A Local Lunch

Freshly dug potatoes and harvested cabbage along with some Plum Creek humanely raised veal cutlets. A nice, simple lunch.

I rarely order veal at restaurants. Even with ethical stuff out there, I usually pass and go with other meats. But I love Plum Creek, a farm in Valley City about 45 min outside of Cleveland, and I reference it all the time--usually regarding eggs and poultry. After visiting the farm a few weeks ago, learning that it's been in their family since the early 1800s, and seeing how they're keeping it going (and grabbing a drink up the street at the Jump'n Frog), it's been nice to stop by their stand at the Market and chat. (That's not to say that I hadn't been bugging them at their stands at two of our local farmers markets for the past 2 years.) Once at their Shaker stand, it doesn't take long for Amie's dad, who's responsible for the farm's dairy and the veal, to make sure you don't forget that they have veal for sale. I've stayed strong for a while, politely declining the meat, but this time he made me a deal I couldn't refuse. So I took the frozen (sometimes it's available fresh) cutlets home and thought about them for day. Saturday turned to Sunday, the veal thawed, and this is what I came up with.

The veal cutlets were given a standard coating. First, they were patted dry and seasoned with salt and pepper. Then a quick dip in AP flour, followed by a swim in a beaten egg from the same farm (Which is interesting in context--at the farm the chickens seemed to love hanging out with the baby cows that were nursing on their mom. Little did they likely know they would sort of meet again on a plate.), and then another dip in Country Gristmill cornmeal. The coated veal was briefly (very briefly) sauteed in a mix of about 3 parts canola oil to 1 part butter. They then rested on a paper towel until being served.

And the sides, much less exciting, but still very good. For the garden potatoes it was easy. Dug this morning, cooking them was all about doing no harm. All it took was a quick steam followed by a light dusting of salt. They were rich enough on their own that butter was unnecessary.

The cabbage didn't require much work either. Just a quick saute in olive oil with salt and pepper. No caramelization, no covering and letting it cook down, nothing special. Just lightly sauteed cabbage that was flavorful, tender, and crisp.

This lunch made me happy. A squirt of lemon juice may have been a nice addition, but lacking that I just put a small piece of butter on the still warm veal. That's all the sauce that was necessary (although I wouldn't have pushed a ladleful of veal stock off the plate).

Folks around here are big on the connection from farm to table. It doesn't get much more connected than this.

And I didn't only harvest potatoes this morning:

Tacos again?

If you're one of the two people who read this blog semi-regularly, you could have seen this coming. The clues were there. Extra corn tortillas from a few posts ago, and a protein heavy meal last post. Too bad there are already so many taco blogs (that last one is close enough).

Above is leftover Millgate Farm ribeye (diced and cooked with salt, pepper, and Bragg's), diced sweet onion, shredded arugula from the garden (we'll see if it's cut-and-come-again), and shredded Meadow Maid cheddar (picked up at the Shaker Farmer's Market, it's made from raw, organic, grass fed cow milk, and a fair deal at $5 a block). Before eating I added some creme fraiche (homemade from Ohio Organic Family Farms lightly pasteurized heavy cream--available at Country Gristmill at the Market--and a bit of my last batch that was made with Vermont Butter & Cheese Company creme fraiche, instead of buttermilk, as a starter) and Tapitio.

I love tacos.

And to go on the record for cheese on tacos. I used to not be for it, and secretly looked down on those who went heavy with the shredded cheese. To me a good taqueria taco has meat, some diced onion, and cilantro and is topped with a squeeze of lime and maybe some hot sauce. But I've been evolving. I still won't ask for a side of cheese at a taqueria (which isn't a problem around here because there's not really one worth discussing, even if Mi Pueblo, the West Side one, does in a pinch), but at home anything goes, especially with the inauthentic tacos I so enjoy. All that being said, I'm still not ready to shred Parmesan on my seafood pasta (but risottos are fair game).

