it all began around a little jar of this…

mostarda mediterranean – from dario cecchini the eccentric tuscan butcher from panzano.

did you read ‘heat‘? god, i loved that book. bill buford writes about the years that he left his job as fiction editor at ‘new yorker magazine’ and worked unpaid in the kitchen of batali’s acclaimed babbo ristorante, and then, with both affection and a rhetorical shoulder shrug, introduces us to dario, a dante-quoting, opera singing character from the chianti region of tuscany. cecchini appears to be a one-of-a-kind, to say the very least, and his macellaria has now become a tourist attraction where countless foodies make the pilgrimage to hopefully catch a glimpse of this etruscan figure performing entire cantos from the inferno before his carnivorous audience.

and i suppose because even a butcher has to eat, dario cecchini is now offering some of his goods right here in the states. and me, being susceptible to such things was quick to grab a jar of this mostarda as soon as i laid my eyes upon it. $30. if only for the story…

and then over dinner one evening with my friend laura, a local chef here in town, i was telling her about my recent mostarda acquisition. and so we decided to do a dinner. a steak dinner as dario would have wanted. as tempted as i was to buy the grass fed lobel’s steaks because they have in the past blown my mind, the price is overly exorbitant. so i researched and clicked my way to heritage foods usa where i was able to come up with something a bit more apropo…

"Piedmontese cattle originated in the foothills of northwestern Italy and are thought to be a mix of the Auroch and Zebu cattle crossed over 25,000 years ago. We are especially fond of this breed, because Piedmont is also home to the Slow Food movement in Bra, Italy. Today, in the United States, a network of family farmers is raising the cattle on a pure vegetarian feed without the use of antibiotics and without added growth hormones.

Piedmontese is unique in that it contains myostatin, known as the "double muscle gene." Myostatin is only found in Piedmontese cattle and results in a natural tenderness. Though the beef is naturally lean, the flavor is rich and intense.

i tell you, i amaze myself sometimes. in keeping with the whole spirit of dario’s mostarda, i’d managed to find the perfect beef for it to accompany. and unlike lobel’s, it was palitably priced – and well, this was going to be fun.

i sent laura the link to "the jar" so she could see specifically what i was talking about and her response succinctly read, "dude, it’s pepper jelly". and really, that it was. except not nearly as hot as was promised. this "elixir’, as it was referrred to, rated pretty mild on the heat scale. but nevertheless, it was quite nice. and the steaks? well, they were ok. nothing special. i think dario would have blown a gasket had he tried them. the word is that he takes his meat very, very seriously.

oh, and did i mention the beautiful ramps that were foraged in ohio and then sent to my door? they were grilled with salt, pepper and olive oil. or what about the artichoke hearts, painstakingly cut, peeled and choked, then braised in olive oil, lemon, shallots, coriander and fennel seeds – all because of a dish i saw over at smitten kitchen a few weeks ago? did i tell you about those? no? i’m so sorry, because they were very good.

and there was much more. it was even perhaps a bit over the top. there were pizzas flying out of my oven and pig liver pate wrapped in homecured bacon and the most incredible homemade blood sausage… and then there was the grilled watermelon dripping with balsamic vinegar (all of the aforementioned from chris) and laura showed up with orange fennel meringues that were truly perfection, along with a dreamy panna cotta. and i think i’m forgetting a few things, but well, it’s been a little while…

there were 9 of us huddled around my kitchen banquette that evening. i have a pretty good size dining room with a table that seats 10 easily, but no one ever left the kitchen.

for the record, earlier that very same day, i had a late brunch at my house and made a perfect carbonara for 3 friend – with guanciale, farm fresh eggs, pecorino, grana padano, and finely chopped ramps.

beginning monday, the following morning i literally drank nothing but tea with lemon and agave, along with one protein shake a day – for 5 days straight.

true story.

i present, a well grilled strip of grass-fed bison on a bed of steamed spinach with a sauté of caramelized red onions, golden raisins, granny smith apple and a splash of sherry vinegar. my version of a decadent dinner for the current ’09 regime…

because, here’s the deal. ’08 was quite the interesting and wonderful food odyssey. but when the year shook out, despite my paltry self-thwarted attempts at some kind of balance, i am somehow about 20+ lbs up. not 10. not 15. but 20+. and that is not pretty. not even a little. plus i feel both unhealthy and stupid. and i’d call that a rather pathetic combo.

oprah, how did we let this happen – again?

