Blistered Peppers

The other day I purchased a packet of Padron peppers on a whim at the farmers market. Padron peppers are beautiful green Spanish peppers that I had absolutely no idea how to prepare. If you are starting to notice a pattern, you are astute. I have a habit of purchasing ingredients I have no idea how to cook, then jumping in with both feet. Good news is this particular recipe is simple and doesn't require exotic ingredients. Bad news is the first batch with proper Padron peppers got eaten before I could take a photo so you will have to settle for the supermarket generic sweet peppers. Boo hoo.

1 pack of Padron or sweet peppers (any pepper under three inches long that you can stand to eat in bulk will work)
Sea Salt
Olive Oil
Dilithum Crystals

I'll be honest, I pinched that last ingredient from Star Trek because I felt the list was too short, but trust me these are delicious. Heat a skillet to high heat with a few glugs of oil in it. Open all the windows in your house, get a few fans running and be prepared for smoke. Once the oil is shimmering toss as many peppers as can comfortably fit in the skillet. They need to all be making full contact with the cooking surface, so don't over crowd. Shake the pan every 10 seconds or so, and turn with tongs as needed. You are looking for even blistering. I myself prefer a bit of char, but that's up to your taste, as long as they get nice and blistered you don't need them black. Cook this way for 4-6 minutes, remove to a plate when at the desired doneness. Add a few generous pinches of sea salt on top and eat as soon as they are cool enough to handle. These are a perfect appetizer for any meal and a damn good reason to buy multiple packs of peppers at the market.

Coeur de Boeuf avec Persillade

Right so Coeur de Boeuf is beef heart. If that sentence makes your stomach turn probably best to jog on. On the other hand if you are the least bit intrigued by beef heart, stick around, I've got some good news for you.
I was wandering our local Nugget market the other day and walked passed the weird meat freezer. This is where the Nugget keeps their truly strange products; pheasant, pork belly, tripe, its all there. I walked past and nearly missed it, this massive hulking challenge. Shannon was disgusted I was even suggesting purchasing it but at five dollars for the whole thing I could throw it out and call it a wash. I've had most expensive drinks that were too bad to finish and this was clearly worth the risk. I wandered around the market completely giddy and grinning like an idiot, my head swimming with ideas. When I got home I did some research and settled into the recipe below.

1 beef heart 3-4 pounds
5 cloves garlic minced (I used pink garlic, its a bit more mild which helps with the persillade)
1 bunch parsley, chopped
mixed greens
olive oil
salt
pepper

The exterior has a thick layer of fat that needs to be removed.

The interior has a thin membrane and some connective tissue that needs to go.

 I'd like to think I own some decent knives and know how to use them fairly well, but this was a wonderful challenge. Beef heart is the second most difficult thing I've ever had to butcher, but it is by far the most fun. Rabbit is more difficult by a slight margin, but there is more pressure and less joy in rabbit. Beef heart offers all the difficulty and practice, but none of the pressure. Its a cheap cut and there is a ton of it! Make as many bad cuts as you like, just learn from them.

Start with the back and work your way around. Its pretty clear what needs cutting away and what doesn't. When you are done it should look about like this.

Doesn't that look just like beef? It's because it is.

You could marinade it whole at this point, grill it like a tri-tip or a flank steak or you could do what I did, cut it against the grain into thick slices. Salt the beef thoroughly, cover with half the garlic and a light crack of pepper. Place the meat in a plastic bag with a quarter cup of olive oil, then let marinate for an hour.

Persillade is basically a pesto, sub parsley for the basil, skip the nuts and cheese. Actually its closer to a pisu. Actually, its not really like either, exempt maybe in texture and color. Place the remaining garlic, the parsley, and olive oil in a blender. Crack some pepper into it and add a heavy pinch of salt. I used pink finishing salt because I'm fancy like that, but kosher or sea salt will work fine. Pulse until it looks like persillade/pesto/pisu, then chill.

Grill the beef like you would a steak to medium rare, about 2 1/2 minutes a side. Serve over a pile of mixed greens with a spoonful of persillade.

I personally could not be more excited about this discovery. It Doesn't taste game-y, its super tender, cheap, fun to work on, loves marinades, and is dead easy to cook. I won't go so far as to say its a substitute for a rib-eye, but under the right conditions I'd put it against a tri-tip. I was honestly expecting a huge hunk of liver, but its incredibly tame, a little like lamb. If this were a different world I would bring this to every barbecue, but we just aren't there yet as a society. Shannon hit the nail on the head when she said, "It looks like beef, smells like beef, tastes like beef, but I know it's heart." If you bring this to a barbecue, 70-90% of the people there wont touch it, and that's a damned shame. If you happen to have four or five friends who don't mind trying something really different, its a must buy.