Lomo de Res (Cuban Style Ribeye Steak)

I am fascinated by Caribbean food, from Cuba to Trinidad and everywhere in between.  I think it is the flavors, all of the different spices used by cooks to make some amazing dishes.  In anticipation of a steak night a couple weeks back, I quickly scoured the Internet to try to find a steak or beef recipe from the Caribbean.

Nothing jumped out at me, at least initially.  I continued to search for something that would be quick, flavorful and easy to make.  Eventually I came across a recipe from Allrecipes.com for Lomo de Res or Cuban Style Ribeye Steaks.  The key to this recipe is the rub.  The original recipe called for the use of salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder.  That was a little mild for me, so I added cumin powder and adobo powder.  Other spices, such as cayenne pepper or chile pepper could be used, but I decided not to add heat and stick to just flavor. 

The steak is marinated for a brief time in lime juice and beer.  I would strongly suggest using a pilsner beer with this recipe.  For one thing, pilsner beers are more common in Latin America.  This style of beer also works well because it will add a little of flavor without altering the flavors of the rub. 

LOMO DE RES (CUBAN STYLE RIBEYE STEAK)

Adapted from Allrecipes.com

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 grass-fed, ribeye steaks

1/2 onion, sliced

2 teaspoons garlic powder

1 teaspoon of adobo powder

1/2 teaspoon cumin powder

1 teaspoon ground pepper

1 teaspoon of kosher salt

1/2 cup of beer

1/2 cup of lime juice

Directions:

1.  Prepare the rub.  Mix the garlic, adobo, cumin, pepper and salt together and rub the seasoning blend on the ribeye. 

2.  Marinate the ribeye.  Place the ribeye in a Ziploc bag, with the onions.  Add the lime juice and beer.  Seal the bag and refrigerate for about thirty minutes, but no longer than one hour.  

3.  Grill the ribeye.  Heat a grill on medium high heat or use the broiler in the stove.  Grill or broil the steaks to your desired degree of doneness.  (I prefer medium rare to medium.)  Remove the steak from the heat and let it rest for at least five minutes before serving. 

ENJOY!

Nicaraguan-Style Churrasco

I was searching for a good beef recipe and I came across one recipe for Nicaraguan-style Churrasco.  For most people, the word "Churrasco" conjures images of Brazilian or Argentinian barbecue, with "gauchos" walking around with endless skewers of meat.  That, of course, is sort of an Americanized version of Churrasco brought to life as "Brazilian barbecue."  More to the point, however, the cuisine of many Latin American countries include Churrasco, usually with their own twists.  There are versions of Churrasco in Ecuador, Paraguay, Guatemala and Nicaragua.

Generally, Churrasco is grilled meat and, in Latin America, the meat is beef.  (Interestingly, there is a version in Portugal -- Frango de Churrasco --  that involves chicken.)  In Nicaragua, Churrasco is typically cuts from a beef tenderloin, topped with a chimichurri sauce.  The recipe I found calls for a five pound tenderloin.  While I love meat and can eat a lot of it, five pounds is a little to much for me.  I was planning for a steak night, not Man v. Food.  So, as I was standing at the meat counter at my local grocery store, I decided to go with a grass-fed, bone-in ribeye.  People who follow this blog know my love for grass-fed beef.  In the end, while the Churrasco may be Nicaraguan in style, the cut of beef is all Chef Bolek. 

I made a couple of revisions based on the comments left by people about the recipe.  The original recipe calls for the use of jalapeno peppers and oregano in making the chimichurri sauce, but a comment left from someone from Managua said that, in Nicaragua, they do not use those ingredients.  Instead, he said that Nicaraguans just use olive oil, salt, garlic, vinegar and parsley.  So, I followed the comment when making the chimichurri.  In the end, the chimichurri has a nice garlic flavor to it (which you could reduce by leaving out one or two cloves) and is a perfect complement to the grilled meat.

