Grass-fed beef: it's what's for dinner

Sometimes, it happens just like that.  Inspiration in my own little town.

Yesterday morning, not sure what we would have for dinner (and needing some fresh dill for the pickles I was planning to make), we stopped by our local farmers' market.  It's a small group of producers that provides a colorful bounty of organic wholesomeness to Bastrop County, and what's more, it's a friendly group--one family will give you a free vegetable if you give them a recipe.  Right now, there's a wonderful variety of vegetables and herbs available at the River Valley Farmers' Market.

I ran into one of my neighbors at the beginning of my market crawl and during our conversation she said, "I just eat from here."  That's as local as it gets.  Incidentally, her husband happens to make the best fried chicken I ever put in my mouth so I hinted around that I was craving his specialty--and got an invitation to call him next time I had a hankering.  I have great neighbors!  But I can be so charming and so persuasive!

In my travels and amongst running into friends and neighbors, I eventually found my dill--enough to make the two enormous batches of pickles plus some pickled green beans (cucumbers and green beans courtesy of a lovely family I know that raises beautiful organic vegetables and wanted to share their bumper crop)--and I found fresh beets which, when I'm not roasting them, I'm putting them in my juicer with apples, carrots and celery for a gorgeously vivid morning tonic.  That tonic is a color seldom found in nature and it makes my cheeks glow an unearthly shade of cerise.  Really!

I also found spectacular grass-fed beef offered by a kindly cattle rancher from 6J Ranch in Thrall, TX.  Although my husband balked at the price of this beef, I knew what we were getting: hormone-free, antibiotic-free beef that had grazed on non-GMO, pesticide-free grass and had been raised carefully and responsibly.  I also knew that the flavor and texture of the steak would be outstanding. 

A 6J Ranch Ribeye

I don't eat beef often, but when I do, it needs to be top-quality.  This little beauty was almost a full pound and more than enough to share with my husband.  It was perfectly marbled and almost an inch thick.  I wanted to treat it the right way and was looking for a certain flavor profile: a little acid, a little heat, a little oil, a good amount of salt.  I've been on a Brazilian kick lately, so I was looking for something in that vein. 

After a quick marinade of fresh lemon juice, EVOO, minced jalapeno (with seeds), minced sweet onion and minced garlic, the ribeye was seasoned generously on both sides with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Then it was grilled on a very hot flame with a few hardwood charcoal nuggets added for flavor.


The acid of the lemon juice, combined with the EVOO and beef fat, were a perfect foil for the tender, rich, and deeply flavorful beef.  The minced jalapeno, onion and garlic enhanced each bite.


I served this steak, beautifully charred on the outside, rare and juicy on the inside, along with Brazilian-style rice and a hearts of palm chopped salad that had wonderful texture and a nicely balanced acidity.

Brazilian-style rice (right) is cooked with onion and garlic and enhanced with tomato for color and flavor.  I had run out of the sweet, perfect little cherry tomatoes given me by my friends the organic gardeners by the time I decided to make the rice, so I substituted jarred, chopped pimento, which worked beautifully and tasted great.


The hearts of palm chopped salad (below) adds a great textural backdrop and slightly acidic balance to the richness of the ribeye and the rice.  The original recipe calls for cilantro, but I had only fresh flat-leaf parsley on hand.  We thought it was delicious nonetheless.

 

Because a steak as richly marbled as this one calls for a red wine with a certain amount of tannins, I opened a bottle of Finca el Origen Reserva Malbec 2009 (Argentina), an elegant, fruity red full of cherries and other bright red fruit.  It has a nicely balanced acid component that pairs beautifully with richer red meats, such as the ribeye we enjoyed.  This wine, plum-colored and gorgeous in the glass, has a bit of a floral nose and a silky finish with wisps of chocolate, spice and just a kiss of oak.  It's a wine that would be lovely to sip on its own, and I thought it was absolutely perfect with this meal.  Ask your wine guy at Spec's about it.

Brazilian Grilled Ribeye Steak with Hearts of Palm Chopped Salad

     

     Adapted from Eating Well Magazine (February/March 2006) 

Steak:

3 to 4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 small hot pepper, such as jalapeño or serrano, minced

2 Tbs. minced sweet onion

1 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil

juice of one lemon
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper

2 pounds ribeye steaks (about 4 oz. steaks)

Chopped Salad: 

1 14-ounce can hearts of palm, drained, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced

4 medium tomatoes, chopped

1/2 cup chopped red onion

1/2 small hot chile, such as jalapeño or serrano, minced

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley or cilantro

juice of one lemon

drizzles of extra-virgin olive oil

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste 

1.)  Preheat grill to high and add a few handfuls of hardwood lump charcoal directly to flames.