© Copyright 2006 Kevin Ebi/Living Wilderness.

i feel quite sure that faced with this animal in an uncompromising situation there’d be very little room for understanding or negotiation. bison are like the elephant men of 4 leggeds – WITH a punk hairdo, making them look even that much more disturbing.  (and really, i think they’re pissed about it.) but despite the aesthetics of the beast, i am a fan. and if only a bison’s mother could love the face, then i am content with loving the rest of it’s body. and here’s why…

assuming these numbers were correct, i went ahead and signed up to the tune of 6 filets and 8 ny strips of the grass-fed persuasion. because dear readers, let me share this bit of news with you. the party is OVER. but i’d still like a steak on occasion, and this seems to be a viable way to go. now, is bison akin to a super prime lobel’s steak, dripping with beefy goodness? honestly no, but we both liked the flavor. cooked rare and in all its leanness, it scratched the red meat itch. and i can live with that quite happily, if not smugly.

i’ve been writing this post in my head for weeks now, trying to come up with a way for ceF to continue on while i lean down – without boring you to tears. and i think that really, all i can do is to :

cook dinner
stay within my guidelines
and talk about it

i will admit to you that i feel a bit desperate. i have an entire wardrobe – and it’s a damn fine one, currently unwearable – at least by me. i’ve been relegated to the "stretchy and baggy" section of my closet.  quite frankly, i’m much more than a little embarrassed.

and because i’m now closer to 50 than 40, and because of my (in)activity level, it’s going to take super low calories to get me where i need to be. there are no special diets or pills. no rocket science. no secrets. it’s calories in vs. calories burned. and it’s getting as many nutrients into those calories as you can. which means sugar and fat grams have to stay lower then i like to entertain the thought of…

ok, so that’s where i am. i hope you’ll still stop by while i shift my focus to the leaner side of the food spectrum. obviously the fat epidemic is a national problem and those of us who are affected handle it in different ways. all i know to do is to take it a day at a time and cut back on my caloric intake, try to move more – and breathe deeply.

oh, and to buy a new car. because if i can’t eat pork belly, cheese and chocolate then in the interim i want to ride my fat ass around in some shiny german steel with serious horsepower.

because i am after all, merely a silly little human.

if you read ceF, then you know that i prefer italian cooking over all others. it’s my automatic go to. it’s what feels right to me – kind of like the color black, a burmese cat, the nyc vibe and the smell of cary’s neck. these are things that work for me on a regular basis. the things that make me, me.

ok, those things - and black and white cookies.

but the italian food phenomenon is a relatively common shared love, unlike perhaps, cary’s neck – both of these working in my favor. because whereas you best stay away from my man, the craft of italian cooking (and any cooking) can be shared and enjoyed through great dinners at home and in restaurants, reading books, traveling…

well, and then there are the bloggers.

and we all have our favorites. the ones that makes us laugh, the cooks we wish we were, the farmer and forager, the beautiful photographer, the great writer… and a few that perhaps have just the right blend of whatever it is that makes you, you.

i’ve grown pretty fond of so many food blogs, but there’s a few out there in particular that seem to feel the whole italian thing in the way that i do. and there’s one woman in particular… the italian dish. she’s the one who shamed me into buying the KA rollers and finally making my own pasta. and for that i am beyond grateful. and then there was her cookbook giveaway, where i was somehow lucky enough to land a copy of ‘A16 food + wine‘, a cookbook from san francisco’s acclaimed restaurant that celebrates perhaps my favorite part of italy, campania.

i’ve been making a concerted effort to cook more from my books. i have this wonderful collection that i often admire for its overall beauty – a personal and peculiar aesthetic, i know. and although i truly do realize that it’s what’s inside that matters – in this instance my books are mostly untapped. and let’s face it, admiring potential is merely living in the future, which would be awfully unzenlike of me.

but, i had 2 packages of boned, meaty short ribs in my refrigerator, with no real plan for them. so i flipped through my books and of them all – and there were many to choose from, A16 had the dish (with zuni cafe, a close second). it was a perfect ingredient list, not too complicated and after salting the meat well, and putting it back in the refrigerator to sit for 2+ days, i could contemplate the present knowing that the future was under control.

