WHERE'S THE BEEF?

I rarely eat beef. In eight years of blogging about Spanish food, I’ve written about beef only six  times—two stews, meatballs, hash, steak sandwich and beef tongue.

But, every now and then, maybe once every six months, I get a hankering for steak. Maybe it’s my Midwestern roots. Where I grew up, we ate steak maybe every other week, a big sirloin to feed a family of six. 

Chuletón--a big rib steak, this one of vaca--cow--, sliced off the bone.

Although bullfighting has a long legacy in Spain’s culture, raising beef cattle for eating does not. The reason is that much of the land is too arid to provide good rangeland and pasturage. Only in Spain’s green north and parts of central Castilla were cattle traditionally raised, both for meat and dairy.

Cattle were slaughtered young because it wasn’t profitable to feed them longer. Called ternera; meaning “veal,” the meat usually was yearling beef; having neither the succulence of baby veal nor the juicy, red meat flavor of a full-grown steer.

Nowadays, encouraged by European subsidies, Spain produces superb beef. And many Spaniards eat plenty of it.  In fact, the best steak I’ve ever eaten in my life was in—not Chicago or Kansas City—but Madrid, in a Basque restaurant serving Galician beef. It was a chuletón de vaca, a massive rib “chop,” grilled over a wood fire, then carved off the bone.

Chuletón de vaca--rib steak of Galician cow, dry-aged more than 30 days.

Entrecôte of boneless yearling beef.

Here’s a glossary of beef words:
Ternera blanca: white veal, up to 8 months.
Ternera, “veal,” 8-12 months.
Añojo: “yearling,” slaughtered at 12-24 months.
Novillo: Young bull, or novilla, heifer. Slaughtered at 24-48 months.
Cebón.: Fattened steer, castrated male, up to 48 months.
Buey; The word means “beef” or “ox.” Designates castrated steer at least 48 months. The word used to be used for any big steak. Now, price usually indicates whether the meat is really “beef” or “cow.” 
Vaca: “Cow,” minimum 48 months. (Usually means dairy cow.) Beef from cows is excellent.
Madurado: Aged, dry-aged beef.
Chuletón: Bone-in rib steak, usually of buey or vaca. Big cut of meat.
Entrecôte; Boneless steak cut from “between the ribs,.” May be from lomo alto or lomo bajo. This is the cut most commonly served in restaurants.
Solomillo: tenderloin, fillet.

In my steak experiments, I tried a chuletón (bone-in) of Galician vaca (2 pounds, costing about $24), aged more than 30 days, and an entrecote of añojo (boneless) (2 pounds 10 ounces, costing about $20). The chuletón was seared in a cast-iron skillet and finished in the oven. The entrecôte was cooked on a wood-fired grill.

Heat cast iron skillet smoking hot. Sear the steak 1 to 2 minutes per side. Transfer to preheated 375ªF oven for 3-4 minutes.

My steak is a little overcooked. For rare, cook meat to internal temperature of  125ªF. For medium-rare, cook to 135ºF. Let the meat rest 5- 10minutes before slicing.

Let steak rest 5-10 minutes before slicing. Cut around the bone, then slice the meat thickly perpendicular to the bone.

Sautéed mushrooms make a savory steak sauce or side dish.

The chuletón is juicy, succulent, but chewy.

Salt the meat before or after cooking? I say, afterwards. Use coarse salt once the steak is sliced.

This is the entrecôte of añojo on the parilla.

Forget the heavy macho wines with steak! Serve tinto de verano--fresh red wine with fizzy lemon soda and ice.

Let the steak rest 5-10 minutes before slicing. Meanwhile, serve a starter of sliced melon with serrano ham.

Ben, the grilling maestro, carves the entrecôte.

Sprinkle coarse salt on the meat after it is sliced.

Mushroom Sauté to Go with Steak
Salteado de Champiñones para Acompañar el Chuletón

6-8 ounces mushrooms, such as portabello
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 shallot, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
¼ cup chopped piquillo pepper
Red pepper flakes, to taste
2 tablespoons brandy
2 teaspoons Sherry vinegar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup meat juices
2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Wipe the mushrooms clean. Cut them in half and slice them thinly.

Heat the oil in a skillet and add the shallot and garlic. Sauté until garlic begins to turn golden. Add the mushrooms and sauté them until they begin to brown. Add the piquillo pepper and red pepper flakes.

Add the brandy and let the alcohol cook off, 2 minutes. Stir in the vinegar and season with salt and pepper.

Set the mushrooms aside until the steak is grilled. After slicing the steak, pour meat juices into the mushrooms and reheat them. Serve with chopped parsley.

Chimichurri Sauce for Grilled Steak
Salsa Chimichurri para Carnes a la Parilla

Chimichurri is a sauce famous in Argentina, but it’s found its way into Spain’s cooking too, especially with foods cooked a la parilla—on the grill. It’s piquant enough to complement grilled meat, but it’s also good on baked potato, roasted ears of corn, green beans, roasted squash slices.--

1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup boiling water
5 cloves garlic
1 cup flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
1 cup cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon dried oregano
Red pepper flakes, to taste
2 tablespoons Sherry vinegar
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Dissolve the salt in the boiling water. Allow it to cool.

Chop the garlic in a mini-processor. Add the parsley and cilantro leaves and process until finely chopped. Add the oregano, red pepper flakes and vinegar. Blend in the oil, then the salt water.

Store the sauce, covered and refrigerated. Serve it at room temperature.

Beefsteak Tomatoes with Anchovy Dressing
Tomates con Aliño de Anchoa

Salty anchovies in this simple dressing bring out the sweetness of the tomatoes.

