Me with the calf I rescued from a ditch

By the time I came into the picture, my paternal grandparents had shifted from dairy cows to beef, Polled Herefords to be exact, and moved to Montana. My brother, sister, and I spent many a summer day up at their ranch, getting into our own scrapes, helping where we could, and learning the all-important lesson of farm to table.

I was really lucky to get these experiences. To look at me, you’d think I’m all town mouse. In fact, whenever playing, “To Tell the Truth,” my story about herding cattle always gets chosen because, well, no one looks at me and thinks, “Well golly, of COURSE she’s herded cattle.” Part of my luck, I feel, is that I was exposed to the whole circle of life and have a pretty priceless understanding of how a calf that I rescued from a ditch would someday end up as hamburger, and I was okay with that.

Understanding breeds acceptance. When I became a vegetarian, my beef-raising family accepted that change with nary a blink. When I returned to eating meat a few years later because of my health, that too was accepted. While I never came back to the place where I ate as much meat as I had before going veggie, I gotta say, a good grass-fed, grass-finished steak or hamburger is a lovely thing to experience.

Locally, we’re gifted with a wonderful beef rancher by the name of Jim Gates. His beef tastes as good as it gets – lean, juicy, and chock full of flavor. Jim is something of a rock star around these parts, and if you’ve ever had some Nevada County Free Range Beef or talked to Mister Salt-of-the-Earth himself, you know why.

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So, when I found myself at the butcher’s counter asking for 2” cubes of bottom round for a recipe made famous (twice) by Julia Child – I caught myself laughing out loud (yeah, lol).  Since I kind of pride myself in not knowing the trendy jargon of the times … I had to have some coaching on how to pronounce the name of the famous recipe.

Finding myself in this uncharacteristic situation was all thanks to my friend Tina, and her ambitious plan for a big family holiday dinner.  Boeuf Bourguignon for 14 people, and nothing less than local grass fed grass finished beef will do!

And … of course, this story begins at BriarPatch, where local grass fed grass finished Nevada County Free Range Beef is the ‘home brand’ at the meat counter.

My favorite team of resident experts in the meat department set me up right.  They knew just what I needed … including some French pronunciation lessons so I wouldn’t embarrass myself further.  I listened carefully while Robert explained in his best high pitched faux-Julia voice – how the cubes should be cut lengthwise to the marbling of the beef to insure tenderness, and as I tried hard to take this all in without focusing too much on the elf hat bobbing around as he worked, the whole place became filled with the joyful sound of Julia-impersonators calling out “Bon Appetit!”. – Ah, long holiday hours in the meat department!   I wasn’t the first to request this glamorous stew beef that day.

….. If my visit to the meat counter mirrors a scene from a movie, preparing this meal can only be compared to a theatre production.  And there’s nothing quite like arriving at the family holiday bearing gifts of fresh beef – for the opening scene.

The production begins, of course, by breaking the timeless rule about ‘too many cooks in the kitchen’, creating a tightly orchestrated chaos of Christmas music and 2 ½ conversations at once, over the underlying tenor of youngsters dodging underfoot – having no real reason to be in the kitchen, except to absorb some of the hectic atmosphere to mix with the sugar already in their systems – and me, creeping around under the radar – in the unfamiliar kitchen – opening each cabinet and drawer seeking baking dishes and allspice – hopefully without breaking the choreography of the boeuf  troupe who are spinning around the dancefloor, er kitchen floor at a faster pace than the pumpkin pudding troupe who are dancing to a more hesitant, uneven beat in a sort of mid-range octave between the staccato of the onion chopping and the slow, steady, adagio… of the eggnog stirring.

In-season vegetables, carrots, yellow onions, white pearl onions, red wine.

Didn’t have to convince anyone in this kitchen about the laurels of local, seasonal foods!

