Going lighter on the meat: One Local Summer: Week 8

Steak and mushrooms, corn on the cob, and zucchini & squash. All local and cost about $13 for the whole meal.

I didn’t prepare too many meals, and I didn’t get around to preparing a meal specifically for One Local Summer. I did use local ingredients throughout the week, and I did get to The Tortilla Press for Farm Fresh Collingswood week where I had a meal prepared with many ingredients from the farmers market. As a matter of fact, Chef Mark is extending his Farm Fresh Collingswood menu through this week (I suppose it’s becoming his Farm to Fork menu).

There were five us at the table, and we all enjoyed our meals immensely, but if I had to suggest just one of the items off The Tortilla Press’ Farm Fresh menu, it would be the squash blossom soup. Or the blueberry flan. Okay, I know that’s two items, but they were both so good.

Anyway, since I didn’t cook a specific local meal, I didn’t have anything to submit to Farm to Philly’s challenge for last week. However, I cooked my local meal for this week last night.

I need to preface this with the fact that after we saw the movie Food, Inc., my husband Brian leaned over to me and gave me permission to buy less meat and better meat. So I’ve been loading our plates up with tons of fresh veggies (not to difficult in July), and serving smaller portions of meat. I hadn’t tried this with steak yet. I did last night.

These two small steaks served three of us - my youngest was happy to forgo the meat.

I bought two small ranch steaks (about 4 – 5 oz each) from Hillspride Farms at the the farmers market on Saturday morning. A ranch steak comes from the shoulder of a cow. Apparently, it’s normally called a boneless chuck shoulder center cut steak but it’s been dubbed ranch steak because it sounds better and is easier to remember. It’s usually a small cut of steak, and is supposed to naturally be a little tough.

Let me tell you, these steaks were not tough. I marinated them in 10 Clove Garlic Marinade, and then cooked them on the grill for 5 minutes a side. They were so tender and flavorful. Nothing tough about them at all. I sliced up a pound of brown mushrooms from Kennet Square (via the farmers market) and sauteed them and poured them over the finished steaks. Oh, yum. Steak and mushrooms is always a winning combo, but I learned last night that the pairing has the added bonus of making you feel like there is more steak on the plaste than their really is.

Still, Brian was a little pouty when his steak was gone. It takes a little getting used to when you’re accostomed to eating 10 or 12 oz steaks to switch to one half that size, even if it is delicious.

I rounded the dinner out with corn on the cob and zucchini, squash and green onion that I did in a foil packet* with a little bit of butter and seasoned salt. All of the veggies were bought at the farmers market.

One of the fabulous things about the summer bounty is that you can load your plate up with flavorful, fresh, local vegetables and serve small portions of meat without feeling very cheated. I grew up with the meat as the main dish – a large portion of meat on the plate at almost every meal with a small portion of one green vegetable and usually some sort of potato dish on the side. Changing that mindset isn’t easy, but meals like last night’s make it easier.

Have you been going lighter on the meat lately? How are you adapting to it? Any hints for us on how to make it less painful?

*I would love to find an alternative to using foil on the grill for steamed veggies. Until then, I use recycled aluminum foil and make sure the used foil gets recycled.