3 anchovy fillets, drained and minced
Freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon oregano
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1-2 large beefsteak tomatoes, sliced
Chopped chives
Grated toast crumbs (optional)
 
Combine the minced anchovy in a small bowl with the pepper, oregano and oil.
Arrange the sliced tomatoes on a serving plate. Drizzle them with the anchovy dressing. Sprinkle with chopped chives and toast crumbs.

Three Bean Salad
Ensaladilla de Tres Alubias

Combine three kinds of cooked beans for this salad that goes well with grilled foods.

2 cups cooked black beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup sliced green beans, cooked to taste
1 cup sliced yellow wax beans, cooked to taste
Fresh cooked shelling beans (optional)
¼ cup finely chopped onion
½ cup chopped piquillo peppers
1 hard-cooked egg, chopped
¼ cup chopped celery
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt, to taste
1 tablespoon Sherry vinegar
Combine all the beans in a bowl. Add the onion, piquillo pepper, egg and celery. Add oil and salt and mix. Salad can be prepared up to this point in advance and refrigerated, covered, until serving time.
Shortly before serving add the vinegar.

Rustic Beef Stew with Sausage.
"Ropa Vieja" Hash.
Beef and Chickpea Flour Meatballs.
"Altogether" Beef Stew.
Braised Beef Tongue.
Pepito Steak Sandwich.

GRILLING THE SPANISH WAY

Vegetables on the grill for escalivada.

When you think about traditional Spanish cooking, I bet you never think of grilling. Yet, cooking on a parilla, a grate or grill; a la brasa, over hot coals, or on a plancha, a metal hot plate set over coals, are all traditional cooking methods in Spain.

On the Mediterranean coast, fishermen haul their boats in at dawn, laden with fresh sardines. For breakfast, they make a fast fire on the sand, skewer the sardines on sticks, stick them in the sand before the fire. Simple and delicious.

Basque fishermen set a grate over a fire for cooking whole besugo, red bream, basted with a feather until the skin turns crisp and golden. In the wine region of Ribera del Duero, vineyard workers grill tiny lamb chops over a fast-burning fire of vine prunings. Hunters in La Mancha make a fire from holm oak to grill rabbits and other small game.

Char-roasted peppers, eggplant, onion and tomato.

In Catalonia, spring onions with their green tops—calçots—cooked on the grill with sausages and chops are an excuse for a party. Another Catalan dish, escalivada, combines eggplant, peppers, onions and tomatoes that have been grilled, skinned and dressed with olive oil.

While Spain may not be as famous for grilled steak as the US or Argentina, I gotta say that the best char-grilled steak I ever had in my life was at the Basque farmhouse restaurant, Baserri Maitea http://www.grupozaldua.com/baserri/, in Forua, a short drive from Bilbao, where chef Juan Antonio Zaldua has taken grilling to new heights of complexity (squid grilled over lavender; whole sole grilled over pungent holy herb; meat grilled over holm oak).

Beef for grilling at Restaurante Baserri Maitea

That steak was a thick rib chop from a 7-year-old grass-fed vaca (cow), heavily marbled, cooked medium rare, then carved off the bone.

The steak I grilled tonight was not so great. (My butcher misled me this time.) The sauce/marinade, Canary Islands mojo colorado, red chile sauce, with its touch of vinegar, complemented the beef and the grilled potatoes. Escalivada was right-on as a vegetable side.

Charcoal grilling, to me, seems wasteful—it takes such a long time to get the coals up to temperature, then, after the steaks come off the grill, residual heat could cook another meal. What I like about escalivada is that the vegetables can be put on the grill early on or at the very end. In fact, I sometimes make the vegetables at the end of a grill meal to be served cold the next day. The smoky flavor makes it all worth while.

Escalivada is a Catalan dish of grilled eggplant, peppers, onion and tomato.

Escalivada
Grilled Eggplant and Peppers

Serve escalivada as a starter, rather like a salad; as a side dish with grilled meat; heaped on a hamburger bun, or as a topping for pizza. You can also roast the eggplant and peppers under the broiler instead of over charcoal.

Serves 4 as a tapa or side dish.

Peel off charred skins.

1 medium eggplant
1 large red bell pepper
1 medium onion
1 large tomato
1 small head garlic
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil

Prepare coals (charcoal or wood fire).

Pierce the eggplant and pepper with a sharp knife in 3 or 4 places (to prevent steam from building up inside the skin). Slice the top off the head of garlic.

Place all the vegetables on the grill (or under the broiler). Grill until eggplant and pepper are charred on one side. Use tongs to turn the vegetables. Grill until charred on all sides. (If tomato softens before other vegetables are ready, remove it.) Remove charred vegetables to a bowl.

Let the vegetables set until cool enough to handle. Peel the eggplant. Chop or shred the flesh and place in a bowl. Peel and cut pepper in strips and add to the eggplant. Peel onion and cut in lengthwise slivers. Peel the tomato, discard seeds and chop the flesh. Combine the vegetables and season them with salt and pepper

Squeeze the softened cloves of garlic out of the skins into a small bowl. Mash them with a fork. Stir the vinegar and oil into the garlic paste, then stir it into the vegetables.

Serve room temperature.
 
Mojo Colorado
Red Chile Sauce

Use this as a marinade for meat or chicken, as a dipping sauce for tiny new potatoes, or as a sauce with grilled or steamed fish.

3 tablespoons pimentón (paprika)
1 fresh red chile, seeded and chopped, or cayenne to taste
3 cloves garlic
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons wine vinegar
½ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup water

Place all of the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Sauce keeps one week, refrigerated.