Bison Cheese Steak with Broccoli & Sweet Cherry Peppers

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Recently, I came across an intriguing recipe in Bon Appetit Magazine for Skillet Cheese Steak with Broccoli Rabe that I knew I had to try; though, I did have to modify the ingredient list a bit. The original recipe calls for peppadew peppers and pepper jack cheese (two things Jacque is not a fan of), and features a New York Strip, of which I had none. I did, however, have some bison Ribeye Steaks in my freezer from The Honest Bison that I used instead.

 

 

Jacque and I have become big fans of The Honest Bison and I am happy to endorse the company. I love what they say on their webpage:

 “Food you can trust. Naturally. The Honest Bison was founded on one very simple truth: we believe everyone deserves access to food they can trust. When we realized just how hard it was to find unprocessed, humanely raised, quality meats in today’s markets, The Honest Bison was born. We started out with just 100% grass-fed bison but have since branched out to include a curated selection of other high-quality meats as well. As we continue to expand, our mission still remains the same – to bring trust back into today’s food system.”  

We have ordered from them several times and they have always exceeded our expectations.  According to this WebMD article, when compared to beef, bison meat is richer in protein; it has higher amounts of micronutrients like vitamin B12, zinc, iron, selenium, and omega-3 fatty acids; and of the two, bison has less saturated fatty acids (SFA) and more polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA).

On top of all that…it tastes really good!  

*Note: I still love beef, the above endorsement does not detract from a good old angus T-bone.

 

As for wine, we opened a 2019 bottle of Caprio Cellars’ Eleanor to accompany our meal. Jacque and I found Caprio Cellars last year on a tour of Walla Walla wine country and it was easily one of our favorites from the trip. We liked their Eleanor bottle (a bordeaux blend) so much that we had cases shipped not only to our home in Omak, Washington, but also to our place in Scottsdale, Arizona so we’d be able to enjoy it on a night like this.

This meal was absolutely delicious and easy to make, I hope you love it as much as we did!

 

Recipe

 

Ingredients from Bon Appetit (Doug Substitutions) Serves 2

 

1 lb. boneless New York strip steak (9 oz Bison Ribeye), patted dry

Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper (Montreal Steak Seasoning, one of my go-to favorites)

1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, plus more

3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 bunch broccoli rabe (I used normal broccoli), about 1lb, cut into 1"–2" pieces

⅓ cup thinly sliced drained Peppadew peppers (Sweet Cherry Peppers) in brine 

2 tsp. finely grated lemon zest (I forgot to buy fresh lemons, so I omitted this)

3 oz. pepper Jack (Monterey Jack), coarsely grated

1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice (Bottled lemon juice *see previous comment RE: fresh lemons

Directions (Prep-time 2 hours, Cook-time 25 minutes):

 

Pre -Step: 

Remove steaks from the refrigerator at least 1-2 hours before preparing; the meat should be room temp or just below room temperature before beginning.

*Note: Don’t forget to turn the cooking fan on at the beginning, this pro-note is brought to you by an amateur’s experience.

Step 1: 

Season steak with Montreal Steak Seasoning then gently rub olive oil onto steak.  Heat a large cast iron skillet (or any oven-safe pan) over medium heat until rare, about 115-120 degrees (remember you will be putting the sliced steak under the broiler).  Cook all sides, including the fat cap, about 5-7 minutes total. Remove the steak from the skillet and set aside for later use.

Step2:

Add more oil to the remaining fat in the pan and reduce heat. Add the garlic, stirring often until golden brown, about 1 minute (this is a good time to add any other aromatics to the dish that you would like).  Add the broccoli, season with  Montreal Steak Seasoning and/or possibly some garlic powder.  Keep moving the broccoli in the pan occasionally and cook until wilted, about 3 minutes. Add the sweet cherry peppers (I opted to add them about half-way through, though the original recipe calls for adding them later).  Add  ¼ cup water and cook for about another 3 minutes.

 

Step 3:  
Adjust your oven rack to the high and heat the broiler. Retrieve the steak and cut into  ¼ -  ½ inch thick slices to lay over the broccoli.  Take any juices from the cutting  board and drizzle over the steak. Sprinkle cheese (as much as is to your liking) over the dish and place under broiler until for about 3 minutes for medium rare. Squeeze lemon juice over vegetables and serve.   

