love your steak, part 2: roasted garlic butter

As I mentioned yesterday, this is the second of two of my favorite steak sauces. I'm not sure if this is the way they make the roasted garlic butter at Kevin Rathbun Steak, but it's so good I don't mind. I served this recently with roasted brussel sprouts with pancetta and sweet potato fries (for some reason grouped in with my tilapia po boys recipe?).

Grocery list: garlic, olive oil, 1/2 stick butter, salt, pepper.



Break apart 10 garlic cloves, leaving the skins on, and place them on a sheet of foil. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast in a 450 degree oven for about 20 minutes, until the garlic cloves are soft. (I don't like to heat up my oven for just a tiny foil packet, but fortunately roasted garlic can keep in the packet for a few days in the fridge.)



Mash the room temperature butter with salt and pepper. When the garlic is done, allow it to cool enough so you can handle it, then squeeze the soft garlic out of each skin.



Mash the garlic, then add to the butter. Serve with your favorite steak.

garlicky kale with roasted onion rings

There's a popular breakfast spot in Atlanta called the Flying Biscuit, and one of their signature plates is a turkey bacon and collard green scramble. For whatever reason, I started craving this the other day. But who's going to get up and start cooking greens at 6am? I needed leftovers for this... So instead of making old school fat-back collards (more bacon grease than greens, mmm), I tried this recipe from March 2008 F&W that I'd set aside. It was perfect: the kale wasn't greasy and still had bite (unlike southern collards), and the onion rings were a sweet contrast to the salt and garlic. I'll blog about the scramble tomorrow morning.

Grocery list: 2 pounds kale (washed, trimmed, cut crosswise into strips), 2 shallots, 3 (or 5!) garlic cloves, 1 large sweet onion, olive oil.



Start by cutting the onion into thick rounds (about 1/3 inch), like you're making onion rings. Separate the rings and toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast on a large baking sheet at 425 for about 20 minutes, turning several times, until the rings are golden. Set aside.



Next, boil a large pot of water and add the kale. Cook for 4-5 minutes, then drain. This pre-cooking will help so the garlic won't burn in the next step, so don't skip it.



Mince the shallot and garlic and saute in olive oil over medium high heat. After a couple minutes, add the drained kale and stir well. I added a pinch of crushed red pepper at this stage too, deviating from the recipe just a little.



After about 5-7 minutes, add the onion rings to the kale. You might need to drizzle a little more olive oil over them too, and season with salt and pepper.

football food: creamy spinach artichoke dip

A and I don't really have "date night" since he's in grad school, but we do have "date football" on Sunday afternoons. If both our teams (Panthers & Steelers) are on at the same time, we bring the second TV down from the bedroom and set both up side by side. We'll make dips, chicken wings, ribs, and get some new microbrew to try. It's quite a production. This spinach dip is the most often repeated football food around my house; and if you're serving it for guests, it gives you maximum impressiveness while requiring the least amount of effort. The base is the same, but you can play around with different cheeses, different amounts of pepper/garlic, etc.

Grocery list: 10-oz package frozen chopped spinach (thawed), 1 8-oz package cream or neufchatel cheese - softened to room temperature, 1/2 cup sour cream, 1/4 cup mayo, 1.5 cups grated cheese (mozzarella, cheddar, even a little parmesan thrown in can't hurt), sriricha hot sauce, worcestershire, dijon mustard, 1 jalapeno or serrano, 1-2 garlic cloves, 1 small jar artichoke hearts, salt & pepper.



This isn't a very appetizing picture is it? Mix your softened cream cheese with the sour cream, mayo, and about 1 T worcestershire, 1-2 T sriricha hot sauce and 1 tsp dijon mustard. Stir until smooth, then fold in the grated cheese.



Drain and chop the artichokes, and mince your jalepeno or serrano pepper, and mince 1-2 cloves of garlic.



