Picking the best steak at the grocery store.

Second rule of cooking: use the best quality, freshest ingredients available to you.

Click here if you need a refresher on the first rule of cooking.

Hunting down the best, tastiest, and freshest ingredients makes up about 60% of my job as an executive chef at MCL. Tough and flavorful work, but someone’s got to do it. Our customers reap the real benefits of my painstaking labor.

So we covered how to select fresh produce. Now we’ll take a look at how one should go about finding a great slab of beef.

• Firm is good. Good beef is firm to the touch with a slight spring-back effect when you remove your finger. If your finger indentation stays after you pull your finger away, you should walk away. The longer meat sits, the more moister it looses. Doctors even use the same test to tell if patients are dehydrated. Same basic principal applies with most meat, poultry and fish.

• Good, fresh beef is red. Packaging should be wrapped tightly. Near airtight. Any brown discoloration is a telltale sign the meat has been breathing a little too much air. Air is bad.

• Always read your label. Not only to see when the meat was packaged but to be on the lookout for meat treated with carbon monoxide gas. Gas mixtures are used to help the meat retain the red coloration until you remove it from the packaging. Sneaky.

• Look for USDA grade beef. It’s your best bet.

Here’s a breakout of meat grades from highest to lowest quality:

- Prime: Highest quality. Is harder to find and is priced accordingly. Only about 2.9% make the grade.

- Choice: High quality. More available in restaurants and markets.

- Select: Still good. Just won’t be as juicy or tender.

Click here to learn more about USDA grading.

How to choose a cut of meat:

Different cuts will carry varying levels of fat and tenderness. Higher quality cuts will be most tender. Example: Filet Mignon is the pinnacle of tenderness, and subsequently, price. But, hey, maybe you like to chew on the firmer texture of a New York Strip or the fattiness of a good Rib Eye. Meat cut choices are very personal.

So whether it’s Filet, Chuck, Sirloin, Flank, or Rib – the world is your oyster. Well, you know what I mean.

Best,

Chef

Picking the best and freshest produce – demystified.

First rule of cooking: use the best quality, freshest ingredients available to you. Simple rule really. A dish can only be as tasty as the ingredients used to prepare it.

Subtlety is a chef’s greatest tool. Many of my favorite dishes consist of mixing flavorful, fresh ingredients together and doing little else to them.

Mouths beginning to water. Pushing forward.

The above mentioned first rule of cooking is especially true when selecting fresh produce. Here are a few secrets from the MCL Restaurant & Bakery test kitchen to help you ensure you’re getting the good stuff.

• Organic is good, but local is better.  Fruits and vegetables lose nutrients the longer they sit after harvest.  Local produce has less distance to travel thus retaining more of its nutritional value, and flavor.

• Eat whatever is in season. It’ll be the most flavorful.

• Choose fruits and vegetables that snap when broken.  If a green bean bends it is no good.

• To tell if a melon is sweet, hold it right up to your nose and smell it.  Ignore the odd stares from other customers. If it smells sweet it’ll taste sweet too.  Sweet is good.

• Don’t store tomatoes in the fridge.  It stops the ripening process and makes them lose their flavor.

If you have specific questions, shoot me an email. I’ll be happy to point you in the right direction.

Now I’m off to prepare some tasty goodness concocted from in-season, locally grown fresh produce. Encouraging you to do the same.

Best,

Chef

As a Chef, I am always in pursuit of the best and freshest new ingredients. A few months ago I was able to sample a delightful new fish. I’m playfully calling it “the new and improved salmon.” It’s Steelhead Trout, a variety of Rainbow Trout. It is so much like salmon in color, taste, and texture that in a blind taste test, even I wouldn’t be able to differentiate between the two.

Have a look.

The similarities go even deeper.

• Both fish behave identically in the wild – swimming up rivers to spawn. Once developed, they return to the open ocean.

• Both fish eat the same diet, including large amounts of krill. This krill diet is what gives both fish the distinctive pink color we’re all accustomed to.

You like salmon. You’re sure of this. So why would we consider adding Steelhead Trout to our menu?  Let’s explore:

• Salmon supplies getting low. Cost getting high.

World salmon supplies through 2010 are going to be extremely tight due to crop shortages in Chile (where most farmed salmon sold in the U.S.      comes from).  This means you’re likely to see the price of salmon increase rapidly in supermarkets and restaurants. Steelhead Trout should save you some dough.

• Pink is the new Green.

Rainbow Trout varieties, which includes Steelhead Trout, are on the “Best Choices” list of the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s  Seafood Watch List which monitors world fish populations for over-fishing.

• Could be the best salmon you’ve ever had.

After eating Steelhead Trout, I’ve had customers tell me, “that’s the best salmon I’ve ever had”, obviously missing the sign labeling it as Steelhead Trout.

Less expensive, sustainable, and tastier – all great reasons to become a fan of Steelhead Trout.

Now let’s discuss how to prepare Steelhead Trout. Finding recipes written specifically for Steelhead Trout can be challenging. I’ll let you in on a secret: A Google search for “Salmon recipes” returns 59,100,000 results. All of which are acceptable for preparing Steelhead Trout. While I’m sharing secrets, I’m going to get you started with my favorite Steelhead Trout recipe from the MCL Restaurant & Bakery test kitchen. Shhh. Don’t tell.

Click here for the recipe.

Best,

Chef