a note - laurent tourondel in his book ‘the new american bistro cooking’, had a recipe that sounded quite good as well. and if president elect obama was coming to dinner, or eric clapton, jeremy irons or my tony - or even if it had been new years eve or cary’s birthday, i might have considered making his braised short ribs with garlic-thyme brown butter. but with two (2) full bottles of red wine, four (4)cups of ruby port and eleven (11) cups of assorted kind of stock… well, maybe another time. but hey in the meantime, file this little trick away - tourondel’s bouquet garni was rolled up with BACON. only going to show that the man is an absolute genius…

(post browning – pre braising…)

short ribs alla genovese
adapted from A16 food + wine

cooks notes – i used short ribs off the bone and they worked well.
i used 4 jarred anchovy fillets in olive oil because i already owned them
i used about 8 peppercorns because i am rebellious by nature

6 lbs short ribs – about 6 ribs total
kosher salt
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil – plus more for finishing
1 1/2 cups dry red wine
1/2 carrot, peeled and finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
1 salt packed anchovy, rinsed, fileted, soaked and then minced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole
5 black peppercorns
4 red onions, thinly sliced
3 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 sprig of rosemary

trim some fat from the ribs leaving the sinewy silverskin behind. season evenly with about 2 Tablespoons of salt. cover and refrigerate overnight or up to 3 days.

preheat oven to 275f

in a large dutch oven, or other heavy bottomed pot, heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over medium high heat. working in 2 batches so as not to crowd the pot, brown evenly on all sides. transfer to a plate and set aside. pour out the fat and if the remove any burned bits of meat. if pot looks scorched, deglaze with water. if the liquid tastes ok, use it – otherwise discard. (my pot was just brown – not burned so i just let it be.). reserve pot to make the sauce.

meanwhile, in a small pot, reduce the wine over medium high heat to about 1/2 a cup.

to make the sauce, on low heat add 2 more tablespoons of oil to first pot and then add the carrots and celery and sweat slowly, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes or until softened. be careful not to brown. add the garlic, anchovy and peppercorns and continue to cook for 3 minutes, or until garlic begins to soften. add the onions with a pinch of salt (do not oversalt as the meat has been well salted), cooking until onions are softened and translucent – about 5 minutes. stir in the vinegar and the reduced wine and remove the pot from the heat.

return the ribs to the pot and with the rosemary sprig and cover tightly with foil or lid. transfer to the oven and braise for about 2 1/2 hours or until the short ribs are tender when pierced.

to serve, remove the rosemary sprig and transfer the ribs to a large rimmed serving platter. ladle the sauce on top and drizzle with olive oil.to finish. serve immediately with a drizzle of olive oil

these ribs are even better if cooled down completely and served the following day.

what i didn’t quite understand was the red onion scenario. in A16′s book, the picture of the finished platter shows no sign of them anywhere. but there are tons of them in the pot… so, the first night i served the short ribs over simply puréed cauliflower, the meat inundated with onions.

enter exhibit a:

it was quite good and we ate it happily, but at some point it dawned upon me that this was not the best way to go. so the next night i served it with 95% less onion, reduced the sauce and piled it all on some jasmine rice mixed through with the leftover pumpkin from the babbo cake. risotto crossed my mind but it was a weeknight and short ribs are pretty decadent as it is, so the orangey bed it rested upon was totally fat-free and proud of it.

the recipe is solid and i highly recommend that you make it. and soon. but i must admit that i was tempted to call the restaurant and talk to the chef, nate appleman so i could KNOW about the mystery of the red onions.

but instead i let it go.

because it was all exactly as it should be.
further proof of a more zen-like existence…

i’m one of those people who don’t have a great deal of attachment to my childhood food memories. i mean, being from nyc i grew up around seriously great food but my mom was not a gourmet cook. she saw feeding us each night as her familial duty and she did a solidly good job - but nothing extraordinary was happening in our kitchen on yellowstone blvd. i have a dim recollection, which just the mere thought of now causes me to cringe, of flounder rolled with a can of campbell’s condensed alphabet soup mixed with sour cream. and perhaps on a much higher note, my brother’s favorite was veal parmigiana and we always had that for dinner whenever he came home from college – and i’ve got to say that my mom did a pretty damn fine rendition of that. but nothing else really stands out. just that we had a varied and well rounded menu and no one ever went hungry. 

