Pickle My Fancy: Slanted Door DIY Meal

Slanted Door restaurant in SF (Ferry Bldg) is a bit pricey. Luckily, they have a counter just behind the real restaurant called "Out The Door" that offers simpler, to-go versions of their entrees. I've never actually eaten there, although last time I was in the Ferry Building during lunch hour, there was a huge line of folks waiting to pick up their vienamese/asian-fusion fare. Must be good!

In any case, Tuesday nights Matt always comes down to San Mateo for dinner and a show (usually the Biggest Loser - Gotta love eating while you watch other people try to lose weight!). This week, Matt had the great idea to buy some take out from Out the Door. Apparently, they sell versions of fancy Slanted Door dishes, broken down into their components, and sold as recipe "kits" for cooking at home. Neat!

Here's a link if you want to take a look for yourself.

As you can see, Matt purchased the Bok Choy, "Shaking" Beef, and Broken Rice. He also purchased a little mystery dessert from Miette, a great little bakery also in the Ferry Building.

Here's what the kits have inside:

"Shaking" Beef - Beef, fresh onions, watercress, garlic, assorted spices and oils.

Bok Choy - Big 'ol tub of bok choy and shitakes, oil, rice wine, "sauce" and garlic.

Broken Rice. Its like regular rice, but... broken.

Matt and I split the dishes - I took the rice and bok choy while he worked on the Shaking Beef.

The beef dish came with a dipping sauce made of a salt and spice mixture which you mix with fresh lime juice. Bet you were wondering what we did with that lime!

Here's the finished product:

MMmmm steamy rice....

Shaking Beef

Bok Choy. Can you believe that whole bucket of veggies cooked down to just this small bowl? By the way, I totally forgive Matt for choosing a dish with mushrooms in it. They were easy to pick out. :)

Ready for the Pros/Cons??

Pros:

Taste. Good lord was that a tasty meal. Beef was perfectly cooked (thanks to Matt) and the sauces complimented the meat/veggies perfectly. It all tasted even more fabulous over the broken rice.
It all looked very fresh and pretty. The produce was top notch and the easily perishable items were vacuum wrapped to maintain freshness.
The recipe was laminated so even complete klutzes like me couldn't ruin the page with an accidental spill.
Time. Whole thing took 20 minutes to make. The great thing about these kits is that you don't need to spend time making a huge list of items to purchase at the store. There is also ZERO prep time.
No wasted material (except the rice). We ate everything. Plus, I didn't have to buy a whole bottle of rice wine so I could use just 2 tbsp.

Cons -

Pricey... the Shaking beef alone was $20! The beef was Filet Mignon, but still, if you're going to cook it yourself it shouldn't cost as much as it does at the restaurant. Matt made a joke that they must call it "Shaking" beef because thats what you do when you get the bill.
They don't tell you what is in the"sauce" so you won't be able to make it at home without their kit. One point Slanted Door.
No labels on the items - I hope you're a good guesser! "Lets see... this cup of liquid is more brown colored than that cup of liquid... hmmm... I guess this one must be the 'sauce.'"
Dipping sauce was super salty and unnecessary. I mean, it was filet! You could cook it without seasoning and it would still taste good.
One rice package made enough rice for at least 6 people! We ended up throwing away a lot of cooked rice. I guess next time we'll cook only 1/4 the package.
They don't warn you how quickly the garlic cooks... It was in the pan for probably 5 seconds before it started turning black. If I had known to throw the bok choy in right away, I probably could have avoided the powerful smell of burning garlic in my kitchen.

Would I cook this again? Yes, but I'd probably choose some of the cheaper items on the menu; otherwise, I might as well go out to eat. Still, it has a lot going for it. It certainly has the effect of making you feel like a gourmet chef without all that annoying training.

Ok, thats all for this post! Time to go eat my Annie's Mac and Cheese.

ps. If you were wondering about dessert...