Cathy's Pre-Birthday Steak-a-Thon

Wine:

Tschermonegg 2003 Cuvee Styria
Gevrey Chambertin 1990


John called to tell us he was coming to LA to sell some wine and wanted to stay with us. We were planning a steak dinner as a pre-birthday dinner for Cathy. I had ordered 2 Porterhouse Steaks from Gus Meats. I called and left and requested a 3rd one. I knew we would have way too much steak with three, but we like leftovers and knew we would do something great with all the extra meat.

In the morning I went to Gus Meats to pick up the three steaks. They were huge! 2.5 pounds each! Cathy called me on my cell to inform me that a 4th steak had just been airmailed to us from New York. Michael and Tamara send us a Kobe Porterhouse from Lobel’s for her birthday. I seriously wondered if all 4 steaks could fit on the grill.

After picking up the steaks I went to Joan’s on Third, which has great takeout. I bought their great Pita Chips and Hummus. We have had, and have made pita chips but NONE are as good as Joan’s. She definitely gets the Pita Chip medal!

In addition, at Joan’s I picked up two sides to serve with the steak: a great Fresh Corn Salad, and a Fennel Salad made with fennel and fresh oranges.

Cathy and I made a Roasted Fingerling Potatoes from The Zuni Café Cookbook.
It is a great recipe and unusual in that you add wine to the potatoes and cook covered.

The consensus was that the Kobe Steak from Lobel's was more tender, the Gus steaks were more flavorful.

For we made the Upside Down Fig Cake, one final time for this season.

John was our featured guest, and really walked into a fabulous dinner!

We did have a lot of left over steak! My sister and Sharon were going to be in the neighborhood on Friday (she had a medical procedure) and we planned to serve the leftover steak to them. However, she needed to go directly home and so we had the leftover by ourselves on Friday night. But we still had lots of leftover steak. I came up with the idea of making a Roast Beef Hash out of the remaining steak.

On Saturday night we went to Campanile and mentioned to Mark Peel the Chef / Owner that we planned to make the hash with the leftover steak. He said the meat was to good to use in a hash, we should make Steak Sandwiches. On Sunday when we were at the Hollywood Farmer's Market as usual and I purchased some Cipollini Onions and an Asiago Cheese Bread from LA Bread Stand. I sautéed the onions for at least an hour, and then toasted the bread. I made sandwiches for lunch by spooning lots of the sautéed onions on the toasted bread layering sliced room temperature steak on the bread and covering (mine not Cathy’s) with creamed horseradish. A fabulous sandwich! Forgot to take a picture. We still plan to make the hash!