Smackdown: Powering Through

I am a trooper.

I slept like ass last night and woke up sick to my stomach, so I spent the day working from my couch and nibbling on toast. Maybe it’s my body’s way of getting back at me for not going to BlogHerFood. Have fun, y’all. I’ll just sit here with my ginger ale and pretend to be happy.

Point is: nausea, which is not usually conducive to cooking. But I felt better over the course of the day, so I sucked it up and made dinner anyway. Pat me on the back, I’m a fucking hero.

This herb-crusted skirt steak with radish and herb salad and pepper puree is from Harvest to Heat.

Specifically, it’s a recipe from the chef of Craigie on Main, which is one of the restaurants that was on the short list during our recent trip to Boston but ultimately didn’t make the cut. I’m sure this homemade version of his food is just as good, though. I am very talented.

Snort.

I threw some cubanelle peppers under the broiler to roast and turned my attention to the herbs; some basil, cilantro and parsley met their match in the FoPro and were blended to a coarse paste along with some olive oil. I gave a skirt steak an herbaceous rubdown and stashed it in the fridge to flavor-meld.

The leftover herbs I chopped up, along with the radishes, for the aforementioned radish and herb salad.

Seven to eight minutes a side, and the cubanelles were beautifully charred, softened and fragrant. I moved ’em to a bowl covered with plastic wrap to steam and cool.

Have I mentioned that I’m not at BlogHerFood? And that lots of you are? I’m just saying.

When the peppers were handle-able, I skinned them and ran them through the blender with some more olive oil. I also pre-heated a cast iron skillet to sear off the skirt steak and dressed the radishes and herb lightly with still move olive oil, red wine vinegar and salt.

The smell of the herb-crusted meat hitting the hot pan was so fresh and lovely that I almost forgot for a minute that I’m not at BlogHerFood.

The steak finished cooking and got a brief rest while I smeared some pepper puree across and plate and piled up some radish and herb salad.

This dinner was solid. I think it would have been better had I been able to grill the steak (damn shit spring weather), and were we far enough in the growing season that I could have picked the herbs fresh in the backyard. But still, solid. The pepper puree was gently sweet and paired nicely with the bite of the salad. The herb crust on the meat was fresh and fragrant.

I have to assume that this would be markedly better at the actual Craigie on Main, due to restaurant magic. Not that it was bad, mind you. It just wasn’t palate-blowing, and I assume the food at Craigie on Main is palate-blowing.

To sum up, I am not at BlogHerFood.

PS: I know I’ve been derelict about responding to your comments this last week, and I apologize. I’ll get my shit together.