Well, I was dropped off samples yesterday from a meat supplier.. I have a lot of beef... I do not eat a lot of beef usually.. I usually eat fish but, fish has been in short supply to me and meat has not been.. So, instead of actively seeking it out, I am going with the flow..
How much meat you ask?
So yeh, at least it's sealed. It will freeze and I will dole out to neighbors I am sure. As I already have too much meat in my freezer from the last time this happened.
So,we ate outside. Which was nice so, i wanted to do everything in the grill...
Start start I made a watercress and spinach gratin. Blanched and chopped the greens. Cooked a half an onion in butter and garlic then added the spinach and a shot of sweet vermouth. Then off the heat I added sour cream, an egg yolk, mustard, nutmeg, parm, salt, pepper and cayenne. Topped with more parm, bread crumbs and dots of butter.. I placed this in my cast iron gratin dish.. It had previous been my perfect nacho pan and a great queso fundido container but, now it was finally serving its original purpose.
My photo:
Not wanting to get the food processor out, i stratched at the last 1/6 of a loaf of sourdough bread with a fork.. Raking the fork back and forth, and back and fork, until little crumbs came shedding off.. I used these bread crumbs for the gratin but, now I just murdered this bread... So, I cut it into chunks, i grilled the bread, i rubbed garlic on the grilled bread, then I rubbed tomato over the bread and took more tomato and squeezed it over the bread, I added salt and oil and olive oil and then these canned anchovies with chile oil over them and tossed with basil. A pan con tomate panzanella something or other.
This is what happens when my wife takes photos:
I also had some pretty hen of woods mushrooms... So, I wanted to just simply roast that on the grill with a ramp butter.. I looked and noticed I have a few ramps that escaped me.. they didn't look super hot but, i have been doing so well at not throwing anything away.. Again, it's a huge stress among many people I know... For instance. I have these sprouts that may have gone bad in my fridge.. It's like on my top 10 concerns for the day... It freaking lurking back there in my mind.
So, I made a quick ramp butter.. 4 tablespoons of butter, 3 ounces of ramps, salt and a squeeze of lemon.
So, bring cocktails down, bottle of wine down, speaker, turn on the string lights.. The grill is lit, slight chill in the area, birds are chirping.. All in the middle of Brooklyn.. It was a beautiful night..
Into the fire, I added some wood chips.. i had the coals hot but, not an inferno. I threw the steak in, I threw the gratin in and the mushrooms in a pan... At one point, I cut off all the air and let the smoke build in the green egg.. It almost like pressure cooks everything and creates this huge amount of sealed in smoke... It permeates everything... It provided such a wonderful flavor to everything but, especially the water cress and spinach.. That smoke played with the nutmeg and the sweetness of the vermouth.. It was the best thing I have had in recent memory. It was shockingly good. Everything was very good but, that was next level.
I love that gratin dish so much...
Wifes photo:
