Green Stuff on Meat


 

JRPfeff

TVWBB Guru
Hello again Jamie,

It is a welcome sign that Summer is right around the corner when your books are released each year. One of my favorite recipes from you came as a Weber Recipe of the Week, or something other than a book. Chipotle-Citrus Shrimp with Sour Cream Dipping Sauce is fantastic. Anyway, I hope it made this book because I always have trouble finding it.

At a restaurant last week my wife ordered fish with a chimichurri sauce. As she ate her fish, she kept saying how good the sauce would be on steak (I didn't share my steak). It wasn't something I would normal choose, but we found a recipe and had filets with chimchurri this weekend. I loved it.

Your 7-page mini-book includes New York Strip Steaks with Basil-Arugula Pesto, so suddenly I'm seeing green stuff on steaks everywhere. Is this a new trend or have I just missed this food combination?

Jim
 
Hi Jim --
It's good to hear from you, although when I first saw you message I thought we might be talking about molding meat. Thank goodness the topic is herby sauces. Chimichurri sauce comes out of Argentine cooking, which is of course famous for grilled meats. Grillers down there like to spoon chimichurri on all kinds of meat. There is something about the juxtaposition of a uncooked, bright sauce against the flavors of cooked meat. Chimichurri is usually made with parsley, oregano, garlic, oil, vinegar, and salt. Sometime they add red chile flakes (or at least black pepper) and sometimes cilantro makes its way in there. Like a pesto, it lends itself to variations. Also like a pesto, it has been around for hundreds of years. They just happen to be "in fashion" again now. I have a recipe in Weber'd Greatest Hits for Pepper-Crusted Prime Rib Roast with Hazelnut Pesto that uses toasted hazelnuts (instead of pine nuts) and the herbs are cilantro, parsley, and oregano (instead of basil). Now that I think of it, maybe I should have called that a chimichurri sauce, although pesto means "pounded," so anytime you pound or pulverized herbs and nuts and oil, you are making a kind of pesto. If it's balanced with enough salt and acid, life is good.
 

 

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