I’ll take a moment here, from the merriment … to mention:  when translating the recipe from boeuf to grass fed grass finished beef, be sure to allow some extra time – and pace yourself!  The grass fed beef should sear for a brief moment in the pan, to remain succulent, then be allowed to marinate in the wine and juices for a little longer than Julia might have.  Maybe a recipe-revision for a slow-cooker …

Toward the end of the suggested 2 ½ hours cooking time, slowly marinating in the juices … the boeuf needed more time, but since the wine and eggnog had been flowing freely, the cooks were rapidly marinating in our juices ….

But true to the season, we kept our spirits high.  Although the original 14 people had unexpectedly been reduced to 10.  I didn’t know at the time, having not seen the movie …… that this seems to be the curse of the Boeuf Bourguignon.  Announcing “more stew for us”, (again unconsciously mirroring lines from the script), received pretty much the same deflated response as it did in the film.

The final scene – good food, a quick recovery, compliments all around, and indeed – “..more stew for us”… another hour-plus later.  As Julia would have said, “ no excuses, no apologies, no explanations!”

So – I finally watched the movie.  The similarities to recent real-life are startling! .. right down to the food-blogging, and my quest to learn about good cooking.

Thanks Julia, for the inspiration .. and thanks Tina, for the adventure!

btw …  I got a lemon zester for Christmas !

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1. Time for class: Cooking Grass Finished Beef 101.
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Ok, those of you who know Jim Gates are thinking, “subtle, HA!” The colorful and authentic, modern day cowboy is a lot of things, but subtle is nowhere on that list. And, neither is it in his approach to cooking dinner.

I’ve struggled with steaks many times, trying so hard to cook them just right. Its not a difficult thing, I just seem to have this attention-deficit issue when I’m in charge of preparing food. I can give a whole new meaning to “blackened”!

So, rather than risk ruining a wonderful grass fed, grass finished beef filet, I turned to the expert – Mr. Jim Gates, rancher and owner of Nevada County Free Range Beef.

If your taste buds and aesthetics are craving an elegant dinner, a delicate lovingly marinated steak carefully arranged on fine china in a nest of tender baby vegetables accompanied by a perfectly paired wine … boy, you’re in the wrong place.

The cooking lesson at Jim’s begins by heating up the huge black iron pan that has a permanent position on his bachelor-sized stove. The basic recipe is, “when that thing is good ‘n hot, we throw those steaks on”.

Salt and pepper are as fancy as the seasonings get. On both sides of the meat. No marinade needed. This is good beef … don’t mess it up.

The real magic to the perfect steak technique is taking the beef off the heat at just that moment when it is mouth-wateringly juicy brown on the outside, and decadently rosy dark pink inside.

Grass finished beef is lean. Cooking it is different from cooking fat beef. You need to be present and mindful, as in all aspects of a good life ! Keep the heat lower than you would for grain fed beef. Keep the juices in – turn it carefully with tongs, don’t poke it with a fork while its cooking. And, even if it means not letting me be in charge of the grill ….. take it off the heat just before you think its done, so the juices and the full flavor can finish perfectly.

That’s it! Dinner is served. Jim Gates style. No reason to mess around with vegetables or salad. No wine to dull the tastebuds.

Jim hands me a sizzling plate and his buck knife. “Cut your meat and give that back to me so I can use it”, he tells me. It’s the only knife in the house. I clear myself a spot at the kitchen table and do just that. Although, I’m pretty sure I could have cut that meat with a butter knife !

This is the most amazing steak I’ve ever eaten. I’m not just saying that … I’m serious. It’s a meat lover’s dream. I can taste all the flavors all at once, in every bite.

It’s also the thickest filet I’ve ever seen. Like I mentioned before, nothing is subtle around here. I finished it off, thought about licking my plate … and, instead, stole another hunk of beef off of Jim’s plate when he wasn’t looking !

Beef, its what’s for dinner.

***

I recently tested my steak cooking skills at home. I didn’t do too badly!

One thick Nevada County Free Range Beef filet, a bit of sea salt and pepper, hot black skillet, about 4 minutes on each side …. Just right.

I was laughing to myself about stealing bites from Jim’s plate, and how he will never let me live that down. “Be sure to cook two steaks for Kathy, she’s bigger than she looks”, he’ll holler to whoever’s cooking.