NICARAGUAN-STYLE CHURRASCO

Adapted from Food Network
Serves 2

Ingredients (for the Beef):

1 1.5 to 2 pound bone in ribeye steak
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste

Ingredients (for the Chimichurri):
6 cloves of garlic

1 1/2 tablespoons salt

1/2 cup of flat leaf parsley

1/2 cup of curly parsley

1/4 cup of distilled white vinegar

1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil

Ground pepper to taste.

Directions:

1.  Preheat the grill.  Preheat the grill on medium-high heat.

2.  Make the chimichurri sauce.  Combine the garlic, flat leaf parsley, curly leaf parsley, salt and some black pepper in a food processor.  Process the garlic and parsley, adding first the vinegar and then the oil.  Taste the sauce and adjust the seasonings (salt and/or pepper) as desired.

3.  Grill the ribeye.  Lightly oil the grill grates and add the ribeye.  Cook for about four to five minutes and turn ninety degrees.  Cook for another four to five minutes.  Flip the steak.  Cook for an additional five minutes and turn ninety degrees.  Continue to cook for a few more minutes.

4.  Plate the ribeye.  Cut the meat into strips.  Plate with the bone and spoon the chimichurri sauce over the meat.  Pour the remaining sauce into ramekins for guests.

The cooking times are for one steak and should produce an end result between medium rare and medium. If you use two three-quarter to one-pound steaks, simply cut the cooking times in half (about two to two and a half minutes for each step).

Overall, this is a great dish and I particularly like the simplified version of the chimichurri sauce.  I need to work on the sauce a little, which is okay for me because that means I'll be having steak again.  I may use that five pound tenderloin and invite a bunch of people over as guests to share in the experience.

ENJOY!

For more about Churrasco, check out Wikipedia.

Gordon Biersch Maibock

Gordon Biersch is a brewpub with restaurants across the United States.  The brewers of Gordon Biersch focus their efforts on German beer styles, including the Marzen, Hefeweizen and a range of bock beers.  I have previously reviewed Gordon Biersch's Fest Bier, which they brew for Oktoberfest.   Recently, I purchased a growler of their Maibock to use in cooking and, of course, for drinking.

The maibock style represents an effort at balance by German brewers.  For years, brewers like Spaten produced a Helles beer, which is a very light beer.  Other brewers produced bock and doppelbock beers, which are heavier beers with higher alcohol contents.  The maibock was an attempt to brew a Helles beer with the body and substance of a bock beer.  And, in the case of Gordon Biersch, it did a good job at achieving that balance.  

The Maibock pours an amber color, with shades of copper and/or orange.  The aromatic elements of this beer are subtle, with scents of malts and sugars present in the aroma.  The sweetness of the beer's aroma follows through with the taste.  The sweet, malty taste of the beer is a little deceiving, causing the drinker to forget that this beer has an ABV of 7.3%.  Although the brewer uses Hallertau hops, those hops are used only for aroma and are very subtle.  The aroma and taste of hops definitely play a supporting role to the roasted caramel malts.

I used this beer to prepare the Maibock Braised Beef Stew and I also paired the beer with the dish.  This beer works very well with these type of stews, as well as any other meat dish.  It is, after all, a German beer!

Gordon Biersch's Maibock is available at all of Gordon Biersch's restaurants and in bottles at some stores.

ENJOY!

Maibock Braised Beef Stew

Clare and I are trying to eat our way to the Great American Beer Festival.  We joined the Passport Club at Gordon Biersch, which, after earning thousands of points, we could receive a free trip to the GABF.  Needless to say, we have a long way to go.  Still, we both like Gordon Biersch and I particularly enjoy their seasonal beers.  The seasonal on tap now is the Maibock.

