La Cucina Anabolica Italiana


So, there’s a little game I like to play called, “How much do you trust your butcher” aka “How to lose 11 lbs in 3 days on the toilet.”

I’ve been wanting to make steak tartare for a while now. Supposedly it was named after the Tatar’s who would place their meat underneath their saddle and horse blanket to tenderize it for that evenings dinner. Not having a saddle or a horse blanket, I decided a trip to my butcher was in order.

The qualities that make a steak good for grilling - marbling, nice rind of fat - make a cut awful for tartare. A ribeye would be a terrible choice, imho. You want a very lean piece of beef. Tenderloin is a great, albeit expensive option. Any cheap lean cut will work will. I like top sirloin, top round is a great choice as well.

I went to my butcher and told him I wanted 2 lbs of top sirloin for steak tartare and he made sure I got the freshest cut available. I split it up the night before and kept the half I was going to eat in a sealed container in the coldest part of the fridge. While I trust my butcher to grind the meat properly (and cleanly), I wanted a bit of a coarser chop which I could do at home easily.

A traditional steak tartare consists of raw steak, some seasonings, and some mix of onions, shallot, cornichons, and capers. But Blue’s posts got me thinking (you’re my boy, Blue!) and I decided to treat the steak tartare more like a ceviche. I gathered my ingredients for my mise.

1 lb top sirloin
salt, pepper
garlic
red onion
lime
avocado
cilantro
serrano pepper (not pictured)

Edit: The brown on the meat is where it was exposed to air while I was splitting up portions the night before.


Trim the meat of all visible fat.

Coarsely chop the meat.

Some people prefer a fine dice and for all the ingredients to be thoroughly mixed in giving the meat the consistency of uncooked meat loaf. I prefer for the mix to be more heterogeneous.


I chopped the meat in 2 batches making sure to keep the meat I wasn’t using refrigerated. Once the meat was chopped, I folded in salt, pepper, garlic, red onion, serrano peppers and lime juice. I mounded the meat, added some avocado to the bowl, and topped with the yolk of an egg.

Easy, healthy dish provided you keep your cutting boards and knives clean and get your meat from a reputable source.

Nutritional info:

Cals 800
Pro 90 g
Fat 45 g
Carb 17 g

Cost:

1 lb top sirloin $7.50
1 avocado $.75
1 egg $.10
Assorted other stuff $.15

Total cost $8.50

[quote]SteelyD wrote:

[quote]Brother Chris wrote:
Steely, do you cook anything with beer or alcohol, marinate with it maybe?[/quote]

Yep!

Off the top of my head-- wine in the spaghetti sauce, wine when doing veal cutlets, crabs/lobster in beer, beer chicken. Sometimes liqueurs in sauces/marinades.

Got something in mind?[/quote]

No particularly. I just have a lot of beer and alcohol in the house, and sometimes I drink while I cook on Sundays and always wonder what the rules are and if I should throw some into the meal. I’m a self taught cook, once I have a recipe down I’m confident but I hate destroy dishes on the other hand since I am kind of on the lower end of the pay scale at the moment, but I do like good food.

Plus, I cook for people a lot. So the better I can make something, the happier camper I am. So, any rules I guess I am asking to adding liquid courage to food?

[quote]LiquidMercury wrote:

[quote]SteelyD wrote:

[quote]E99_Curt wrote:
they had yuengling in atlanta?[/quote]

I was astounded at the same thing. The local folks had no idea why I was surprised. I don’t know how long they’ve been shipping out of PA/OH/NJ/MD/NY, but apparently it’s been a few years.

I was weened on Yeungling ;)[/quote]

We’ve had it for at least 5 years or so, probably longer. Thanks for the continued awesomeness of this thread![/quote]

I was in Naples, FL. They have it down there.

[quote]corstijeir wrote:
Hey man- I’ve had this thread bookmarked for a while and just haven’t checked it since I was away from the grains. Now that I’m on Indigo-3G I can revisit some of this stuff! Thanks![/quote]

Dude, there is like one recipe with grains in this thread. Nuts.

@MaximusB

An old family recipe from the old country.

“Taralli”

Consumed with copious amounts of white wine.


Whole house smells like roasted fennel seeds.

Love that stuff.

[quote]BlueCollarTr8n wrote:
Saturday Night Re-Feed: Smothered Avocado

garlic, shallot, black beans, portabella mushrooms, corn, artichoke hearts, olives, shrimp, avocado, cheese, chili powder, coconut oil, olive oil, salt, pepper[/quote]

Thanks for this. Definitely trying it this week.

[quote]SteelyD wrote:
WARNING: F00d Pr0n Ah3@d

Bacon/Beetgreens/Brussells — DONE.[/quote]
You have to try with chorizo sometime, instead of the bacon. Amazing either way.


Okay it is sad to see this thread has died a bit.

So I did some cooking tonight and this stuff is not really AD, nor is it Italian, but it is decently healthy and high in protein.

2x chx breast stir fry with broccoli, carrots and rice

  1. beef stroganoff
    5lb angus chuck beef, 3 onions, 1.5bs mushrooms, 1/4 cup tomato paste, 1/4 cup white wine, dried porcini mushrooms, garlic, thyme, S&P

step 1 Saute shrooms


step 2 saute onions, garlic, tomato paste, porcini


step 3 get 5lbs angus chuck

cube it

step 4 throw everything in crockpot and cook for 11 hours on low

…results coming tomorrow.

Dude, that’s power food right there. Thanks for sharing!

The “Prime Rib” thread absolutely deserves a mention here:

http://tnation.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/music_movies_girls_life/usda_prime_rib?id=6159646&pageNo=0

The meat cutter’s son (and grandson) is duly impressed.

This thread makes me too hungry!!