Burgundy Pasture Farms Bone-In Ribeye with mushroom sauce, smashed potatoes, and glazed carrots

We bought some grass-fed beef from Burgundy Pastures Farm in Grandview and I finally had a chance to use one of the steaks.  At $25.00 a steak, this bone-in rib-eye was a bit pricey so I wanted to make something tasty.  I've had it with expensive restaurant steaks that have no flavor, no texture, and no juiciness but cost a small fortune.  I was pleased with the end result,  a very nicely seasoned, juicy, tender steak.  You can't see the smashed red potatoes underneath but they were carmelized, seasoned with a little butter, salt and pepper.  The baby carrots were tender and sweet with a nice bite.
Here's what I did:
Rub the steak with 1 tsp kosher salt, a tsp brown sugar, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper.
Heat a cast iron skillet until very hot.  Add 1 T olive oil and sear steak for 4 minutes, each side. At this point it will probably be medium rare, depending on the thickness. To cook a little more, put steak, pan and all, in 350 degree oven and cook until desired doneness, 6 minutes or more depending on thickness of steak.  Allow steak to rest tented by foil for 5 minutes before serving.

After removing steak from pan and 2 T chopped shallots, 3-4 sliced cremini mushrooms, salt, 2 T red wine, and 1 cup beef stock.  Simmer until reduced by almost half.  Add 2 tsp butter.

For the carrots, peel and trim a pound of baby carrots, leaving a bit of the green top on.  Place in saute pan and cover with low sodium chicken stock, add 1 T brown sugar, dash of cinnamon, dash of cayenne, squeeze of lemon and simmer until sauce is reduced to a thick glaze.  Carrots will be done by then.

For the potatoes, cut red potatoes into 2 inch pieces and simmer until fork tender.  Drain.  Heat saute pan, add olive oil and saute potatoes until brown.  Season with salt and pepper.  Smash down with a large spoon.

To plate, cut bone off rib-eye and set the bone aside.  Slice steak into several pieces.  Place mound of potatoes on plate, place pieces of steak and bone on top of potatoes.  Add a few carrots on the side.  Spoon sauce over steak.
Enjoy with a glass of Blackbart Syrah from Stagecoach Vineyards, Napa Valley.

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Minnesota Food

I went on a trip this week for my social work job.  I visited a prison in Waseca, Minnesota.  Waseca is about an hour and a half south of Minneapolis.  Going there in February was a bit of a a challenge with the weather being very cold with a high chance of snow and ice so I was a little anxious.  Fortunately the weather was not so bad and the roads were clear.

My hotel, Crossings by Grandstay, was situated at the edge of town with a direct view of Walmart.

I am not a lover of Walmart, by the way, but in case I needed some winter supplies I guess it would come in handy.  Turns out I needed a window scraper when there was a coating of ice on my rental car the next morning.

Where to eat dinner?  Not too many restaurants in the town of Waseca, population under 28,000, but there were 3 or 4 not-chain restaurants.  I ended up at the Boat House, a pleasant looking rustic place situated on a frozen lake, but open in the winter.  There were several soups of the day:  beer cheese, wild rice and chicken, chili, etc.  I knew from prior discussions and teasing a woman a work from Minnesota about the "cuisine" of Minnesota that their wild rice soup is quite popular so that's what I had, along with a "paddle burger" (like a patty melt). 

the "paddle melt"


 The soup was delicious.  I was pleasantly surprised at how flavorful and fresh it tasted.  The waitress told me she made the soup that day and she was proud of it.  The burger was fine, but just meat, cheese, and bread with not a vegetable in sight. 


The Boat House

The next day I visited the women's prison, Federal Correctional Institute, and met with the social worker, the big wigs, and various staff.  They were a friendly and welcoming bunch and I had a great time.  For lunch we went to the food services at the prison and had the staff lunch.  It was predictably all "brown food", like the movie Fargo when they eat at a buffet and everyone piles their plates with potatoes, meat, gravy, bread.