A Maibock is a style of beer that originated in Germany.  The beer style evolved from the efforts of brewers to strike a balance between Helles beers and Doppelbock beers.  Gordon Biersch's Maibock, which is very good, is a little on the sweet and malty side, which needs to be taken into consideration if you are like me, who has been thinking of a way to incorporate this beer into a recipe.  

So, I purchased a growler of the Maibock and proceeded to search for a recipe that I could use to incorporate the beer.  Fortunately, Gordon Biersch has recipes on its website that incorporate its beers.  One of the recipes is a Maibock braised beef stew.  With the recipe in hand, I decided that I would proceed to make the dish.  

Usually, when I cook from recipes, I tailor the recipe to accommodate the tastes of myself and my guests.  In this case, I made two changes.  First, I am not a big fan of turnips and rutabagas.  So, I left them out, but feel free to add about 1/2 of a turnip and 1 rutabaga (cut into eighths).  I also forgot to add the carrot when I made this recipe, but I did include it in the recipe.  Second, I did not use a bouquet garni; instead, I opted to directly add certain herbs to the stew.  I used thyme, sage and oregano.  I also added some Tabasco sauce because I love spicy food. 

MAIBOCK BRAISED BEEF STEW

Adapted from Gordon Biersch
Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 pound of grass-fed stew meat

3 tablespoons of olive oil

2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped

1 yellow onion, chopped into eighths

1 red onion, chopped into eighths

1 carrot, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 potato, cut into even sized pieces

16 ounces of Gordon Biersch Maibock

6 ounces of tomato paste

16 ounces of chicken broth

12 sage leaves

1 pinch of dried oregano

5-6 dashes of Tabasco sauce

1 few thyme branches

Salt, to taste

Pepper, to taste

Directions:

1.  Brown the meat.  Salt and pepper the beef.  Sear the beef on high heat in a hot skillet to brown all sides.  Do the meat in batches.

2.  Begin the stew.  Place the meat in a pot with the garlic, onions, and potatoes.  Take part of the Gordon Biersch beer and deglaze the skillet.  Add the juices and the brown bits to the pot.  Add the rest of the beer, tomato and chicken broth.  

3.  Simmer the stew. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for at least an hour, until the meat is tender. 

This dish is very good.  Cooking the stew for an hour helps to concentrate the flavors until there is a concentrated broth that is velvety and coats the spoon or fork as you eat the stew.  While  I could not taste the Maibock beer, that is to be expected.  The Maibock is a beer with a relatively sweet, malty taste that can be easily eclipsed by flavors such as tomato and sage. I am definitely going to make this recipe again, maybe with other bock beers. 

ENJOY!

Falanghina dei Feudi di San Gregorio (2009)

Everybody knows about grapes like Merlot and Chardonnay, and, there are many great wines made with these grapes.  For me, my interest is always piqued when I come across a wine that is made with a little known grape. So, when I was perusing white wines looking for a wine to pair with the dish of Pasta con Pesce Spada, I came across a Calabrian wine made with the Falanghina grape.  Having not heard of that grape before, and given Calabria's proximity to Sicily, I bought a bottle to use in the recipe and to drink with the meal.   

The Falaghina grape is one of the oldest grapes cultivated in Italy.  It is believed that Greek settlers as far back as the seventh century B.C. brought the grapes to the shores of Italy just north of Naples. The grape's name is a derivative of the Latin word for "falangae," which refers to the stakes used to prop up the vines.  Today, the grapes are cultivated primarily in Calabria and, to a much lesser extent, in Molise.  

Feudi di San Gregorio produces a Falaghina wine that pours a pale gold in color, resembling cider in some respects.  The visual elements foreshadow what is to come.  The wine's aromatic elements suggest grapefruit and apple, with some melon and earthiness.  The taste of the wine is fairly dry, with grapefruit  and apple being the principal flavors in the wine, supported by a little lemon and pineapple.  The dryness of the wine makes one think of the wine as being a little tart, particularly with the flavors of grapefruit being so prominent in the flavor profile of the wine.  But, the wine is not actually tart, it is just dry, which you can feel on your tongue as you drink this wine.  

