Steak on the Lake...or What We Did on Our Summer Vacation

This is a public service announcement...Vegetarians and vegans - turn away! I'm gonna be talking (mostly) about beef; in this particular instance - steak.

On Labor Day weekend, Significant Eater and I were lucky enough to spend time at our friends' home, on a beautiful lake, somewhere in the Adirondacks. And when he (a cook) and I (a cook) were discussing some of what we might indulge ourselves (and the wives) with over the weekend, steak popped to the top of our list.  As an aside, I'm always looking for a great steak, to be cooked at home or a friends' home; one of the reasons for that is that if you go out in NYC for a great steak, you can expect to spend a small fortune. Peter Luger's, a place many people think of when they think steak, fails to show prices on their online menu. Spark's Steak House, perhaps as well-know for its steaks as for its murders...

Paul C. problem outside Sparks - NY Daily News 

No prices. The Palm? No go. Suffice to say that if you plan on indulging in a beautiful steak, at one of the well-known steakhouses, plan on at least $50 per diner, just for your meat. But let's look at another way to enjoy a great steak.

First, procure your beef. Make sure it's at least of "choice" quality, though prime and various aged cuts are easy enough to find these days. Make sure it's good and thick (maybe 2"?) and nicely marbled.  It can be a rib steak, a rib eye, a T-bone, a Porterhouse, a strip, whatever you like the most - after all, you're cooking the damn thing. Then...

Fire.

Build yourself a freakin' hot fire on one side of your grill (ok, I realize many of you don't have grills. I don't. Use your imagination and pretend you do). Let the grill heat up once that flame dies down and you've spread the coals out. Scrupulously clean the grill. Be careful - it's hot! Place giant steaks over the fire for a minute or two. Turn them and cook for another minute or two. Turn them again - once they get a nice char, move them to the other side of the grill (yeah, I know - it's called indirect grilling). Cover that sucker and cook the steaks till they're done. (I don't know how you like your steaks cooked. I do know a good meat thermometer will help  - cook them until they're about 7° - 10°F less than what you want to finish with, as they'll continue cooking while they rest.) They may look like this...

Steaks - Done! Negroni in background.

Now, enjoy your Negroni (or Martini, or Manhattan) while those steaks rest. A good 15 minutes for these Porterhouses was how long we let them rest. Then...

Porterhouses sliced up real nice.

Slice them up. Everyone gets some strip and some filet. The bones are pretty great to gnaw on also. Leftovers?  That's simple...

Steak salad.

Steak salads for lunch the next day are a nice treat, no?

But don't think all we did was cook steaks. No - one evening we were enlisted to do a clam "boil" for about 2 dozen folks. Bushes of clams, corn, potatoes, kielbasa, and shrimp - all simply boiled in salty lake water. And then dumped onto tables covered with newspaper...

Clam boil.

That was fun. And my buddy's smoker got a workout too...

Smoker in action.

Ribs and duck in smoker.

There was plenty of time to relax. Sunset cocktails on the lake. Star gazing at night without any city lights nearby is pretty great. There's this view of their house as you approach via boat - the only access...

Lake house.

Everyone has dogs, and they like the boat rides too...

Pepper and Otis.

And at the end of the day...

Not a bad way to spend a long, summer weekend, right? Thanks, J & J!

You Go, Grill

Yay - it's finally grilling season. Now, I know what you're thinking; dude, grilling season just passed - it's called "summer." You know, from Memorial Day to Labor Day in these parts. Bull, I say. In my opinion, there's actually no better time to grill than when the weather starts getting cooler; after all, do you really want to stand over a blazing grill when it's 100 degrees out? (If I did, I guess I'd still be in the restaurant biz). And all those years that I lived in California, football season was when I most enjoyed my barbecues - grilling and watching the 49ers beat everyone in existence...those were the days.

My biggest problem when it comes to grilling? I don't own one. Well that, and the fact that we live on the 15th floor of an apartment building, leads to very little grilling. Sure, I can get my cast-iron grill pan screaming hot and pretend grill in our 98 square foot kitchen, but it's just not the same. And no matter what I do, the 49ers suck.

But just this past weekend, Significant Eater and I were invited to a friend's house - yes, house - where there are two, count 'em, two grills in the backyard. And, I got to play on them. My buddy and I both shopped with the grill in mind; and then we both cooked on those grills.

First off, we had some beautiful fish and shellfish from the farmer's market. Assorted clams (cherrystones and littlenecks), cooked just till they pop open and dressed sparingly with nothing but lemon juice, were a gift from the Atlantic. If you've never had a clam like this, you don't know what you're missing...