Steak and Potatoes

I'm getting boring in my old age. Here's the proof along with a dull post. A nice piece of pastured rib eye (Millgate Farm), alongside some goat cheese (Mackenzie Creamery) creme fraiche and roasted shallot fortified mashed potatoes, and an oyster mushroom (Killbuck Valley) pancetta and sweet onion mixture. There was a pan sauce too, and it was pretty good--shallot, white wine, butter, and a touch of the creme fraiche. It went well with everything.

And an heirloom lettuce salad, organic from the yard, complete with all its insect damage. Coated lightly with extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper, it was lovely in its imperfection.

Those Dutch people make good sauce

It may look like cheez whiz, but it's not. It's a hollandaise, and the rich color is a result of Plum Creek Poultry's incredible eggs (available at the Shaker Square and Crocker Park farmers markets) with their ridiculously vibrant yolks. Who would have thought pale yolks have their place? Either that or my technique's off, which is quite possible.

The steak is from MillGate Farms (if you're at the Crocker Market Farmstead Ltd. has great grass fed beef), and it's the other part of a porterhouse that yielded the strip steak from the last post. The asparagus is is also from the Market, and cooked the same way as described in the last post (if it ain't broke . . .). These spears were Morton's sized. If you're not familiar with that reference, I don't think you're missing out, but these were some seriously huge, and seriously good, asparagus spears.

All good ingredients, but it's kind of cheating to use a hollandaise. The stuff is too good. After I finished the pictured plate it took all of my limited self control to avoid eating the leftover sauce by the spoonful. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
- Egg yolks (I always use at least two--it's tricky with one. The whites freeze well.)
- Butter, pieces or melted (There are proper ratios, but I just stop adding butter when I like how it tastes. This was the previously mentioned French butter from The Cheese Shop at the West Side Market.)
- Water (you may want to thin the sauce--water works well)
- Salt and pepper
- Cayenne (just a little)
- Lemon juice, or, gasp!, vinegar (I used white wine vinegar here. Lemon juice is better, but no lemons over here today).

Method:
- I always make this in a home rigged double boiler. There are lots of other ways to make this sauce, but I've always had good luck this way.
- Bring a small pot of water to a slow simmer
- Whisk egg yolks in a stainless steel or glass bowl that will fit on top of the simmering pot (the bottom of the pan should not dip into the simmering water)
- Once yolks are whisked, place the bowl over the pot of hot water and whisk steadily until the eggs get a thicker consistency (It may be necessary to keep lifting the bowl off of the simmering water to prevent the eggs from scrambling. You may want to use a dish towel for handling the bowl. Scrambled eggs in a hollandaise is not good.)
- After the yolks have thickened start incorporating the butter piece by piece (or slowly pour in melted butter a little at a time)
- Keep whisking and don't let the eggs scramble. If using pieces of butter add a new piece just as the previous one is melting away.
- When the sauce is a good consistency and tastes about right butter-wise, season with salt and pepper, a little cayenne, and acid (citrus juice or vinegar) to taste--it doesn't take much
- That's it. It holds pretty well if kept over the pot of hot water with the flame turned off (just make sure to stir occasionally), although it may thicken up a bit after a while (just thin with water, remembering it's always easier to add more than to take extra out). It also keeps well on a stovetop that's hot from the oven being on.

It's not a tough sauce to make, and it looks much better in person.

Another angle (still looks like cheez whiz):

Asparagus is here

First asparagus of the season, available to all those who braved the rain and made it to the Shaker Square Farmers Market. Paired with some ramp pesto riso and MillGate Farm's grass fed beef. I roasted the asparagus in a 425 degree oven in a little butter with salt and pepper. They came out tender-crisp and sweeter than any asparagus I've had in a long while. Great at room temp.

The beef is sauced with a shallot, bourbon, creme fraiche sauce. All that it involved was softening some shallots in the pan the steak was cooked in, adding and flaming some bourbon, adding a little water, creme fraiche, and seasoning and then swirling in some butter before straining the sauce. The shallots were from last season's crop from Snake Hill Farm, they're at the Market too. The beef had great flavor on it's own, but the sauce was addictive, and it would have been a shame to wash the fond down the drain.

