It’s possible my memory is blurred, but until I can be persuaded otherwise, I’m going to say this was the best steak I’d ever had.

The cut itself (called ‘culotte’ here, ‘coulotte’ in France, ‘picanha’ in Brazil) has become my favorite, certainly for its flavor but also for the kind of chewiness I enjoy in good beef; ‘melt in your mouth’ is not what I look for.

Adding to its attractions is the fact it seems to come with a consistency in size, and, because I’ve been instructed in a routine which brings it to our preferred degree of doneness (more medium than medium-rare, with this particularly lean cut), there’s little anxiety about the cooking process, since it seems to come our perfectly each time, letting me pay more attention preparing the side dishes, even shortly before serving.

• * one 20-ounce culotte steak from Gabe, of Sun Fed Beef (Maple Avenue Farms) in the Union Square Greenmarket, cut crosswise into 2 pieces, brought to room temperature, seasoned on all sides with good sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, seared briefly on the top, the fat side (almost half of the fat will be rendered in the cooking, the rest will make it taste wonderful), then cooked for about 4 minutes on each side, before the bottom side was seared briefly, removed from the pan, and placed on warm plates, drizzled with juice from an organic Whole Foods Market lemon and some olive oil, sprinkled with chopped winter savory from Stokes Farm and allowed to rest for about 4 minutes, garnished with Micro red amaranth from Two Guys from Woodbridge

• * roughly 10 ounces of celery root from Norwich Meadows Farm, combined with 2 small ‘Peter Wilcox’ white-fleshed purple potatoes from Windfall Farms to make up about 3 quarters of a pound in total, since I had used a bit of the celeriac in an earlier meal, scrubbed, peeled, and cut into the size and shape of potato frites, tossed in a bowl with olive oil, a half teaspoon of Spanish paprika picante, a small crushed section of an orange/gold habanada pepper, sea salt, and freshly-ground pepper, spread out onto a medium-size Pampered Chef unglazed ceramic pan, roasted at 400º until brown, crispy on the edges, and cooked through
• one very small head of Savoy cabbage from Tamarack Hollow Farm, washed, quartered, cored, sliced into one-half-inch ribbons, sautéed in a scant tablespoon of olive oil inside a medium heavy, tin-lined copper pot until wilted but still crunchy, stirring occasionally,  seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, a little more than a teaspoon of toasted cumin seed, added to the cabbage and mixed in, finished with half a teaspoon of Columela Rioja 30 Year Reserva sherry vinegar, stirred and cooked another couple minutes
• the wine was a Spanish (Duero) red, Bodegas Gormaz Joven, Ribera del Duero 2013, from Philippe Liquors
• the music was Bohislav Martinü’s Symphony No. 4, Cornelius Meister conducting the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra

I came across this cut of beef late in 2009, when we were checking out The Meat Hook, in Brooklyn, not long after it had first opened.  The meat was beautiful, the deep red of the lean flesh contrasting with the almost pure white of the thick layer of fat, each piece curved into a loop and impaled on a wooded skewer.  The butcher explained its origin and its properties.  I was intrigued, at least as much by the aesthetic and perhaps by the relatively exotic story of its origins (Argentina, we were told), as by the promise of excellent flavor, but it was only months later that I actually got around to cooking a culotte steak.  I had purchased it then from Dickson Farm Stand Meats, our even more local butcher.

It’s been a favorite for both of us ever since.  Although I hadn’t brought one of these lean, very flavorful steaks home for a while, partly because we don’t really eat beef very often, yesterday we may have enjoyed the best one yet.

For the best experience with this cut it’s essential to know what kind of steak you’ve brought home before throwing it on the fire.  The culotte is very lean, and could turn out more chewy than expected – or desired – unless certain procedures are followed.  Because it is so lean, it should not be cooked medium-rare, which would normally be our preference with beef, but rather closer to a medium doneness.

In the past I would always sear it on one side for 2 minutes, turn it over and sear the second side for 45 seconds, then place it inside a moderately-hot oven (375º) for 7 or 8 minutes.  Last night I approached the process very differently.

Earlier in the day, when I was inside the Dickson Farm shop in Chelsea Market, I discussed the virtues of the cut with a young butcher named Philip.  Clearly as well-grounded in the mysteries of the Kitchen as he was in the details of meat cuts, he suggested briefly searing the side of the steak with the heavy layer of fat in a heavy pan (I used a well-seasoned cast iron skillet) just enough to release some of the fat onto the surface of the metal, then cooking each of the sides for about 4 minutes over medium heat, and finally briefly searing the fourth, or top side (the one opposite the side with the fat).