Also procured at the same seafood vendor were a couple of beautiful black sea bass; when my pal bought 'em, they were still in rigor (that's a good thing). If you've never had black sea bass, you don't know what you're missing. David Pasternack serves it as part of a crudo platter at Eataly, and that's all you need to know. We decided to cook them, simply stuffing the cavity with fresh herbs and lemon slices, tying a bay leaf around the outside and tossing it right onto the grill - no special equipment needed if your grill is properly prepared, hot enough and you know what you're doing...

10 minutes to a side and we ended with some mighty tasty fish...there was even a slight fight over the facial parts and collar - as there should be...

Of course, man does not live by fish alone, and I had headed over to my butcher at the Essex Street Market to pick up some lamb. He had a few beautiful racks of lamb with my name on them, so I took home two and marinated them in olive oil, garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper. Nice and simple and simply delicious after a short stint on the Weber with some apple tree trimmings thrown on for good measure...

So you see, there's nothing to stop you from grilling after Labor Day. Or barbecuing. Well, as long as you've got some friends with a backyard and a Weber, that is. We're lucky - we do. Now, if only the 49ers would stop sucking...

Happy As A Clam

The other day, for the first time this year (bows head in shame), I got over to the green market at Union Square, one of my favorite food shopping destinations. As a matter of fact, I even walked both ways, combining exercise (a not favorite thing) with food shopping (a favorite).

While the market is not yet in full-speed ahead spring vegetable mode, there was plenty to be had...ramps (duh), asparagus, fingerling potatoes, greens of any and every sort, radishes up the kazoo, and some beautiful seafood from a favored Long Island fisherman. And in addition to a few scallops (simply pan-fried) and a pound of sweet squid (stir-fried with the aforementioned asparagus and ramps), I also picked up a healthy bagful of these beauties, freshly dug littlenecks...

Now, you can have Manila clams, or you can have Mahogany clams or you can certainly have those tiny, little clams they sell in Chinatown (feh), but to my taste there is nothing quite as delicious as a littleneck. Of course, if you're in Venice, the tiny clams they use to make pasta con vongole are amazing, but we're not in Italy right now, so...littleneck it is.

Provided they're stored properly, hard-shell clams will last quite a few days in the fridge...especially when they're as fresh as these. By stored properly, I mean in a bowl (even better, in a colander over a bowl) covered with a wet towel, topped by ice (I use blue ice - no melting) and in the coldest part of your fridge. Check 'em daily and rewet that towel - it will dry out in the fridge - and throw out any gaping clams. Even on the 3rd day after I'd bought them, not a single one of these clams was bad - and it was time to cook.

I only wanted something simple, easy and quick...oh, and that had pork in it, too. A classic combo on the Iberian peninsula, pork and shellfish go really well with each other. Since I had a couple of links of Spanish chorizo in the fridge, that was going to be my pork, so I sliced one of the links into rounds. I slowly cooked the chorizo in a tablespoon of olive oil, and added a chopped up clove of garlic after the chorizo had softened. Once the garlic was beginning to color, I added 1/2 cup of dry white wine, reduced that, then added a cup of chopped tomatoes -(canned San Marzano's, if you must know), a handful of chopped parsley and about 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes. Salt and pepper too, but be careful with the salt; clams have some of their own.

Let it simmer, uncovered, for a good 10 - 15 minutes, taste it, and if it tastes good, time to add the clams, which by now you've washed and scrubbed well; I suppose if you're really neurotic you've soaked the clams in a bowl of salt water overnight in the fridge with the hope of purging them of any sand inside. I never do as I find it unnecessary with hard shells like litttlenecks. Soft-shells, steamers, surf and razor clams are a whole other story.

Anyway, add the clams, turn the heat up to medium or medium high, cover the pan and wait. Give the clams a good stir after 2 minutes or so and after another 2 - 3 minutes, check and stir again. If they've started opening, it's time to take out the open ones, recover, and check again in another minute. Remove them as they open , otherwise they'll overcook and you'll be eating rubber. After a good 10 minutes, any that haven't opened probably won't, so toss those. It's worth noting that I have yet to get a single clam that didn't open from the vendors at the green market.

Once cooked, the clams will have released a lot of juice so reduce the sauce a bit and taste for salt, pepper, heat, whatever. Once it's to your liking, pour the sauce over the clams, throw some more parsley on top and serve with a spoon and some bread. A salad on the side can't hurt either, nor will an ice cold beer or a glass of dry white - like the wine you used for the clams. Enjoy.


Littleneck Clams with Chorizo

2 - 3 dozen littleneck clams, scrubbed clean
4 oz. chorizo, cut into rounds
1 T olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup high quality canned tomatoes (fresh ones in the summer), diced
1/4 cup parsley, minced
1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper, to taste

Method above. Serves 2 as a main course, 4 - 6 as an appetizer.
Easily doubled.