Braised Oxtail

Simple braised oxtail. Not quite as good as the beef cheeks, but very enjoyable nonetheless. A picture of the raw tail pieces is on the previous post. Here's how I made them:

First, a mirepoix. Celery, carrots, and onion. After the oxtail pieces (seasoned with salt and pepper and lightly dredged in flour) were browned in bacon fat, the pieces were removed and these veggies were added along with some salt and pepper. Once the veggies were softened a little bit of tomato paste was added and cooked for about a minute.
After the mirepoix (with tomato paste) was cooked, I added some red wine and cooked it down until it was syrupy. Then I dumped in a can of whole peeled tomatoes with juice and broke up the tomatoes. Once the tomatoes were crushed I added the browned tails to the mix, along with a bay leaf and some more salt. Below is a picture of the mixture after about an hour covered in 325 degree oven.
About another two hours later and there it is. The sauce cooked down nicely and was surprisingly not fatty.

And finally, I pulled the the meat off the bones and discarded any pieces of fat that were clinging. The meat was added to some homemade curry pasta noodles (which might be the subject of a near future post) along with some of the braising liquid.
It was a nice dish, and came with a side of satisfaction from going face to tail with a fine grassfed cow. Now it's time to work through the middle of the beast. I picked up a porterhouse from the same place yesterday.

Everything but the moo

Beef Cheeks from Millgate Farms's grassfed beef with the braising liquid on a bed of garlic, chive, and creme fraiche mashed potatoes. The braise was surprisingly short, but it was close to what was recommended in a similar recipe from The Silver Spoon. That book hasn't let me down yet.

Beef Cheeks
Ingredients:
- Cheeks, trimmed and cut into manageable portions
- Flour (for dusting the cheeks)
- Onion (diced)
- Carrot (diced)
- Celery (diced)
- Dried cayenne (cut into a few pieces with most seeds removed)
- Bay leaf
- Red Wine (I used an inexpensive cab here)
- Can of tomato with juice
- Salt and pepper
- High heat fat (I used bacon grease)
Method:
- First I sweated all the veggies with some salt and pepper in the bacon grease (This could have been done after browning the cheeks, the next step, and that's probably how I'd do it next time.)
- After the veggies are soft, remove them from the pot and reserve (The braise is all done in one pot.)
- Then salt and pepper the cheek pieces and dust with flour
- Brown the dusted cheeks in more fat
- Once cheeks are brown on each side remove and set them aside
- Add veggies back to pan (Or this is where they could be sweated for the first time, saving a step.)
- Stir to pick up browned bits, then add cheeks back and pour in some wine
- Cook wine down a bit and then add the can of tomatoes and juice (If using canned whole tomatoes, give them a squish with your hands after adding them--the tomato juice will temporarily cool the mixture down for a minute.)
- Reseason with salt and pepper and add the bay leaf
- The liquid should go about 2/3 up on the biggest pieces of cheek--if not add some water to make up the difference
- Cover and place in a 375 degree oven--it seems high, but it works and you get fork tender cheeks in about an hour and a half
- After it was done cooking it wasn't necessary to skim or reduce the sauce, although it would have been nice to have put the whole thing in the fridge and remove the fat from the sauce the next day. Still, it wasn't fatty tasting.

Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients:
- Potatoes, cut in chunks (I left the skin of these Yukon Golds on.)
- Garlic
- Chives, cut into batons
- Butter
- Creme Fraiche (or cream, or both)
- Salt and pepper
Method:
- Put a pot of water on to boil
- Add cut potatoes, garlic, and salt
- When water is boiling and potatoes are fork tender drain water and smash the potatoes and garlic with a fork
- Add butter, creme fraiche, salt, and pepper and mash those in, continually adjusting to your taste
- Mix in chives

It comes together well, and I suspect the leftovers will be even better tomorrow. The meat was nice in that it cut with a fork, but did not just fall apart on the plate. The meal has all the components of a stew, but keeping each element separate dresses the dish up for dinner. It was a fair amount of work with a sharp knife to clean the cheeks, but it was well worth it. It's only a matter of time before the cheek becomes the new short rib, if it hasn't already.

