Moving house

I'm trying out a wordpress version of this whole blogging malarky at the moment. This site will stay operational for now since I'll most likely change my mind and come back when it all gets too much.

My inaugural food post is now up where I witter on aimlessly about cheese and bottled Californian sunshine.

Hope to see you there...

Eye of round causes tears of joy

Sometimes, I crave me a steak. A juicy beef steak.

That's not an easy thing to find in LA. I have yet to stumble across a butcher. There are carnicerias, but they don't seem to sell beef steaks. There are supermarkets, but they don't hang their meat. So we don't often have steak, unless it's buffalo¹.

So I was somewhat surprised when P came home with some eye of round in steak form, marinated in something and crusted with coarsely ground pepper. Meat from the hind tends to be roasted or braised or some-such. It can be stringy if not well-marinated and slowly cooked. At least in my limited experience. And so we usually stick with the safe tenderloins and sirloins. Or the British frying steak.

The eye of round steaks were under an inch in thickness, and a mere 2-3 minutes per side left them closer to medium-well done than our preferred nearly-medium juiciness. And it could have done with being hung for a fortnight or so. Still, it was steak. And it was juicy. So juicy we were reluctant to give the dog a bite. Served with crisp asparagus spears² and steamed thin-skinned red potatoes (variety unknown), it was just what I needed.

A glass of Geyser Peak Meritage 2003 on the side made it a small meal of perfection.

¹ Speaking of buffalo, I miss ostrich meat and venison.
² How can tender asparagus still be found at this time of year? I suspect P has broken the "local-veg wherever possible" guideline. But I'm not complaining. Much.