutes until thick I'm gonna give you a really quick Chef note on what's happening in Ally's uh gorgeous pan here um in the restaurant world when you order a fillet all right and you're gonna have first course Secretary of course third course you can actually hold right here you could literally pull a towel put it off to the side and about 10 to 15 minutes if you know you're not going to be eating for a while you can hold this and then finish it in the oven then but you know what we're moving pretty quickly here so I think this is a good time also cast iron here you go ahead thank you so much super hot are we ready you got it let me get out of your way all right these are gonna go right in the oven remember kitchen talk as your date night cooking communicate say Sharps if there's a knife around say hot behind if you're coming behind someone uh with something hot but that's gorgeous 375 uh and 375 375 about six to ten minutes and that means medium rare because we're medium rare people yeah if you're not medium rare people we won't judge you right if you're not a medium rare person you know no judgment no judgment at all but the only way to know uh that you've nailed temperature is a thermometer 125 to 130 degrees internal temp of that steak is going to rest into a medium rare every 10 degrees is a doneness so 125 means medium rare 135 is medium 145 as well makes me cry a little inside but hey it's okay so what's going on with your cream sauce over here all I'm doing I'm in a restaurant hold meaning all right I'm basically waiting until we're about to pull together the cream is going to reduce the stock is going to reduce and I'm really just looking for it to coat the food I think French we call that napae like you nap a sauce over and it sits on the top if it soaks through it's it's too thin but if it sits on top that's the right consistency so so that's all I'm holding for I'm gonna get you a pan for your asparagus yeah should we get started on that absolutely I'm heating your pan for you excellent thank you right that should be muscle memory like before I cook anything the first thing I do is heat the pan yeah well you don't want to ever put anything any oil in a cold pan right absolutely not absolutely yes so all right do you have to snap asparagus and where do you snap in asparagus well asparagus have at the ends a really Woody part that you're not going to want to eat so you have to find the Woody part and then cut that off yeah so how do we do it where do we know well you just you just you see where it snaps right oh yeah one finger on the one finger on the end we could do it together this is date cooking snapping uh first yeah I'm looking at the asparagus and I'm looking to see where the the ends are actually turning purple which means that's probably gonna be really tough well I don't have any purple here so that means you're you're good they they really cut it deeper on this one Hold the End okay hold the middle and literally Bend bend it till it breaks bend it till it breaks and then you can take about two of them and be like you could take the average so okay so we just need to cut about that that that's what I have to go through and and break each one absolutely some people don't like this like if you're very particular about how things are cut you don't like Jagged edges I'm not saying anything at all I love you babe what are you talking about you're you're perfect so um so now you can find where to actually cut them to even out those ends great we'll get going on that so asparagus um I think the number one faux pas that people actually make is the overcooked vegetables okay and what I look for is uh you can tell a raw vegetable like a green bean or an asparagus is going to be opaque it's got a beautiful color but it's opaque meaning you know it's solid um really really aggressive cooking uh is the key and then just until you see how this one of the camera is going to catch us but I'm looking at how rigid the asparagus is okay right now as it's raw and I'm seeing where it it doesn't fit really Flex okay as this thing gets tortured under heat in the best way you always say torture your vegetables I do you have to torture your vegetables to make them delicious and let me tell you your tortured vegetables are some of the like best I've ever tasted well but we're going to show them how to do it yeah no I was trying to help you thank you all right these mushroom cream sauce is coming down out of these pan and it's nice and hot and that looks great that looks perfect so our pan is nice and hot okay we're gonna add some olive oil to the pan and then we're going to put in our asparagus and you can always be ready if your pans are smoking hot just get your items in there faster right don't play that game of oh it's too hot oh it's too cold oh it's too hot that's perfect white smoke all right look at that can I assist you of course excellent um all right so we're gonna cook these for about 30 seconds and while I'm cooking the ah you're way ahead of me I got you I got it I read my mind of course why we're married there you go I'll watch these if you want to get your garlic growing great thank you now it's crucial to get a