Meat Good
The stereotypes still dominate American culture at least; Father's Day brings ads for grilling equipment and barbecue supplies while Martha Stewart assumes her reader is female. But I like to think I've broken free of these easy pigeonholes, fretting about my inability to shape quenelles or some botched pastry decoration. But the "typical guy" instinct burbles up every now and then, and I just want to cook some chunks of meat.
Which is what happened last Friday and Saturday night. Melissa enjoys Fridays because I'll often meet her and we'll go shopping for dinner together (I don't often cook dinner on weeknights, as I've mentioned before). When we met, I said, "Let's get some steak." She agreed and we picked up some New York Strip, some small Yukon Gold Potatoes and some kale. Garnish was nothing more than garlic butter. You can see all my pseudo-recipes below, but I pan-seared the steak, roasted the potatoes, and braised the kale (except that I forgot to turn down the heat, so I actually burned most of the kale).
To go with our cave dweller's dinner, we opened a bottle of Ridge's 1999 Dynamite Hill Petite Sirah. This is an ink-black wine, with strong aromas of blackberry jam with notes of pepper and a distinct meatiness. It was heavy on the palate, with a sharp acidity, surprisingly modest tannins, and a flavor that I can only describe as blackberry must, even though I've never actually smelled such a thing. It had a noticeably hot finish. But it went wonderfully with our steak dinner.
The next night, we had big pork chops. As sides, I poached some morels in chicken stock, which I then used for a pan sauce, steamed some baby carrots which I then tossed in pumpkinseed oil, and sautéed some apples in duck fat. I garnished the pork with sautéed garlic. You know, your standard typical guy dinner.
Our wine was a 2002 Donnhoff Riesling. While this is my favorite producer of German wines, this was not one of his premier bottlings, merely the lowest level that qualifies the wine as more than table wine (to fully explain this would be to diverge into a long thing about German wines, but suffice it to say that German wines have lots of levels and this was the lowest other than the two levels for quaffing wine). It was, accordingly, not all that special, though it had a crisp acidity and finished with that classic German riesling taste. A white wine may seem a surprising choice, but actually German wine goes well with pork, and often has a slight sweetness that would work well against the carrots and apples, though not in this particular case.
Pseudo Recipes (assume they all end with "Season to taste")
Steak: Season two pieces of steak well with salt. I actually rubbed the steak with the salt. Put a cast-iron skillet on a low burner for about ten minutes, and then crank the temperature up to medium-high for another five minutes. Put the steak onto the pan (carefully!). After a couple minutes, flip the steak and let the other side sear. After that, flip every couple minutes until meat is cooked but still tender (i.e., to rare). Grunt with satisfaction as you eat.
Roast potatoes: Preheat oven to 425°. Cut small Yukon Golds in half (note, these were specifically small; if you're working with normal YGs, cut them into fourths). Spread potato chunks over a cookie sheet, douse liberally with oil and salt, and toss to get the chunks well coated. Put in oven, and start checking them after ten minutes until they're tender. Stir as you deem appropriate.
Garlic butter: Bring 4 tablespoons of butter to room temperature. Purée garlic with a chef's knife (basically, mince finely, sprinkle a little salt over the pile, smush with side of chef's knife, mince some more, repeat). Mix the garlic into the butter, using your hands to integrate the garlic fully.
Pork chop: Brine pork chops for 2-4 hours in a mixture of 1/4 cup salt and 1/4 cup sugar per quart of water. Remove from brine, rinse, and dry. Heat a skillet by putting it over low heat for about ten minutes. Turn the heat up to medium-high and lay the pork chops inside. After a couple minutes, flip the chops over and sear the other side. Continue flipping the chop every few minutes until done (I checked this by cutting into the meat when I thought it was about right).
Morels: Clean fresh morels carefully. Heat some chicken stock, and poach the morels in the liquid for a few minutes. Remove the morels; reserve the stock for sauce.
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