Center Cut Pork Roast - Peppercorn Elegance

I think that this may have been the most beautiful of dishes.  Leave it to Ina Garten of the Food Network to provide a recipe found here that not only tasted absolutely amazing, but delighted the eyes as well.  Everything about this meal was over-the-top good.  The kitchen smelled like a fine French restaurant.  The dining room looked elegant with the bone-in roast.  And yours truly feasted on a meal that no doubt will be repeated soon and often.  It seems as though I keep saying to certain friends that (in a way) I'm looking forward to my 61 Paulina cut quest to be over.  Not that I'm not enjoying it (because I have loved every minute of it), but because I'm anxious to re-make some of the ones I've loved so much.  Well, add another one to the list.

This all started with some expertise at Paulina Market.  Tim (a.k.a. the man) hooked me up with some preparation on the center cut pork roast, prepping and tying for optimal ease and presentation.  I took home a roughly 3+ lb center cut pork roast (4 ribs), and commenced my preparation.  I made a paste of olive oil, dijon mustard, whole grain mustard, ground fennel seed (busted out the mortar and pestle for that one), Kosher salt and cracked pepper.  I rubbed that paste all over the loin, placed it fat side up in a roasting pan, and roasted it at 400 degrees until the center was at 140 degrees.  I will say that 140 is playing it quite safe, as there was barely any pink at the roast's center.  With the opportunity to do it again, I'd go with 135, maybe even 130.  But delicious regardless to be sure.  After taking the roast out, I tented it under tinfoil on a cutting board, and took the roasting pan and all its juices on to the stove top, adding butter, flour, white wine, chicken stock, dijon and whole grain mustards and green peppercorns in brine (drained) and brought it to a boil, and then lit simmer for roughly 10 minutes to let it thicken.  I then carved the roast, set it in a serving bowl and poured the sauce over it.  Served it with a side of spicy potatoes, and we had ourselves a meal.  Not to overlook the rest of the white wine (can't let wine go to waste when you use only 1/2 cup for cooking), and this was a meal now on the repeat list.

56 down, 5 to go!

Sirloin Tip Roast - A Complete Original

How many ways can you make Meat and Potatoes?  A lot!  This year has tested the preparations, combinations and permutations.  But for the Sirloin Tip Roast, nothing was repeated.  A complete original!

For the last beef roast of the Year of Meat, I took on the Sirloin Tip Roast.  I made a simple rub/paste out of olive oil, thyme, oregano, hot paprika, granulated garlic, granulated onion, kosher salt, cracked pepper and cayenne pepper.  Big Green Egg fired up on indirect heat at 350 with some Oak for smoke.  And on it went.  About 90 minutes later (or thereabouts), the internal temperature got to between 135 - 140, the medium rare I like.

While it was cooking, I prepared a Yukon Gold potato recipe from Michael Symon's book, Carnivore.  I boiled them until tender, and drained and let them cool.  I flattened them a little bit and fried them in duck fat for about 4 minutes per side.  I then sprinkled in some lime zest, lime juice, chopped chives and sea salt.  Earlier, I had made a spicy dip for the potatoes made of mayonnaise, sriracha, hot paprika, ground chipotle, olive oil and garlic.

Meanwhile, my wife made a Spinach salad with dates, crispy shallots and a lime vinaigrette.

This meal rocked.  I would have preferred bacon fat or regular vegetable oil for cooking the potatoes, rather than the duck fat. But that was the ONLY thing I would change about this meal.  So good!

55 down, 6 to go!  (How crazy is that?  Only 6 more!)

Lamb Rosettes - Spice Revelation

After having been on this quest for some time now, it's with a bit of sadness that I can now announce that I have completed all lamb cuts for the Year of Meat.  Now, I will not profess that there was any thought that went into "saving the best for last".  In fact, I'm pretty confident that my favorites for the year have already been cooked.  But with Lamb Rosettes as the only remaining Lamb cut, I did not expect to produce the best lamb dish of the year, let alone one in which I followed no recipes.  But so goes the Year of Meat.