Seasonal and regional eating, mostly

More grassfed beef from Farmstead Ltd. in Millersburg, Ohio, around an hour and a half away. This time it was a hanger steak--since it was their last appearance at the Crocker Farmers Market I bought three of the steaks, but I'm already planning a trip down to the farm for when I run out.

Those roasted things in the back are some of the Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes) that were pictured a few posts ago. I roasted them in bacon fat with some fennel fronds. They had the texture of a perfectly roasted marshmallow, and almost the same level of sweetness.

As for the greens, those are thinly sliced underdeveloped fennel bulbs from the garden and shallot, with a few very thinly julienned slivers of ginger (hence the "mostly" in the title), marinated in a little olive oil, cider vinegar, salt, and pepper.

While I make no claim to be participating in a 100 mile diet, aside from the ginger, oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper, everything was from well within that radius. The things that weren't were sourced appropriately.

Steak
- It's just a seared steak, with salt and pepper being added just prior to cooking
- It was seared in sunflower oil (also not local)
- I also made a pan sauce by deglazing with water (yes, water, or as Jacques Pepin once said, chateau la faucet) and then swirling in a small pat of butter

Jerusalem Artichokes
Ingredients:
- Jerusalem artichokes, peeled (I imagine the peel could be left on)
- Fennel fronds, chopped
- Fat (As noted, I used bacon fat, but butter or oil would have worked)
- Salt and pepper
Method:
- Heat up a fat in a pan
- Add the sunchokes, fronds, salt, and pepper and mix well
- Place in a 450 degree oven, occasionally opening up the oven to stir
- After about 10 minutes start sampling to see when they're done to your liking

Fennel/Shallot Slaw
- It's described above
- I let it marinate in the fridge for about an hour
- It was addictive

That's it. After staring at the sunchokes for a while and not knowing what to do with them, now I can't wait to eat the rest.

Also, if you are into the sustainable food thing, or are just curious about it, you owe it to yourself to check out tonight's (11/18/07) episode of King of the Hill, which should be available here shortly. I'm not a weekly watcher of the show, but this week's show caught my eye. It's funny, relevant, and not too far off.

The other half of the flat iron steak . . .

. . . is pictured above.

Fall weather fare

I'm on the grass-fed bandwagon. While the butcher could likely have done a better job preparing this cut (Not that I'd pay a price like this for a better trim job--the linked place's recommended recipe is nearly identical to the one I used. Good to see they would have approved.), the taste was great. I made sure to try some of the meat before the herby butter started commingling with the juices--it was some of the best flavored beef I've had. The flavor was clean and somewhat subtle, and the texture, aside from a thin line of gristle running through the steak, was chewy but in no way tough. This grass-fed beef doesn't require an acquired taste, it was just a great steak.

The compound butter was made with help from Google and James Peterson's Sauces. Because I grilled the steak a pan sauce wasn't really an option. After making this, I think I'll be using a lot more of these butters.

Also on the plate was most of a small, roasted butternut squash. It doesn't get much more fall than a grilled steak and winter squash.

Steak
Ingredients:
- Steak for grilling (A strip steak would have worked, same with a rib eye. Even though the flat iron is often compared to skirt and flank steaks, I don't think they are as good to serve/eat as a whole steak. If I were making tacos or a steak salad, I'd reach for the skirt or flank.)
- Olive oil, extra virgin
- Salt and pepper
Method:
- Get grill going
- Have steak dry and at room temperature
- Lightly coat steak with olive oil, and apply some salt and pepper
- Grill to taste and let rest

