The occasional carnivor's weekend of meat.

Although I was raised by carnivores and enjoy meat, both I and my immediate family all eat much less of it the older we get. (My brother actually became a vegetarian, my mother keeps adding animals apparently at random to her personal protected species list, to the quiet, stoic dismay of my father who was already somewhat constrained by his cholesterol count.) Me---I just find myself eating less of it, but not from any pursuit of greater health or virtue. And the less of it I eat, the less sure of myself I become in its preparation, so I tend to save meat eating for special occasions at restaurants, where it will be handled by someone who knows what he or she is doing with the stuff.
But it's always when spring arrives that I find myself wanting to fire up the grill and do it myself.
And so it came to pass that with a friend on his own with his wife out of town, I noticed that my local T.I. (Hyde Park) was having a bit of a beef sale and I decided to invite him over for a mini-steak-a-thon.

Already you can see certain warning signs: occasional carnivore and dilettante grillman, steaks from TI vs. Paulina or other top provider. These don't begin to foreshadow the full-fledged farce that ensued.

But first the meat: They were pushing a 21-day dry-aged ribeye (boneless) for $16.99/lb. (Price is from memory, but I believe that's correct.) Had to try one. Then got a NY Strip which was priced about the same. Maybe $1 less/lb. Got a big flank steak ($9.99/lb.) as well because I like to marinate them and have a lot of left-overs for steak salads and sandwiches. Also threw in some chicken thighs for the boy, who doesn't really like steak.

The plan was to sit on the back porch and grill all this along with big portobello caps, asparagus, and baby egglplant.
Decided to treat each steak a bit differently: teriyaki marinade for the flank, chimichurri for the strip, and the dry-aged in its purest form with just s&p to see what it's really like. (Marinated the chicken in adobo.)

First thing I noticed when I got home was that the NY strip seemed surprisingly wet and kind of mushy in its raw state. Made me a but nervous. (Little did I know what I had to be nervous about.)

With our guest minutes away, and way behind on prep because our contractor had shown up in the morning unannounced and taken 2 hrs. of my time fixing some things he had failed to fix when he cancelled the week before, I discovered---this being the first time getting out the grill since we moved in last Sept.---that we were missing the hose that connects the propane tank to the grill. Called the local ACE; no dice. So this event, designed entirely around the grill, is now moving indoors.
Out comes the cast iron, on goes the broiler...
Improvising pretty well considering I broil even less than I grill. Thank God for well seasoned cast iron pans.

Now my veggies are done---asparagus steamed and lemon buttered, mushroom caps glistening, chicken thighs out of the way.
I'm minding a couple of pans of steak and trying really hard to get a good sear and also not ruin them with over-cooking. I'm considering finishing them off in the still-hot oven, as some recommend, when all of a sudden my smoke alarms go off. Not just one, but 2. The house is very open, so we had one screaming on each floor. And we have high ceilings on the first floor. If you think you're going to hop up on a kitchen stool and yank that sucker, you have another think coming. It's down to the basement for the ladder. Except I've got this expensive steak at a critical point in a pan and no time to be running up and downstairs with ladders.
So everyone stands around looking strained for about 3-4 minutes of screaming alarms until I can pull the steaks, then off to get the ladders.
Then finally everyone, wild-eyed and twitchy, staggering out onto the back porch with the platters looking nothing at all like the beautiful people enjoying their first outdoor dinner of the season in a Saveur layout.

As for the steaks---pretty good, really. All about 1 shade of pink more done than ideal, but still pink enough to show their stuff.
I thought the dry-aged rib-eye was really good and worth the money paid. I can't say I quite noticed the extra concentrated flavor or "tang" that people talk of a lot in this context, but a really nice texture and overall flavor for sure.
The strip (despite the mushiness of its raw state) also came through with a very nice texture and grain, noticeably different from the ribeye.
The flank was the closest to a disappointment. It just didn't have that specific texture I expect and love from a flank steak. It was like generic beef. London broil or something.

Mrs. B's dessert was perhaps the hit of the evening. We only just had our stuff moved in from storage a week or so ago, and we're still unpacking boxes. So we tore into a box of cooking mags. at random and she pulled from an old Gourmet a recipe for a biscuit with choc. chips which just turned out to be the perfect texture to be topped with organic strawberries which were providentially on sale at Hyde Park Produce. Sliced and tossed with just a bit of sugar and cognac, then topped with whipped cream (also lightly congnac-ed), it was nearly enough to sooth our still flayed nerves.