Squeeze as much liquid out of the defrosted spinach as possible, then stir it into the base. Pour into a baking dish (I use one that can go straight to the table), and bake for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees, until bubbling and starting to brown in spots. Serve with chips, pita crisps or crackers.

roasted potatoes, onions & garlic on the grill

Have you ever tried this? It's not really a recipe, but just an easy thing to put together if you're already heating up the grill for barbeque chicken or steaks. Just slice up some vidalia onions and potatoes and layer in heavy-duty aluminum foil.



Throw in a few whole garlic cloves (smash just a little so the flavor comes out), drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and fold into small packets. Grill for about 15 minutes over medium flame.

eat your vegetables: broccolini with goat cheese and garlic

A and I were in Vegas a few weekends ago and stayed at the always-amazing Wynn Hotel. I had never eaten at their SW Steakhouse before, so this was on our list to try. It's not as good as N9NE (still reigns as my favorite - their gnocchi, which our waiter described as "little pillows of love", literally melt in your mouth, the perfect complement to an already perfect steak), but they had a few unique dishes to talk about. First, the best part of the meal wasn't the wet-aged steak (great, but not the best I've ever had). The highlight was actually one of the items in the bread basket: bacon and cheese corn muffins. I almost had to get up and walk away from the table, I was afraid of making a scene when I bit into one. Maybe one day I'll try to make these.  But for now, I'm settling for an at-home attempt at my second favorite thing from this meal, the side dish of broccolini with goat cheese and garlic.

Grocery list (can you guess?): broccolini, goat cheese, garlic.

I started by blanching the trimmed broccolini: cook in boiling water for 5 minutes or until slightly tender, then drain and immediately rinse with cold water so they stay crisp and bright green. Slice 3-4 garlic cloves very thin, then saute in olive oil. Add the broccolini and cook for another 2 minutes. Sprinke some goat cheese crumbles across the top, turn off the heat, and season with salt and pepper. It was so simple I was *almost* surprised that I paid $12 for this in Vegas...

mexican spice-rubbed ribeyes with garlic lime butter

When we eat steak around my house, it's always tenderloin. Being somewhat obsessive about healthy food, A and I only buy the leanest cuts of red meat. When I saw this recipe for spice-rubbed ribeyes (from the April issue of F&W), I knew I had to try it, especially when I noticed the availability of local grass-fed ribeyes at WF this week (a grass diet produces leaner meat than grain diets).

Grocery list: cumin, chipotle powder, paprika, ribeye steaks, lime, garlic, butter.



To make the spice rub (enough for 4 steaks), mix 1.5 tsp each of the cumin, paprika and chipotle powder, plus 1.5 tsp of salt.



Pat the steaks dry, and rub the seasoning onto all sides of the meat.



Soften 4 T butter (to room temperature), then mix in 2 minced garlic cloves, the zest of 1 lime, and about 1 tsp of the lime juice.

Grill the steaks over medium-high heat for about 10-12 minutes for medium-rare. Let the steaks sit for a few minutes, then put 1 T of the garlic lime butter on top of each to serve.

easy pesto

With the grilled chicken and vegetables the other night, I made a quick side of pesto pasta. I realized I didn't cover that in the recipe, but it's so simple and delicious and basil is starting to be so abundant right now, I figured I should blog this... There are a million ways to make pesto, but this is my standard.

Grocery list: basil, grated parmesan cheese, olive oil, pine nuts, garlic.



In a food processor, pulse a few peeled garlic cloves and 1/4 cup pine nuts. Add about 1 cup of washed fresh basil leaves (make sure you pat them dry with a towel first), pulse for a few seconds. Then add 1/4 cup parmesan, pulse, and then with the processor running, slowly pour in 1/4 cup of olive oil, or until it is a thick creamy consistency.