As with many white wines, this Falaghina wine is best paired with seafood.  I paired this specific wine with the dish of Pasta con Pesce Spada (Pasta with Swordfish), which is a Sicilian dish.  The pairing was perfect, as this wine helped to mellow the red pepper in the dish while the dish itself helped to round out the dryness of the wine.  

This wine is available at Whole Foods for about $14.99 and it is a great example of the gems you can find when you look past the common grape types and try something different.

ENJOY!

For more about the Falaghina grape, check out Vivi.

Pasta con Pesce Spada (Pasta with Swordfish)

Swordfish or Xiphias Gladius is a migratory predatory fish known for its long bill that looks like a sword.  It is very popular in restaurants, which resulted in overfishing in some parts.  However, in the North Atlantic, along with the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii, the swordfish is abundant, with sizeable stocks that are within the acceptable range for the sustainability of a fish. 

To me, the white flesh of swordfish does not have any "fishy taste" or, for that matter, much taste at all.  However, marinades and sauces can provide a lot of flavor that will go well with the texture of the fish.  I found a Sicilian recipe for pasta with swordfish that uses a sauce made from onions, garlic, tomatoes, and mint.  I modified the recipe a little by adding some crushed red pepper to add some heat to that sauce.  

Whenever I make a dish of a particular type of cuisine or culture, I try to make sure that I use the ingredients that they would use.  For example, this recipe calls for "vino bianco" or white wine.  I looked for a Sicilian white wine, but I could not find one.  So, I used a wine from the neighboring region of Campania.  The wine was a Falanghina wine, which worked well with this recipe and also was a great wine to serve with this dish.

 

PASTA CON PESCE SPADA (PASTA WITH SWORDFISH)

Adapted from Think Sicily
Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 pound of swordfish, cut into even sized, small cubes

1 3/4 cup of penne rigata

1 can of whole tomatoes, seeded and chopped

1 clove of garlic, diced

1 onion, diced

18 mint leaves, chiffonade

A pinch of crushed red pepper

Salt, to taste

Pepper, to taste

2 tablespoons of white wine

3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

1.  Saute the onions and garlic.  Add the olive oil to a saute pan on medium heat and add the onion and garlic.  Saute the onion until it is soft and translucent, about eight minutes. 

2. Saute the swordfish and make the sauce.  Turn up the heat and add the swordfish.  Saute the swordfish until it is brown, about five to eight minutes.  Sprinkle the swordfish with the white wine and turn the heat down.  Add the tomatoes, salt, pepper, and  about half of the mint.  Continue to cook the sauce for about ten to fifteen minutes.

3.  Cook the pasta.  While the sauce is cooking, bring a pot of water to a boil.  Add the pasta to the boiling water.  Cook the pasta until it is "al dente," and then drain it.  Add the pasta to the sauce and mix it well. 

4.  Plate the dish.  Plate the pasta in a bowl and add some of the reserved mint on top.

ENJOY!

Avery Brewing Company's Salvation

Based in Boulder, Colorado, Avery Brewing Company brews a wide range of beers, but the ones that I really like are the brewer's "series."  One of these series is the "Holy Trinity of Ales," which includes the Hog Heaven Barleywine, the Reverend Quadruple and the Salvation Belgian-Style Golden Ale.  Recently, I saw the Salvation, so I decided to pick one up and give it a try.

The Belgian Golden Ale is one of several styles of strong ales that, unlike some beers, is relatively new.  This style was developed by the Moorgat Brewery after World War II to capitalize on the popularity of pilsner beers. A Golden Ale is very similar to a Belgian Tripel, but tends to be lighter, dryer and fruitier. 

