Ali's Kitchen: "Local" Steak Dinner

or, "Buy Local-Grown."


Tonight's recipe comes about for two reasons. Ça:


Farmer's market tomato all the way from Georgia.

Not "local," per se, but it was certainly local when my parents picked it up south of Atlanta and shipped it (with two of its compatriots who, sadly, gave their lives so that this tomato might make it). The motivation behind this request wasn't ecological or environmental: It was that NORTHERN TOMATOES SUCK, as I have mentioned previously. People here will try to make you think that our neighbor across the river, New Jersey, has the "best" tomatoes, but as far as I can tell, they're either senile or lying. If it's not an heirloom tomato, it had better come from Georgia, IMO.

Et ça:



My grocery store has FINALLY started carrying local-grown food (which in Manhattan means New Jersey, Long Island, the Hudson Valley or the Fingerlakes Region). I don't know which farm this came from. Until I sliced into it, I didn't even know what IT was. When the cashier looked at it, she was at a complete loss. I guessed romaine? Red leaf lettuce? All I knew was, ZOMG, local-grown fad! As it turned out? It's some kind of endive, which is terribly exciting, since we have some feta which will blend nicely with all this fabulous produce. Toss that all together and throw in some pine nuts or something if you've got 'em. Salad: Done.

The last... um... "local" compontent of tonight's meal is our starch: chive mashed potatoes, which I made last week (they're not gross yet - I swear).


They're from my fridge, hence, local.
(Am so funny. Can hardly stand it.) They involved exactly what it sounds like. Potatoes. And chives. And some butter and milk, all eyeballed to get the right proportions. The end. Steam potatoes (keep skin on for mucho vitamins/nutrients). Mash or whip. Melt in butter, and stir in milk and chives. Reheating will probably necessitate some extra butter so they're not too dry. Damn. Reheat in the microwave, stirring in extra butter as you go. Potatoes: Done.

I have no idea where little steaks are from, but it's not local, because... way too inexpensive. I don't really know what cut they are (some kind of sirloin "tenderloin"), but they look kind of like filet mignon, and they were On Sale, which is The Most Important Part.

I had already salted (to taste), peppered (to taste, i.e., a lot) and garlic-powdered the steaks, when THIS happened:


Garlic powder: Empty. Ali: Flipping out.
So it called for some more flavor. Or it could have just called for "real" garlic, but no way. I'm being lazy tonight, so let's stick with that M.O. After I had added MORE pepper (yikes), K came up with the brilliant idea to order some cabernet. DING! IDEA LIGHT. Marinade! We're using this one, but I'm sure any semi-heavy red would do:


Not local. From California. Where Courtney is moving. From whence Courtney had better send wine.

Now, I didn't bother to look up a "real" marinade. Just like I don't bother using "real" garlic unless I can't help it. I just sloshed some wine on the steaks (looked like about 1/2 c. for a little over 1 lb. steak) (we're big meat-eaters here) and threw some rosemary in. Then pop 'em in a big Ziploc for easy turning and cleanup and put them in the fridge for a couple of hours.

The "rules" I've read about marinade usually reference very specific timing for different meats and , often 4. We're looking at about 2-3 hours here, but... I mean, I kind of feel like I used too much wine anyway, so we'll see... How can wine + steak + (salt + rosemary + garlic powder + [pepper x 2]) = bad? Are the brackets and parentheses supposed to be reversed there? Which kind of math is that anyway? What's the meaning of life? Who knew vinegar was such a great cleaning agent? Could gerbera daisies possibly look friendlier? These are the important questions.

No, we could not.

As always, remember to pre-heat your broiler for 20 minutes or so. I am jealous of anyone whose oven has an automatic thermometer, by the way. And, as always, remember to let your meat get to room temperature. Then, just flip, flop, pop it in your broiler and cook on each side. Depending on the thickness of the steak, this can range from 2 (very thin) to 5 (thicker and bigger steaks) minutes for a first try at rare-to-medium-rare. We new and less-confident cooks feel the need to double check everything for over- or under-cooking.

I ended up... um... not really timing this. I also completely forgot to take a picture of the finished product. Needless to say, it took a little longer than I thought it might to cook the steak BUT ONLY because I have always overshot the cooking times of steak until recently, so now I UNDERshoot. Which is better, I think. ALSO needless to say, it was good. Verrrry good. I think improvising a red wine marinade may just be the best way to do it.

Yum yum.


*Because "Local-Grown" is to Now what "Organic" is to Two Years Ago. I'm as excited about jumping on a new bandwagon as the next person...