really really hot sear on the asparagus and because they're super thin um you know they'll tend to to burn pretty quickly but that doesn't happen if you keep it moving okay I'm gonna do a steak check all right I think we should show our friends how to Temp a steak so hot open oven everybody open oven and yeah I don't want you you know what this is fine you you keep going and so again Ali why don't you try the the Flop test so grab that Tong okay and then uh see if it starts to bend more in the middle yet not yet so you're almost there all right so keep that cooking uh it should be about 30 seconds to a minute you think it all depends these are a little bigger Spears I'm looking for a really nice even sear which I think we can go more right I'm looking for a good sear all the way around just keep it moving I just keep it moving that's really it so friends I'm gonna show you how to Temp your steaks right because you went out and you spent a ton of money um on these fillets let's make sure they're we're getting the temp better to check periodically than to over nail that temperature so getting into the center center of the steak how are we looking one it's about 114 115 and remember the goal is 125 so we can give it a few more minutes but we're darn close because we still have to uh carry over all right so I'm gonna actually temp both and go to the center of the center but we are very very close uh I still we have we have an even 114 on both so I'm gonna go for another are probably four minutes or so but that's how to play guys it's not difficult if you know the fundamentals all right that looks good right there I think we're ready let's do it so we're gonna do the same garlic trick with our microplane and just give this a nice coating of garlic on top one clove there you go beautiful you can also lean it lean it there there you go leverage very nice just watch your hot pan so this technique of olive oil salt pepper garlic and lemon should work for any green vegetable that you love this is a preferred way that we cook in the Tila house not just for date night but when we want to get a very quick vegetable dish out for our kids exactly the same technique right there that's awesome like our kids eat vegetables uh you just already though out I think they're they're starting with green beans leave that planer out too that's perfect yeah you're doing great just keep smashing just keep grinding no that's good that's a huge garlic clove that's perfect look at that that's perfect let me pass the hand off thank you um another layer of flavor is going to be lemon zest okay uh and that is just the part of the lemon that is yellow as you go under you get into the pith which is bitter but this is where all those amazing essential oils are and you're using the same planer for that as you can see you get perfect zest that way so we're gonna do the zest of one lemon but we're gonna finish with just half the lemon in terms of juice that looks phenomenal I think we're going to want to plate that one uh because we don't want this one to overcook so you want to finish that with lemon juice sure and then uh we'll put that on the plate nice perfect and then you'll season that to finish do I have salt do you have salt I absolutely all right a little kosher salt perfect a little Cracked Pepper we'll give that a toss and those are done I mean they're really this is how easy it is to get restaurant style vegetables that looks awesome yeah yeah look at that so good vegetables delicious but you just made that you don't give me the credit you just cook that that looks awesome uh all right it's also okay to come over the top with a little more zest for the plate up too so you gotta make it look pretty that's right okay uh I think let's do a check I'm gonna take I want to grab I want to grab the steak hot hot super hot coming in so another piece of kitchen tacos hot oven there you go clearing your way here here's your thermometer alley if you want to do a check there perfect before tenting oh we still have the butter base don't we yes yeah so this is the time to butter base okay all right let's check in with mushroom sauce as you're getting butter ready all right I'm sure you can see you into this pan here overhead it's going to Napa beautifully over the dish this is also an opportunity right we have mushroom sauce on restaurants we don't make each one to order uh all the minute as we call it we have this mushroom sauce that is like 90 ready and what we'll do is just kind of finish it with a little bit of cream chicken stock and salt and pepper and that's exactly where I'm at so I'm holding a mushroom sauce we're holding asparagus at any point so why don't why don't we base these with some butter I love it bring in some extra flavor to the steaks go for it looks phenomenal so this is my favorite part of these steaks is basting them with some butter because butter is delicious butter makes everything even more it does it does so I'm gonna throw a big knob of butter in here and melt it that's for you thank you you got it I like this yeah tell everybody why you throw a towel on the handelo pan yeah so go ahead um more more kitchen notes good tips right uh this