Beef night at home ...

For the carnivores out there, when it is roast or steak night at home, what's your plan? Cut? Preparation? Where do you get your Norman? What are you serving with it (plate and/or glass)?

 

For me, its usually in the summer (although temps got so warm in Feb this year that I broke out the BBQ), its usually costco steaks (the cuts can vary based on what looks good, and appropriateness of serving sizes ... I don't want to end up freezing more than I cook). Costco gets reasonable quality, and has good thickness for just about every cut. I experimented a little last year with reverse sear on some of the really thick ones.

I often skip the starch component, and just pair with a grilled vegetable (and I have been branching out experimenting with different ones to grill). Asparagus is the classic, but green beans and bell peppers are up there too.

The wines going with it will vary as I am experimenting a bit more these days. Back in the day it was just a fairly cheap Australian shiraz.

I've done a few roasts here and there, but they don't make much sense for me unless I have guests. The smaller ones are leaner than I'd like, and the larger ones I'd have to freeze half to use up before it went off. When I've done them it is usually with roast potatoes and a veg or salad.

 

We've taken to reverse roasting chops, now, Nev. Obviously they can't be Sizzler wafers, but damn it works just as well as with roasts. Love the chunks of Prime top Costco sells here. From the meat guy in town we get baseballs or strip loins -- he primarily sources Double R from Snake River Farms. We're about 50/50 on finishing in cast or on the grill.

We'll oak-grill tri-tip on occasion, though despite where we live we are not exactly huge fans of Santa Maria-style.

Garlic roasted broc or Brussels, whatever is popping up locally, are staples, maybe hit 'em with a dash of balsamic and some caribe. It's artichoke season here now, too. Arugula salad with lemon and oil. Been having a lot of kabocha squash lately. Roasted beets.

Carbs are king here (and it shows on me). Polenta, risotto and when we're really feeling indulgent, Roaring Fork's blue-cheese bread pudding. Galettes.

 

I have picked up a cast iron skillet so could play around with steaks indoors. But main issues there are electric stove, and recirculating vs venting fan.

I am sure I will attempt risotto at some time as I love it. But usually my more work and time intensive dishes are more batch cooking for multiple meals, and not sure how well risotto would fit that.

 

Alas, we are too far from a Costco to make it worth our while, so we're members of Sam's Club. They have a cryovac eye round roast, I trim some of the fat off, cut it in half and freeze half for later. Season with pepper, thyme and stuff it with some split garlic cloves and roast it in a cast iron pan at 350 until the internal temp is around 150 (wife likes it sans pink). I also like rump roasts. Usually spread some carrots and onions around the roast and add these to the gravy. Serve with mashed taters and green beans. And a couple of pre meal Manhattan's. If it's a little special, I'll pop a cork on a modest Argentine Carmenere wine. Not very exciting, but this is how we do it.

As for steaks, we have a lot of London Broil, I tenderize this cut and marinate for about two hours if possible and Grill it on my gas grill, 365 days of the year, weather permitting. Let it rest and slice thin. Served with foil wrapped baked taters, broccoli or asparagus. Sometimes have sautéed mushrooms or zucchini with bell peppers.

 

Today is my husbands birthday and believe it or not his favorite meal is my meatloaf, mashed potatoes, peas, yeast rolls and a dark chocolate peanut butter cake. Lol Our local friends have an 800 acre farm and we get all our meat from them. I just got a whole cow/beef and a whole pig/pork for under $400! We pretty much only pay for the butchering. I use 4 pounds of ground beef and mix in a pound of bulk ground hot Italian sausage. Chop up some sweet onion and green pepper, some Panko bread crumbs, an egg, garlic salt, and a little milk to moisten and mix it all up. Then right before it's completely done baking, I drain off the grease and coat the entire thing with a ketchup/brown sugar mixture and put it back in uncovered under high heat until the topping gets blackened in places. Turns out really good every time.

 

We travel 30 minutes from Switzerland to France in order to pay half the price for twice the quality of beef fillet.

Don't destroy it: just salt + pepper + olive oil, room temperature and then hot BBQ to seal then turn it down to cook as preferred. Then rest warm for half the cooking time.

Blue cheese sauce and heavy red.

With potatoes, whatever you do, pre-boil them!

 

Are you guys using a good arborio rice? We've whacked many a dish in our days but the risotto is just kinda foolproof, which can be handy with me in the kitchen.