Squash
Ingredients:
- Butternut squash, halved, with some light slashes on skin side (seeds scooped out with a spoon*)
- Olive oil, extra virgin
- Salt and pepper (Is there a pattern here?)
- Butter
Method:
- Preheat oven between 425 and 450
- Rub squash halves with olive oil, and apply salt and pepper
- Place squash flat side up on a sheet of aluminum foil in the oven
- Cook until squash is soft when pierced with a fork or knife
- Remove from oven and scoop squash innards into a bowl
- Mash squash with a fork, and add salt and pepper and a small piece of butter
- Cover bowl to keep warm

Butter
Ingredients:
- Butter, unsalted and at room temperature
- Herbs, fresh (I used tarragon, chives, and parsley)
- Salt and pepper
Method:
- Blanch herbs in boiling salted water for about a minute
- Drain water and cool the herbs down with cold water
- Dry herbs as best you can and mince (if using the same herbs, omit the tarragon and parsley stems)
- Lay minced herbs out on a paper towel to dry further
- Mash butter in bowl (two forks work well)
- Add herbs, salt, and pepper, all to taste, to mashed butter
- When butter mixture is mixed will, place the blob on a piece of plastic wrap
- Use wrap to form a log of the butter--like a sausage
- Place log in fridge to reharden (the freezer works if you're in a rush)
- Slice as necessary

That's all there is to it. It's all pretty simple and the compound butter is great. There's another piece of the flat iron waiting, and some left over butter. All that's needed is a nice baguette and it should be one of the best steak sandwiches ever.

*Save the seeds for roasting.

And yes, that is a big pat of butter. I ate it all too, and it was good.

Very exciting

After being most of the way through with The Omnivore's Dilemma I realized it was time to give grass-fed beef another chance, and I think I may have found a local answer to the book's Polyface Farms.

As I noted a while back, I've had some very so-so grass fed-beef experiences with USDA Organic meat from a local farm (I really like farm, just not the beef so much.). I think the new vendor whose meat I'm trying has a lot of potential--more about beyond organics than organic. Plus, they cite Deuteronomy (11:15) on the front cover of their catalog, so it's just a couple of passages away from being kosher, not that that's ever influenced The CFT before.

So now there are some frozen flat iron steaks thawing in the fridge, and tomorrow I'll give the grass-fed stuff another go. I don't want to make the steaks nervous, but this is their last chance to sway me away from grain fed ruminants.

Sliced steak

Sliced Delmonico steak (which can mean about 100 different things depending on where you get it), white and red cipollini onions (Can cipollinis be red? Not sure, but that's the basket where the fine folks at Snake Hill Farm put them, so we'll go with that.), wilted spinach, and some leftover grits (I made this a few days ago, so the grits weren't too old.). Some mushrooms may have been nice (I've really been slacking on taking advantage of the great things from Killbuck Valley Mushrooms.), but they weren't required. The steak and spinach were from the grocery store (hormone free and organic, respectfully), so options were limited.

Onions
Ingredients:
- Onions, halved and sliced
- Butter
- Salt and pepper
Method:
- Heat butter in a pan
- Add onions, salt and some pepper
- Maintain on a medium-low heat until they're to your liking, stirring relatively often

Steak
Ingredients:
- Steak
- Salt and pepper
- High heat oil
Method:
- Get uncoated frying pan very hot and add oil
- Season steak
- Sear both sides and the sides of the steak
- When it's how you like it (As you can see, I'm a medium rare-rare person myself.*) leave it to to rest
- Turn off heat, but don't clean pan

Spinach
Ingredients:
- Spinach
- Salt and pepper (See a theme with the ingredients in this meal?)
Method:
- Pan should still be a bit greasy and hot (if not add some oil/turn on heat)
- Add spinach and a little salt and pepper, quickly turning being sure none of the spinach stays on the bottom of the pan too long
- Remove from pan with tongs, squeezing and leaving as much liquid as possible in the pan

Grits
- See previous post, or just bake or mash a potato

Once spinach is laid out on a plate slice steak across the grain (As much as possible--the grain is not to consistent on this cut of beef, and this step is not all that important here.) and plate. You could make a quick pan sauce with stock or cream (or both), but it's not really necessary.