2.)  Combine garlic, jalapeno, onion, olive oil and lemon juice.  

3.)  Rub mixture on both sides of steaks and season generously with salt and pepper; set aside.

4.)  For salsa, combine hearts of palm, tomatoes, onion, jalapeno, parsley or cilantro, lemon juice and a few drizzles of olive oil. 

5.)  Toss gently to combine, then season to taste with salt and pepper.  Set aside.

6.)  Reduce grill heat to medium and grill the steak 4 to 6 minutes per side for medium-rare. Transfer to a cutting board, tent with foil and let rest for 5 minutes. Cut the steak across the grain into thin pieces. Serve with the salsa and Brazilian Rice (recipe below).  Serves 4.

Brazilian Rice  (adapted from Food.com)

1 cup onion, chopped 

1 clove garlic, minced 

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup tomato, chopped (you can substitute chopped jarred pimento with great results)

1 cup long grain white rice

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1 1/2 cups water or broth

finely chopped flat leaf parsley, for garnish 

1.)  Wash and drain rice; set aside.

2.)  Saute onion and garlic gently in olive oil over medium heat until onion is translucent and softened.

3.)  Add tomatoes (or pimentoes), rice, salt, pepper and water or broth.

4.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and cook until all bubbles on surface have disappeared.

5.)  Cover and cook on low heat for 20 minutes.  

6.)  Fluff rice with a fork and garnish with chopped parsley. Serves 4 to 6.

May your tastebuds do the bossa nova!

Intuitive cooking: inherited and learned

I own an obscene number of cookbooks.  And I collect recipes, only a small portion of which are organized in binders.  I refer to my cookbooks and recipes regularly and I'm always eager to see new ones.  I can spend hours sifting through them, looking for ideas and inspiration.  That's my favorite way to relax and I can do it for hours and not know that time has passed.  Do you have experiences like this with something you absolutely love doing?

When I first began cooking (I gave my first dinner party at 12--complete with LBD and pearls), I referred to cookbooks and other's recipes exclusively.  I followed directions meticulously.  I tried to replicate exactly.  And most of the time I did.  But as I learned techniques, gained experience and realized that I had been gifted with a sharp and rather discriminating palate (read: Hellman's Mayo over Miracle Whip and European butters over Land O' Lakes), I discovered that I could deviate from recipes with a high rate of success and what's more, trust the creative instinct I had been blessed with and just plain wing it.  Most of the time, my creative instinct produced outstanding results.  We won't talk about the time I made coq au vin with Mogen David Concord Grape Wine, however, because purple chicken with an oddly sweet sauce faintly redolent of Welch's grape juice (and adorned festively with purple pearl onions and lurid green parsley, of course) is not in the least bit appetizing.  In defense of my reputation however, and due to circumstances, I must say that no appropriate red wine was available.  Furthermore, I was not even of legal wine-buying age.

But if there are genetic markers for intuitive cooking, I must have inherited mine from my maternal grandmother.  Oma, as we called her, was an incredibly intuitive cook.  She owned cookbooks, clipped recipes from magazines (how many years did we have Bacardi Rum Cake for Christmas???) and would cook from those recipes from time to time.  She managed to produce food in this manner that was good, but tended to be very literal about it all.  If the recipe said to bake the cake for 45 minutes, then darn it, she would bake the cake for 45 minutes even though it meant that the cake was burned on the bottom. 

Watching Oma make bread and pastry without a recipe, however, was a wondrous process--using her hands as scoops for measuring the flour, knowing exactly by the texture of the dough whether she needed more water or more flour for her Christmas nut roll, gauging by eye how much butter and cream cheese she needed to add to make the tender, flaky fruit and nut-filled kolaczi that we devoured by the dozen.

She made substantial, tasty dishes as well by eye and by the guidance of some inner knowledge.  Like the time she made what trained cooks would recognize as a savory charlotte--she used mushrooms, herbs, leftover bread and lots of butter for a beautifully golden brown side dish that went perfectly with a Sunday roast beef dinner.  Or how she would season an Easter leg of lamb with plenty of garlic, rosemary and olive oil.  But instead of the typical mint jelly, she produced a lovely apricot sauce.  But what I really remember about her cooking, though, was what she referred to as Imaginary Soup.  That was Oma's way of using up all the leftovers from the week and making a most fabulous kettle of hearty, rich, flavorful soup that left us all commenting about it for days. 