 

Links of import 

Recipe: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/skillet-cheesesteak-with-broccoli-rabe

Meat: https://thehonestbison.com/shop-meats/ribeye-steak/?v=e2ae933451f4

Wine: https://capriocellars.orderport.net/product-details/0165/2020-Eleanor-Estate-Red-Wine

Pumpkin Turkey Chili - The Perfect Fall Dish

 Fall is time for Pumpkins and Chili

So why not 

Pumpkin Turkey Chili 

(Photo credit to Larissa Sklar)

Greg my youngest son and his wife Larissa called me late this afternoon and wanted to know how I made my Turkey Pumpkin Chili (picture above is their rendition of my recipe. I texted  it to them from memory)

Cut two pie pumpkins in half and clean them out reserving the seeds for later.

Spray or rub olive oil on the inside of the pumpkin.

Sprinkle with garlic salt, cumin, and cayenne pepper.

Place flat side down on cookie sheet and roast at 400 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes until soft.

When pumpkins are ready, brown one package of ground turkey meat with olive oil.

When browned add one chopped onion and a diced jalapeño to the turkey and continue browning.

Add more cumin, garlic salt, and cayenne pepper.

Scoop pumpkin meat into pot on medium to low heat.

Add a can of: cannellini beans, garbanzo beans, and stewed tomatoes.

Add one box of low sodium chicken broth

Simmer!!!

While simmering take the reserved pumpkin seeds and toast them in a pan with cumin and cayenne pepper.

To task the seed, clean them and pat dry them.  Heat a pan over high heat, and spay a little bit of olive oil on the seeds prior to placing them in the pan.  Place the seeds in the pan and lower heat to medium.  while cooking sprinkle cumin and cayenne pepper on the seeds.  Keep the seeds moving in the pan and you may have to spay a little more olive oil.

Once golden brown, chop the seeds and use them to garnish a over guacamole when serving the Turkey Pumpkin Chili.

(Larissa said she enjoyed the seeds on their own.  So make enough for future snacking)

(photo credit to Larissa Sklar)

Ingredients

Two Pie pumpkins

cumin

garlic salt

Cayenne pepper

1 box low sodium chicken broth

1 yellow onion

1 can cannellini beans

1 can garbanzo beans

1 can stewed tomatoes

1 jalapeño

Guacamole for topping

Olive oil 

olive oil spray

Scotch, Steak, and Cigars

(As I get ready to reignite FoodByDoug, I have found a few blogs that I wrote years ago and never published.  These are unedited, and not polished)

My intentions as a blogger are better than my blogging itself.  I take pictures, download them to my computer and write several blogs in my head -- but getting them actually on FoodbyDoug is another issue.

Lets start off with Scotch, Steaks, and Cigars.  Last year and again this year I auctioned a night of scotch tasting, steaks, and cigar off as an live auction item at the Okanogan Omak Rotary Wine and Cheese.  Jacque and I put similar night up for auction at the Loup Loup Taste of Three Valleys.  This

year I had the privilege of having my friend Chuck Ladouceur join me in the kitchen preparing and serving our guest.

Chuck and I started the night before with making three different Creme Brûlée's.  Knowing the number of course our guest were going to have, we opted to make them bite size using chines soup spoons-- this was an experiment that will return.

 We also did the grape leaves the night before.  We learned an important lesson that when using fresh grape leaves you want to pick them earlier in the season.

The grape eaves were on the table waiting for the guest as their foist course when they came up from enjoying appetizers and scotch downstairs by the wood-oven and fireplace.

 Scotch Gravlax is so incredibly simple to make, and is incredibly impressive.  To make Gravlas you place a salmon filet in  your freezer until it is stiff not frozen (this allows for thinner slicing).  You then drizzle a generous amount of the scotch of your choosing, some salt, sugar, and dill, as well as some lemon juice.  Let it sit for over night.  I will turn it over after several hours and repeat the above process.

The gravlax was served on top of a Latkah (potato pancake, a dollop of sour cream, and fresh chive for garnish)

Chuck created an incredible mac and cheese that we cooked in the wood-oven.  This was a last minute idea, but was one of the favorite appetizers of the night.  Knowing that the tasting was going to include 15 different scotches, we thought a little mac and cheese on empty stomachs might do well before dinner...we were right!

 Marmalade onion and gorgonzola pizza with balsamic reduction has become one of my favorite pizzas to serve.

The night was broken into four tastings, giving our guest the opportunity to enjoy appetizers and the fellowship of friends.

No celebration is complete with the sabering of a champagne bottle.  

