February 21, 2014 Grilled Steak, sautéed mushrooms, steamed asparagus, and baked potato

This is the classic Texas steak dinner of my youth.

As I mentioned before, on the 13^th I bought six boneless rib eye steaks at Albertson’s graded USDA Choice ($6.77/lb. a great price for this quality of beef).

When I was growing up in Fort Worth, Texas we had wonderful beef.  Several times I remember going to the butcher houses with my dad where they would sell you a side of beef for a price and then age it in their cold storage rooms and cut it to your specifications.   The traditional method was to hang the beef in the cold storage room for 21 days to age the beef and then to cut it and freeze it, or better yet cook it fresh.

I spoke to Ron Wilder last week and he suggested punching holes in the saran wrap covering the steaks and allowing them to age.  Today I brought the steaks in and they still looked fine.

At 6:00 I punched holes in five Russet potatoes (Pro’s Ranch Market $1.50/10 lbs.) and put them on a cookie sheet and into the oven at 400˚ for an hour.  I fetched the baby portabella mushrooms and new bag of asparagus I bought yesterday at Sprouts ($.98/lb.) and a large shallot.

At about 7:00 I started by slicing about eight or nine mushroom caps and the shallot and about four or five small cloves of garlic.

When Suzette got off the phone we talked and she said she wanted to grill two steaks so we would have one cooked to use to make burritos with the extra potatoes.  So Suzette fired up the grill to heat it.

I put the shallots into the large skillet with about 1 ½ Tbsp. of butter and about 1 Tbsp. of olive oil and  went to basement to fetch a wine. Following our new strategy of drinking our older wines, I selected 2002 Meridian Vineyards Reserve Syrah from Santa Barbara County.  Having just attended the Reidel and Chateauneuf du Pape wine tastings at the Winter Wine Festival in Taos, I am newly informed about the wonderfulness of Syrah.  Syrah is grown extensively in the Rhone Valley.  Master sommelier Joe Spellman, who is affiliated with Tablas Creek Winery, said that the Northern Rhone appellations of Hermitage grow almost exclusively Syrah and the Chateauneuf du Pape appellation in the Southern Rhone Valley usually mix about 30% syrah with the twelve other grapes to make their wines.  That is the grape that gives the wines of those regions their strong backbone and luscious earthy taste.   I am not usually a fan of Syrah, but given the new information, the fact that the Central Coast of California has become famous for its Rhone style wines and the fact that this bottle was 12 years old, led me to try it.  I must say we were not disappointed.  It had thrown a bit of sediment but most wines would in 12 years in the bottle.  Joe had recommended decanting the wine to avoid the sediment, which we did not do, so the last few sips were a bit gritty. 

The wine was full bodied and yet softly delicious.  We should have decanted it and let it sit for about thirty minutes to allow its tannins soften a bit, but we enjoyed it more the longer it sat in our glasses and we kept sipping it through dinner and beyond.  I had it with several chocolate truffles after dinner and it was lovely with them also. I have gained a new appreciation for the Rhone varietals.  In fact, one of the reasons I love being a member of Wellington Vineyard’s wine club is the fact that they produce wonderful Rhone style whites, like their Roussanne and Marsanne wines.

   

So after I started the shallots cooking Suzette put the steaks on the grill.  Then she came in and added the pile of mushrooms slices to the skilled, snapped the stems from a handful of asparagus and put them into the steamer and watched the mushrooms and shallots and garlic while I went to the basement cellar to select the wine.

When I returned she said the mushrooms needed some liquid, so I added about ¼ cup of sherry to turn the mushrooms into a sauce. 

In couple more minutes she brought in the grilled steaks cooked to medium rare.

These slightly aged rib eye steaks are the best beef I have tasted in years.   I just love them.  Suzette cut open and placed a potato on each plate and then laid asparagus on them and I sliced the steak and we laid strips of steak on our plates and then ladled the warm mushroom/shallot/garlic compote with its flavored liquid on the steak strips and I put some of the mushroom liquid on my potato, since we did not have any sour cream.

We enjoyed one of the best dinners we have had in the last week or two.  I don’t know if it was because of memories of this menu from my childhood or the new appreciation of Rhone style Syrah wine but that combination mad for a great dinner tonight.   We ate dinner and watched Zero Dark Thirty, which we had not seen before.  So it was a great dinner and a great movie.

Zero Dark Thirty

Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Kathryn Bigelow
Produced by	Kathryn Bigelow Mark Boal Megan Ellison
Written by	Mark Boal
Starring	Jessica Chastain Jason Clarke Joel Edgerton
Music by	Alexandre Desplat
Cinematography	Greig Fraser
Editing by	Dylan Tichenor William Goldenberg
Studio	Annapurna Pictures
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures (USA) Universal Pictures (non-USA) Icon Productions (Australia) GAGA (Japan)
Release dates	·         December 19, 2012 (2012-12-19)
Running time	157 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$40 million[2]
Box office	$138,720,716[3]

Zero Dark Thirty is a 2012 American action thriller war film directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal. Billed as "the story of history's greatest manhunt for the world's most dangerous man", the film dramatizes the decade-long manhunt for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. This search eventually leads to the discovery of his compound in Pakistan, and the military raid on it that resulted in his death in May 2011.

The film stars Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Ehle, Mark Strong, Kyle Chandler, Édgar Ramírez and James Gandolfini.^[4][5] It was produced by Boal, Bigelow, and Megan Ellison, and was independently financed by Ellison's Annapurna Pictures. The film had its premiere in Los Angeles, California on December 19, 2012 and had its wide release on January 11, 2013.^[6]

Zero Dark Thirty received wide critical acclaim, and was nominated for five Academy Awards at the 85th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress (Chastain), and Best Original Screenplay, winning for Best Sound Editing. Zero Dark Thirty earned four Golden Globe Award nominations, including Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director, winning for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for Jessica Chastain.

As I told Suzette, "I would be tempted to go out to eat if I thought we could get anything better than this dinner for less than $100.00."  That is the key to the way we cook.  We eat the best quality foods for the least amount of money.   For example, I am not aware of any restaurant that serves USDA Choice or Prime beef that is aged 10 days, as we did.  I don’t know any restaurant that has 2002 Meridian Syrah on its wine list and, if we did find it or an equally good aged Syrah, we would not choose it, because it would quickly escalate the price of dinner past $100.00.  Two great ingredients and no bad ingredients make a great dinner in my book.

Bon Appetit