Friday, May 02, 2003
Sweet herbal delights
Momentarily seep from
A bitter deluge |
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Negroni Cocktail
1 oz Gin
1 oz
Campari
1 oz Sweet Vermouth
Stir ingredients with ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Garnish with an orange wedge.
Wednesday, April 30, 2003
Let Grilling Season Commence
As evidenced by this, and the previous post, cooking outside has once again
become a viable option. This is a very beautiful thing. And
apparently I'm finding it a bit inspirational because I'm finding myself
wondering if I actually cooked that gorgeous dish to the right. (For my
more observant readers, you'll also notice that we bought some nice new plates
on the cheap at a
Mikasa outlet :-) )
The vegetables shown here, yellow squash and red bell pepper, were marinated
for about 20 minutes in garlic, good extra virgin, and a bit of balsamic
vinegar. They're topped with a simple salsa fresca of tomato, shallot,
lime juice, and basil.
Wegmans has made me a little happier
once again and started carrying "prime"
beef, in addition to the ridiculously sub-par "choice"
they've been peddling up to this point. I'm not averse to eating "choice"
quality meat, but Wegmans "choice" always seemed a bit worse than what could be
bought as "choice" elsewhere. I don't know the reason for this.
Anyway, this was a prime ribeye, and it was heavenly. My steak grilling
technique has improved significantly in the past year. Here's how the
process goes around here.
- Get the best thick steak (within
reason) readily available, duh.
- Take it out of the fridge and give it a generous pinch of salt on both
sides.
- Work on the rest of your meal as the steak comes up to, or near room
temperature. This really is important.
- Crank the grill up as high as it will go.
- Blot the steak dry.
- Season the steak with some fresh course ground pepper, and maybe rub a
split garlic clove on it. Lightly coat with olive oil.
- Place on hottest part of grill 1 1/2-2 minutes.
- Flip - 1 1/2 - 2 minutes
- Flip - 1 1/2 - 2 minutes (get those crosshatched grill marks working)
- Flip - At this point, press the steak with your finger to check the
firmness. (There are guidelines for what this feels like, but you've
really just got to practice it until you can read the steak) It may
already be at the perfect medium rare, or may require more time.
- Let it rest on a heated plate tented with foil for a few minutes.
- You've got a perfect juicy steak. Serve it on a piece of grilled
bread that will soak up all the juicy goodness.
Cinco De Mayo Warm-up
We're having a little Cinco de Mayo party on Sunday. This meal was
partly me trying some things in preparation for that, and partly just feeling in
the mood for some Mexican flavors. Chicken tacos with grilled fennel, and
some enchilada type sauce. This was actually from several days ago so I've
forgotten a lot of what I did with the sauce. It was pretty good, but not
quite worth making again the same way. The basic idea was garlic, onion,
tomato, coriander, habenero, and chipotle simmered in chicken stock. Food
processor...sour cream...done. Sounds really good as I type it, but there
was something missing.
The chicken was a whole small fryer rubbed with some dried ancho and chipotle
chiles that I ground up in a mortar and pestle with some garlic, salt, and
pepper. I put a couple halved key limes in the cavity and roasted away.
As I've said here before, Small Chicken(~3.5lbs)+High Heat(450F)=Great Roast
Chicken. Delicious!
The real epiphany of this meal was the joy of the
Chipotle
chile. For some reason I was thinking that chipotle chiles were just
another variety of chile. But, as I learned from the package, they're
actually smoked and dried jalepenos. I think I knew this at one point, but
it became one of those countless factual casualties that are pushed out of my
head by other bits of trivia before they can be committed to long-term memory.
These things will lend heat and a really distinctive deep smoky and earthy
flavor to your dish. I'll probably re-hydrate them a little before working
with them next, and there definitely will be a next. I've got a new
permanent fixture for the pantry.
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