Sear

This dish is unbelievable. It may just be one of my favorite ways to eat steak. The complex depth of floral, almost fruity flavors in this hot sauce shines when served with a simply grilled steak and cuts through the richness of the meat.

At the height of summer, I’m always thinking of new ways to combine farmer’s market vegetables. Eggplants and peppers are a natural pair, and I like to highlight their different textures here. I roast the eggplants until they almost collapse, but quick-char the peppers to keep their crunch while giving them a smoky flavor. Perfectly seared scallops tie the two textures and flavors together.

Don’t get me wrong from the title—I treat these tender babies right. First you blacken ‘em in a smoking skillet and then finish ‘em off with a blue cheese-studded BBQ sauce. If that’s not respect, I don’t know what is.

We owe it to Riad Nasr and Lee Hanson at Balthazar for the revival of the plat pour deux in restaurants. It’s great for the passionate cook, and great for the passionate diner, as it denotes a more willing, yet easygoing approach. Nicolas Jongleux used to do a guinea hen for two, the breast on the bone with jus truffé, in fine china; vegetables in a silver casserole dish; and a second service of legs with squash gnocchi and mimolette cheese. It was beautiful food made perfect by the antique tableware. Alain Ducasse once said that if you go with a date to the cinema, you don’t go to different movies; the same applies to dining. If you and your companion agree, it can be heaven. Why another book with a côte de boeuf? Because this is the Joe Beef côte de boeuf. A côte de boeuf is a majestic cut. It is 2 1/2 pounds (1.2 kilograms) of natural, aged, carefully butchered steer goodness. In our mind, a côte de boeuf has to be cut by hand, leaving the bone intact. (One, if not the main, difference between European and American butchery is the use of the meat saw. In North America, the cuts are based on sawing parts; in Europe, the cuts are made by knife, every muscle separated.) At Joe Beef, the side dishes keep coming when you order a côte de boeuf: green salad, fries, horseradish, red wine sauce, and marrowbones. This, in addition to the quality of the meat, is why we cannot justify lowering the price.

This dish is not surprising in taste (it’s duck, sausage, and potato—what can go wrong?), nor very feminine (in other words, it’s not pretty). We like the look a lot, because the fingerlings, duck pieces, and links are all the same size and shape. This is the best way to enjoy duck in the middle of the winter.

Some of our favorite customers—that is, Bobby Sontag—say that liver should always be served rare. This is (yet) another time where we disagree with him. Regarding Montreal smoked meat, we have one word: Schwartz’s. Not unlike bagels, smoked meat preferences fuel wars and countless throwdowns. In fact, the best smoked meat is the one you prefer. If you can’t get Montreal smoked beef brisket, you can substitute pastrami or even corned beef.

Here in Canada, horse is the great divide between Anglophone and Francophone—more than politics, more than Celine Dion. Horse equals Napoleon versus Nelson, or Wolfe versus Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham. The French do two things that Anglophones find disgusting: eat frogs and eat horse. To Anglophones, horses are royalty. And it’s understandable, as they’re truly majestic. They’re also really tasty. We don’t know anyone who raises horses for meat, yet the meat exists. So, if you don’t want to eat horse that has been on growth hormones and clenbuterol, buy it from a trusted butcher. It has a high iron content and makes a delicious tenderloin or tartare.

This is the kind of dish that used to be prepared tableside in Montreal chophouses. A few restaurants still do tableside crêpes Suzette, steak tartare, and specialty coffees. We get excited like kids on Halloween when we see that cart rolling toward us. It’s tough to do ourselves because of the size of Joe Beef, but we hope it comes back in a big way (and not in the “lavender and tomato essential oils being pumped over my table from a Provençal print balloon as we eat lamb and the waiter tickles our nose and ears with said lamb’s tail” way).

This entrée can easily be turned into a one-dish meal by serving it atop a bed of young escarole, sliced carrots, and shaved fennel—or any other hearty salad veggies—dressed with a little lemon juice and extra-virgin olive oil. This recipe will work well with other firm fish like swordfish.

Chimichurri sauce hails from Argentina and is sort of like a vinegary pesto. The sauce’s bright herby notes bring an unexpected freshness to the plate and balance out the rich beefy steak. Bavette is an underappreciated and fairly inexpensive cut that’s common in French bistros, and very similar to (and from the same muscle group as) flank steak. It’s flavorful but also tender, especially if you don’t cook it beyond medium-rare. If you can’t find bavette, flank or skirt steak would be the closest substitute, but any steak cut would work just as well. If you have leftovers, pile the beef on a baguette or crusty roll, top with onions, and slather on the sauce for a fantastic sandwich.