but my grandma julia, now she was a real ballabusta. and her kitchen was huge - at least 600 square feet and well, i spent a lot of time in that kitchen on long island. tons of weekends and sleep overs and then there were all the jewish holidays. my brother once told me that the philosophy of our relatives pretty much boiled down to "we’re jews, you didn’t kill us, let’s eat".

and eat we all did, the likes of which i’ve never quite seen anywhere else. the greenbaum’s at a buffet are a sight to behold.

my grandma made a lot of wonderful dishes, and many were the classics one might expect. there was her chicken soup with knadlaich, stuffed cabbage, chopped liver, brisket and a tongue dish in a raisin sweet and sour sauce that i loved dearly until one sorry afternoon when i was about 13 and had a run in with the tongue, sitting there in all it’s glory on the kitchen counter – before it had been peeled and sliced, leaving an indelible scar on my young psyche.

and then there was her pea soup, sweet from carrots and onions with generous chunks of rich beef studded throughout a soup so thick that the spoon could easily stand up in the bowl all on its own.

and i had all but forgotten about this soup until recently when it suddenly crossed my mind. grandma julia’s pea soup. with flanken. but what exactly was flanken? so i googled it and discovered that flanken is the strip of meat from the chuck end of the short ribs. short ribs... of course… what a perfect soup meat. and short ribs are beyond popular these days, the beefy version of perhaps pork belly, making an appearance on every trendy menu and even in your supermarket meat case (whereas in nashville, tracking down ‘flanken’ i am sure would be a bit of a wild goose chase). so i’d say that short ribs could be classified as an "in" cut of beef – especially this time of year, that lends itself really well to braises and stews – and soups.

i’m pretty sure my grandmother wouldn’t have browned the meat first, but i did. so into the pot went the short ribs, still on the bone and after they were browned on all sides i added two chopped onions and 4 big sliced carrots followed by a bag of green split peas and some of my superlative chicken stock and water. about 2 hours after it had slowly simmered, i added two bay leaves and fresh thyme, salt and cracked pepper and let it go about another 90 minutes. my mom told me that my grandmother used to run it all through a food mill, but everything had broken down on its own and there was no need to purée it any further.

this split pea soup boasts an earthy and uncomplicated flavor. and it really is startlingly good. cary loved it. and to me it felt familiar and soothing. and i think my grandma would have been very pleased.

so listen. i know, i know… put all the cured pork you want into your pea soup. but i’m telling you… you are so wrong.

because i will see you one ham hock and raise you some flanken…

weatherwise, nashville autumns can be a mixed bag. last week it was in the mid 70′s going down to the low 40′s at night – and today it was 83 and glorious. during this schizophrenic transition into cool weather and comfort foods, sometimes it can be hard to get a handle on ‘seasonal’ eating. but i had some d’artagnan buffalo short ribs burning a hole in my freezer, and awhile back i’d run across this recipe, somehow, somewhere, on someone’s blog - perhaps even a year ago - and i bookmarked it.

so when i was clicking through my favorites - the recipes all meticulously categorized, and fell across this one, i thought – perfect. and then when i saw that it was a giada/food network dish, i threw up a little in my mouth. ok not really, it was more of a gag – ok, maybe not even that. but i definitely cringed. i mean, i was hoping for batali, even emeril would do, but when i saw who it was i realized that i’d have to actually tell you, my dear readers,that: i would be making a ‘giada everyday italian’ dish. i mean, it’s not like it was that yummo chick or that woman who resides in my own personal version of hell – but still… i don’t do giada. well, i didn’t.

this dish was a homerun. it was earthy and complex, and even surprised me just how well and how fast it came together. but best of all, it was not only all those thinga but  it was pasta…

the bittersweet chocolate shavings at the very end send an already excellent dish to another dimension. i’ve done this for years on pumpkin ravioli’s with browned butter and sage…

buffalo short ribs with tagliarelle
adapted from giata de laurentiis everyday italian

