London broil by any other name...

True confessions, folks: I hate the name "london broil." The steaks themselves can be quite nice done properly but "london broil" is just unflattering. Moreover, the name actually refers to the cooking method of marinating a steak from the shoulder or round and then searing it over high heat. The traditional method here is to use a very acidic marinade, and it can be overwhelmingly so and result in an underwhelming steak. But that is the fault of the cook, not the meat.

Obviously, I need to set you up with a proper recipe here, one that does justice to this perfectly nice, but poorly-named, cut. As I looked through our collection of cookbooks and cruised the web the other week I just didn't see anything that I was particularly excited about. So I decided to play around and see what I could come up with for you.

Lemon juice and/or vinegar are common bases for london broil marinades, but lime provides a nice, light, summery alternative. Many marinade recipes these days rely on soy sauce for the combination of salt and liquid, but some folks can't or prefer not to use soy and in any case soy-based marinades can be heavy and I wanted something light to let the lime stand out. What goes with lime in summertime?... tonic water! Now that we're playing with bitter flavors, escarole is a perfect complement. I think the experiment turned out well--in fact, it smelled so delicious that I forgot to take a picture in the rush to eat! Here's what was left when I realized my error:

Lime-tonic london grill with escarole

We enjoyed this straight up, just meat and veg, but it would also pair delightfully with a cold rice, pasta, or corn and bean salad.

Meat:
2 lbs "london broil" (2-3 steaks)

Veg:
2-4 heads of escarole heads sliced in half lengthwise and drizzled with olive oil and a dusting of salt. (Could substitute other grillable leafy produce like romaine lettuce or bok choy. Even a slightly bolted and bitter lettuce could work well here.

Marinade:
juice of 2 limes
1/2 cup tonic water
2 tsp salt, or to taste -- some folks may prefer less salt, and if so, better to use less at the beginning than rinse the steaks before cooking (!)
1/4 tsp black pepper, or to taste
1/2 tsp Cholula or similar hot sauce
1/4 cup garlic scapes, minced (I tested this a few weeks ago while garlic scapes were in season; scallion should be very similar, or substitute maybe 1/8 cup of minced onion or garlic bulbs)

Preparation:
Make up the marinade in the morning or the day before. Lightly score the steaks on both sides with diagonal cuts <1/8" deep and let the steaks marinate in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours--24 or even 36 hours is fine too. Bring them to room temperature prior to cooking. While the grill is heating, cut the escarole and drizzle it with olive oil, then set aside.

Grill the steaks on an oiled grill-- I had a good bed of coals about 3-4 inches from the grill, hot but not super hot. Depending on the thickness, allow 7-10 minutes per side, turning once. Throw the escarole on a cooler spot on the grill when you turn the meat and grill both sides just enough to wilt the heart and get some crispy blackened bits at the the edges of the leaves--but not too much! I found that the steaks wanted to come off first and briefly rest under a tent of aluminum foil while the escarole finished up. If you put the escarole over higher heat than I did, well then it might go the other way around.

Enjoy!

Jesse

Wild and beautiful and oh so cray cray...

This week's share: ground beef.

This week's news: in farming, like most things, predictable things happen unexpectedly. We don't know precisely when things will happen, but we know things will go wrong, eventually. This week, the unexpected predictable thing was where steers ain't s'posed to be:

Yup, that happened.

Last Monday, we picked up the last group of cattle for this year from a well-regarded grass-based farm in NY and released them into their quarantine pasture. Being NYers and Yankees fans, these boys had been vet-checked at their home farm but need to be kept separate from our steers until the local animal inspector can make sure that they are healthy and not transporting any inappropriate sports merchandise. Its a formality, but you never know.

It turns out that these boys are a wilder bunch than the rest of the herd, a bit unmannerly and apparently unused to close contact with people. By 4 pm on Independence Day, four of them were out of the fence and running. We were able to herd them from the east side of Moose Hill Street back across the road and into the woods at the back of the main farm and the Mass Audubon sanctuary before they disapppeared.

Fortunately, they have settled down about and are returning to be near the other steers in the pasture, spending significant amounts of time in and near "Margaret's Meadow" an unfenced open area adjacent to the main pastures. We have provided a water trough outside the fence and once they are using it regularly, we will begin moving it further and further into an empty pasture near the other cattle until we are able to catch them inside and close the gate. We will also be building some fence behind them in the woods to limit their ability to move away from the farm.

I wish I could include a picture of them frolicking in the woods, but they don't hang around when they see the paparazzi. The best I can do is this picture of where they've been:

Look, fresh sign! Have a great week, everybody...
Jesse