It was delicious, not innovative, but a take on a classic. Think steak house, a good cut of beef, maybe onions, fries, and probably creamed spinach, only here it’s a reverse seared very good local NY strip steak, topped with spring garlic; oven frites, but including celery root and some seasoning peppers; and the green is kale, simply wilted, no dairy.

 

I’m trying something a little different with this post. Instead of composing a text specifically for this post, I’m going to copy and paste the recipe narrative I used to prepare the meal, clipped above the counter last night.

This way, if anyone reading this post wanted to reproduce any or all of the meal, everything is laid out exactly for the taking.

 

STEAK, CELERIAC/POTATO FRITES, KALE

reverse-seared steak

one 15-ounce NY strip steak from Ox Hollow Farm brought to room temperature, seasoned on all sides with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, 

reverse seared, meaning it was positioned on a small metal rack inside an oval La Chamba pan and placed inside a 250º oven for about 35 to 45 minutes*, or until an instant thermometer poked into the center read only about 115º-120º, to arrive at a medium rare in the end, noting that the steak finish cooking inside a skillet and continue to increase in temperature,

removed, allowed to wait on a warm plate, covered with tin foil (where it could be left safely for about 45 minutes, which helps in juggling the cooking of any accompanying vegetables, in this case oven roasted frites of celeriac and potatoes, for which the temperature of the oven was greatly increased),

then seared briefly on all sides (the steak was already fully cooked, so left on the surface just long enough to impart color), inside a dry oval heavy cast iron pan, after first placing on the surface a little cooking oil with a higher smoke point than olive oil (I used Mac Nut macademia nut oil from Whole Foods Market) and immediately applying pressure in the center with a wooden spoon, to keep its middle surface from rising from the surface of the pan, 

removed from the heat, cut into 2 sections, and allowed to rest for up to 10 minutes while covered loosely with foil, arranged on 2 warm plates, some lemon juice squeezed on top, sprinkled with chopped spring garlic, white and green section, and drizzled with a Whole Foods Market Portuguese house olive oil

*they  should be checked with an instant thermometer after about 25 minutes

celeriac and potato frites  

eight ounces of scrubbed and peeled celeriac from Norwich Meadows Farm and about the same weight in scrubbed, but not peeled, “Upstate NY Abundance” and “Pan Ready Fingerlings” potatoes, also from Norwich Meadows Farm, this time the roots all cut into crescent wedges, tossed inside a large bowl with very little olive oil, a half teaspoon of Spanish paprika picante, a small crushed section of dried aji dulce pepper, some sea salt, and freshly-ground black pepper, then spread onto 2 Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic pans (2, to keep them spaced from each other, helping the crispiness quotient), roasted at 400º until brown, crispy on the edges, and cooked through, garnished with a little chopped parsley

wilted kale with garlic

some sweet ‘red’ kale (read very deep purple) from Norwich Meadows Farm, stems removed, roughly cut, washed several times and drained, quickly transferred to a smaller bowl to retain some of the water clinging to them,

braised inside a large heavy antique tin-lined copper pot in which 2 halved garlic cloves had first been allowed to sweat in some olive oil, finished with salt and pepper, drizzled with a bit more olive oil