For the main course after the grape leaves, pumpkin soup, gravlax on latkes,

our guest enjoyed steaks with port butter.

(Port butter has now become a required condiment in my household after making it for this dinner and having left-over butter.  In a future blog, I will have my friend Chuck share how he makes this great addition to any steak or prime rib.

The final course before dessert was a simple salad of charred hearts of romain

A Return to Safe Harbor: St. Elmo’s Revisited

I guess it was only appropriate that we returned to St. Elmo's in Indianapolis for a second shot at this award winning restaurant. After all, St. Elmo himself is the patron saint of sailors, and every sailor wishes for a safe return.  

Our second trip to this James Beard award winner was nothing short of phenomenal.  On this visit our son Greg and his girlfriend Larissa  accompanied us.  Our 8:00 reservations allowed time to enjoy a pre-dinner glass of wine at the Conrad Hilton with it being just a five-minute walk away, and the relaxing stroll to the restaurant set the stage for a delightful evening to come.

Our waiter was Vladimir, a young Serbian who has worked at St Elmo's for eight years and has his level one-sommelier designation.  Vladimir will go down in history as the first waiter and/or sommelier to not only be given my new value and price wine challenge, but to have passed it with flying colors. The value price challenge is to explain to the waiter that you recognize the difference between value being what something is worth, and price being what you pay.  Furthermore, the challenge conveys that you also recognize that one need not spend a small fortune on a truly enjoyable bottle of wine.  With that said, the question becomes what is the sleeper on the wine list or hidden wine in their cellar which is a phenomenal value for the price?  I told him that he did not have to answer the question right away, but to let me know what he would recommend.  His immediate recommendation was a Frank Family Vineyards 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon.  The official tasting notes say:

Frank Family Vineyards 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon has an enticing nose of blackberries, bay leaf and graphite; on the palate the wine is full bodied, and reminisce of cocoa-dusted dark chocolate truffles, cloves and blackberries.

This wine has also earned a 91 by Robert Parker rating, and true to the question, my research indicates the mark-up was less then what I would normally expect from a restaurant - A+ to Vladimir.

Jacque, Larissa, and Greg all started off with the only appetizer on the menu, their world famous shrimp cocktails.  Kudos to Jacque and Larissa for manning up to the challenge of the nostril clearing horseradish-laced cocktail sauce.  With eyes watering and nostrils clearing, they both claimed the pain to be almost addicting.

For our soup and salad course Jacque had the new to the menu Lobster Bisque, which was a marriage of sweet creaminess with an abundance of large chunks of lobster.  Greg and Larissa shared the Chopped BLT.  I really appreciate a restaurant that splits a salad before it comes to the table when they know it is being shared, as St. Elmo’s did for us this night.  I had to have the Sliced Tomatoes and Onions in a House Vinaigrette with Gorgonzola Cheese.  The vinaigrette was awesome and they did not spare any of the Gorgonzola…this has to be one of my all-time favorite salads, and this one has to be one of the best I’ve ever had.

For our main courses, both Larissa and Greg went for the smaller of the Filets offered, while I had the 60 day Dry Aged New York, and Jacque had a half order of the Lobster Tails – two eight ounce tails is a lot of food!  The kids really enjoyed their steaks done to a perfect medium rare.  Greg had the baked potato as his side and it reminded me of the time a friend of mine sent me a 50lb box of the most perfect Idaho potatoes.  The spud on Greg’s plate was the perfect shape, perfect color brown, and was loaded with just about everything you could imagine putting on a potato.  Fantastic!

Jacque also had a baked potato as her side, and Larissa and I both went for the Green Beans Sautéed with Peppers and Onions.  I also ordered a side of Mushrooms and Spinach for the table to share.  When we return to St. Elmo’s - (which will be on May 14^th to celebrate Greg’s graduation from Wabash) - I am ordering the spinach as my side – it was awesome!

My 60-Day Dry Aged New York was great!  I have been toying with dry-aging beef at home using the Umai bags, and have fallen in love with the flavor of dry-aged meat. I personally prefer the meat to stand alone, especially when it has been dry-aged, but to St. Elmo’s credit they served me an awesome steak at a price less than you would normally pay for dry-aged steaks.  A special thanks again to Vladimir for saving me from eating the whole thing and bagging it up before I regretted it!

