These past couple of days I have made some pretty tasty food. We just recently discovered that the grill that the previous owner had left behind, actually worked. We just had to get a propane tank. I grilled steak out the first night that we were able to use the grill. I loove grilled foods.. whether it's steak, or chicken, or veggies.. like a ratatouille. I love the taste of charred foods.. ooh especially charred bell peppers. There is nothing better than grilling out especially in the summer and, now that we are coming to the last couple of days of summer here in Virginia Beach, you almost have to take advantage of the grill. So anyways, this is what I made the first night of christening the grill: I marinaded the ny strip in olive oil, lemon juice and zest from one lemon, 1 jalaepno (the seeds and ribs had been removed bc that is where all of the heat lies), 3 small garlic cloves minced and salt. We like our steak medium rare so we only grilled it on each side for a few minutes. I made some roasted potatoes to go along with the steak. It was delicious!!!! I went to this really cute wine bistro type place that we have here in vb the other day and they had taken romaine hearts and charred them whole on the grill. They served them whole and crumbled some gorgonzola cheese over top and had a few slices of asian pear on the side (pear and blue cheese pairs very well). Anyways, I was thinking about taking this idea of charring the greens but maybe using a different type of cheese.. maybe feta? Or if I used gorgonzola I would probably drizzle some honey over top of the romaine hearts to give it some type of dressing.. maybe mixing honey and olive oil, salt and pepper? I just absolutely loved the idea that they had as making the charred hearts of romaine as a salad.. so raw and yet so simple. The effect that it had as presentation was phenomenal.. very catchy!!!
Lately, the food trend around here seems to be "back to basic," and if you think about it, there is nothing better than biting in to a fresh apple over having apple sauce. I feel like with all of the growth in technology and the widespread of gourmet food, we have forgotten that simple, raw etc goes a long way. It's funny because it seems like even the nicest of restaurants are beginning to incorporate more "raw" food into their menus. I feel like I am using the term "raw" too often and not specifiying what I actually mean. Raw in regards to raw foodism refers to uncooked, unprocessed, organic food. In this blog the terms "raw" and "organic" are interchangeable. Natural food sections are being incorporated more and more in grocery stores and more and more I am meeting people who prefer "organic" over "regular" food. I actually enjoy eating raw vegetables. The taste is simple and fresh and the texture has substance. The next time you choose to make green beans get the raw string beans and grill them. The smokiness from the grill along with the texture that it creates really just pops in your mouth! :)