And that is the nature of intuitive cooking.  Following one's inner voice, inner knowledge, inner palate and often, ingredients on hand to guide the creation of something that can turn out to be quite magical.  Something that is not only greater than the sum of its parts, but that achieves a level of culinary synergy that makes even the cook who created it marvel at its deliciousness.  Many of you have this talent and probably don't even know it.  How do you do it?  Start experimenting with a recipe or favorite dish, tweaking it here and there, substituting ingredients, trusting your inner palate to guide you.  Combine what you have in your fridge and pantry in some inventive way.  Think about what you'd like to taste and, more importantly, how you'd like your finished creation to look on your plate.  Maybe it won't be a fabulous attempt, but quite likely it will.  And you're off!

Last night I opened a bottle of Dona Paula Estate Malbec 2009 (Argentina), one of my favorite budget-friendly red wines.  It's full of cherries and strawberries with just enough acid, leather, chocolate and tannins to make it interesting.  And as I sipped, I thought about dinner--and about what I had on hand to make dinner.  And this is what happened:


Imaginary Pasta

1 lb. spaghetti or linguine
4 Tbs. EVOO
2 to 3 very large cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
1/2 lb. bacon, cooked until crisp and finely crumbled
1 tsp. crushed red pepper (adjust to your taste)
1/2 tsp. dried thyme leaves
1 heaping Tbs. salted capers (if you use brined capers, drain and rinse them before adding and add an additional 1/2 tsp. salt)
1/2 cup dry or off-dry red wine (I used a little leftover pinot noir that had been a disappointment)
EVOO for drizzling
plenty of freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup or more Asiago, Romano and/or Parmesan cheese, shredded (plus extra for passing)
1/2 cup chopped flat leaf parsley

1.  Cook pasta according to package directions.  Rinse, drain and keep warm.
2.  In same pot, heat 4 Tbs. EVOO over medium heat.  Add garlic, red onion and bacon, stirring frequently and monitoring heat carefully so that garlic doesn't get too brown. 
3.  Add crushed red pepper, thyme and capers, stirring to blend.
4.  Add red wine and increase heat to boiling.  Reduce sauce until thickened and syrupy.
5.  Add cooked pasta and toss to coat evenly.  Cover with lid, turn off heat and let sit for about 5 minutes.
6.  Turn pasta onto large platter or into large bowl.  Drizzle generously with EVOO, grind plenty of black pepper over the top of the pasta.
7.  Garnish with shredded cheese and chopped parsley.  Serves 4.


Spinach Salad with Browned Mushrooms and Toasted Walnuts

This spinach salad is slightly wilted from the toasted walnuts, the browned mushrooms and the vinegar reduction.  It's a perfect foil for the richness of the pasta.  It's also my attempt to reconstruct a salad that a friend made for me one sultry summer night when we were, coincidentally, also sipping Dona Paula Malbec.

1 lb. baby spinach leaves
1 small shallot, minced
1/4 cup walnut pieces
2 Tbs. EVOO
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
2 Tbs. red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar
freshly ground black pepper
flake salt to taste

1.  Place spinach leaves in large bowl.
2.  Scatter minced shallot over spinach.
3.  Toast walnut pieces over medium-low heat in medium-sized skillet until fragrant.
4.  Scatter walnut pieces over spinach.
5.  In same pan, heat 2 Tbs. EVOO over medium heat.  Add mushrooms and brown well. 
6. Scatter mushrooms over spinach.
7. In same pan, over medium-high heat, pour in the vinegar and deglaze pan, reducing briefly.
8. Pour warm vinegar over spinach and toss gently; season with freshly ground black pepper and flake salt to taste.  Serves 4.

Other people's food

I love it when other people cook for me.  I especially love it when they do it out of love and for the pure pleasure of cooking for others.  Fortunately, I have several friends who cook, and cook well.  A long-time close friend who always makes my large gatherings a success makes several fabulous things, but I mostly enjoy her crab-stuffed mushrooms and her miniature croissant sandwiches with cranberry mayo, sliced turkey, Gruyere, and arugula.  She also makes a killer good remoulade sauce and some entirely delectable sauteed chicken livers.  She makes a lot of great food--and we've made a lot of great food together--but I first fell in love with her because of her mushrooms.

I have another friend who makes the best fried chicken you'll ever put in your mouth, and another who has unfailing instinct for excellent cheeses and even more excellent wines, but what I remember most about what she's cooked for me was a warm spinach salad with toasted walnuts and shallots, perfectly seasoned and perfectly dressed with EVOO and an excellent red wine vinegar. 

I had another friend who loved Diana Kennedy's recipes and produced excellent carnitas and a seriously addictive pumpkinseed dip.  Then there's my Indian friends, who have treated me on early chilly Saturday mornings to freshly made chappatis with fenugreek leaves and the best cups of chai I've ever had, cauliflower pakoras, samosas filled with spicy potatoes and peas, and my hands-down favorite Indian snack, pani puri.  Pani puri, for the uninitiated, are crispy, light little puffs made of semolina flour that you poke a hole in with your finger, then fill with lentil sprouts, cold seasoned potatoes, and a cool mint/coriander water spiked with ginger and chilies. You pop them in your mouth and all the flavors and juices explode into a delirious melange of pure joy.  I literally cannot stop eating them when they're offered.

