The Reluctant Non-Vegetarian

Perhaps I'm a closeted vegetarian, because whenever I think of planning a meal that involves meat of some kind I really wish I was doing something else, like shopping! Meat doesn't excite me; there I said it! But even though CL is not exclusively meat, meat, and more meat, (actually it's very veggie-friendly!) there are still lots of meat recipes to get through, especially in the Grills chapter.

79. Grilled Steaks - Grills
80. Braised Peas in Red Wine and Sage - Grills

Beef! The foundation of the American family -- and it couldn't be more stressful to me! For weeks I have been doing my pseudo-research on the type of steak cut to buy. I watched an episode of Test Kitchen where the editor of Cook's Illustrated (I call him funny, bow-tie man) described the best cheap cuts from a cow. I couldn't for the life of me remember what they were -- something like sirloin and butt, huh? So I also consulted my friend, Lisa, on Friday, the day I was to buy the steaks. She said her favorite was rib-eye. I went to a Chinese supermarket near where I live after work on Friday and none of the cuts looked familiar, and I really had no idea which would be good for grilling. I even asked the nice Chinese man behind the counter which would be good for frying or grilling (I simulated grilling action by flicking my wrists). He just smiled and shook his head. Ok -- so no steaks Friday night. I texted Lisa:

Me: So no steak tonight too fucking complicated
She: Get a ribeye

I had then remembered that I did see ribeye at the store -- but I was already walking home and thinking of a cunning plan of convincing hubby we were going to eat out that night - sushi!

It turned out that convincing Rafa was not that difficult - that man will say yes to anything involving the prospect of consuming beer! And I had decided I could always go back to the store on Saturday, which is what I did!

I bought two ribeye steaks - for a total of about $11 - ouch! I also got some frozen peas for the second dish.

Both were incredibly simple to make.

First, I started the peas. Since the peas were to be braised in red wine, Tom kindly requested (he did say please!) to not use plonk. Ladies and gents, non-plonky wine at your service:

If you're straining your eyes it's a Californian cabernet sauvignon - no idea what that means but I wasn't going to drink the puppy. The fact that it didn't say Goya on it meant it wasn't plonk!

Now back to the peas, I sweated some onions, garlic and sage (had to use dry as my store was out of fresh - typical!) with a little bit of salt. To this I added the red wine, which I let simmer for a little bit, and then I finally added the frozen (but thawed) peas. This was allowed to simmer in the sauce for about twenty minutes.

I got started on the steak close to the end of the peas' cooking time.

For well-done steak, which is how Rafa likes it, all you need to do is sear an oiled steak on one side in a hot and dry frying pan, and then season the steak before putting it into a hot oven. I really didn't care how well cooked my steak was since I kinda guessed I wouldn't enjoy it anyway. I used the poking test for doneness, and then let the steak rest for a few.

The steak was OK; nothing spectacular. Perhaps a better quality meat not cooked as much would have tickled my fancy, but really nothing to write home about. The peas did not impress either...


I could understand how they would have tasted horrible with plonk, but even with the non-plonk they were not that exciting either. Hmmmn, thank god for chocolate!

I had made these earlier in the day; they are from the Moosewood Low-Fat Cookbook. Not sure if I actually had a low-fat experience out of it since I gobbled up those three, plus five of their brothers shortly afterwards. A closeted-vegetarian surely needs his/her kicks from somewhere!

The night of fun did not end there!!! There was zilcherama on TV last night; Rafa and I stared at each other for a little bit - that got old very fast! So, we decided to play a one-on-one game of Pictionary. In case you're wondering if that is a euphemism for fornication, let me assure you it is certainly not! One-on-one is sort of ridiculous because the game ends in about 15 minutes and we can't exactly figure out who gets the points - plus we didn't have a rules manual, whoops!

Here is the finale to our intense game - Rafa at the board:


That's his drawing for 'warpaint', people - yah, I know, it baffled me too! Ten points to the person who can figure out which one of the above is Iraq!