Serious Beef

About three months ago, we organized a getaway weekend with two other couples to the Grass Valley weekend home of pals Irene and Guy. We have to plan that far ahead as everyone except me has a busy schedule. The weekend finally arrived and we organized the food with a series of silly emails back and forth.

On Friday night, I cooked the sausages we had made and froze over the Fourth of July and was astonished to see that every single bite was joyfully consumed with hardly even a little juice on the platter left for Lola and Dell, the household hounds, to lick. These friends are serious eaters. We all dined heartily while discussing other great meals we have eaten and other great restaurants - a fairly typical dinnertime conversation with this group.

During the email barrage and the subsequent in-person teasing, Jeff had made the daring bet that he would bring steaks that no sane person could possibly finish - two inches thick and about a pound apiece. I remarked that he shouldn't dare us like that - he's fairly new to the group so he's a little naïve. He's a bold soul, however, so even after my friendly warning he rashly promised to eat the Manhattan phone directory if we could each finish our steaks. Sari, his girlfriend, promised to butter the pages for him; she has known us for a long time.

So, come Saturday, Jeff unwrapped the steaks. Looking more like aurochs than beef steaks, they truly were immense and so heavy that he could barely hold the platter long enough for me to snap this picture. Seven monster grass-fed rib eyes for seven hearty eaters.

Needless to say, Sari didn't need to butter any pages. Only Guy, who is about 6'5" tall and built like the Scottish caber tosser he is no doubt descended from, could finish his steak. The rest of us were slowing down at the 1/4 mark and defeated soon after. We all wrapped our leftovers and I was able to feed three people well the next day from mine.

We did do other things besides eat - shopping in Grass Valley for skirts (the women) and black powder (the men) for Jeff's little cannon, which we shot off each evening as we took down the flag; wading in the Yuba River near the longest span covered bridge in existence; playing cutthroat Scrabble; yakking; petting the dogs; and toasting our twelfth wedding anniversary with champagne - but when each of us looks back on the weekend, I'm pretty sure what will come to mind is that serious beef.

Red Meat

When My Beloved comes home from work in a crabby mood, thankfully a very rare event, I realize that he needs a little TLC.

With him, that translates to red meat. He had called from the road to say he'd be late and gave me a litany of the ills of the day, so I nipped out to the store and brought home a huge, bone-in rib eye steak. I'd been curious, anyway, about whether or not the bone actually improves the flavor as the experts claim, and the bone-in ones were slightly cheaper, so I could get three kinds of value from this purchase.

Firing up the grill, I threw the steak onto the medium-hot grate and seared it briefly; he likes his beef still to have a blood pressure. Let it rest for a few minutes before serving it alongside a nice big artichoke with melted butter.

Do I need to say that his mood improved as soon as he saw his plate and continued to mellow as the meal went on?

But, did the bone really enhance the flavor? Maybe it's my imagination but I really think it did. Ribeye steak is a lovely cut anyway, but having the bone in made it taste even richer, meatier, somehow. Besides, he loves to gnaw on bones - what's not to like? He enjoyed the TLC and I did, too.

Fajita Fun

Take one madly large, pasture-raised London broil steak and grill it over charcoal with for just enough minutes to leave it smoky and pink on the inside. Husk an ear of corn and lay it on the grill alongside, turning it frequently.

While the steak and corn cook, cut up a rainbow of veggies into strips - yellow and red peppers, purple onion, brown mushrooms, green onions - and sauté them quickly in a glug of olive oil in a hot frying pan.

Remove the steak and corn from the grill; leave the steak to rest for a few minutes. Slice the now so-delicious steak and top with the veggies mélange. Serve next to some of the corn and perhaps handful of greenie beanies if you feel the need for even more summery freshness. Summer meals don't have to be fancy - the ingredients are so fresh and bright that they make their own fun.

Peppery Love

My Beloved loves steak. He also loves pepper. It stands to reason that he'd really love Steak au Poivre and, every now and then, I make this favorite dish to insure his continued regard.

Epicurious.com had an easy and delicious-sounding recipe for Steak au Poivre with balsamic reduction so I started with that but I happened also to read some of the reviews and got another good idea from one of those.

Using two good-sized ribeye steaks (I like mine medium-rare while he likes his still to have a blood pressure), I patted them dry and loaded them up with freshly cracked black peppercorns and sprinkled them with just a little salt. A heavy skillet works best; I melted a little butter and oil until they were hot but not smoking, cooking the room-temperature steaks for about two-three minutes per side, then removed them to a platter to rest while I added a minced shallot and garlic to the pan. Once the aromatics had cooked just briefly, I added 1/4 cup of good balsamic vinegar and cooked them all together until the vinegar was reduced by about half.

The steak was sliced, the reduction was poured and the man took a bite, closed his eyes and savored in stunned silence for a moment, then turned to me with love in his eyes and said, "Wow, great steak!"

Steak and Frites

In Paris, we had a dinner of steak and frites that was sublime. The entrecote was perfectly grilled, the mustardy sauce was perfectly balanced and the frites were crisp on the outside, dreamy creamy on the inside. What's more, the delightfully friendly and helpful waitress brought the two servings of steak and frites separately, so each was fresh and hot when we ate them. Enjoyed with the house red wine, it was the most memorable of all the wonderful dinners we had in Paris.

Believe it or not, the steak and frites dinner we enjoyed this week at JoJo's on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland gives Relais de Venise a run for its money!

Instead of the simple lettuce salad with walnuts and dijon mustard vinaigrette, JoJo's offers a nicely zippy watercress salad to accompany the perfectly cooked steak and chubby, fresh, crisp frites. While I have a preference for the mustard sauce served with the entrecote in Paris, the anchovy-mustard butter at JoJo's was an interesting, if slightly too salty, twist on the classic. The steak at Relais de Venise was perfectly grilled; the one at JoJo's had a charcoal-grilled flavor which was absolutely delicious. The glass of Puligny-Montrachet I enjoyed with the meal crowned one of the best dinners with the nicest staff it has been my pleasure to relish.

If you can't get to Paris just now but you're hungry for Steak Frites, JoJo's is a terrific alternative!