Rib Eye Florentine
This one was simple to come up with, simple to execute, and I damn near flubbed it big time.
The steaks won't take much discussion. At the appropriate time in the competition, Randy applied salt and pepper to four approximately 6 oz. rib eye steaks. He put them on the grill until they were medium (God Bless him...).
The Florentine part was the trick. Florentine probably means something in particular to many people. On menus, it typically denotes 'with spinach,' as the people of Florence are known for such dishes. Greco's braggiolle could have been Braggiole Florentine if he'd wanted to call it that.
My 'Florentine' was a carmelized onion and spinach risotto. Harken back, dear readers, to the post on cooking, when I told you that, Lord willing and the creek don't rise, I was going to make a risotto of some sort.
Right out of the gate, five minutes into the competition, I got started. While I had a sauce going on one burner I decided to go ahead and carmelize the onions and sautee the spinach for the risotto. One step down WAY early so I could concentrate on other things.
I carmelized a vidalia onion in butter, salted to sweat at first. Then I added in about a bag of fresh baby spinach to wilt/saute down a bit. Put it in a bowl and forgot about it.
And I mean FORGOT ABOUT IT.
Dutiful blog-ka-teers will no doubt recall that we decided to bump from 2 hours to 2 hours and fifteen minutes.
Well, at about the 1 hour 50 minute mark, I'm checking on the grill (Randy's okay) and see the steaks.
I see the steaks...
I don't have the risotto started!!!!
This was one of the three of four times during the Iron Chef that I ran, I ran so far away.
Into the kitchen. Curse. Find 4 quart sauce pan. Get a burner clear, get the onion/spinach into the pot, up to temp, add the rice, coat and heat, add the wine (1/2 cup, pinot grigio), stir, stir, stir. Crank that heat.
...Crap, now I have to get all the other dishes plated...
...Add a 1/2 cup of chicken stock, stir...
...Randy, watch that risotto while you polish off the raspberry reduction...
...Slice the roulade. Plate the roulade...
...Add more chicken stock, stir, stir, stir...
...Help Herb, grab the Gnocchi. No room on their side, find a spot on our counter...
...Watch out for the oven door, it's open and a counter space for Greco's ragu...
...Add 1/2 cup chicken stock. Stir, stir, stir...
...Taste. Still crunchy, 10 minutes to go. Crank the heat, add more stock. Stir, stir, stir...
...Greco needs the gnocchi drained, Herb has no hands, I got it covered guys. Herb, I need a hand, there's no strainer. Hold that knife edge to the pan lip so I can drain these enough...
...Add 1/2 cup stock. Stir, stir, stir...
...It's done????...
...Plate it, spread, apply steak to risotto, bit more on top. Is that enough color? Yeah, it's what we've got....
That's Florentine to me.
4 comments:
so what you're saying is you like spinach?
"I yam what I yam!" I likes what I likes.
Did someone say gnocchi?
yeah, that was part of greco's third dish, so i'll get it rolled out here on the blog soon enough.
Post a Comment