Steak and Chard

My wife is visiting friends with the kids this week, during my daughter's first week of spring break. I'm home doing a lot of work, but it's also a real rarity that I'm home when I'm away from my family (usually it's me who's traveling). Anyway, I'm definitely doing some cooking, as well as will investigate one or two "sketchy" Mexican taco places (I scout them out, and then take the fam if good :) They're sketchy in appearance (hopefully not in food). But, for me, the sketchier, usually means the better. But I digress...

Tonight I made probably the best steak I've made in a long time, definitely one of my best ever. Not a new recipe, but just perfectly executed, if I do say so myself. Combined with it was an experiment with chard; recipe of my own on-the-fly creation.

The Steak

First I went and got an absolutely top quality ribeye from my local meat market (Long's, here in Eugene). A Roughly 1lb beauty. Then I ground up some fresh Blue Bottle Roman Espresso coffee (ground at a setting approx between drip and French Press, so on the course side, but not huge chunks). It is absolutely key to use fresh coffee beans, and grind them, none of this canned or pre-ground crap. Also, the better the coffee, the better the result. I could go on a long time here, but I won't (because I'm working on a blog entry about Blue Bottle :) Next, combine that with a pinch or three of either kosher salt or Fleur de Sel or similar salt of your choice. And then, add fresh ground pepper to the mix - about 1/3rd as much as you have coffee (more or less to taste I suppose - but don't put so much that you drown out the coffee). Liberally coat your steak with that - hide the steak in it.

I then recommend grilling the steak over a very hot grill. I use a gas BBQ, with my burners all on high - about 500 degrees on average. For the thickness of steak I had tonight (1.25"?), I cooked it just short of 11 minutes - about 5 minutes a side or so. This yields a medium-rare steak, and I mean truly medium-RARE, plenty of pink, but not bleeding. Once done grilling, pull it off and let it rest a few minutes. Stellar.

The Chard

I'm a big fan of chard, usually sautéed. Tonight I had some organic red chard. At Long's I'd also picked up some prosciutto, although a last minute decision to try something new, yielded some green peppercorn infused prosciutto cotto (cooked). First I sautéed some chopped red onion, with a pinch of Napa herbs, fresh ground pepper, and a bit of the helpful chunky grey garlic sea salt (go light here, this is not a garlic thing). A bit of red wine (a bottle I had open, oddly enough a tempranillo-syrah blend). Saute and fry that prosciutto up a bit.

Next, I separated the stalks from the chard, as they need to cook longer. Toss those in with the above mixture and steam/saute a bit to soften the stalks up. Then, put the chard leaves in, and essentially steam until done. Doesn't take long. Given that I made this up while I was cooking it, it worked out really well. Of course, most things with prosciutto do :)

Drink

I went with the easy choice here, although unexpected. I think most people would expect a nice bold red wine, and I do have some nice ones in the wine fridge. But, when I'm alone and not at a restaurant (thus not opening a bottle, or ordering by the glass) I'll go with a cocktail. My standard favorite is gin rocks with onions. Tonight this was Zuidam dry gin (battling for top spot with my usual favorite No. Ten by Tanqueray), and the best cocktail onions, Sable and Rosenfeld Tipsy Onions. I prefer my gin over just a couple large cubes of ice, so that it's not so cold as to take away flavor. Good botanical gin has a myriad of wonderful flavors, and I think shaking it with ice just kills some of that - No Ten is FAR better just slightly cooled over a couple cubes of ice.

All this, while listening to some great jazz (not typical for me, but "completed" the evening), and sitting at the bar-counter in our house. I felt like I was in a great restaurant, eating a wonderful meal at the bar, only it was in the comfort of my own home, relaxing, and loving it. I guess it was my own great restaurant; how nice!

Killer New Cooking Tools

Well, really, I hope they aren't actually "killer", but I am talking about knives, and spinning blades...

I recently attended a knife skills class, and during the class got to try a slew of different types and brands of knives. I came away very impressed with Shun knives. Great feel, cut briliantly, and the food just falls off - no need for the hokey hollow ground divots, etc. Also, I was able to try the "Ken Onion" Shun knife in particular. This knife has a specially designed bolster/handle area, where your fingers can sit in the proper style. It also rocks really well while cutting. And technically, there is a whole range of Ken Onion knives know, it just seems that this one was the first and thus is what folks refer to as the Ken Onion.

A few weeks later I picked up a Ken Onion, a paring knife, and their cool new serrated "Ultimate utility knife" (I couldn't find this on Shun's site, so the link is to the online store of the place I bought it from). I also took in my Wusthof Grand Prix knifes to be sharpened. These have been great knives, but I actually think I will sell the two cook's knives and paring knife now that I have the Shuns. Eventually I will replace the others as well.

I returned a bit later to pick up my Wusthof's, and low and behold, the Shun rep was there for the day. I talked to him for maybe 10 minutes (I was actually in a hurry at the time). Luckily he clued me in that "diamond fingers" sharpeners, which work rally well on German/stainless steel, shouldn't be used on VG10 steel of Shun knives. I thus got Shun's sharpening steel, which handily has a properly angled bolster on it to help you be certain you are maintaining the proper angle on your edge.

Finally, somewhere in all this, I also picked up a Viking immersion/hand blender. I got a chance to use it for the first time tonight, and WOW, that thing rocks! Made itself worth it in one use. I was making potato leek soup, which needs to get pureed, and previously I had to do this by taking stuff out in batches and putting it in a food processor/blender - a total pain. With the immersion blender, obviously, you just pop the thing in the soup pot, and blend for seconds (it probably took me 20 seconds). This is going to be one nice addition to the kitchen tool chest.

Oh, one note on the Viking vs. others. The Viking is extra powerful and has two speed settings. The first speed setting is what most immersion blenders can dole out, the second is turbo. Also, it's blade guard/bottom area is a nice design that lets the food flow out much better than many of the others that have holes, but where those holes aren't open to the bottom. It also comes with a whisking attachment, and others are available (I got a mini-chopper one with mine due to a current promotion).