Porterhouse steak to perfection

More Ogden beef!  This time, a most delicious porterhouse steak.  I was surprised that this was grass-fed beef, it was that tender.  And well cooked.  Lately, we've discovered that pan frying the steak to get a sear, then finishing it in the oven, produces a perfectly even medium-rare steak.  And boy was this one delicious!  We had it at 300F, for I think 15min... check it after 10, and keep checking it.

We served this steak with a maple cabbage and apple slaw (with beets!) and some cauliflower and cheese.  More on those in another post - the cabbage slaw was definitely worth making again!  Those are some fried oyster mushrooms on top of the steak.  I highly recommend trying to cook a steak this way!  Use a cast iron frying pan, because then you can get it nice and hot for the sear, and stick the whole thing in the oven.  

Ed, I'm going to take a picture of you eating steak.  Go rawrrr.  *slurp*

Beet-beef burgers

I've been reading Nigel Slater's book, Tender, that Virginia gave to Ed for Christmas, and while sometimes Nigel's writing is a bit over the top flowery, I think it's a really interesting look at vegetables one by one, and what base flavors marry best with each veggie.  I've gotten as far as beets as of yesterday, and since we had some Westminster ground beef in the fridge (yay Ogden beef!), and a giant beet, this seemed like the perfect combo.  While Nigel Slater may have used ground lamb instead of beef, I'm all for improvisation, and basically ignored his entire recipe after getting the spark of an idea from it.  Because that's how I roll around here...

I put in what I thought were a lot of spices, but it wasn't quite enough, and in the end, the burgers were a bit bland for my tastes.  I'd double all the spices, next time.  As for the Ed-rating, at first he was all critical of putting beets in a burger, but later admitted that these were "delicious".  So, they get a good Ed-rating, if a reluctant one.  He tends to prefer his burgers just beef.  That post is coming...





Beet-beef burgers
Made lots and lots, probably enough for 4-5 people

~1lb ground beef
3/4C dry Bulgar wheat (also known as cracked wheat)
1 medium to large beet, raw
3 large cloves of garlic, diced
1 onion, diced very fine

Spices:
(I already doubled them compared to what we'd done)
4 cardamom pods
4 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp pepper seeds
4 cloves
4 tsp kosher salt

Boil 1.5C water, and pour it over the bulgar wheat.  Cover and let it sit for 5-10min, to absorb the liquid.  Peel the beet, and grate it, with the big holes on a cheese grater.  Preheat your oven to 400F.

Put everything into a big bowl.  Use your hands to thoroughly mix it together and distribute all the spices.  Let the mixture sit for 10 minutes to meld the flavors, then heat some oil in a frying pan, and form the meat mixture into golfball-sized balls.  Flatten them to burger shapes, then fry, about 3min to a side, to get a crust on each side.  Transfer to a baking sheet and bake for 15-20min, continuing to fry the patties in batches and add to the baking sheet.  You can't tell if they're done just by looking, since the beets turn everything pink, but 15min yielded medium-rare-ish meat, and 20min was well done.

We ate these with some broccoli in an anchovy/lemon/butter sauce, which gets a whole post of its own.  Very delicious!

Broccoli with anchovy-lemon sauce

You may think that you don't like anchovies, but you do, at least in small enough quantities.  An anchovy mixed into tomato sauce will add a delicious kick of umami.  Anchovies were in the original caesar salad dressing, and still are in the good ones and the home made ones.  Moving more toward the "this is definitely an anchovy" camp, anchovies and avocados with a drizzle of lemon are an excellent topping for toasts or open-faced sandwiches.  And once you've been fully convinced that you do indeed love anchovies, try this anchovy-lemon butter sauce for drizzling on top of broccoli.  Or any green thing, really, but broccoli was the vessel tonight.


The taste is amazing - very strong flavors, and the lemon zest totally picks it up to another level.  The anchovy part mostly just tastes salty, but it's a delicious salty.  We were eating broccoli with this sauce at the same time as the beet-beef meatballs, and Ed thought that this dish was the better of the two.  That's pretty high praise, when meat is involved.

~10 canned anchovy fillets
2tbs butter
1 tbs olive oil
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1 lemon

In a small frying pan, melt the butter, and put the anchovies in the pan.  Stir occasionally.  Eventually, the fish will fall apart.  Once it's done that, stir in the lemon juice, then remove from heat.  Stir in the zest.  Pour over whatever green thing you've decided will be your vessel for this sauce, and enjoy!

Cilantro-walnut pesto

This recipe is mega out of date, but I was attempting to clean up some of the drafts that never got written, and came across this pesto.  I remember it being delicious enough that it's totally worth posting now, but it may be hard to find fresh cilantro right now.  Anyway, this pesto was delicious on pizza, pasta, and as some sort of underlayer for stuff on little crostini.  I don't remember the original reason we made it, but I do remember eating it on pasta later in the week.  Enjoy!




2C cilantro
1C basil
1/2C parsley
4tsp dried tarragon
1C toasted walnuts
2tsp salt
1tbs sesame oil
1/3C balsamic vinegar
2/3C olive oil

Take all the herbs off their leaves, rinse and dry. Toast the walnuts in a 350F oven for 5min, until they taste toasty. Put everything in a food processor and chop it up.