3 tablespoons olive oil
4 ounces chopped pancetta
2 pounds short ribs
salt
black pepper
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 medium onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves
2 cloves garlic
1 (14-ounce) can tomatoes (whole or diced)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary leaves
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 bay leaf
2 1/2 cups veal stock
1 cup red wine
1 pound fresh or dried tagliarelle 
about 3 tablespoons shaved bittersweet chocolate
 
place the olive oil in a large heavy soup pot over medium heat. cook the pancetta until golden and crisp, about 4 minutes. meanwhile, season the short ribs with salt and pepper, and dredge in the flour. using a slotted spoon, remove the pancetta from the pan and set aside. add the short ribs to the pan and brown on all sides, about 7 minutes total.
meanwhile, combine the onion, carrot, parsley and garlic in a food processor and blend until finely minced. then add the tomatoes and tomato paste and pulse.

once the short ribs are browned, carefully add the mixture from the food processor to the pot. return the pancetta to the pot and stir. add the rosemary, thyme, oregano, bay leaf, beef broth, and wine. bring the mixture to a boil. reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 1 hour and 15 minutes. remove the lid and simmer for another hour and a half, stirring occasionally. remove the meat and bones from the pot. discard the bones. shred the meat and return it to the pot. season with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 3/4 teaspoon pepper, or to taste.

bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes for dried pasta and 2 to 3 minutes for fresh. drain pasta, reserving 1 cup of cooking liquid. add pasta to the pot and stir to combine. add reserved pasta liquid 1/4 cup at a time, if needed, to moisten the pasta. transfer to serving bowls, top each bowl with about 2 teaspoons of chocolate shavings. serve immediately.

so ok, i’m having issues with the heritage of this dish. but giada is ok. really. totally not offensive. and the woman can actually cook…

it’s just well, ok, nevermind.

roasting bone marrow is about as straight forward as you can get when it comes to cooking. you simply soak the bones in salted water for at least 8 hours, changing the water a few times – each time adding salt. then it’s into the oven at 450 for 15 – 20 minutes. the marrow should be just soft and pulling away from the bone. timing here is essential, as you need to be very careful not to melt the marrow by leaving it in the oven too long. like i did. but i was drinking very good red wine – heavily – so i am not to be blamed… still we were left with a few silky scoops and the marrow experience was just plain heaven.

roast marrow bones with parsley salad
(adapted from "the whole beast: nose to tail eating" by fergus henderson)

about 2/3 cup very coarsely chopped italian parsley leaves
1 shallot – diced fine
1 garlic clove diced very fine
2 teaspoons small capers
3 tablespoons of your best olive oil
2 teaspoons lemon juice
fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
coarse sea salt, preferably fleur de sel, for garnish toasted baguette slices

there are those who consider roasted marrow bones the better dish over foie gras. needless to say, they are two very different animals – and animal parts – for sure. the marrow seems earthier, deeper and more subtly powerful than the liver. you kinda wanna marry the marrow, but still have a steady string of flings with the foie. either way, you’re gonna be one fat n’ happy puppy. this much i know is true…

(and for your viewing pleasure, please click over to this article which features a video of mark bittman, fergus and some damn fine looking marrow bones.)

i want to thank luisa from ‘the wednesday chef’ for posting her scrambled eggs with shrimp dinner.  her dinner wasn’t pretty.  nope, not even a little.  and she knew it but was real about the situation on the plate including the fact that it tasted really good.  because the truth is that life isn’t always pretty, right?  and in the case of food – who cares?  ok, let me rephrase… who cares all the time?  we’re home.  we’re hungry.  and we’re out of parsley.  parsley does tend to help a bit.  it’s the lipstick of food…

last night i threw dinner together quickly.  i started with 4 of my 9 csa cucumbers.  they were peeled and sliced and tossed with green onions, chili flakes, white vinegar and turbinado sugar.  i had leftover steak from the night before and decided to use all my japanese eggplants and 1 of my 4 butternut squash.  so this one dinner alone used up a bunch of produce which was excellent!

the eggplants got sliced and grilled on my stove with minimal olive oil.  the squash was simply peeled and steamed.  cary did a thin cut on the steak – and all of it got sauced with an on the fly mix of white miso, turbinado sugar, mirin and a 2 year shoyu (aka soy sauce).  lucky for all of us i had some black sesame seeds to sprinkle around.  but hey, still kinda not so pretty…

but good?  very.

