January 24th - Steak and potatoes

January 24th – Steak and Potatoes
I still am very much a steak and potato guy. I can’t eat it every night, but there are times when I still crave them both. I’m also a big fan of hash browns and hashes of various types. One of my favorite ways to cook potatoes is to cube them and then to cook them in oil with garlic, onions, thyme and sometimes red chili. Since the potatoes need the longest time, I usually add them first and cook them most of the way before adding some finely diced onions and garlic. Invariably they take longer than I think they should, but I still enjoy it immensely.
For the steak, I used a petit sirloin that we had. It’s a tough and often inelegant cut of meat, but if you cook it quickly so it gets a good sear but stays rare in the middle, it can be a nice beefy flavored cut. (If you cook I past medium-rare it can be tough and flavorless.) I didn’t do a pan sauce this time because I was hungry and just used salt and pepper before searing the steak in a cast iron pan.
A great steak deserves great red wine, but in this case I decided that a decent steak deserved a great wine. I love syrah and am glad that it’s being grown in more places, but the northern Rhone valley in France is still home to some of the world’s best syrahs. In the fine wine world, there are still some relative bargains to be had there. Crozes Hermitage is such a region. Although the wines don’t have the power of true Hermitage, they can be fantastic wines with a great sense of terroir. I had a 1996 La Guiraud Crozes Hermitage from Alain Graillot which had held up beautifully and was still fairly tannic and rich. It had deep dark berry notes, rich intensity and some earthy notes. It could have used a richer entrée, like a steak with a wild mushroom sauce or something else intense, but it was still fantastic with the beef. Pearls before swine? Maybe but entirely satisfying.

January 11th

January 11th

Even though the stove got fixed two days ago, this was the first day where I felt like I could cook whatever I wanted. I had cooked Doro Wat two days ago, but by the time I had reassembled the stove and had it working, I felt pressured for time so it wasn’t as realizing a meal as I would have liked. I had been dreaming about clams and thought about going to get some even though my last appointment at work was downtown which meant I wouldn’t being passing by the store where I normally by seafood. (I’m very particular about seafood and only trust about two or three places around town.)

Luckily my wife called while I was at my last appointment and asked if I needed anything from. I told her I really wanted clams and she agreed, so she went to go get those and some crusty bread. I got home and started to figure out how I was going to cook them. There seems to be a tradition of using pork in various seafood dishes in Portugal and Spain. I’m not sure if it’s consistent, but there do seem to be a fair amount of seafood dishes that have sausage or ham in them. Although it seems unusual at first, it is a good mix and I’m very fond of it as well. The Iberian Peninsula is not alone in this combo, but seems to have more dishes like this than other areas. Perhaps I’ve simply noticed more in Spanish and Portuguese cookbooks.

So I browned some diced home made pancetta in a pan, and then added some onion and later some garlic. I deglazed the pan with white wine and then added a little tomato paste to give more body to the sauce. I threw in a little thyme, salt and black pepper and let them reduce for a few minutes before adding the clams. I had the heat at medium and the clams steamed open in about three minutes. I would have added some parsley but it was dark and muddy outside and I didn’t feel like grabbing a flashlight to go harvest some, so I just ladled the clams up into bowls and served thick slices of crusty bread on the side. The clams were terrific but the best part is always the broth that you soak up with the bread.

Although it’s not traditional, I opened red wine with it. With the tomato and pancetta, the dish has enough body to match a red wine. A good crisp white would do as well. The wine I chose was a 2005 Step Road Black Wing Shiraz from Australia. Shiraz is the same grape as Syrah and has been grown extensively in Australia for decades. The Australian versions tend to be less austere in their youth than the ones from the Rhone valley in France. (This is a general rule. There are huge, tannic versions from Australia just as there are lighter, easier drinking versions from France.) This one is a medium bodied, with berry notes and some peppery, spicy notes. If the clams had no tomato and pancetta, the wine may have overwhelmed the clams, but the broth was hearty enough to make it all work. The wine is a good value at $10 at the local supermarket and it’s something I’d look for again. The whole meal made me realize how nice it was to have a stove back and be able to cook whatever I wanted.