* My two cents on ordering a steak in a restaurant (Which I rarely do, as such great meat is available at the consumer level, and it's a pretty easy preparation.)--order it rare, medium-rare, medium, possibly medium-well, or well (if you're not concerned about your piece of meat). My point is that I do not recommend saying something like "Medium-rare but on the rare side," or "Slightly more cooked than medium." It just doesn't work, generally, and it messes with your server. At the typical restaurant the server is writing your order on a ticket that will be placed in front of a cook or relayed through the restaurant's computer system. At least in any place I've seen, there is no "Medium-rare but on the rare side" code for the ticket, or button for the system.

I agree, it is a service industry. But, while I truly believe that restaurant personnel adulterating (for lack of a better term) customers' food is not all that common, why annoy them? First, very few servers that I know want to get into an extended conversation with the cook about an order during a busy dinner service (the cook is likely even less inclined to participate in that discussion). Second, if you're that picky (and I tend to be), just make it yourself.

Leftovers

It may not be photogenic, but an aversion to throwing things out led to a tasty meal. I ate two of these, in fact.

The result of an embarrassment of riches -- some leftover beef from the Liberty Steak, infra, an extra avocado and some cilantro from making a load of guacamole for an office potluck (I'll cover the guacamole in the near future. It's not a tough thing to make well, and it's a crowd pleaser, if not a ubiquitous one. A few batches of the stuff may have landed me my current job, which, it goes without saying, is not in food service.), some aging garden bounty, and what was lying around in the fridge -- produced the pic above. I'll break it down by taco, sauce, and toppings. Here's what happened:

Taco
Ingredients:
- Leftover cooked steak, diced (Best if it's on the rare side. Pork, tofu, or just about any other non-seafaring protein would work as well.)
- Soy sauce
- Oil
- Salt and pepper
- Corn tortillas (Two per taco.)
Method:
- Heat a dry pan or griddle for the tortillas (Cast iron ideal.)
- Place the tortillas in stacks of two on the hot pan or griddle
- Flip the tortillas, heating up both sides until soft
- While that's happening . . .
- Heat oil in very hot wok or nonstick pan
- Add diced steak and brown up a bit
- Season the cooking meat
- Add a just a few shakes of soy sauce and simmer for about a minute
- Turn off heat leave meat in pan to keep warm

Sauce
Ingredients:
- Ripe avocado
- Lime
- Sweetened Mexican Cream
- Green onion/scallion (greens and whites)
- Hot sauce (I used Tapatio Mexican-style hot sauce, but I suspect a Sriracha would work very well.)
- Honey
- Water
- Salt and pepper
Method:
- Squeeze lime juice into a bowl
- Cut and peel avocado and place it in bowl with lime juice (Mix around so avocado is coated with lime juice to slow down discoloration.)
- Add salt and pepper
- Mash avocado (I used two forks. A food processor would work for this recipe.)
- When smooth add some of the Mexican Cream to taste
- Add hot sauce to taste
- Add honey to taste
- Thin with water, if you'd like
- Add thinly sliced rounds of green onion greens and diced green onion whites

Toppings:
- Finely diced shallots
- Chopped cilantro (Don't be afraid of the stems.)
- Chopped leaf lettuce (I chopped a few leaves of Black Seeded Simpson lettuce with a sharp knife -- it didn't discolor. I never trusted those plastic knife people.)
- Diced tomatilloes

Assembly is obvious. Lots of other toppings are possible. Basics are diced tomatoes, shredded cheese (which may be gilding the lily with the avocado sauce), sunflower seeds . . . it's limitless.

It's also great to make this with just the tortillas, meat, diced onion, cilantro, and a wedge of lime. After all, this is really just a rip-off of a taqueria carne asada taco. And, in all honesty, a good carne asada taco from a taqueria of questionable cleanliness may be better than this gussied up version. But, sadly, such a taco is something that's just not readily available where I live,* and I had some stuff to put to good use.