There were vats of steak in gravy, chicken baked to death, gray green beans, and unidentifiable meat and starchy foods.  I had a plate of baked chicken, rice and green beans and it was not too bad.

I had asked about restaurants recommendations early in the day and later in the afternoon the social worker, Barb, and psychology secretary, Nancy, said they would join me at the Starfire Grill.  This was the nicest restaurant in town and supposed to be very good.  I was very pleased that they wanted to hang out with me. Typically on these business trips to prisons I've found the staff disappear at night to their own routines and don't really want to entertain the visiting person, but I think the Minnesotans are just friendly, nice people.

The Starfire Grill (Restaurant) was pretty, new, and nicely decorated.  A nice glass of cabernet, and good company was just the thing on a cold winter night.  Nancy raved about the lamb chops and loved hers.  I ordered the filet mignon with bearnaise sauce.  The first steak they brought was well done so I sent it back.  The second one was very medium rare but I ate most of it.  It lacked flavor and was not helped by the little plastic cup of watery bearnaise sauce.  Steak is not the thing to order there and I should have had the famous fish of the area, "walleye", something I saw on every menu.  Since my dinner was disappointing I decided to treat myself to dessert.  Barb and Nancy shared chocolate silk pie and I had chocolate peanut butter pie.

Both pies were fanstastic.  Their pie had the melt in your mouth rich chocolate goodness and the crust had some crunchy bits of sugar.  Mine was a light peanut butter mousse with layers of melted chocolate.  I ate part of it and took the rest with me, glad that my hotel room had a refrigerator.  My plan earlier in the week, to eat "healthy" during this trip, was rapidly falling by the wayside in this rich and hearty food land.  I put  the piece of pie next to my containers of Greek yogurt and smiled.  A few hours later it was my midnight snack.

On Thursday I made an unexpected trip to Rochester, an hour east of Waseca, to see my social work friends there.  We visited for a while and went to lunch at Brothers Grill, a local place.  The original plan that day had been to go to a Waseca cafe and have the famous, "roast beef commercial" sandwich.  Don't ask me why they call it that, but Nancy described it as a hot roast beef sandwich with gravy and hashbrowns.

Since I was not able to go to that place when I saw, "hot roast beef sandwich" on the Brothers menu I ordered it.  It was seriously good with tender roast beef, silky mashed potatoes, thick bread, and a light and tasty gravy.  It was a plate of brown food, again.  I tried to leave most of the bread but I ate way too much of the gravy covered beef and potatoes.  This is not the type of food I usually eat and I was feeling very overstuffed.  A green salad was starting to sound better and better.

I made my last trip to the prison Friday morning and got ready for my return to the airport.  I decided to stop at the Pheasant Cafe for breakfast.  This place was what you would find in so many small towns in America and a step back in time.  Counter stools, booths, a group of retired men meeting for their daily coffee, and a simple menu. 

I had been eating the "continental" breakfast at the hotel the last couple days so a hot breakfast sounded great.  I ordered bacon and eggs and my plate arrived with perfectly cooked eggs, crispy bacon and a huge pile of crispy hashbrowns.  The wheat toast was soaked with butter.  For something so simple, the breakfast was delicious, classic, and satisfying.  I really liked this place!



Inside the Pheasant Cafe



Time to head back to the airport.  I was a little nervous about taking all the right roads back to the airport but I had a map and GPS so it wasn't so bad.  I had some time to kill before my flight and had to have lunch.

Airport restaurants are usually not so good but I spotted one called, French Meadow, known for fresh, organic food.  I ordered a salad!  Finally, green food.  The salad was crispy letttuce, roasted tomatoes, Kalamata olives, cucumbers, peppers, red onions, and lemon vinaigrette.  Wow, I didn't realize how much I missed vegetables.  The Thai vegetable soup was fair but not as good as the wild rice chicken soup earlier in the week.  I was ready to get on the plane and head back to Texas.