So first off, I had to find out, what are lamb rosettes?  Little morsels of deliciousness is the appropriate answer.  However, more specifically, rosettes are thin cut strips of lamb flank steak rolled into small chunks and skewered for marinating and grilling.  Unlike many lamb cuts where fat needs to be managed, rosettes are extremely lean, cook fast and are great for high temp grilling.  So, that's what I did.  Many years ago, I got introduced to an online spice ordering company called Penzey's Spices.  And I went through a cooking faze where curries were the craze.  I bought a 6-pack of Indian spice mixes that included Tandoori, Vindaloo, Garam Masala and a few others.  Two of the most used from that pack (and which have been finished, replaced and finished again) were Hot Curry and Sweet Curry.  Yeah, it's safe to say that I wasn't venturing out of a comfort zone I formed.  Well, in looking at the 6th one from that 6-pack, a spice combination called Sate, I saw that it went well with lamb.  Boom.  I took a few tablespoons, some Kosher salt and mixed it with olive oil into a thick marinade (or a watery paste).  Insert the rosette skewers into a ziploc, add the marinade and let the day run its course.

About 8 hour later, I took the rosettes out of the refrigerator to come to room temperature.  And I fired up the Big Green Egg for high heat grilling.  Had some low maintenance sides, i.e. white rice and corn on the cob.  Crispy charring on the outside.  Medium Rare + grilling on the inside.  Indian spices in every bite.  Done and done!  Best lamb of the year, for my money.  Sure, the shanks were delicious, as was the Rack of Lamb (yum I do want to do that again, too).  But these guys were simple, flavorful, required no work (no bones, no fat) and low maintenance.  Can't get better than that.

54 down, 7 to go!

Roundbone Pot Roast - Comfort Food Fest

After not having ever made Pot Roast before this Year of Meat, the fact that this is my 4th Pot Roast makes me feel like I am a bit of a connoisseur.  There are the traditional ingredients, e.g. carrots, celery, thyme.  And there have been some advanced ones, e.g. mint, lemon zest, dried artichokes, figs.  As my flavor palate has evolved, I am realizing that I have traditional days and more advanced days.  It's probably a bit like life in a way.  There are the pizza and beer days, and there are the Porterhouse and Cab days.  When it comes to Pot Roast, I have discovered I like both, with perhaps a bit of a nod towards what I would call an advanced Pot Roast Anne Burrell recipe I made back in February.  That said, I still have my pizza and beer days.  And the Pot Roast I made last night, was for the times when you are simply craving good old comfort food.

The cut for this Pot Roast was the Roundbone Pot Roast.  I seasoned it heavily with Kosher salt and cracked pepper, and then dusted with all-purpose flour on both sides.  I placed 3 cut-up carrots and 2 cut-up celery stalks in a slow cooker, essentially creating a "bed" for the meat.  But before putting the meat in, I needed to brown it on both sides.  Using a large cast iron skillet, I heated up canola oil over medium/high heat, and seared the roast for 5 minutes per side, until the surface was well-browned.  I then placed the roast on top of the bed of carrots and celery.  Using the same skillet, I added in more canola oil, lowered the temp. to medium and sauteed mushrooms in butter until cooked through, added in onions until translucent, then garlic, then a little bit of flour to thicken it up a bit, then some tomato paste, and lastly some chicken broth.  Again, nothing complicated.  Everything traditional.  Once I brought this concoction to a simmer, I poured it over the roast.  Gently placing a few rosemary and thyme sprigs on top of it, I set the slow cooker on high for 6 hours.

The smells!  Holy cow, the smells!  Nothing, and I mean nothing beats the smell of a slow cooked meal with great fresh herbs in it.  Yum.  I opened up the crock pot, gently got all the goodies from inside onto a serving dish (which was not easy, since the meat was just shredding with tender goodness) and took the picture below.  Oh yeah, and then we ate it.  With a nice bottle of Zinfandel.  For me, life doesn't get better than eating a great meal, with great wine with my amazing wife.  And that's what we did last night.  And that's what we'll do tonight!

53 down, 8 to go!

Leg of Lamb - Score!

The Houghton Mifflin dictionary lists "to mark the surface of (meat, for example) with usually parallel cuts" as the 14th most common verb use of the word "score".  Happy to know that this Year of Meat is not only causing me to dig deep into the metaphorical meat case for cuts, but it's also pressing me into using obscure definitions of common words.  And not to get too literary on you all, but this "score" had a little "double entendre" if you know what I mean.

