Eating is a necessity but cooking is an art. Make every meal a masterpiece.
The shift from winter to spring is well underway. The sun gently warms skin, trees are budding in lush hues of green, the sugary smell of springtime wafts gently on a breeze. Everything is awakening from its winter slumber, including the outdoor grilling aficionados.
If you feel hesitant to call yourself a grilling aficionado, fret not. I was able to gleam sage advice from Chateau Elan’s Chef de Cuisine, Tim Rowland, who came on board in December 2020. He focused on bringing in local goods to strengthen and support the community, and highlighting what made those ingredients so special.
“Your customers should be able to find it because it’s local, and it’s the story that goes along with it,” Tim said. “Telling someone about some wonderful cheese you got flown down from Maine, well that’s great, but if you can tell them this came from some little dairy up in Dahlonega or something, like ‘wow, that’s super close, I wonder if I can go up there and do a tour.’ They can look up that farm for sales or get raw goat’s milk or whatever. It’s the seasonality of it… you get to work so closely with people.”
Tim pulled back the veil to show that lots of local things you can find at Chateau Elan or in other restaurants, you can also bring home to your own dinner table from the same vendors. When you want a steak for dinner, or are hosting a dinner party, use these tips from Tim the next time you are at a butcher shop or grocery store.
SKIP THE PACKAGES: “Either at a butcher shop or a grocery store, go directly to the meat counter and talk with the butcher. They have a wealth of knowledge and can help pick the right steak for the preparation you are creating. Broiling, grilling, or pan searing can all make the steak different and the butcher can steer you in the right direction for each.”
FIND FAT: “Marbling matters! Marbling is the term used for the dispersion of intermuscular fat in beef. The more evenly spread small specks of fat the better, and after all, fat equals flavor and can also be an indicator of tenderness.”
GO ALL IN: “If you are doing a basic preparation, like simple grilling or pan searing with no marinades, my best piece of advice is buy the highest grade of beef that you can afford, and yes, it makes a huge difference!”
Once you find a steak to your liking, it’s time to go home and light up the grill. But there are a few important food prep steps Tim shared to ensure you cook and eat the best steak from your own backyard.
ROOM TEMPERATURE: “Probably the most common thing that I see is people not letting their steaks come as close to room temperature as possible before they grill them. They are pulling them right out of the fridge and putting that really cold meat on a really hot grill, which shocks it and makes too much of the juice spill out.”
PAT DRY & SEASON: “People are way too shy when it comes to seasoning with salt and pepper beforehand… unless you do a dry brine. If they bought it from, say, the supermarket, and if it’s in one of those Cryovac [sealed] packages, a lot of times, I don’t see people pat the meat dry with a paper towel. All that extra slime, those extra proteins, are still prominent on the surface of the meat, so whatever they are trying to season it with isn’t going to penetrate [the steak], and if not patted dry, can actually char too quickly. It won’t have a good flavor of char, like a Maillard reaction, it’s a bitter char flavor.”
The Maillard (my-YAR) reaction is a chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars that gives browned, caramelized food its distinctive flavor, such as a sear.
REST: “Learn how to let things rest [after cooking]… not getting too excited to dive right in cause ‘oh, this smells so good I just want to eat it.’” This allows the steak to redistribute its juices so they don’t seep out once the meat is cut. Rest a steak about 3-5 minutes, or roughly 1 minute per 100 grams.
Some things that can elevate the at-home steak are things like a merlot salt dry brine, or a steak paint. Tim used Chateau Elan’s Merlot wine to bring these techniques to life and are unique to their restaurants. Both are simple to make at home and can add an in-depth flavor element, without detracting from the flavor of the steak itself… Just a couple complementary ingredients to enhance the flavor of the focus of the dish.
When Tim spoke of his initial passion for cooking and steadfast mottos, it all spurred from his family. “My whole background, my cooking, is from the Italian side of my family. My dad, who is not Italian, he learned from my Italian grandma, and he taught me a lot of cooking techniques,” Tim said. “It was all about simplicity. Whatever you could find closest to you would be the freshest, so it’ll be the highest quality ingredient. I don’t think my grandmother ever put it this way,” Tim chuckled, “but my motto is ‘don’t molest the ingredient.’ Don’t bastardize it, just let the ingredient shine through, which I think is what any chef worth their salt would tell you. They don’t use 17 components to each plate. I think that’s what every successful culinarian does.”
In the next few pages, discover Chateau Elan’s Chef de Cuisine’s secrets and tips for your own gourmet Chateau at Home feast.
Red Wine Dry Brining Salt
2 bottles of merlot
Chateau Elan
2 quarts large flake kosher salt
¼ cup sugar
Combine wine and sugar in a sauce pan over low heat and slowly let it come up to a simmer.
Continue to simmer and let reduce until a syrup consistency. There should be only about ¼ cup left.
Pour salt in a large, stainless steel bowl.
With a whisk, slowly drizzle the warm syrup into your large stainless bowl and stir vigorously until no clumps or specks are left.
Continue until each flake of salt is evenly covered
Let cool until completely dry.
Demi-Glaze
2 cup cabernet sauvignon
Chateau Elan
3 lbs chicken wing
10 lbs veal bone
1 tbsp vegetable oil
4 lbs yellow onion
2 lbs carrots
2 lbs celery
6 oz can tomato paste
1 sprig rosemary
2 sprigs thyme
½ tsp black peppercorn
1 tbsp kosher salt
3 gallons cold water
Peel, wash, dry all of your vegetables and cut into large pieces. Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees F.
Whisk together vegetable oil and tomato paste.
In a large bowl, rub the wings, bones, and vegetables with the vegetable oil/tomato paste blend. Make sure to cover all sides thoroughly.
Place your wings, bones and vegetables onto a sheet pan or roasting dish that in large enough for everything to be spread out evenly in one layer. For the quicker recipe, omit bones and wings.
Roast in the oven for 1.5 to 2 hours.
Stir everything around half way through to ensure all sides get a nice deep browning.
Remove from the oven and pour, drain off excess fat and oil. Place all of the bones, vegetables into a large stockpot and cover with the cold water.
For the quicker version, omit bones and wings and substitute for beef stock and bone broth.
Take the sheet pan or roasting pan and place over a heat source and pour red wine over it.
With a wooden spoon scrape all of the charred bits from the pan (These are called Fond, and are culinary gold).
Once you have loosened all the fond from the pan, pour the red wine drippings mixture into the stock pot.
Add in the remainder of your ingredients and turn heat to high. Bring to a boil and then immediately down to a low simmer.
Let simmer for 12 to 16 hours. For the quicker version, simmer for two hours. Skim off the protein from the top occasionally and discard. After simmering, strain the mixture.
Return to heat and bring back to a low simmer, reduce by 50%. After you have reduce your stock by 50%, pull off heat and strain again through a fine mesh strainer.
Cool it down with an ice bath and place into its final container in your refrigerator.
The next morning, scrap off any residual layers of fat.
Steak Paint
1 cup mameli
Chateau Elan
1 cup demi-glace
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp red wine vinegar
½ tsp kosher salt
Place a small sauce pot on medium heat and combine Mameli, sugar, and salt.
Bring up to a rolling boil and then turn heat down to a simmer.
Let sit at a slow simmer for 5 minutes.
Add in the demi-glaze and continue to simmer for another 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in red wine vinegar.
