Tour of Fifty States: Idaho's meal

It seems like forever since we did our last state meal … it’s been almost 2 months!  We had a triple birthday celebration, Thanksgiving, putting up the Christmas tree, a last soccer game, an end-of-season soccer party, tree decorating, cookie decorating, driving to Florida to pick up Matthew, a Dollywood trip, Christmas dinner with 15 people (!), returning Matthew to Florida, and an on-call weekend for Dad.  Whew.  Now it’s January and we can get back to a calmer schedule. 

Christmas was especially important and poignant this year.  First, we got to enjoy it with Matthew.  Normally he lives with us and spends Christmas with his father; but now that he lives with his father, he spent Christmas with us for the first time in many years.  Second, both of my brothers came to Christmas Dinner.  The 3 of us haven’t been together in a long time, let alone for a holiday meal.  Since we’re all getting older, we felt it important to be together with our parents at Christmas.  That thought brings me to the third point about Christmas being so poignant.  Bill’s stepmother Diane passed away on December 27 after her final Christmas with the rest of her family by her side.  She had a short but hard-fought battle with cancer.  All of us were sad to hear of her passing, but we are grateful that she no longer has to suffer in pain.  She will be missed. 

Menu :  Grilled Flank Steak with Mushroom Sauce, Duchess Potatoes, Blueberry Buckle

Outcome:  When everyone thinks of Idaho, they think, “POTATOES!”  Of course, I had to find the perfect potato recipe.  Plain old mashed or baked taters just wouldn’t cut it.  I came across the recipe for Duchess Potatoes and knew it would be perfect with the flank steak and mushrooms.  My piping bag and I had a disagreement, so I ended up spooning the Duchess Potatoes into individual au gratin dishes and baking them.  They came out very nicely with lots of little brown crispy bits all over the surface. 

On to the main dish…we are all huge mushroom fans in our house!  The recipe for the sauce called for “dry sautéing” the mushrooms, meaning that butter or oil was not added except at the very end for flavor.  I really loved the intense flavor that this brought to the mushrooms … almost beefy.  Bill grilled the flank steak to a perfect medium rare for us. Bravo! 

As for our dessert, various cake-y desserts topped with fruit are referred to by many names:  crisp, crumble, cobbler, grunt, slump, brown betty, kuchen, but this was a new one to me:  buckle.  Same type of dessert, though, a simple cake batter covered with fruit and baked.  The recipe called for huckleberries, which are nowhere to be found in SC!  So we used blueberries.  Upon doing a little research, I’ve found that huckleberries are very similar to blueberries but they are NOT grown commercially (being resistant to domestication) and are only harvested in the wild.  Mystery solved!

Next up:  Ben’s turn!  He chose Kentucky – and we see the kids again this weekend, so it will be faster for the blog update!

Grilled Flank Steak with Mushrooms

Prep time:  5 min.   Cook time: 20 min.

Ingredients

• 2 lb. flank steak
• Salt
• Olive oil
• Black pepper
• 2 lb. mixed mushrooms, cleaned, rough chop
• 2 Tbsp. butter
• ½ cup minced shallots (or onions)
• 1 cup red wine (or beef broth)
• 1 Tbsp. minced fresh rosemary

MMMMMushrooms!

 Directions

1. Salt the steak well and let it come to room temperature.
2. Dry sauté the mushrooms. Heat a large sauté pan on medium high heat. Add the mushrooms to the pan, as is (no butter or oil). Stir the mushrooms occasionally, and shake the pan a bit. You should hear the mushrooms squeak when they move in the pan. Continue to cook until the mushrooms release their moisture. Add a large pinch of salt and stir to combine.
3. Add the butter, rosemary and shallots. Stir to combine and sauté over medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes, stirring often. Pour in the red wine (or beef broth) and boil until the sauce has reduced by half. Turn off the heat.
4. While the mushrooms are cooking, prepare the grill for high direct heat. If you are using a gas grill, turn it on, cover it, and let it heat up for at least 10 minutes.
5. While the grill is heating up, massage olive oil into the steak. When the grill is hot enough, place the flank steak on a hot part of the grill. Sear for 4-6 minutes without moving.
6. Turn the steak over. Touch it to test for doneness. You might only need a couple minutes on this side, depending on how thick your flank steak is. Flank steak is best rare or medium rare; it becomes tough if it gets too well done. Try to undercook the meat just a little, as it will continue to cook a bit while it is off the heat resting. When the flank steak is almost done, take it off the heat and let it rest. Grind black pepper over it.
7. Finish the mushrooms. Turn the burner on high and boil down the liquids almost to a glaze. Add any meat juices that have accumulated with the resting flank steak. Taste for salt and add any if needed.
8. If you have a large steak, it may be easier to first cut it in half along the grain of the steak fibers. Then slice it thinly, on an angle, against the grain. Serve immediately with the mushrooms.

Serves 6.

Flank Steak right off the grill

Lovely mushroom topping 

Duchess Potatoes

You can easily scale up this recipe. To make ahead for a dinner party, just prepare the mashed potatoes, pipe them and refrigerate. Put them in a 425°F oven 20 minutes before serving to brown.

Prep time:  10 minutes Cook time:  40-45 minutes.

Ingredients

• 2 lb. potatoes (Yukon Golds work best), peeled and cut into chunks
• Salt
• ¼ cup heavy cream
• 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, divided
• ¼ tsp. nutmeg
• ½ tsp. black pepper
• 3 egg yolks

Directions

1. Place potatoes in a medium to large pot (3 qt.) and cover with a couple inches of cold water. Add a couple tsp. of salt to the water. Bring to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are tender (the tines of a fork easily pierce), about 20-25 minutes.
2. While the potatoes are boiling, melt 2 Tbsp. of butter and set aside. You will use this butter to coat the potatoes right before they go in the oven. Preheat the oven to 425°.
3. When the potatoes are cooked, drain in a colander and put the potatoes back in the pot set over low heat. Allow them to release steam for a minute or so. Add 2 Tbsp. of butter and mash the potatoes until the butter has been incorporated. Add the nutmeg, black pepper, heavy cream and continue mashing the potatoes. Once everything is incorporated, add salt to taste and the egg yolks. Continue to mash until the mixture is smooth. Do not over-mash or your potatoes will end up with a gluey consistency.
4. Using a piping bag with a large star point, pipe the potatoes onto a cookie sheet. Alternatively, you can just fill a casserole dish with the mashed potatoes, and use a fork to create lots of peaks on the surface. The swirled edges from the star-point piping bag forms or the peaks of mashed potatoes in a casserole dish will brown nicely in the oven. The browned parts taste great, so you want to maximize them.
   
5. Whether you make piped portions or a casserole, paint the potatoes with the melted butter. Bake in the 425°F oven until nicely browned, about 20 minutes. 

Serves 6.

Blueberry Buckle

Prep time:  5 minutes Cook time:  50 minutes

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup butter
• ½ cup white sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• ¼ tsp.salt
• ½ cup milk          
• 2 ½ cups blueberries
• ¾ cup white sugar
• ½ cup boiling water
• 1 Tbsp. butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375º F. Grease the bottom of a 9" square pan.
2. In a large bowl, cream ¼ cup butter and ½ cup sugar.
3. In a separate small bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Stir into butter mixture. Stir in milk; mixture will be thick and lumpy. Spread batter into the prepared pan.
4. In a large bowl, combine berries, ¾ cup sugar and ½ cup boiling water. Pour over the batter in the pan. Dot the top with remaining 1 Tbsp. butter.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 50 minutes.