steak-with-chimmichiri_ready-to-eat

It is no secret that I love to eat seasonally and that I am a big fan and customer of my local farmer’s market. Recently we discovered a new vendor at the market – a dairy and grassfed beef farm. I was so excited to discover a convenient place to get locally produced raw milk, yogurt, eggs and grassfed beef. I am sure that I will post some recipes featuring these exciting ingredients, but today I am going to show you this really nice dinner that showcases the bounty of spring.

We have been trying to eat as seasonally as possible for the past year now. It is fun to see now how much we look forward to certain things during the year. For example fresh English peas in the pod. These little beauties are like the heralds of spring. Just their very color is indicative of the season – beautiful spring green.

steak-with-chimmichiri_peas-and-potatoes

I am not sure if I have mentioned it on the blog before, but I know that I have chatted quite a bit about it on both Facebook and Twitter, but Roberto and I have been working out a lot lately – we do martial arts and weight lifting several times a week, among other things. With increased activity, has come an increased need for good quality protein and so we have been eating more meat than we had prior, especially on days that we are pumping lots of iron. As I have mentioned before, I try to eat solely Happy Meat and since our previous grassfed beef vendors at the farmers market has not been around for several months, we have been relying a lot on the Greenwise line of meat from our local grocery, Publix. A few weeks ago they had steaks on sale, so I got one to put in the freezer.

There were some fingerling potatoes – another spring veggie, that needed eating, and so I decided it was a good time to bring these three things together – steak, potatoes and fresh peas.

steak-with-chimmichiri_herbs-for-chimmichiri

Then I got inspiration from my fresh herbs out on the porch. I have always wanted to make a Chimmichuri sauce – its vibrant green color and fresh taste is very attractive to me on so many levels, and it just felt like it would go great with this meal.

Chimmichuri is typically made with fresh cilantro or parsley as the main herb, but I don’t have either of them growing. So I used what I do have – basil and oregano. I thew these herbs together with olive oil, citrus champagne vinegar and a few other spices to make a fabulous tangy and herbal sauce for the steak.

steak-with-chimmichiri_cooking-steaj-and-peas

I pan roasted the fingerling potatoes by throwing them in a large pan with olive oil, salt and pepper and cooking until they are browned on all sides. I then thew them in the oven at 425 F for 20 minutes, then tossed them with fresh chives. Then I thew my steak in the pan, seasoned with salt and pepper and red pepper flakes. I sautéed the peas with olive oil and 3 cloves of garlic. It was a wonderful meal full of the fresh flavors of spring.

steak-with-chimmichiri_wine

We enjoyed it with a lovely bottle of Ravenswood Lodi. I am a big fan of Ravenswood wines and the Lodi is one of the more expensive bottles they carry. So we bought it to save for a special occasion. Nothing says special like a hard workout followed by a steak dinner!

Chimmichuri

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup basil
¼ cup oregano
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup citrus champagne vinegar
3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 TBS sumac
salt to taste

METHOD:

Throw it all in a food processor or blender and blend until it becomes a sauce.