*If you find yourself craving a taco in the Portland, OR area I recommend, in any order, the following:

- El Taco Express #2, 5447 NE 42nd Ave., Portland;

- La Taqueria Guadalajara, 2032 Pacific Ave., Forest Grove (or any taco truck in the area); and

- King Burrito, 2924 N Lombard St., Portland.

Several years have passed since I enjoyed these places, but if they're still there, they're good, or at least they were. At the P-town spots leave any pretentiousness at the door, and valuables locked in the trunk.

Liberty Steak

I'm not a hawk. I do have a healthy skepticism of the French war ethic (if you don't know the used French rifle joke, you should), but this title bears only the faintest allusion to the Liberty Fries of years past. It's a classic Steak au Poivre, but with bourbon, not cognac. Maker's Mark bourbon whiskey to be precise. The potatoes were roasted in duck fat (for that idea I thank our Western European friends), and the broccoli was steamed. The basic steak recipe came from James Beard's Theory & Practice of Good Cooking (1977), and upon looking up how to spell Poivre via Google, I saw this recipe from Julia Child and Jacques Pepin, which looks very good as well: http://www.leitesculinaria.com/recipes/cookbook/poivre.html. The sides both came from the garden. Here's how it went down:

Roasted Potatoes
Ingredients:
- Fingerling potatoes washed and cut in half
- Duck Fat (If you're in Cleveland, Kafumann Poultry in the West Side Market gets fresh ducks every now and then. When they do they sell globs of fat at a very reasonable price. It's render ready. Once rendered, it keeps well in the fridge or freezer.)
- Chopped Sage
- Chopped Parsley
- Crushed and chopped garlic
- Salt and pepper
Method:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees
- Melt a hefty few tablespoons of duck fat in a oven safe pan (Perfect time to use cast iron.)
- Put potatoes in pan, mix with duck fat, and season
- Roast until tender to your taste
- Turn off oven, add sage, parsley, and garlic to potatoes in pan
- Put pan back into off but warm oven until ready to serve

Steak
Ingredients:
- Strip steak (I much prefer to eat animals that led a happy life. That being said, I'm still not really into grass fed beef. Hormone free, on the other hand, is great if possible.)
- Peppercorns (I used Tallicherry Black Peppercorns loosely ground in a blade coffee grinder. My mortar and pestle are not very good, or I'd have used them.)
- High heat oil (I used Grape seed, but Canola or the like would be fine.)
- Butter
Method:
- Let steak get to room temp
- Push pepper into beef on both sides (James Beard says use the heel of your hand. Be careful not to totally crush the steak -- this isn't a cutlet.)
- Add salt
- Heat oil and butter together
- Sear steak, not forgetting to sear the steak on the sides (Searing the fat strip is essential, and its probably the best part of the meal. Also, assuming you don't put this in the oven, you may want to get rid of some of the rawness on the sides.)
- Remove steak and let rest -- don't clean the pan, leave it on the burner but lower the heat

Sauce
Ingredients:
- Diced shallots
- A bit of whiskey
- A bit of heavy cream
Method:
- Add shallots to uncleaned, still greasy, pan
- Sweat shallots, using a utensil to scrape up the fond with the shallots
- Raise heat
- Add some whiskey and ignite by tilting the pan into the flame (The CFT assumes no liability for burnt hair, eyebrows, homes, or apartments.)
- When whiskey has reduced some, add some cream
- When the consistency looks just a bit too runny, turn off the heat, but leave the pan on the still warm burner (It will thicken up some. Can thin out with a bit of cream if it turns out too thick, but you don't want too much cream in sauce.)

Broccoli
Ingredients:
- Seriously?
Method:
- Steam

That's it. Slice the steak and arrange, hopefully better than me, with roasted potatoes and steamed broccoli. If it's not cooked enough, place in a 450 oven for a short bit.

What would I do differently? I'd add a drop of salt to the open part of the sliced steak on the plate, raise the heat for the potatoes to 450 for a few minutes after they're tender to brown them before turning off the heat and adding the herbs and garlic, and serve a good portion of the sauce on the side, not over the steak, for dipping -- the sauce is very nice. Bon appetit.