The result was perfect.  The flavor was superb, and because we were able to slice the still-square-section steaks very thinly, and also almost certainly because of the quality of the steak, the meat was quite tender.

• one 11-ounce sirloin culotte (Picanha), produced by Wrighteous Organics, in Schoharie, New York, purchased from Dickson Farm Stand Meats, cut into two pieces, brought to room temperature, seasoned with good sea salt and freshly-ground tellicherry pepper*, seared briefly on the top, the fat side, turned, and cooked for about 4 minutes on each side, then the bottom side seared briefly, removed from the pan, drizzled with juice from a local hothouse Lisbon lemon from Fantastic Gardens of Long Island, and some olive oil, allowed to rest about 4 minutes, then sprinkled with chopped winter savory from Stokes Farm
• very small parti-colored carrots from Rogowski Farm, tossed in olive oil with salt and pepper, and cooked in a Pampered Chef medium-sized pan at 400º until tender (the time will depend on size; these took about 15 minutes), finished with chopped parsley from Whole Foods
• mostly green kale, but also some purple leaves, from Tamarack Hollow Farm, wilted in olive oil in which one clove of garlic from Norwich Meadows Farm, halved, had been cooked until beginning to brown, finished with salt, pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil
• the wine was a Spanish (Duero) red, Creta Noble, Ribera del Duero 2013
• the music was Carlos Chavez, Symphonies No.4 and 2, from the album, Chavez: The Complete Symphonies / Mata, London SO

 

* Note: I’m still unresolved on the subject of the moment when a steak should be seasoned with salt, or pepper; this time I actually forgot about seasoning until after I had already started to cook the second side, and then I sprinkled that side, and, when it was done, the first side; I’m going to have to do more research on the subject

Yeah, it’s just a steak but, wow, what a steak!

My favorite beef purveyor didn’t have my favorite culotte/picanya cut the other day.  After a short consultation at their Union Square Greenmarket stand with their guy Mike, I opted for a pair of very well marbled strip steaks (‘New York’ wasn’t anywhere in their description, but I was buying them in New York CIty, and the beef had been raised in New York State, so what’s in a name?).

I cooked them as I would have cooked culotte steaks, which is to say, using a reverse sear process, the only way I’ve become interested in cooking any steak, if it’s of a decent thickness, starting some time last fall.

• a beautifully marbled one pound 100% grass fed, dry-aged black angus strip steak from Sun Fed Beef (Earlville, Chenango County, NY) in the Union Square Greenmarket, brought to room temperature, seasoned on both sides with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, placed on a rack inside a heavy oval enameled cast iron pan in a 275º oven probably for somewhere between 45 and 60 minutes (I lost track of the timing), or until medium rare, checking after a half hour with an instant thermometer until it read 90º to 95º, for medium-rare (it will finish cooking in the skillet and continue to increase in temperature, removed, and if the accompanying vegetables are not yet ready, perfectly safe if allowed to wait on a warm plate, covered with tin foil (for, say, up to about 45 minutes), the steak[s] then placed over high heat on the surface of a very well seasoned small antique cast iron pan that had been coated with a very small amount of cooking oil, one with a higher smoke point than olive oil, alternatively a bit of ghee, or a combination of butter and olive oil (I used Mac Nut macademia nut oil from Whole Foods Market by itself), and, remembering that the steak was already fully cooked, and so only needed to be inside the pan long enough to acquire some color, seared briefly (a minute and a half or 2 minutes on each side), removed from the heat, allowed to rest for up to 10 minutes on 2 warm plates, covered loosely with foil, some lemon juice squeezed on top, sprinkled with chopped rosemary from Phillips Farms, drizzled with a Whole Foods Market Portuguese house olive oil, garnished with red amaranth from Windfall Farms
• one bunch of washed, drained, and roughly chopped rainbow chard from Lani’s Farm, wilted in a couple tablespoons ofWhole Foods Market house Portuguese olive oil in which 2 halved garlic cloves from Westside Market had first been heated and slightly softened, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, and finished with a little lemon juice and a drizzle of olive oil
• the wine was a South Africa (Western Cape) red, Farrington Shiraz-Viognier Reserve 2016, from Bottlerocket Wines
• the music was Schubert’s 1823 three-act German opera with spoken dialogue, to a libretto by Joseph Kupelwieser, ‘Fierrabras’, performed by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Arnold Schoenberg Chor conducted by Claudio Abbado

 

 

April 5