Friday, October 1, 2010

Steaked

Flank steak, tons of veg, sweet potatoes. A sauce would just ruin it.

Beautiful flank steak from Millgate Farm. Legit grassfed beef, and a great selection of cuts. Not cheap, but not over the top either. Plus, the guy who runs the joint is a great shot. It was seasoned with salt and pepper and seared in super hot cast iron pan slicked with olive oil. A small pat of butter, split skin-on clove of garlic, and sprig of rosemary were thrown in the pan during the searing/cooking to add some extra flavor and make the kitchen smell all nice. About 4 min on each side and it was set to rest. Just before serving the sliced steak got hit with just a bit of salt.

To the right of the steak is some mashed sweet potato (With a little regular potato mixed in--I stupidly grew some red skinned potatoes right next to my row of sweet potatoes, so when I went to peel one of the presumed sweet potatoes I was surprised to find to some nice white flesh. The whitey just went in the with the sweet stuff.) The boiled and drained tubers got mashed with just a little salt, pepper, and butter. It would have been fine with no addition. I don't know how sweet potatoes do it, but it's one of the few foods that are just perfect as is. Especially right out of the ground.

Under the meat is some more good stuff. A mix of green beans, sweet peppers, oyster mushrooms, shallot, corn, and tomato. Just about everything was cooked separately, set aside, then heated back up together. The green beans were blanched, shocked, and sauteed in olive oil with salt and pepper. The peppers sweated in olive oil with salt and pepper until they were soft. The mushrooms seared in olive oil with some shallot, salt, and pepper. The corn just sauteed really fast in oil. And the tomatoes were heated up with everything else right before dinner was served. It was ratatouille inspired, and a real pleasant way to eat some good vegetables.

Green beans picked up at Shaker Mkt, peppers and corn from FarmShare, mushrooms from Killbuck, shallot (and garlic for cooking the steak) from Urban Growth, and tomatoes from Nature's Bin.

All in all a pretty good and healthy meal. The summer bounty will be sorely missed.

[cutting across the grain on a cluttered cutting board]

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