after the 6 day ny fling followed by no less than 5 bowls of oatmeal in 3 days, it was time to cook something.  honestly, i could have gone longer but it’s this csa issue that i deal with.  i am beyond covered up with the last of the summer tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, peppers, zucchini’s and now winter squash up the wazoo…  i had to cook or deal with severe vegetable guilt.  again. 

please note that this pic doesn’t include last week’s csa share that’s not been touched yet…

at my weekly farmers market we are serenaded by a bluegrass ensemble…  it’s a tennessee perk.  thought i’d share.  it’s actually pretty cool.

ok, now about dinner.

after catching up on my list of favorite food bloggers, looking for where inspiration might meet doability, i got an idea from a blog i’ve come to really like, ‘well fed ‘.  she did a tomato coulis and what struck me was the smokey aspect of her sauce.  it was just what i needed to get rolling so i followed her lead until i found a jumping off point.

i fire roasted the tomatoes until the skin charred and then  diced shallots, garlic and some wonderful hot peppers from my csa. 

in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil i sauteed the shallots, garlic and peppers careful not to brown anything.  i had soaked about 10 sun dried tomatoes in some water for about 30 minutes and i took these along with their soaking liquid and the roasted tomatoes and i threw them into my blender.  i added the tomato puree to the pan and simmered on a low heat adding salt.

then i had to think.  i knew i was off to a good beginning here.  but i wanted to get that smokey thing going on and i wasn’t sure how to achieve it.  and then it dawned on me…

enter: wow and wow

first, pimenton.  i had heard about pimenton from any number of blogs and had bought some and shelved it.  hooray for having some semblance of a functioning memory!  this was exactly what i needed.  i added about a solid tablespoon and i swear if it wasn’t instant fabulousness.

so i simmered the sauce, adding a bit more salt – and then i thought some more.  a few months ago i had bought some bottarga from zingerman’s.  it’s a sicilian dried fish roe that is grated into sauces or over pasta.  i had read about the stuff and decided to give it a go, using it once for a simple ’home alone’ dinner over some pasta.  so i threw some in.  and then added more.  and i can’t quite describe what happened.  it is very subtle.  but very much there.  it is the quintessential cooking example of  je ne sais quoi.  i am dying to try the fresh version from ’market hall foods‘ and if anyone out there in nashvilleland wants to go in on some – gimme a shout…

i simmered until the sauce was quite thick and then quartered some zucchini and threw it on the grill along with some beautiful skirt steaks – a cut i’m quite fond of. and i must tell you that this was very good.  the brightness of the tomato puree was the perfect backdrop for the heat of the peppers along with the smokey pimenton. i was really proud of myself as i felt that this fell into the category of somewhat real and original cooking.

but, my favorite part of the whole experience was cary plating his own dinner.  being the architect that he is, he went structual on purpose and religious by accident.

good god…

necessity being the mother of invention, i used what i had.  leftover from my lobster rolls of two weeks ago were four frozen but perfectly good hot dog buns.  a great excuse to bust out the frozen ground beefalo and hopefully make two kids happy two nights in a row.

i had eye spied this recipe early last month from ‘the clumsy cook‘ and never got to it – but today was the day.  i did add the bit of sugar that ms. clumsy left out of the original ‘saveur’ recipe but cut back on the ketchup by about 1/4 cup as i ran out.  it’s hard to wreck this one with slight changes.  it’s that sweet beefy mass of meat atop a grilled and buttered bun with a slice of thick slab bacon on top.  i mean, really…

so all that rounded out with some roasted okra, a bit of stokes mayo for dipping – and a nice dill pickle.

kid food can rock – but it’ll kill ya.

ok ok
i know i know
it’s crazy
decadent
over the top
children are starving

but…

this was some mighty fine beef… and i mean ‘my-T-fiiine’.  so allow me to begin by saying – listen to me here.  do some overtime, sell something on ebay, cut your cable off for a month – or whatever works in your world.  and then go get you some lobel’s steaks.

after cashing in all our small change, we decided upon the natural prime strip steaks as opposed to the same cut in the corn fed prime.  i’ve got a thing about keeping it all grass fed (long story – not now).  and hell, they were only $64 a lb.  a mere $17 more than lobel’s average every day $47 a lb prime. 