I know I'm overlooking others' gifts of love and labor to me and will want to acknowledge them as I remember them.  For now, thank you to all of you who have taken such good care of me with your culinary gifts.  Keep it coming!

When I'm in the mood to spend money, and when I'm with a friend who appreciates good food and good wine, I like visiting high-end restaurants and having a leisurely spell to forage through their appetizer menus and wine lists.  I can count on one hand the amount of times I've actually ordered an entree in an upscale restaurant and can easily say that the most memorable experiences I've had have always included a flight of appetizers and wines.  If you want to see what a chef can do, eat strictly from the appetizer menu because that's where creativity lives.  I'll put my money on lots of small plates with a different experience on each every time.

Most well-trained waitstaff are going to have fun with this approach too.  I always let my server know what I'm planning to do.  Sometimes I let the chef choose the order in which the appetizers are served, and sometimes I choose.  I guess it just depends on my whim--and on the wine list.  If the restaurant I'm visiting has a killer wine list, then I let that guide me.  I will at times also depend on the staff and the chef to recommend the wine s/he thinks goes best with the appetizer I've ordered.  I have yet to have a negative reaction from waitstaff when you ask for their suggestions and help with pairings.  A server worth his or her salt in an upscale restaurant will not only know the menu and the wine list, s/he will have tasted most everything offered on the the menu (or knows someone there who has).  So utilize their skills and experience.  They enjoy showing what they know and they like their customers to have fun.

In recent memory, here's what has caught my attention:  A duck confit tamale with a glass of Bodegas Caro Cabernet/Malbec (Argentina) at Casa Vieja in Corrales, NM (I still dream about this tamale on the astral plane), a pecan-smoked beet salad with goat cheese and vanilla-cane vinaigrette and the Creole crabmeat cheesecake at The Palace Cafe in New Orleans.  At Stories at the Hyatt Lost Pines in Bastrop, TX, I'm totally enamoured of their Crab Salad, a cool, creamy tower of hearts of palm, roasted tomato, avocado and herb coulis (the staff chose Erath Vineyards Pinot Gris, Oregon) as well as their Mushrooms and Chive Crepes with local mushrooms and thyme cream (the staff chose Charles Krug Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, California).

One of my favorite places to go for inventive appetizers is Olivia on South Lamar in Austin.  This restaurant has a remarkable and diverse wine list and a menu that's always changing because they depend on locally grown, seasonably available ingredients.  Recently, I had roasted golden beets, ricotta salata, toasted walnuts and an herb salad dressed with black truffle vinaigrette with a lovely glass of E. Guigal Cote du Rhone Blanc 2009 (France) that stunned me.  And here is where I encountered my first RED OLIVE.  I mentioned cerignola olives in a previous post.  They are a wonderfully plump, meaty and buttery fruit, but dyed red, they are eye-popping, gorgeous, totally believably red (in the same sense that hair color could be a believable blond) and not "a color not normally found in nature" red (like marschino cherries).  I thought at first that they might be red from soaking in some kind of bitters (I imagined a faint Campari-like flavor), but it seems they are dyed with E127 when processed in Italy.  E127, I discovered, is erythrosine, a commonly-used food colorant (for things like pistachio shells), which of course has been found to cause cancer in lab rats in large quantities.  Originally, I didn't think my consumption of two of these beauties would put me in much danger, but I'm now thinking of purchasing a 4 lb. jar, which could quite possibly put me in the Geiger counter range.  I'll keep you posted.

Prior to my last Red Olive Day at Olivia, I enjoyed more decadence than any human being ought to at Parkside on E. 6th in Austin.  There's a young chef there really knows how to use and balance acid and can knock your socks off with ingenuity.  The night I literally ate my way through most of the appetizer menu in 3 1/2 hours, I had the fried oyster BLT with avocado and green goddess aioli on romaine, the sweetbreads and veal tongue with cauliflower and cumin crisps, the marrow bones with a kick-butt, perfectly dressed herb salad and the blond pate with strawberry relish.  And that was just for starters, because we decided we couldn't leave untasted the lamb with sunchoke gratin entree.  The most memorable wines that evening were the Laxas Albarino 2009 (Argentina) and the Carlos Basso "Dos Fincas" Cabernet Sauvignon/Malbec 2009 (Argentina), which sent me on an immediate hunt at my local Spec's, where I found them both.

Well, that's probably enough to get you started.  I'll think of more great bites--and will certainly be doing some more research in the near future!

May your tastebuds dance.