As my mind wandered, I learned my lesson … I looked back at my sizzling plate just in time to catch a sharp-clawed white paw dragging my steak off the edge of the table! My otherwise uninterested-in-people-food cat was ‘hunting’ my dinner!

Well, there’s the final beef cooking lesson … eat it while its hot, and don’t take your eyes off the beef.

******************

Some noteworthy tidbits about grass fed, grass finished beef:

What’s the difference?

Pastured beef cows roam freely on grass pasture, and are not confined in a feed lot.

Grass fed and grass finished beef cows eat pasture grass, as they would naturally, and are not fed grains, soy, or other stuff to fatten them for market.

Grass finished cows eat grass all of their lives, they reach finish size a bit more slowly, and the meat is more lean.

Grain finished cows are fed grain to ‘finish’, to reach market size.  They may finish more quickly, and there is much more fat in the meat.

How does it taste?

What the cows eat does affect the flavor of the beef.

Since grass finished beef is leaner, the beef will have a ‘beefier’ taste, sometimes described as ‘nutty’ or ‘rich’.  Different pasture locations and types of grasses will give the beef a slightly different flavor.  For instance, I’ve tasted grass finished beef in Hawaii … it had a very mild flavor … like the weather there !  Grass finished beef in New Mexico tends to have a hint of sage.  The natural pasture and weather in our local area produces extremely flavorful beef, we’re really lucky here!

Grain finished beef has more fat surrounding the meat.  The fat flavors the meat when it cooks, giving the beef a milder, sort of buttery taste.  (did I say buttery, or ‘watery’ .. oh, sorry I’m a grass-finished fan)

Well-raised grass fed beef does not taste ‘gamey’. When cows are fed plenty of grass, they don’t go looking for unpleasant stuff to eat.  And happy, well-fed cows are calm.  The gamey taste in wild game comes from running and adrenalin.

Cooking Tips:

The basics are – if its frozen, let it thaw slowly, don’t microwave it

- cook it slowly, at a lower temperature, and don’t let the juices escape

-  cooking time should be shorter than for grain fed beef

- for longer cooking recipes, use a deep marinade to keep the beef juicy; for really lean cuts, use olive oil in the pan

A good cookbook for grilling : “The Farmer and the Grill“, by Shannon Hayes, grassfedcooking.com, also available at NevadaCountyFreeRangeBeef.com.

Where and how to buy grass fed, grass finished beef locally :

How -

Grass fed beef is often sold as ‘freezer beef’, meaning you order a quarter, half or whole cow.  The individual cuts of beef in your order are packaged to stock your freezer for a good long while.  You can share a bulk order with your family or neighbors.

Grass fed, grass finished beef, like most real foods – is a seasonal product.  If you’re hoping to order beef to stock your freezer for this fall or winter, you will want to do it soon.

Where –

A few local ranchers offer freezer beef to order.  You can check in the Nevada County Farm Guide, and at NevadaCountyGrown.org for contact information.

Nevada County Free Range Beef (featured in this blog) is available as freezer beef, or in local grocery stores.  BriarPatch features NCFRB in the meat department fresh case, and the staff is always happy to make custom cuts and orders.  Frozen NCFRB ground beef is available at SPD Markets, Natural Selection and Mother Truckers market on the ridge.

Jim’s new website : Yes, Jim is becoming tech-savvy !  The new NCFRB website will be unveiling very soon ….. watch for changes at NevadaCountyFreeRangeBeef.com. There’s even a Jim-blog (oh my), plus ordering and fan club information ….

also …

Our neighbor to the north, Chaffin Family Orchards, offers grass fed beef, by order for those of you who may live in that area, and brings cuts to the Nevada City Farmers Market on Saturday mornings.

The Chaffin newsletter is always full of great information, including this clever blog link – from a first time bulk-beef buyer, http://yearofthecow.wordpress.com/

Pastured beef ranching is an important part of our agricultural environment.  Be sure to support your local rancher when you are thinking about that next steak dinner.

Trivia question : How many vegetarians are in Jim’s fan club ?

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