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Private Cooking Lesson with Linda Johnson

Linda with the dishes we made


Flourless Fudge Cookies with pecans and chocolate chips

Spicy Butternut Squash Soup

Asian Noodle Salad with Chicken

Linda wants to learn more about salads and soups so for today's menu we made:

Asian Noodle Salad with Chicken

Spicy Butternut Squash Soup

Flourless Fudge Cookies

I tried to choose a lower calorie cookie recipe that still tasted really good and the flourless fudge cookies are really great. Baker, Linda's husband, is the cookie lover so Linda is interested in making different cookies for him. I told her about my experiment with some compost cookies using salty, crunchy add-ins and various chocolate and nut add-ins. She wants to make those next time. I feel kind of guilty about it because those cookies are not remotely healthy, however whether I teach her that recipe or not she will still buy her husband cookies from the Central Market bakery that are just as rich, so I will show her how to make the compost cookies.

We started with the Asian Noodle Salad. Linda purchased fettucine instead of linguine but you sometimes just use what you have. I think it turned out pretty good. We started by searing some chicken breasts and glazing them with:

1 tsp sesame oil

2 T honey

1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce

1 T toasted sesame seeds

We took the 8 oz of cooked noodles and tossed them with:

1 cup chopped baby spinach

1/2 cup red bell pepper, sliced thin

1/2 cup yellow bell pepper, sliced thin

1 small carrot, shredded

1/2 cup bean sprouts

2 sliced scallions

1/2 cup peeled, sliced cucumber

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

1/4 cup crushed roasted peanuts

and dressed it with:

juice of 1 lime

4 T olive oil

4 T low sodium soy sauce

2 T brown sugar

1 t fresh ginger, grated

1 clove garlic, minced

1 jalapeno pepper, chopped

finely chopped cilantro

and placed the mixed salad on a bed of red leaf lettuce which had been shredded. We topped with the sliced glazed chicken. This dish is great without chicken as well.

I was excited to show Linda how to make the spicy butternut squash soup. I love this soup!

I love the fact that you can take any winter squash and roast it, saute some onions and garlic, add the squash, some seasonings, broth and cook it for half and hour, puree it with an immersion blender and add a little cream. The soup tastes even better the next day and it's so fragrant and satisfying. You can take any winter vegetable combination such as squash, carrrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes, or white potatoes, roast them at 375 degrees for 34-40 minutes with a little bit of olive oil and do the same thing. If I have odds and ends left from my organic produce share this coming week I plan to make roasted vegetable soup.

Spicy Butternut Squash Soup

1 cup onion, diced

1 T minced garlic

2 tsp minced fresh sage

1 tsp sugar

1/2 t red pepper flakes

1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

1 jalapeno pepper, chopped

2 T olive oil

1/4 cup brandy

1 cup dry white wine

8 cups roasted butternut squash*

4 cups chicken or vegetable stock

1/4 cup cream

salt and pepper to taste

Saute onion, sage, sugar, pepper and cinnamon in a large pot over medium heat. Cook for 10 minutes. Stir in brandy and cook for 1 minute. Add stock, wine and squash. Bring to boil, then reduce to simmer for about 20 mintues. Puree in small batches in blender or use immersion blender directly in soup pot. Add cream at the end. Season with salt and pepper.

*Roast squash by cutting in into pieces, placing flesh side down in oiled sheet pan, 375 degrees for 35 minutes. Turn 2 times during cooking. After it cools, scoop it out of the skin and cut into smaller pieces. Discard skin.

We didn't get to make the chile cheddar croutons, but some crisply toasted baguette, spread with a little butter, sprinkled with cheese, chile powder and cayenne, broiled for a minute, would go really well with this soup.

Linda said she liked the soup and I encouraged her to eat a variety of dark yellow and orange vegetables, so I'm hoping she makes it again sometime.

And for the final dish, the rich and delicious cookies!