A little history of me and Leg of Lamb.  But first, a little history of me and lamb in general.  To be totally honest, it's not my favorite meat.  Frankly, for the year of meat which includes Beef, Veal, Pork and Lamb, lamb comes in 4th place.  That is far from an indictment from this meat-loving soul.  But in the world of meat (both cooking it and ordering it out), I stayed clear of it just as a matter of paying homage to my preferred meats.  Again, not an indictment.  Just a matter of preference.  But then, in or around 2003, I discovered Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian "all you can eat meat" restaurant that rocked my world.  Shocker, right?  But the great thing about that place, there is no menu!  You just get everything.  A little card with a red side and a green side is provided to each diner.  When you want more meat, go green and watch it show up table-side.  When you need a break, go red.  Well, it was at Fogo de Chao, where getting lamb was easy, as I just needed a taste.  Leg of Lamb it was (and still is), and it remarkably became a "request" whenever I returned to Fogo.  You see, the gaucho's the bring around the meat do so in a ratio of the most common/popular cuts.  Perhaps the Leg of Lamb wasn't the big seller, so I always requested a special trip from a gaucho.  And it never disappointed.  Since then, I have found one other restaurant that prompts me to order lamb, and that's Roscoe Village's Turquoise restaurant, a little gem of a restaurant that warrants a trip if you've never been.  But as for my history with lamb, and with Leg of Lamb specifically.  Until this Year of Meat, the exposure was minimal.

So, we fast forward to this past Saturday, when I bought my Leg of Lamb from Paulina Market.  Sunday morning, I scored it (note definition above), and rubbed into it a little concoction of garlic, fresh squeezed lemon juice, lemon zest, Kosher salt, cracked pepper, marjoram, extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, fresh thyme and fresh rosemary.  I then let it marinate for about 8 hours.  As I prepared the Big Green Egg for indirect heat at 300 degrees with apple wood chips for smoking, I let the lamb come down towards room temperature (about an hour).  And then, on the Egg it went.  About 3 hours later, after checking temps throughout, I removed the Lamb at 142 degrees and tented it in foil for about 10 minutes.  I commenced the carving, and those little rectangular scores that had gotten a little charred during the cooking were lamb candy, and I couldn't get enough.

We served it with a simple baby greens salad and steamed corn on the cob.  What did I have for lunch today you ask?  Leftover leg of lamb with cous cous and feta cheese.  Score!

52 down, 9 to go!

Hanger Steak - And Then There Were Ten

While plotting out my strategy for what to do with Hanger Steak, I learned that it is perhaps the most popular cut for Steak Frites, an absolute favorite of mine (shocking, I know) in French restaurants.  It's "meat and potatoes", while still sounding a bit high brow by avoiding the English translation of Steak and Fries.  But there is a simplicity (and I've said that before) that just doesn't need complication.  Well, in my research, I decided that Steak Frites would be "too easy", so I opted for a Hanger Steak dish that, while still easy, introduced a bit more complexity and a bit more flavor, Hanger Steak with Wilted Spinach and Gorgonzola Sauce.

Things started off simple enough.  Take a hanger steak, remove the center membrane (which essentially leaves you with two 10 oz steaks (perfect), and season them on both sides generously with Kosher Salt and Black Pepper.  I heated up a large cast iron skillet with olive oil, and cooked the steaks for roughly four minutes per side for medium rare.  I then let them rest under foil while preparing the rest.  I then added 10 oz (that looks like a LOT) of spinach to the pan and stirred it quickly in the juices and it wilted in no time.  It shrinks from looking like a lot of spinach down to two small servings of it.  Crazy.  I moved the spinach to two dinner plates, and added cream and Gorgonzola cheese to the skillet and stirred until the cheese was melted and the sauce was thickened.  Carved up the Hanger Steak, served it on top of the spinach, and ladled some Gorgonzola sauce on it.  And although not Frites, we did do the "and potaotes" part of the deal with some good ol' mashed ones. Yum.

Now, let's be clear.  It was delicious.  The spinach was good.  The sauce was tasty.  But I have a confession to make.  I tried the Hanger Steak before I put it on the spinach with the sauce.  Just the Kosher Salt and Black Pepper.  And I tell ya, it was amazing!  Made me just want to fry up some frites and say bon appetit.

51 down, 10 to go!