Smooooth

In his book Boy Gets Grill, Bobby Flay wrote that he spent on summer experimenting with flavored butters. This was the (successful) result of one of these experiments - Grilled Ribeye Steak with Cilantro-Garlic Butter (page 220 of Boy Gets Grill). Sometimes you see resturants advertise "steak toppings" and they show piles of mushrooms or onions or tomato sauce slathered over their steaks. When I see that, I think they are just trying to cover up for a poor quality steak and that a really well grilled streak needs nothing else to make it great. The one exception I have found to this rule is butter, so I was really interested in trying this recipe. The butter is a mixture of garlic, chopped cilantro, line juice, salt and ground black pepper. After getting it all together, I set it out so the butter would warm to room temperature while I grilled the ribeyes. When the steaks came off the grill, I put a spoon of the butter right on the steak - but really that was just for the photo above. One of Bobby's best suggestions is to avoid just dumping cold butter on your steak, but instead brush it on both side of the steak. This allows the flavored butter to mix with the natural juices of the steak. The butter then becomes invisible (which is not good for a photo) but the flavors together are terrific - but the butter was the star of the show.


Dorothy selected both the wine and the music: Cabernet and Yacht Rock.


What to Drink? The Cabernet was from Hogue Cellars from the Columbia Valley of Washington State. We don't venture out of California very often, but when we do, we like Washington. Wines get a vanilla and oak flavor when they age in oak barrels. When wines are aged in stainless steel barrels it is to avoid the oak taste - like most white wines. The red wine, oak and flavored butter on the steak could not have been a better match. 


What was on? Yacht Rock is a genre of music that is partly a spoof. To be considered Yacht Rock it must be from the 1970's to early 1980's and must be smooth. The leader of all Yacht Rock tunes is Sailing by Christopher Cross.  Also in group is Kenny Loggins, Steve Windwood, Michael McDonald, England Dan & John Ford Coley, Steely Dan, and some Doobie Brothers (but no Hall & Oates). Yacht Rock was featured on Jimmy Fallon last year and there is even a TV show called Yacht Rock, but you can only watch it on YouTube. Check out episode 1 and "Hollywood Steve" will explain Yacht Rock better than I can:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMTI8vg7A5U


Sailing and Butter on Steak - smooooth!

Paul