gustidude: Food at the Winslow's

One night we had a mini-feast of pork braised with tomatoes, onions, Big Jim NuMex green chiles, and serranos (all veggies from the garden), cooked until the meat fell apart in tender clumps. Savory deliciousness when slapped twixt a hot tortilla, and topped with a pico de gallo salsa made with from-the-garden Cherokee purple tomatoes, fresh onions, garlic, hot-as-hell red serranos, and a little lime juice. On the side were cups of rich and meaty borracho beans, and a limey, garlicky achiote-kissed Mexican rice. Avocado slices completed the picture. Sorry for the lame images. I was loaded on knee replacement opiates at the time, and barely focusing.

The other day we feasted at lunch on a wonderful potato, ham, asparagus, and cheddar cheese frittata made with brightly colored yard eggs from the Winslow’s rambunctious herd of free-range chickens. The top is kissed with Spanish paprika. It’s a long-time, throw-together-at-the-last-minute dish for Diane, and one that we devoured with gusto.

A few nights ago we supped on a gorgeous platter of sweet sliced heritage Cherokee purple toms (a reliable performer for the Austin garden, loaded with old school tomato flavor), topped with olive oil, a splash of balsamic vinegar, a sprinkling of sea salt, shredded basil, and marinated mozzarella balls.

In the pot is a mixture of garden dinosaur kale, braised with smoky bacon, onions, garlic, balsamic vinegar, rich chicken stock, sugar, and black pepper. Chris proclaimed them as “the best greens I have ever eaten”. They were damn good, and still good on a grilled pork, tomato, and braised kale sandwich a couple of days later.

The coup de grace was flat iron steak that had been marinated in red wine, garlic, ginger, onion, soy, and Worcestershire sauce, and then grilled and sliced. The flat iron is listed by many as the second most tender cut of steak, which I contend is hogwash. In my book, no flat iron could be superior to a loin end ribeye, or a center cut NY strip. Still, the well-marbled slices were tender, succulent, and loaded with rich beefy flavor. Nummie nums.

For those out there looking for a flat iron, they can be hard to locate, since many restaurants grab them up before they hit the retail market, and they are limited to a couple of cuts per shoulder primal. The NAMP guide lists them as “1114D, Beef Shoulder, Top Blade”, and they also go by the name Butler’s Steak in the UK, and Oyster Blade in Australia and New Zealand. The flat iron is cut with the grain from the infraspinatus shoulder muscle; the cross-cut version is called a top blade steak. They need to be grilled to rare or medium rare, and cut against the grain into thin slices.