cast iron has come out of the oven in order to tell anyone in the vicinity tonight it's date night it's just alley myself but if the kids are here uh if you put a towel over a handle or anywhere someone's gonna grab that's gonna signify that this thing is hot don't touch it so you train your you train your family that way and you oh then you all of a sudden have like an army of chefs running around behind hot oven hot coming through Corner yeah Corner exactly all right so we're just waiting for it to melt and then we're gonna baste the steaks with the melted butter all right uh I think I'm gonna start on scallops then because that works for you sure can I move you over to one yeah do that let's put together over here hot pan perfect hot behind you thank you very much okay beautiful you got that okay Ally is basting the fillets to get all the herb flavor uh onto the fillet it also helps get more color it also just makes it more succulent so and and then she's gonna rest it there can we talk scallops really quick let's talk Cialis okay um so some rules to the road you go and you buy scallops first thing is going to be sizing these are jumbos all right uh and another way to signify jumbo is usually a u the letter U and then the count okay meaning so per pound how many how many scallops are going to make up a pound and for these if these are about two to three ounces a piece they're 16 ounces so these are probably like a five or or six I just did a lot of math if that's messing with your head don't worry about it but um I like we like these jumbo scallops about two inches wide another thing you want to look for is uh the designation of either a wet scallop or a dry scallop I want you to be buying dry scallops and that means they haven't been held in any solution or liquid these are basically what they call day boats they've been picked off the sea and there and they've been flown to you so these are very very fancy scallops what do you got what do you need there you want to give you a foil yeah that's right um and rest well that way the juices don't escape yeah uh think about the juices inside the steak right out of the oven boiling just like a pot of boiling water they're aggressive they want to expand they want to move if you cut that steak you lose all that moisture uh Ali's tented that allowing the steaks to rest that means the liquid in the steak is going to settle come back into the middle so when we cut into it need dinner they are going to be super juicy what is the key to cooking a perfect scallop yeah just kind of like everything we've talked about in this phenomenal date night is very aggressive heat and then understanding seasoning of your scallop and keeping everything super dry we're going to do one more layer of dry here and I'm going to show you what a dredge is so first thing get get the right pan Ali used a cast iron pan for the first steak to get a phenomenal sear and if you don't have a cast iron pan I'm going to use anodized aluminum I think that is also a really really great choice so I have a little bit of rice flour here now this doesn't have to be rice flour this can be flour this could be cornmeal this could be corn starch I like rice flour for a few reasons it's gluten-free just because you know a lot of people are gluten free and I think it's a very fine powder so it works quite well so so what I'm going to do is season this may I trouble you for something absolutely anodized aluminum means the actual core of the pan is aluminum and then it's cladded with another surface that works like non-stick but isn't going to flake off at very high temperatures and that's why I love using anodized aluminum as well as cast iron pans so in order to Brown anything you've learned by now you want to make sure it's super dry and the first step of of getting these scallops a crusted is getting them a nice pat dry single-use paper towels are a a Cook's best friend we use them anytime we're cooking meat I'll use them for the steaks I'm going to use them for the scallops so if you have any excess moisture which these are actually really beautiful scallops they don't they look gorgeous yeah they're they're gonna they're gonna be great so I'm gonna I'm gonna treat them with respect as they deserve you know what I mean salt and pepper and unlike the steak you don't have to go crazy because there's a lot of natural uh deliciousness and sweetness so I'm going to go just a light dusting of both steaks can absorb a lot of salt Seafood doesn't need that much salt then I'm going to turn them over and I already can tell in my periphery that this pan is getting hot it's got that kind of smoky thing going on so it's getting to where I want it um okay so in terms of oil we have used olive oil for the vegetables we are going to use a canola oil for the scallops but why because olive oil has a very low smoke point and it tends to burn at a low temp canola oil is phenomenal uh no because it doesn't burn until something like almost 500 Degrees so you could you have two choices that you can either oil the scallops or I can oil the pan so what I'm going to do is just do a very light coating and then I'm going to actually use my paper