Winter Skies, Kitchen Aglow

Sometimes my angelheart Eric and I just want a nice slab of steak. Well, Eric would be happy with a slab of meat every other day providing he also has seafood on the alternate days - since I do not take well to all forms of seafood and because I object to consuming too much red meat, Eric gets his slab of meat once a week (keep your minds clean, people!). Okay, perhaps not a slab of meat, but a nice New York cut suits us just fine.

This time, we took our cue for the marinade and salad dressing from Kate Fay and Jeremy Turner's Cibo: Food with Attitude, in which the recipes are taken from their repertoire of predominantly fusion dishes (New Zealand fare interlacing sauces and rubs from Asia and the Middle East) served at Cibo in Auckland, New Zealand.

We marinated the steak overnight in Fay and Turner's Sumac Crust, to which we added soy sauce and honey. Because sumac is distinctively smoky and citrusy (augmented by the herbs used), we wanted to round it out so as not to compete with the dressing for our salad. Do not get me wrong, the sumac crust is outstanding, and it is only because we were concerned with pairing flavours that we turned it into a marinade.

Speaking of the dressing, we had neither sunflower oil nor mirin, so we focused on highlighting the simultanous sweetness and tartness of the pomegranate molasses. We also substituted the call for white wine vinegar with dry vermouth, mostly because we find it slightly less acidic and, consequently, less overpowering. This dressing works superbly as a counterbalance to the arugula's pepperiness, which is mellowed out by the nuttiness of bean sprouts. A more-than-fabulous combination.

Before getting on to the ingredients and methods of preparation, I have to meantion the ease of pressing out the juice of a pomegranate and of picking out the seeds. I have often heard that it is difficult to do both, but I find it to be reasonably easy. To exact the pomegranate's juice, lightly squeeze all around the pomegrante before simply inserting the blade of a paring knife 1"/2.5cm into the pomegranate. Hold the pomegranate such that the incision mark is held over a bowl, and then squeeze the fruit. The juice should be fairly free-flowing with tight squeezes. To extract the seeds, insert the blade of a paring knife into the top of the pomegranate and abruptly crank it. The pomegranate should gently open, and you can then tear across its naturally occurring segements (designated by the pith). Once deconstructed, you can then pick out or gently flick the seeds into the vessel of your choice.

The following quantites are enough for two, or at least for us :-p

New York Steak with Sumac Marinade
(Adapted from Kate Fay and Jeremy Turner's Cibo: Food with Attitude)

4 tablespoons sumac
1 tablespoon cracked black pepper
1 tablespoon garlic puree
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1 tablespoon honey (we use Pohutakawa honey from New Zealand)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil

1) Combine above ingredients together, using the olive oil last as a binding agent.
2) Coat New York steaks and marinade for at least 4 hours.
3) Pat steaks dry before pan-frying in a heavy-bottomed skillet to your satisfaction (we prefer our beef rare).

Arugula and Bean Sprout Salad with Pomegranate and Honey Dressing
(Adapted from Kate Fay and Jeremy Turner's Cibo: Food with Attitude)

5 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons vermouth or white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1 teaspoon sumac
2 teaspoons pomegranate molasses
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
seeds of 1/2 fresh pomegranate
arugula, enough for two
bean sprouts, enough for two

1) Combine above ingredients bar the pomegranate seeds, arugula, and bean sprouts.
2) When combined well, toss in the arugula and gently fold in most of the pomegranate seeds, leaving some to sprinkle once the salad has been constructed.
3) To construct salad: Make a bed of arugula, then add bean sprouts, and top this off with the reserved pomegranate seeds. 

Labels: Kate Fay and Jeremy Turner, Steak, Sumac