Avery's Salvation pours a nice golden color, which is appropriate given it is a golden ale.  Avery brewed this beer with Stryian Golding hops, along with two row barley, cara 8 and cara 20 malts.  The aromatic elements of this beer feature fruit and spice.  The brewer suggests apricots and peach, with nutmeg and cinnamon.  I can definitely see the nutmeg and cinnamon, which carry through into the taste, both at the front and at the end.  The fruit are present in the aromatics, and carry over to the taste as well, but a little less than the spice.

This beer has an ABV of 9.0% and sells for $6.99 a bottle.  The brewer suggests that the beer can be cellared for up to three years. Perhaps the next time I buy this beer, I'll consider cellaring it to see what change, if any, there is to the beer over time.

ENJOY!

For more about the Golden Ale style, check out the Beer Certification Judge Program.

Rockfish with a Trio of Sauces

Recently, I was inspired to create a dish for Clare that brought together three different sauces, each with its own flavor.  I should say at the outset, that, as an amateur cook, I still have a lot to learn, particularly about presentation.  However, the only way to learn is to try and keep trying.

In this case, each of the three sauces is built around a pepper -- a red pepper, a yellow pepper, and a green pepper.  Beginning with the pepper, I added a couple of ingredients to give each sauce a unique flavor.  The red sauce is the hot one, with garlic and hatch chilies added to the red pepper.  The yellow sauce is flavored with curry powder, providing a different kind of spice.  Finally, the green sauce is a pepper basil sauce, with flecks of basil permeating through the entire sauce. Thus, a trio of sauces that are kind of like a traffic light -- red, yellow and green.

The sauces are served cold, and the idea is to take a forkful of the rockfish with a little of the sauce with each bite.  The idea is to alternate between the sauces so that each taste of rockfish is different.  This dish is a work in progress and, if I can make some refinements, I will post an updated recipe.

ROCKFISH WITH A TRIO OF SAUCES

A Chef Bolek Original
Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

1 pound of rockfish

1 red bell pepper

1/2 tablespoon of ground red hatch chiles

1 clove of garlic

1 yellow bell pepper

1/2 tablespoon of curry powder

1 green bell pepper

8 large basil leaves

16 tablespoons of olive oil

Salt, to taste

Ground pepper, to taste

Directions:

1.  Make the red sauce.  Puree the red pepper, garlic and ground red hatch chile powder.  Strain the mixture to remove the excess water.  Return it to the food processor and then add about four tablespoons of olive oil slowly while working the processor.

2.  Make the yellow sauce.  Puree the yellow pepper and the curry powder.  Strain the mixture to remove the excess water.  Return it to the food processor and then add about four tablespoons of olive oil slowly while working the processor.

3.  Make the green sauce.  Puree the green pepper, ground black pepper, and basil .  Strain the mixture to remove the excess water.  Return it to the food processor and then add about four tablespoons of olive oil slowly while working the processor.

4.  Cook the fish.  Heat four tablespoons of oil in a saute pan on medium heat.  Add the rockfish with the flesh side down and saute the fish for about six minutes.  Flip the fish and continue to saute for about six minutes more.  Flip the fish once again and check to see if it is finished.  If the fish is not cooked through, continue to cook it for a few more minutes.

ENJOY!

Chateau Lescalle Bordeaux Superieur (2003)

When one thinks of French wine, the first thought is usually Bordeaux.  The wine comes from the largest wine appellation in France.  The Appellation Origin Controllee in Bordeaux accounts for nearly one-quarter of all AOC wines produced in France.  Wine growing in this region dates all the way back to the Roman Empire.  As early as 48 A.D., the Romans planted grapes in this region to produce wine for the soldiers.  The first recorded evidence of winemaking in the Bordeaux region dates back to Pliny the Elder in 71 A.D.

Chateau Lescalle is a small chateau built by Emanuel Tessandier in 1875, near the town of Macau, which is located in Haut-Medoc and on the edge of the Margaux appellation.  The winemaker Claude Gaudin oversees the vineyards that have dense vine plantings, which limits yields and increases the intensity of the fruit.  The winemaker also extends the extraction time to pull all of the flavor out of the grapes.  The result should be an intense wine.

