When it came time to think about what I wanted to cook for the local/paleo potluck there was very little question in my mind. I would make a roast, and I would do it slowly. The why is pretty simple, roasted meat is as paleo as it gets and I love moist slow cooked beef. Therefore when I went shopping I knew I was looking for a giant hunk of beef that would remain bloody after many hours of slow cooking.
My shopping trip started at Marlow and Daughters where everyone knows I spend just about all my money. (Note: If you want amazing meat from really nice incredibly knowledgeable people who have done everything they recommend personally - and are generally awesome - go to Marlow and Daughters. But be warned that you will end up with a meat habit that matches some drug addictions for expense and obsession).
Our normal butcher Brent (not Tom Mylan, the guy who is in charge and has a really good blog about meat and cooking) was there to help me choose a roast. To be honest I pretty much do what ever he tells me and it always turns out well. Today I explained a little about the party and that I was looking for something a bit special to bring. All of the fresh meat sold at Marlow and Daughters is local by any definition, however they do stock some imported cured meats. I bought a sirloin tip roast from a cow that was raised by Slope Farm a grass only farm in Meredith NY a town of 1,588 people in the Catskills. Meredith is a 168 mile drive from our apartment in Brooklyn, but appears to be about 100 miles away as the crow flies. The cows at Slope are all either red or black Angus. The cow this roast comes from was a Red Angus. I am not particularly fond of Angus beef in general finding it to have less distinctive character than many smaller lesser known breeds. But finding anything else is challenging and a bit of a culinary risk, because Angus cows have been bred for a consistent crowd pleasing flavor that most people have come to think of as beef. Other breeds can taste substantially different from Angus, some of them wonderful and exciting, some lack luster and disapointing.. Red Angus tastes a lot like Black Angus but is thought to be better at tollerating heat (the cow not the meat), and is now the 9th most common beef breed in the U.S, while Black Angus is the raining king breed (kind of funny given the ads that make a big deal about beef being Angus when most U.S. cows are Angus).
Having decided on the cut and cow we went into the cooler and pulled out a giant, lovely piece of meat still attached to what looked like a leg bone (my cow anatomy could definitely be better so I am not sure of this). Brent cut the roast off the bone and trimmed and cleaned it. He then took the large leg bone and using a band saw, cut it rounds reserving three large ones for me (more about these later). The roast itself is a bit over 9 pounds and gorgeous (if you go in for that sort of thing).
While at Marlow and Daughters I also bought my normal weeks meat and some local organic rosemary and garlic (grown out on Long Island). And talked about preparation. The recipe I decided on with substantial input from both Brent and Tom, was simple. Marinate the roast in red wine for a couple of days (nice and inexact the way I like my recipes) and then slowly roast it in a 200 degree oven while periodically basting with marrow butter (recipe below) to an internal temperature of about 130 degrees.
For the marrow butter I needed butter so I bought a block of Evans butter, which is sold in oddly sized chunks wrapped in siran wrap - it is wonderful to get butter or any product without any words writen on the package at all.
Evans butter comes from Evans farmhouse creamery in Chenango County New York. The farm is about a 180 mile drive from our apartment but as the crow flies only maybe 90 miles away. This is a fascinating kink on eating local I hadn't previously thought of, and something we should discuss on Saturday. Is something local or from within 500 miles if you can draw a 500 mile circle an include it, or does it have to do with the actual route the food has taken. My guess is it comes down to why someone is eating local - be it for taste, health or environmental reasons. My reasons are mostly hedonistic, but liberally sprinkled with environmental and health concerns. This is the butter we usually eat at home - Laurel has been complaining recently about tasting the siran wrap so we have been thinking about finding a different butter or convincing them to use wax paper instead (it is remarkably easy to change the way things are done when you are working with small producers, and shows how powerful the consumer relationship can be when not dealing with mega corporations).
With meat, spices and butter in hand I now needed red wine, and it had to be local. Fortunately for me Bridget Tasting Rooms was only about two blocks away. Bridget is a small cafe/wine shop/tasting room which only serves New York food and New York Wine.
Bridget carries only a few vintages at a time and carefully pair their menu with the wines they are showcasing - I will definitely be coming back to try their food at some point. While I was in choosing a a 2003 Merlot from Bridge (the associated vineyard to Bridget) from North Fork Long Island a camera crew from PBS arrived to shoot a segment. They were doing a piece about the Bridget's approach of trying to create local wine culture for New York which meshes with the growing local food culture.
While buying the wine I asked the girl behind the counter about Bridge vineyards and she explained that it was a small winery started by Greg Sandor and Paul Wegimont. The concept behind the winery is to create a bridge between local foods and local wines thus their name. Bridge wines are only sold locally. While the space feels like a wine shop it is actually technically a satelite winery which is how they get away with selling wine in a non-liquor store. This was a very different wine buying experience because there were only 5 wines on sale in the whole shop, which felt like it should be located in Marin or some other beucolic locale rather than under the Williamsburg bridge with the occasional train thundering overhead. Later tonight I am going to sample some of the Merlot and report back on how Long Island wine is to a kid from Sonoma County...
After a quick ride on the J to the F it was time to start cooking.
I first needed to get the roast marinating so I poured a pint of the Merlot.
This was very tempting, but I didn't taste it because it was crucial that my super carefully measured pint be used for marinating (not actually important).
After combining beef and wine and putting that in the fridge (I will jostle this a few times a day but otherwise ignore it for the next two days) I set about to make the marrow butter. I am making the marrow butter well in advance because a) I can. and b) the flavors will combine much more harmoniously if they spend a long time sitting together mellowing.
I took the marrow bones and put them in a 400 degree oven for 14 minutes until the central marrow stalk was oozing and spoon tender and the bones were acquiring a dark moody character.
While the bones were roasting I pulled the rosemary off the stalk and peeled some garlic.
I pounded the garlic and then the rosemary in a mortar and pestle to create a wonderful smelling green ooze.
At this point I had taken the marrow bones out of the oven and let them sit to cool.
I scooped out the marrow from the bones and and let it cool further so it would not melt the butter and change the consistency of the final product.
To be continued...
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