towel just to get coverage and then here we go I'm going to lay these in and that's what I want to hear the ch okay so um with a little bit of the oil down I'm just going to give them a very light dredge in the in the flower and what will that do uh so what I'm doing is two things number one I'm drying off every uh bit of moisture and number two I'm actually that that rice flour actually creates a crust and that's going to really help so looks amazing nice light coating get them in and again I'm using the side of the pan to get heat from two sides there and it's very light dusting let me give you a one that's that's close I think uh I think we're gonna track so I'm gonna get dust dust and if you notice it's not a lot it's just enough to build up a tiny little crust okay let's think ahead here uh scallops are only going to be just a few minutes and um so these are so fresh I get to have a little Sashimi on the side well it's just perfect I'm not I'm not mad at that okay so we're gonna monitor these scallops your steak is good our asparagus is good we're almost there we're almost there so check out this pan of sauce it is um reduced a bit you want to bring that back with just a touch of stock a little bit of cream until it's pourable and salt and pepper wow these are good scallops foreign and from in terms of the strategy point of view when we do date nights like this and you have multiple courses we're gonna get everything to ready to eat we're gonna group them and then I'm going to use this area like a pass in a kitchen and we'll assemble dinner pour some wine and we'll be great to go so how far ahead can you make a mushroom cream sauce uh let's talk about each component how does that sound a mushroom cream sauce you can make that hour two hours ahead until the point where you just want to finalize it like you're doing over here uh yeah and then the asparagus I would say the asparagus and the scallops are the things you want to do right before you eat because they they can they tend to get cold or or what we call in the restaurant dye they get a little too limp but this is perfect you see that that's exactly what I'm talking about soy has a lot of crunch to it and then your steak you could do probably about 20 minutes it can rest a little bit and you can always warm it up so can I trouble you for salt and pepper absolutely here you go thank you thank you okay let's start checking scallops now and I'm I'm trying to remember the order so if I started at 12 o'clock I'm going to start at 12 o'clock and I'm okay to just check these oh I'm getting there I am getting there that's beautiful all right Disney Just Another Second and I'm doing a little turn on the end because remember I'm getting heat from two sides and I don't want them to overcook on one side I want them to cook nice and evenly how you doing Ally great that's it right there you nailed it you nailed it well you know what here's another way you can tell if somebody's ready team coat the back of the spoon and then when you run your finger through it it should make a line through the sauce that doesn't drip so this looks good yeah it looks perfect actually I think we've achieved Napa that's right and you can always uh bring a sauce back if you've over reduced a sauce you can always bring it back right you can always add a little more chicken stock and a little more cream and you're good to go you want to do a little more I think we're ready to plate a little more just a tiny bit more each and then let's just get a little more ball yeah no problem okay beautiful here no wine instead yeah no just a little bit of cream and we're good to go did you taste it I am about to taste it all right I'm gonna add a little bit more cream because you have to taste your food before you serve it I've turned these scallops over and I'm taking them off heat because I don't want to overcook them I think it's just about time to build our dinner so I'm going to clear the station a little bit all right Allie let's do a taste kind of taste do you want to taste it first no no no I trust you I absolutely trust you good yeah good we happy there all right so really flavorful all right so Chef Ali sauce check asparagus uh we got the steaks ready to go let's show our friends kind of the the finish of the steak then so oh look at that wow so they've rested you see a little bit of the of the the moisture there build up we have two sides those look gorgeous we have a little pan sauce as well um I can't wait I cannot wait all right let's clean it up you guys are you ready to play it I am all right may I do the honors okay sounds good uh how I like to set these up is if you have any kind of moisture build up on the steaks you want to take some scissors and then we'll clip the little strings there before we go uh I'm gonna pull the scallops so they don't overcook that's what I'm looking for look at that beautiful sear I got yeah I think we don't have no problem I'm gonna use a knife you want to grab me a little paring knife beautiful yes perfect date night all right the other thing you could do is you can get in this I don't want to butcher it you're not going to butcher it yeah there's you can't you didn't