Random Bytes...by Ross Rader

Saturday, November 29

[10:55PM EST]

I went a little bit crazy with an eastern menu this evening. Lots of tasty little bits. I also blogged some basic tips and tricks that I find helpful. Let me know if you enjoy this sort of thing as much as I enjoyed setting it up ;) C (2) | T (97) | #

[10:47PM EST] I tried out something new last night that turned out to be just delicious. Once in a while we'll have red meat. My favorite way of prepping this is to take a very nice cut of steak and have the butcher cut it more like a roast than a steak. We're talking at least two inches thick. Once I get it home, I'll pierce it liberally with a fork and then rub it down with fresh garlic and good olive oil - its more of a massage than anything else.

You know that its cool to stop the massage when the meat has warmed up to almost room temperature. I'll then place it on a plate and douse it with some good balsamic vinegar.

Now onto the something new I tried last night - Chayoate squash. These little guys are great. I cut one in half and boiled it for about 15 minutes in a mixture of half water and half chicken stock. I used just enough to cover the squash. While this was boiling up, I made a cold salsa consisting of shallots, seeded roma tomatoes, some vidalia onions, a smidge of red chili flakes and a little bit of balsamic and olive oil. I set this aside so the flavors could blend.

At this point I tossed a large cast iron frying pan into the oven to let them both heat to 450 degrees.

Back to the squash. I remove them from heat, took them out of the broth and scooped the flesh out of the squash. In a frying pan, I heated up some olive oil and sauteed roughly 1 cup of vidalia and a little bit of shallot and some garlic - all finely chopped. Once the mixture started to get transparent, I increased the heat a little bit and started to slowly ladle the chayoate broth into the frying pan, constantly stirring the mixture as the broth reduced, and adding more until all of the broth had been absored into the mixture and a nice sauced hard started to develop.

I then poured the onion mixture into a bowl with the pulp from the squash mashed everything until it was nicely blended (and not caring about the odd chunk). This was then spooned back into the squash shells, drizzeled with a little bit of olive oil and tossed into the oven until the top had browned. As I put the squash in, I pulled the frying pan out and put it on the top of the stove.

I then placed the beef into the pan and seared both sides. There's no real need to actually turn on one of the burners because the pan will be very hot by this point. Once you've got some color on the top and bottom of the steer, drop it back into the oven for as long as you like. Personally, I like mine done pretty rare, so 8 to 10 minutes is enough for me.

Once the meat is done, I let it rest for a few minutes, sliced it thin and then topped it with the salsa I had created earlier. I served it along side the squash and some baby vegetables that roasted up.

Yum.

During my trip to chinatown today, I notice that these little squashes can actually be found a lot cheaper than what I'd bought them at the day before - just 59 cents a pound! These little guys will definitely find their way into a lot of meals in the near future. C | T (320) | #

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