Flourless Fudge Cookies

2 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp espresso powder

6 T cocoa powder (Sharffen Berger is the best!)

3 large egg whites

1 tsp vanilla

pinch of kosher salt

2 cups pecans, toasted for 7-9 minutes at 350 degrees, chopped

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (Callebaut, my favorite)

1 cup dried cherries (optional)

1 cup sweetened coconut (optional)

or any add-in you like

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookies sheets with parchment paper and grease the parchment. Stir together all ingredients til smooth. Scrape bottom and sides of bowl and stir til smooth. Drop the dough onto the prepared baking sheets in balls about the size of a ping pong ball, about 1 1/2 inches. Bake 8-10 minutes. They will spread and become shiny and develop crackly tops. Remove from oven and cool right on the pan. Makes 16, 3 inch cookies.

Please make these cookies when you crave chocolate. You wont miss the butter and flour, I promise.

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Lemon Cornmeal Cake with Fresh Blueberries

I make birthday cakes for each person in my Social Work Department at the federal prison where I work. I’ve been doing this for many years and each person requests the cake of their choice or tells me a flavor and I create the cake. One of the social workers just joined Weight Watchers and requested a simple cake with fruit. I decided to make the lemon cornmeal cake with blueberry sauce for him. He usually requests an Italian cream cake consisting of 3 layers of white coconut pecan cake with layers of rich cream cheese frosting. One piece has about 800 calories. In contrast, the cornmeal cake is just one layer, has only one layer of glaze made from just lemon juice and sugar (rather than a pound of cream cheese and stick of butter!). The blueberries are cooked with some brown sugar and a little goes a long way. One piece has about 300 calories or according to Dave, 8 points. It’s not the cheapest cake to make with blueberries costing $4.99 a pint but the end result is well worth it. I also like the fact that this cake could be made with a variety of different fruits in season. I have raspberry bushes in my yard and plan to make it with raspberry sauce (will have to modify the recipe some) or strawberries from my strawberry patch. The lemon cake is intensely lemon thanks to the large amount of zest and the glaze is tangy as well. I made two cakes, one for the office and one for home so we could try it. My husband took the cake to work and received rave reviews. One woman asked if she could buy a whole cake for herself she liked it so much. Dave was happy with it, satisfied with a small piece, and took a piece home for his wife so I consider it a big success. The recipe is adapted from Bon Appetit:

Lemon Cornmeal Cake with Blueberry Sauce

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

½ cup yellow cornmeal

¾ cup sugar

3 ½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 cup buttermilk

2 large eggs

1 T finely grated lemon peel

¾ tsp vanilla extract

½ cup melted unsalted butter, cooled

Glaze

1 ½ cups powdered sugar, sifted

2 T fresh lemon juice

Stir together with spoon until smooth and paste-like, adding more lemon juice if needed.

Blueberry Sauce

3 cups fresh blueberries

2/3 cup light brown sugar

2 tsp fresh lemon juice

½ tsp grated lemon peel

Pinch of salt

Combine 1 ½ cups blueberries and all ingredients in medium saucepan. Simmer 7 minutes. Reduce to low and simmer until berries are soft and liquid is syrupy, 7 more minutes. Remove from heat and add remaining blueberries. Cover and chill.

Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter 9 inch cake pan with 2 inch high sides and line bottom with parchment. Combine dry ingredients, whisk to blend. Whisk buttermilk, eggs, lemon peel, and vanilla in a separate bowl. Pour wet mixture into dry and fold until just blended. Do not overmix.Bake approximately 30 minutes or until cake pulls aways from sides of pan and toothpick comes out clean.Immediately run knife around edges of pan. Place rack on top, invert on rack and remove pan. Place another rack on bottom of cake and invert again so top of cake is up. While cake is hot drop glaze by tablespoons onto cake and spread to within ½ inch of edge. (To cut back on sugar feel free to use less glaze.) Cool completely. Serve with sauce.

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