When I poured this Bordeaux Superieur, I immediately saw the need to decant the wine.  (I only had a glass, so I let it sit for a while, the rest was going into making a Bordeaux Au Jus for the Herb Crusted Standing Rib Roast.)  The need to decant this wine is to be expected, especially in light of the fact that the wine has sat in the bottle for about eight years. 

The wine pours a nice dark crimson color, with only the faintest deep purple hue.  The aromatics of this wine speak of dark cherries, plum, earth and some spice.  The taste of this wine is very fruit forward, with a lot of dark cherries and blackberries, along with earthy notes.  

Planet Bordeaux.com suggests that this wine is more like a Medoc Cru Beaujolais rather than a Bordeaux Superieur, but, I am glad it is just a Bordeaux Superieur.  At $18.49 a bottle, it is much more affordable and allows for many more people -- like me -- to try a great wine without having to fork out a lot of money for the wine.

I purchased this wine at Capital Beer and Wine, a new beer and wine store in Bethesda, Maryland. 

ENJOY!

For more about this wine, check out Planet Bordeaux.com.

Wensleydale Mashed Potatoes

Wensleydale is a place and a cheese.  The place is a valley (dale) of the Ure River, which is located in North Yorkshire in northeast England.  Wensleydale has its place in English history.  Mary, Queen of Scots was imprisoned at Bolton Castle, which is located in the dale.

As for the cheese, its history predates Mary, Queen of Scots.  Wensleydale cheese was first produced by French Cistercian monks from Roquefort who settled in Wensleydale.  Historically, the Wensleydale cheese was a blue cheese, originally made from sheep's milk.  Over time, the monks and other producers made Wensleydale cheese from cow's milk.  In addition, the cheese went from being a blue cheese to a white cheese.  When  the monastery was dissolved in 1540, (two years before Mary was born) English farmers picked up the slack and continued to produce this cheese until the Second World War.  During the war, most of the milk in Great Britain was used to make "Government Cheddar."  After the end of the war, farmers resumed producing Wensleydale, albeit on a much smaller scale.

Wensleydale cheese is somewhat moist and can be crumbled, which makes this cheese a good candidate for being incorporated into mashed potatoes.  Typically, when I make mashed potatoes, I use either a hard cheese, such as grated Parmigianio Reggiano or Pecornio Romano.  I also use blue cheese, such as Maytag or Rogue.  When Clare and I were recently perusing the cheese aisle at a local grocery store, we came across the Wensleydale Cheese with Cranberries.  We both love this cheese and have had it on prior occasions.  So, we decided that it would be worth trying to make mashed potatoes with the cheese.  Our hope was that the cranberries would add an interesting flavor component to the dish.  So, the recipe for Wensleydale Mashed Potatoes was born, just in time for it to be a side dish with the Herb Crusted Rib Roast with Bordeaux Thyme Au Jus. 

WENSLEYDALE MASHED POTATOES

A Chef Bolek Original
Serves 10

Ingredients:

8 Russet potatoes, peeled and cut into eighths

4 tablespoons of butter

1/2 cup of milk

4/10s or 1/2 of a pound of Wensleydale Cheese with Cranberries

Directions:

1.  Boil the potatoes in a pot of water for about ten of fifteen minutes. 

2. When the potatoes are soft and break up with a fork, strain the potatoes and return them to the pot.  

3.  Add the butter and milk and begin to mash the potatoes.  Add the Wensleydale cheese, a little at a time as you are mashing the potatoes.  Continue to mash the potatoes until they achieve the desired smoothness.  Personally, I like my mashed potatoes to have some chunks in them.  But you can keep mashing them until they are smooth.  

ENJOY!

For more about Wensleydale Cheese, check out Wikipedia.