Our kitchen ventilation SUCKS. We have this modern fancy house with all these POS overrated GE Profile appliances that the builder put in, and the vent hood is about the worst. I call our neighbors on either side when we're doing anything high heat -- roasting, cast on the gas burners -- and tell them to ignore the pending sound of ear-shredding smoke alarms. Thankfully the front door points toward the ocean so we open that, open the kitchen slider, and, voila, natural ventilation. Of all the things we re-did in our last house -- and we did a lot of cool stuff -- the 60" hood was the most brilliant stroke.

Aaaaaargh!!! Amazing how little some builders know about putting together a proper kitchen.

 

Same thing at our home with the venting. My solution...portable induction cooktop from Costco. Plug that baby in on the patio and sear away! Good for cooking up some fish outside, too. I've also been surprised how handy it's been when a couple of the burners on the stove top are full - it's so easy to plug in out of the way and boil water or whatever you need to do. If I was replacing my electric cook top I would seriously consider an induction top.

 

We have cast griddles that sit perfectly on the gas grill. That's our typical method for fish.

Duh, a dedicated/portable burner. Thanks! We have a four-burner gas range and that too verily sucks when you are coming off 60" and eight burners. There's just no way to rectify that shortcoming here short of a fundamental re-do of the counter and cabinetry, and I've been told in no uncertain terms to get that thought out of my head!!

 

Yeah, my Weber Spirit came with a removable center of the grill and a cast iron griddle you can put it its place. That's my go to for fish, too.

Steak indoors I could do, things would just get a bit smoky. But searing fish inside is even trickier. Doing it on a griddle outside is awesome.

 

Rib eyes with asparagus and a nice prosecco

 

Whole cryovac tenderloin on the Weber, unless it's a holiday gathering type of situation, where I do it in the oven, I just wait until I can charcoal/wood grill. I have good gas burners on my stove, but I gave up on stovetop for steaks a long time ago - it's a good way to do it, but no way to deal with the smoke.

I cut it in halves to grill and bring one half into work the next day with some rolls and a good knife and let people make their own tenderloin sliders.

Usually will also grill a couple dozen big shrimp marinated in a little maple syrup and chili-garlic sauce. Those are addicting.

Chunked up potatoes roasted in foil packets with olive oil and at least kosher salt & pepper. Asparagus naked on the grill except oil & kosher salt.

Usually beer instead of wine, not that big on wine, any reasonable cab will do for me.

 

I slow cook a lot of roasts. Just did a pork shoulder last night.

 

We dont eat beef more then one night per week or have I been doing something wrong all this time?

 

I tend to like porterhouses, t-bone or a NY strip as long as it's a THICK cut. Ocassionally I'll do those lititle fillet medalions, but I like to have a little texture in there, versus all tender. (And P-house/t-bones give you both sides, more tender as well as more textured.)

Preperation is pretty minimal. The biggie is making sure it comes to room temperature....THAT is my top carnivore rule. I put a little salt and pepper on it, let it sit. Then come back, rub a little whitell or black truffle oil on each side, let it sit. Then I either sear in on each side in a cast iron skillet, or throw it on the grill. I like medium rare/bloody. I also put a little pat of butter on top right after cooking.

Sides can be asparagus, greenbeans etc plus a starch: baked potato, Yukon gold mashed potatoes, roasted red potatoes, etc. (Or I love seared mushrooms cooked in butter and garlic!)

Hubby has to have a rustic bread with it (THAT i dont make. Cibatta, etc.)

Pretty basic on prep, but always a great meal.... and so much less than eating it out.

Salmon and steak are the two things I never buy at a restaurant, only because we've got our process down for what we like...and for not that much $$$$

PS just saw Chuck's comment on liking stovetop, except for the smoke. The ONLY reason we can do stove top is I think we have a 747 engine in our stove hood/vent/fan!

 

When we do it, filet or NYS from Stoysich Meat Market. Better than Omaha Steaks, if you can believe that.

I used to do prime rib (rock salt and bacon bits) but not recently. Again, Stoysich. (Hello Norm, you listening in?) (I think he googles his name occasionally.)

 

Omahas ... and when you factor in the insane pricing ...

 

Not beef tonight. Smoked a pork butt and having the race team over for pulled pork and JD. It was 60 today here in MT. Going to have our preseason bonfire and drunk. GO #46x!