Meat Archives - Page 5 of 5 - The Amateur Gourmet

Flank Steak Story

January 14, 2008 25 Comments

Of all the food and drink pairings, the greatest, I think, is the pairing of red meat and red wine. Sure, you have your champagne and oysters, your blue cheese and port. But give me a caramelized cut of ribeye and pair it with a spicy Syrah and I’m in heaven–a very red heaven.

On Saturday, then, I wanted to bring this combination home after spending the afternoon cleaning with Craig. I ventured out to Union Market which is Park Slope’s more high-end mart. I go there when I buy meat and fish; everything else, I do ok at Key Foods. I was all set to buy ribeye but then I remembered: ribeye is expensive. $25/pound expensive and each ribeye was one pound.

Moroccan Lamb Meatballs

September 17, 2007 7 Comments

Here’s an easy dinner from Patricia Wells’s “Provence Cookbook.” In a food processor, combine 1 pound ground lamb, 1 small onion (peeled and finely minced), 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 2 teaspoons ground cumin, 2 teaspoons sweet paprika, 1/4 cup mint leaves finely chopped. Season with salt and pepper and roll the mixture into 24 meatballs “the size of a walnut.” Then heat 2 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil in a skillet until hot and cook the meatballs until they are browned on all sides and cooked in the center. Serve with tzatziki, which you can buy (as I did) or make yourself. That’s it! You’ll feel like you’re in Morocco with Patricia Wells; especially if you make this while in Morocco with Patricia Wells.

Rib-Eye For One

August 22, 2007 56 Comments

Please remove your heart strings so I can tug them a bit: I am lonely! I miss Craig! He’s been gone all summer shooting his movie in Washington State. Well, he was in pre-production for the last few months; he just started shooting two weeks ago. The second day of shooting, he almost gave me a heart attack: he called me hysterical to say that, “The worst thing in the world that could’ve happened happened.” The equipment truck had caught fire in the night and it looked like all their film and equipment was destroyed. He hung up and I didn’t speak to him for another 24 hours and in that time I imagined the worst: that the movie was over. But when I spoke to him the next day he said it was a false alarm: a battery had overheated and exploded and covered everything with soot, but nothing was really destroyed. All was ok. And onward they go with the movie: he’s having a blast. And I wish I could be there but I have my book stuff to tend to. And he’ll be back in three weeks anyway. But in the meantime, I’m Mopey McMopeypants. I need some cheering up. Can’t someone kill a cow for me and give me its flesh to cook? They can? Yippee!