For dessert it was Sugar Pie and Crème Brulee with plenty of spoons for sharing.  Sugar Pie goes by several other names like Hoosier Sugar Cream Pie, Indiana Cream Pie, and Tarte au Sucre, but no matter what you call it the basic ingredients are flour, butter, vanilla, and cream…gee, where is the Lipitor?!

Dinner was great, but what made this night extra special, besides getting to share it with our son Greg and his girlfriend Larissa, was the tour Vladimir gave us after dinner.  We are reserved to have Greg’s graduation party at St. Elmo’s on Sunday May 14^th, the evening of his graduation from Wabash College.  We have the Wine Cellar reserved for our festivities, and I requested that Vladimir let us take a quick peek.  Prior to the peek in the wine cellar private dining room, Vladimir brought us into the true wine cellar where they keep the vast inventory of fine wines that St. Elmo’s offers on their wine list.  As a wine lover, it was exhilarating just to look around and be surrounded by so many great bottles of the fruit of the vine.

It was only after our wine tour, that Vladimir inquired if we knew about the lounge on the top floor.  I thought he was referring to the bar when you entered the restaurant, but it was then that he informed us that there is a lounge that has the feel of a speak-easy.  It is called the 1933 Lounge, and was the perfect cap off to a great evening.  We all enjoyed another beverage while enjoying some local music.

Thank you again St. Elmo’s, and thank you Vladimir for a great evening…looking forward to our return in May!

The Joys of the Empty Nest

The Joys of the Empty Nest

(photo from Google search) 

“Hey…you want to take a drive up to Canada and have dinner?”

This was the beginning of a great evening and a wonderful dining experience.  Jacque had just returned from dropping Greg off in Spokane for his return to Wabash College, and we had our empty nest back.  Some couples find this challenging, but for Jacque and me, while we love, and adore our two boys and couldn’t be prouder of them, we relish the life and relationship we have together.

Living just 40 miles south of the Okanagan Valley, Canada’s premier wine growing area, we have become very familiar with several of the wineries in what is referred to as the “Palm Springs of Canada”.  The wineries, or at least the associates at several of the wineries, have also become familiar with us. (Not sure it is a good thing when a local food server recognizes us from her other job at one of our favorite wineries “Church and State”.)

                                 

                                          (Remember the Canadian Dollar Discount)

With temperatures hitting almost triple digits, we opted for Terrafina, (http://www.terrafinarestaurant.com), which is situated on the west side of the valley and has a patio protected by grape vines, making it a nice cool setting even on the hottest of days. 

                                                            (photo from Google search)

We started off with the Wagyu Beef Carpaccio with chipotle caper aioli, carrot chips, sprouts arugula, crispy capers, and parmesan.  Awesome dish! The Wagyu beef was great, but I really enjoyed and could not get enough of the carrot chips and crispy capers.

For our main courses, Jacque opted for the Prawn and Manila Clam Pasta, with chorizo - (yes chorizo, the Mexican sausage) - basil pesto cream, asiago arugula, and baby zucchini.   The chorizo gave the dish an interesting amount of heat and flavor, truly knocking up this dish to level 10.

I opted for the special which was Okanagan Summer Vegetable Insalata, passing on the other special of the night - a 40 ounce bone in rib eye which the waitress had suggested was designed to be shared.  This nice summery dish was the perfect combination of confit garlic emulsion, oyster mushrooms, baby zucchini, shallots, tomato, fennel, carrots, and cukes.  Jacque was a little surprised when I ordered this, but the real surprise was on me in how much I enjoyed this as my meal…though it left me still a little hungry.

Wanting to not ruin the theme of my nice healthy meal, I suggested that Jacque and I share the dessert cheese platter.  The cheeses were a real treat, but it was not the typical European idea of cheese for dessert.  It was more of an appetizer cheese platter as it was garnished with olives and pickled carrots.  Again we enjoyed the cheeses, but for a dessert cheese platter, I would expect maybe some chutney or jams, possibly some dried fruits, or freshly sliced Okanagan apples.  With that said, it was a great finish to our meal. 

We capped the evening off with a glass each of the Hester Creek Late Harvest, and then I had the perfect espresso before the drive home.  An additional treat was the approximate 23% discount we got on the bill due to the current exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the Canadian dollar – everything in Canada is on sale right now!

It is no wonder that Terrafina is listed for the South Okanagan as the “Best Winery Restaurant” according to Okanagan Life magazine. We will be back!

I highly recommend Terrafina at Hester Creek Winery in Oliver.  We have enjoyed many meals there in the past and look forward to great experiences in the future.