This dish is one of the first things I make once the Pacific salmon season has opened. It is the first sign that summer is near. Later in the summer, I make a similar dish with corn, zucchini, and tomatoes with fresh basil. Any combo of fresh, perfectly sweet, just-picked veggies will be a great complement to the fish. It’s especially important to buy wild salmon—even self-proclaimed “sustainable” salmon farms are dangerous because of the parasitic lice that thrive on farmed salmon; when the infested fish escape (a frequent occurrence), the lice threaten the wild salmon population. If wild salmon isn’t in season, use any sustainable fillet or steak that is of similar thickness. If available, use 1/4 cup chopped green garlic instead of the garlic cloves. And if you can find them, rainbow carrots are beautiful here.

Celery complements blue cheese, and blue cheese complements steak, so Brian put the three ingredients together. The salad includes celery leaves, which contribute a refreshing herbaceousness. Spooned over the steaks like a salsa or relish, it helps cut their richness. Serve with Potato and Celery Root Gratin (page 165) or wilted spinach.

Seattle chef Emily Moore created this dish for Passover, but it’s too good to reserve for a holiday. Keep the recipe in mind for those cold, rainy days when you want the warmth and comfort of a pot roast. Don’t let the butcher trim all the surface fat from the brisket, and if possible, make the dish a day ahead; it improves with reheating. If necessary, you can brown the meat in one pot, then transfer it to a roasting pan for baking. Accompany with egg noodles and a crisp escarole salad. Leftovers make great sandwiches. Chef Moore participated in the 1994 Workshop.

The plump and pristine Belgian endive from California Vegetable Specialties (see page 91) always impresses the Workshop chefs, and they come up with some novel uses for it. Chef James Boyce, a 2008 participant, made “choucroute” with the sliced endive, braising it with onion, bacon, and apples as if it were cabbage. He paired it with seared duck breasts, but you could serve it with a pork chop and boiled potatoes instead.

Lamb shoulder makes luscious meatballs because the ground meat has sufficient fat. It stays moist, even when reheated, so you can make the dish hours ahead. Brian sometimes makes miniature lamb meatballs to serve to visitors who participate in the winery’s Wine and Food Pairing Experience. In this larger size, the meatballs look and taste as if they were made by an Italian grandmother. Pair with pasta or white beans.

The venison we serve at Cakebread Cellars comes from Broken Arrow Ranch in Texas (see page 144). The meat is as dark as beef but much leaner, with even less cholesterol and fewer calories than skinless chicken breast. Like pork, venison has a natural sweetness that welcomes a tart, fruity sauce. At the 1998 Workshop, Bruce Hill paired it with wild huckleberries; wild blueberries make a good substitute. Serve the venison with potato puree, as Bruce did, or with Brussels sprouts, roasted root vegetables, or the celery root puree from The Cakebread Cellars Napa Valley Cookbook.

Country-style ribs, from the shoulder end of the pork loin, turn succulent with long, slow braising. In late winter and early spring, when California’s blood orange harvest is peaking, Brian adds their tangy juice to the braise, along with fennel wedges and kalamata olives. Like many braises, this dish reheats well. Serve with wide ribbon noodles, such as pappardelle.

Also known as sablefish, black cod thrives in the cold waters off the Pacific Coast, from California to Alaska. The fishery is managed sustainably, so many chefs have turned to black cod as a replacement for the more threatened Chilean sea bass. If you have ever had smoked sablefish in a New York delicatessen, you have eaten black cod. It is an oily fish, rich in heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. Chef Bruce Hill, who attended the 1998 Workshop, makes it the centerpiece of this inspired East-West seafood stew, which relies on fregola—a toasty, couscous-like Sardinian pasta—for texture and Japanese miso for flavor depth. Dashi is Japanese stock.

One of the benefits of working with so many chefs at the Workshop is that the experience sometimes takes us out of our comfort zone. We tend to shy away from spicy foods at the winery, but with this dish, Honolulu chef Alan Wong, who participated in the 1990 Workshop, reminded us that we don’t need to be so cautious. Our wine can happily accompany a dish with Thai flavors if the heat is balanced with a touch of sweetness and citrus and mellowed with coconut milk. We were pleased—and admittedly surprised—at how seamlessly our Anderson Valley Pinot Noir married with Alan’s red-curry sturgeon. Accompany the fish with stir-fried bok choy or spinach and steamed rice to soak up the luscious sauce.

From chef Greg Higgins, a 2000 Workshop participant, comes this idea of pairing salmon with cucumbers, saffron, tarragon, and a creamy white-wine reduction. No surprise that a chef from the Pacific Northwest would know what flavors are sublime with salmon.