do anything you can't you can't mess this up so by taking the twine you have perfectly shaped fillets and again that's a really nice way to get um a nice shape without having to buy like that super Prime uh center cut fillet and when you hear the word center cut that's what they're talking about where they're talking about the pieces that are already uh together they're not the ends but if you don't get the ends now you know how to fix it so okay perfect shall we Let's Do It um all right another restaurant tip for plating for you is this may I give this to you uh take a take a uh single-use clean paper towel and uh you could actually do a little A little dab there don't do the dab no where to oh you did it that is awesome wow uh we'll do the little I can feel our kids embarrassment like oh my God if they were miles right now if they were here they'd be like seriously mom seriously dad they'd be like that's not how you do it exactly um okay that's good there let's line up if I dab you have to floss oh my God I couldn't even begin to uh you're just bringing up now story when Ally was young she took a lot of Dance so maybe in one of these classes we can get Ali to dance so I have two left feet are you outing me well because you just if I have to dance you have to dance with me there's no way uh our ratings would go we would plummet because no one wants to see any of that they'd rather see you dance uh okay scallop time um I am really kind of of the the odd numbers because I think uh you know they draw your eye to the plate a little bit those look beautiful yeah they're they're they're translucent they bounce to the touch that's exactly what you want three you want to do three let's see yeah three is perfect yeah I like that it's and we'll just eat those as Scooby Snacks later on you always have to have a little extra you always need some snacks oh for sure and then uh let's do the mushroom sauce perfect I'll use a different spoon here you go there we go and I'm gonna do that right over the steak because I think that's where that belongs oh yes yeah um so mushroom sauce again if you're making chicken if you're roasting any kind of protein even if it's not uh if you're doing a plant-based situation mushroom sauce is is really really phenomenal it's super versatile all right um I think we are looking good I think we need some wine so in terms of beverages uh we should talk about our preferences what do you like in terms of wine I mean I with this I I like a red you know that would be my choice yeah we're gonna go Cabernet here today because um scallops you know are seafood and you would usually think white but I think the dominating factor in the plate is going to be that mushroom cream sauce which has a lot of umami which is very earthy uh and then the the filet mignon definitely has a lot of kind of that iron flavor so I think you need a big a big red so we're gonna go Cabernet I think the other Alternatives though are going to be Pinot Noir and I think you could also probably do an old world Pinot you could do new world or old old or pinot and uh I'm kind of partial to the cab though because I feel like the tannins kind of cut through the richness of the mushroom cream sauce yeah I like that kind of contrast I want a bold cap but I don't want a super super 10 in cab because we do have scallops to play with this as well so um and then this one is not too big of a cabin I think that's the way to go um and that's if you're wine if you're not then you know big a beer I treat people we drink beer with anything yeah that's no problem um dude I mean not not difficult I mean I really think that I really think that a lot of people are super intimidated when they hear uh surf and turf when they hear filet mignon when they hear scallops we really wanted to do this date night class to really show you that you know what this is a phenomenal date night as a set but you can actually pull four different separate techniques from this class and maybe one day you just need to get a vegetable on that's your asparagus one day you want to cook scallops you know the extra scallop and if you want to nail a steak you can apply any of these steak tips to any steak that you like you're you're filet mignon I love filet yeah and look I think that anybody that you're cooking for or with is going to be impressed by this dish oh oh for sure beautiful work Ally cheers likewise cheers very very nice oh yeah okay I'm going for it this is my favorite part tasting it's a meal I mean it's it's really like yeah this is a serious date night it's like you get to hang out you cook you better have time for a nap after I mean it's real kids do not nap time you nailed the filet it's beefy that mushroom cream sauce comes over the top it compliments well it really you know I think mushrooms and beef are a natural pair and the grass let's dig into your scallops here I'm so excited to try that warm middle of the scallop nice and bouncy hmm good stuff oh mission accomplished what a fun date night two years cheers to you cheers to you and to you thank you for taking our class with us we had so much fun cooking with you and we hope that you had a great time cooking with us\n"