Cook whatever pasta you have on hand, and stir in the room temperature pesto. The amount above will work for about 1/2 pound of pasta.

rosemary garlic roast chicken

Roasting a whole chicken is a satisfying project. It's one of the simplest foods, but it takes a little time (about 2 hours overall, half of which is just waiting while the chicken soaks in brine). It definitely tastes better than any whole roast chicken you can buy, and you can use the leftover chicken on a salad later, which helps justify the time investment. This recipe is from the New Best Recipe cookbook. The addition of potatoes to the roasting pan is optional, but if you're already dirtying up the pan, why not just throw some potatoes in and have a whole meal ready at the same time?

Grocery list: 3-4 pound whole chicken (WF carries the "poulet rouge" brand from Joyce foods, which was just rated as one of the highest quality chickens you can buy -- mail order it's $25, but buying direct from the WF meat counter was only $10!), 20 garlic cloves, 2-3 sprigs rosemary, 1/2 cup kosher salt, 2 pounds baby potatoes.

Start by prepping the chicken: rinse it in cold water, remove the giblets from the inside and rinse in there too. I found a few additional pointers from Cooks Illustrated on little things you can do to help the chicken roast better. With a sharp pointed knife, cut a few holes in the skin down the middle of the chicken's back, as well as a few through the thighs. With your hands, lift up the skin at the breast area and work your way up the front of the chicken, separating the skin from the meat.



To prepare the brine, put 10 garlic cloves, 1 sprig of rosemary, and 1/2 cup of salt into a large ziploc bag, and roll with a rolling pin until all the cloves are smashed. Dump the contents of the bag into a stockpot, and add 2 cups of warm tap water.



Wait 10 minutes so the flavors can release, then add 1 1/2 quarts more cool water, submerge the chicken in the brine, and put the pot in the fridge for at least an hour. This helps the meat retain as much as possible of its moisture when it roasts -- it makes a *huge* difference.



After soaking, remove the chicken from the brine and dry with paper towels. Set the oven rack in the lower third position, and preheat the oven to 450 degrees. If you have a v-rack, set it in the roasting pan and spray with nonstick spray. If you don't have the rack, you can use balls of aluminum foil to prop up the chicken so it roasts evenly and isn't touching too much of the bottom of the pan.



Make the garlic rosemary paste by mincing 2-3 garlic cloves & 2 tsp of rosemary, and mixing this together with salt, pepper, and 2 T of olive oil. Rub 1 tsp of the paste in the cavity of the chicken. The rest of the paste should be evenly distributed under the skin of the breast, in the little pockets you made earlier. Tie the drumsticks together with twine, tuck the wings behind the back. Rub olive oil on all sides of the skin and season with pepper. Set the chicken breast-side down and roast 15 minutes.



Meanwhile, clean the potatoes. Toss the remaining garlic cloves with the potatoes in a drizzle of olive oil, season with salt and pepper. After the chicken has roasted for 15 minutes, remove the pan from the oven and decrease the temperature to 375 degrees. Rotate the chicken breast-side up with tongs, and brush with 1 tsp of olive oil. Add the potatoes to the pan, surrounding the chicken. Return to the oven and roast 20-25 minutes more, till the chicken is 160-170 degrees in the thickest part of the breast and thigh.



Remove the potatoes to a paper towel-lined plate, let the chicken rest a few minutes, then carve to serve.

sauteed spinach

There's a similar recipe for this in the Moosewood cookbook, but I've adapted it from its original (which was a wilted spinach salad with pecans) to more of a fully-cooked sauteed version.

Grocery list: 1 9 or 10-oz bag of fresh baby spinach, 2-3 cloves garlic, handful of walnuts, handful of dried cranberries.

Start by mincing the garlic and heating 1-2 T of olive oil in a large saute pan. Cook the garlic for about 2 minutes, then add the bag of spinach. Keep rotating the spinach around so it cooks -- it will look like a LOT of spinach but will quickly cook down into 2 servings. After the spinach has wilted, add the cranberries, walnuts, salt and pepper to taste, and continue to cook for another few minutes. That's all there is to it.