Carnivore's Paradise

I wish I were more of a carnivore so that I could have a greater appreciation for all the meat I'll be cooking over the next three weeks. I keep thinking of Zack and how much he would love everything we're learning in Meat Fabrication (Meat Fab for short). Our wise-cracking chef, Chef K., is of the same meat-loving mentality. Yesterday he sauteed up some green beans to go with all of the protein we had cooked. He bit into one and said "vegetables just don't taste as good as meat." I must say, I have to disagree! I love vegetables and am always more drawn to them than to the meat on my plate, no matter whether they're virtuously steamed or drenched in butter.

I'm certainly not a vegetarian, but I could probably get by as one pretty easily as long as I could eat fish. I believe the term is pesco-vegetarian and I was one, actually, for about three years between sixth and eighth grades. This time period included an entire summer spent in Italy with my family, where I'm sure I missed out on tons of delicious things made with meat. And then I chose to break my vegetarianism one evening at summer camp when the chicken nuggets served at dinner just looked really, really good. But I digress...

In Meat Fab, we'll be cutting up and cooking meat from pretty much every animal. On our first day, we broke down chickens, which have been a staple in my diet ever since that chicken nugget day at camp. We learned how to cut a whole bird into the traditional 8 pieces: breasts, legs, thighs, and wings. To get a little more fancy, Chef K. showed us how to cut airline chicken breasts, which have the clean wing bone sticking up for a more fine-dining-style presentation. We then de-boned the leg and thigh quarters--a lot easier than it sounds--and stuffed them to make little roulades. My group made a tasty stuffing with chunks of baguette (probably made by us last week in Baking & Pastry!), spinach, sundried tomatoes, and goat cheese.

The amount of food prepared in this class really is over-the-top: on chicken day, each student broke down a chicken, so that means we had about 25 whole chickens cut up once we were done. It works out because Meat Fab provides all of the portioned meat for other classes: when we cooked chicken breasts in Skills 2, the Meat Fab class had cut them.

Today, we got into red meat. Chef showed us how to cut all kinds of steaks, and now I actually understand the differences between them. He brought out a huge hunk of meat which turned out to be the short loin of a cow. From that, he cut a few porterhouses, T-bones, and New York strips. We then took top sirloin meat off the bone, mixed it with fat (80:20 ratio of lean meat to fat), and put it through the grinder to make hamburgers.

Our meaty buffet, complete with steaks, burgers, and bacon (to go on the burgers)

We also made some vegetables and steakhouse-style sides to round out this buffet of beef--from the insight above, you probably guessed that I found this to be the most fun. One of my classmates who is a restaurant kitchen vet showed me how to make a killer creamed spinach with bechamel sauce, onions, white wine, and parmesan. Our class also made our own fries, onion rings, and mashed potatoes.

Our creamed spinach cooking

Hand-cut fries seasoned with a spice blend that we threw together...a pinch of chili powder is a great touch.

As if this weren't enough steak for one day, after class Zack and I headed over to Atlanta's new branch of BLT Steak for an opening event. Laurent Tourondel, the New York-based French chef who heads the BLT empire, was in town to unveil his latest outpost. I thought it would just be a few nibbles and schmoozing, but we were seated for a full multi-course lunch. In addition to Tourondel's famous popovers (I got the recipe!), there were multiple cuts of steak and tiny cast-iron pots filled with sides. I loved his Southern-inspired riff on creamed spinach, replacing it with collard greens. There were a few other sides that you wouldn't see at BLT in New York or DC, like grits with crumbles of gorgonzola and spicy creamed corn, and I actually found them to be the best. I'll be skipping dinner tonight!

BLT's ethereal popovers

Creamy collards

I'm so sick of tuna tartare, but this one was really excellent, layered with avocado and topped with crispy shallots.

Naturally, I forgot to take a picture of the steak at BLT Steak! For the record, Zack thought the New York strip was great (very tender and flavorful) and the hangar steak was also well-cooked but that cut is a bit too chewy for his taste.