More Meat Men and a Variant on a Salad

A quick entry to get me back into the swing of the blog.  I was away this weekend at a family gathering and without internet unfortunately.

I wanted to give a quick rundown on Meat Men, which aired Friday night on Food Network Canada.  This was the second episode; it continues to be very good and informative, while dipping ever so slightly into reality show formulas.  This chapter in the show centred on the efforts of Pat LaFrieda Meat Purveyors to expand into gourmet markets beyond their New York/New Jersey base.  The owner’s semi-retired father, Pat Sr., was the star of the show while enacting his apparent role as comedy relief.  He tried smashing down a wall with a sledge hammer to accommodate the new vacuum-pack machine that would allow nation-wide shipping of the company’s product.  When he had to be replaced with a jack hammer, he went to Washington D.C. to seal a deal with an old restaurateur, a task that the young salesman Mark and Pat Jr. could not quite accomplish. 

This reality story aside, the show educated the viewer on prime rib.  Pat told about where the cut comes from: the top of the animal between the loin and the chuck.  Then, in order to impress Buzz Beler, the owner of D.C.’s Prime Rib restaurant, he picked the best example of the cut he had. Some of things he stresses were good intramuscular fat and a colour that was not too red, which may indicate an animal that is a little too old.  At the tasting, Pat expresses his preference for the chuck side of the prime rib due to its higher fat content. Buzz, on the other hand, went for the small or loin end.   With the cut and the help of Pat Sr., the New Yorkers secure the business and episode ended happily and informatively ever after.

Additionally, I wanted to share the variants I made on a salad recipe that we had for supper tonight.  The recipe is from Bon Appétit magazine and can be found here.

My version took a little longer but I think it was worth it. I did not use marinated feta or bottled peppers so I will run down process I used.

First in a small bowl I put:

                About 200 grams of goat feta

                A splash of white wine vinegar

                About three dashes of Herbes de Provence (I found that the little bit of lavender in it brought out the fruitiness of the olive oil)

                About two big glugs of extra virgin olive oil (I used Partanna Valle Del Belice DOP)

Let this sit together while you prepare the rest of the salad.

I still had nice fresh BC red peppers so I cooked 5 medium ones under the broiler, turning occasionally until charred all over.  When done, I put them in a covered pot for a few minutes to steam, then took the skins off and the seeds out under cold water.  As per the recipe, I roughly chopped the result.

For greens, I used half wild arugula and half a Herb Blend from Earthbound Organics that had a little bit of dill and cilantro mixed in with the lettuces, chards and radicchio. 

I added the pecans and red wine vinegar as the recipe directed. I was impressed, surprisingly so, with the final result so I wanted to be as specific as possible in documenting what I did.  Please enjoy and credit to the original crafters of the recipe.