oh yeah.  wait one sec.  umm, did i mention the overnight shipping?  it hikes up the price some but it could’ve been worse.  lobel’s isn’t scoring on the shipping which i appreciate.

all their beef is dry aged 6 weeks.  i think a lot of the dry aged beef you tend to get around town is aged for more like 2 weeks.  so see?  right there lobel’s has got to be 3x better which must explain why it is 3x more expensive.  and that calculation is based on the corn fed lobel’s up against the $15 a lb. choice graded that you tend to see.  at least in the quasi better markets in my neck of the woods.  but i’m in nashville so use these calculations – or not - and move forward.

i can tell you that ‘the fresh market’ - a chain of small boutique like grocery stores, sells their corn fed choice hereford steaks for $11 a lb.  at least that’s what they cost yesterday but i think they may have been running a special.  i bought one so that we could do a comparison taste test.  and people, let me just say that we’re talking two different animals here.  literally and figuratively, just not of the same realm.  btw – in the above pic the impostor is on the left, and unlike us humans, they may all look alike – but cook up those puppies and we’re talking barney’s vs. target.  the other is still doable, but for the masses.  not us.  never us.  ok… at least not us yesterday.

naturally, i always try to grill when it’s been 101 degrees that day – it’s like adding fuel to an already blazing fire.   but we switched on the TEC grill, got her going to a roaring 900 degrees and stepped back a pace or two.  the method was simple and i advise that you not to vary from it.  oil the meat up with evoo and then liberally salt and pepper both sides.  i used maldon salt and a good black tellicherry.  for the record, ours were 16 oz. each and about 2 inches thick.  we split the 3 steaks – impostor included - amongst the 4 of us.

then throw the steaks on.  give them about 3 minutes a side to get them all sealed up and to get that steakhouse crust happening and then lower the heat and let them finish.  we did a total of 14 minutes to get them medium rare.  when they come off the heat let them rest for a few minutes to allow the juices to redistribute before slicing.  we approximated our time for the most part and i guess we lucked out because they were just perfect – or close.  anyway, we were quite pleased with ourselves.

because, i rarely do steaks or much of any red meat.  maybe once a month but probably less.  maybe i’ll start to cook steaks more often.  maybe i’ll sell my car to support my habit.  because now it’s lobel’s or bust.  prime all the way.  leave the choice cuts for the plebeians.  oh and please note that lobel’s states: only 2% of all beef is certified prime and from there lobel’s gets the top 2% of the high prime.  and i wonder, just who the hell is calculating all of this???

as sides we had a multi-colored heirloom tomato salad because how could we not, corn on the cob with an irish butter that i like called kerrygold- and broccolini sauteed with evoo and garlic, finished off with some pecorino.

morton’s…  bite me.

here was sunday night’s dinner which was actually quite wonderful despite the photo. 

the potatoes were  csa yukons – small one’s – boiled and then flattened and then put in a hot pan with some olive oil for about 3 minutes a side as recently seen in the ny times mag ‘potato tostones’ recipe.  i sprinkled them with some truffle salt.  i don’t seek out potatoes especially in the summer – but delvin, my csa is growing them and yukon’s are my all time favorite potato – hands down.  last saturday i received a bag of red potatoes and i gave them away.  along with the second white cabbage.  along with the green bell peppers.  along with some of my pride.  but hey, i forgave myself.  (one of the things i am working hardest on at this late stage in my life.)

the rib eye steaks were local grassfed beef from ‘west winds farm’.  i am fortunate to be the proud owner of a TEC infra-red grill and this baby goes to the proper 900 degrees needed to achieve that steakhouse crust.  i just hit them with some grey salt and then we threw them on the heat along with some shucked corn.  the meat was very good albeit not lobel’s…  

but the salad – it was amazing.  somehow it was just perfectly and simply great.  romaine with some heirlooms, fresh garlic off the press, olive oil and balsamic with smoked salt and some black pepper.

so not overly pretty – not fancy or complicated.  but a dinner that just wants to make you say ‘god bless america’.

and while we’re being thankful, i would like to also say, god bless all you food crazed people out there like me who UNDERSTAND that using 3 different salts in three different components of one dinner is not a silly thing to do. in fact, au contraire.

but i get snickered at by my friends.