Hamburgers aside, there are two key types of beef suitable for grilling: most of the tender cuts and a few of the tough cuts.

The tender cuts great for grilling are the loin steaks: rib eye, T-bone, Porter House, New York Strip, Sirloin, and Filet Mignon. These cuts are naturally tender and should be well-marbled with fat. In general, all steaks should be grilled over medium heat. For a ribeye, Chef Erika recommends seasoning with salt & pepper or a rub if you like. Cook for 5-6 minutes each side. Your final internal temperature will be 130-135 for medium rare and 140-145 for medium. Be sure to rest for no less than 5 minutes before serving.

Instead of fat, the tough cuts suitable for grilling have lots of striated connective tissue in them: Flank steak, Hanger steak, and Flat Iron steak. The trick to these latter cuts is to cook them very quickly on the outside, serve them no more than medium rare, and slice them very thinly across the grain. The odd beast in this menagerie is the tri-tip.

Tri-tips are actually a small roast and originated as a cut in Texas, but didn’t find popularity until reaching Santa Rosa, California where it became hugely popular. It gains its name from its triangular shape and that results from being cut from the end of two different muscles. It can be tough, so look for plenty of marbling, but is packed with beefy flavor.

We hear more and more about the merits of grass-fed versus grain-fed beef. This is literally “a matter of taste.” Grass-fed beef usually has a deeper, richer flavor than grain-fed beef and is higher in good fats and lower in bad fats, but it’s usually not as well-marbled and not as tender (the breed of cattle can make a big difference here: Angus and Hereford are the best choices for grass-fed beef). La Cense is one well established brand of grass-fed beef that ships directly to consumers. Grain-fed beef is uniformly more tender, partially because the cattle are kept in small lots and can’t exercise, but also milder in flavor. The best beef in world – Kobe and Wagyu from Japan – graze on grass but are also fed some grain.

Welcome us to your backyard!

Chef Rod Woodley is ChefsLine’s resident grill master. Subscribers to ChefsLine’s premium membership can book live phone or webcam consultations with him to learn the finer points of charcoal and gas grilling techniques. Rod also hosts a Fish and Seafood Grilling class that you can purchase and experience – it’s just $15.95!

Chef Jackie offers a cooking class on Homemade Oils, Rubs, and Marinades – that is a great way to explore adding flavor to a whole host of cuts of beef for grilling.

If you’re like me, you’re relieved Spring is finally here and with it – some new fresh ingredients. My cravings this time of year turn to rhubarb, strawberries, asparagus – and for some reason a powerful urge for fiddlehead ferns. But fiddlehead ferns are not cultivated – they are instead found on the floor of many beautiful forest trails. Where to find these wild goodies?

Wild vegetables can be found in in the woods, fields, and meadows of rural and even suburban areas. In fact, you can grow some of the more popular varieties in a shade garden in your own backyard. However, finding them is fun and requires only a personal commitment to self-education, a great photo manual, and a willingness to explore.

There are a few mail order sources for wild vegetables. I recently ran across a reference to MarxFoods‘ Wild Produce Sampler, so I picked up the phone and gave them a call. I spoke with Justin Marx who, with his two brothers and father, own and run the New Jersey-based company. I gratefully accepted shipment of the sampler within a week – just in time to entertain guests for this year’s very early Spring Easter dinner.

The sampler included fiddleheads, stinging nettles, ramps, and miner’s lettuce. These are all plants that grow wild (to the best of my knowledge none are cultivated commercially) and are among the first spring greens.

Fiddleheads have an asparagus flavor to them. It’s not a precise match, but they’ll remind you of really fresh asparagus. They can be tough so some precooking is called for. They are medium to dark green and stand on a short or tall slender stalk. They edible part is the “fiddlehead” – so named because the coil looks like the scroll of a violin. They taste great raw, in a stir fry, or with pasta. Although wild, they are popular in the Northeast and can be found at local farmer’s markets.

Ramps are essentially wild leeks that taste like a perfect cross between onion and garlic. They grow and then disappear / take a new form very quickly so they can look like a small scallion to a larger, flat leafy scallion. Their odor and flavor is more potent, but becomes milder when cooked. They are a great choice for grilling and other high-heat cooking methods such as sauteing. Ramps are readily available in the Southern US where they grow in hardwood forests. They are such a treat! be sure to ask for them at your farmer’s market or take a hike before the end of May.

Miner’s lettuce is similar in flavor and cooking character to spinach, but milder in flavor. It’s great raw or cook this delicate green gently and quickly. It grows in the Northwest US. Notice it only gets a minute in a skillet in the recipe below.

Wild Vegetable Medley Recipe
Chef Kevin Weeks
Serves 6.

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb fiddlehead ferns – picked over, trimmed, and cleaned
• 1/2 lb ramps – trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces including the lower part of the greens
• 1/4 lb pancetta -cut into 1/4-inch cubes
• 2 anchovy filets – minced
• 1/2 lb miner’s lettuce

Method
Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook fiddleheads for 5 minutes. Transfer ferns to a bowl of ice water to stop cooking, drain, and pat dry. At this point the fiddleheads can stored in the refrigerator overnight.

Cook the pancetta in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat until the fat begins to render – about 2 minutes. Add ramps and minced anchovy and cook, tossing occasionally, until ramps begin to brown – about 3 minutes. Add miner’s lettuce, cover, and cook 1 minute longer until lettuce begins to wilt. Serve immediately.

There is no salt called for because both the pancetta and anchovies provide salt. The pancetta I used was my own and was cured with herbs and spices so I didn’t add any additional flavorings. If you use store-bought pancetta adding a bit of chopped rosemary and thyme as well as some pepper would be a good idea. Last, MarxFoods hadn’t gotten in any ramps yet and so I subbed scallions.

Stinging nettles are smallish green plants (about 12-inches tall) with mint-shaped leaves and small spines along the stems. These spines are like hypodermic needles and when they prick you deliver a stinging chemical – so why did anyone think to eat them? They’re one of the first green vegetables to appear in the spring and fortunately a short bath in boiling water (around five minutes) disables both the spines, which get soft, and the stinging chemical. Cooked, they have a flavor most reminiscent of spinach but slightly wilder. They really are delicious and if you’re careful to wear dish-washing gloves while handling them you won’t get stung. As for the nettles, I cooked them just for myself dressed simply with butter and a splash of cider vinegar. Delicious.

More fun in the woods:
Foraging education with Steve Brill
Edible Flowers
How to Forage for Wild Edible Plants

Ham is by far the most popular Easter dish in the South – and in many other areas of the U.S.. But for me the meat of choice is lamb, and the fact that lamb is also acceptable for Passover is a bonus enabling me to have Christian, Jewish, and Muslim friends over to help me celebrate Spring.

Generally, you can prepare lamb in ways similar to beef. Rack of lamb, lamb chops, and leg of lamb are best when roasted to medium, rare, which is 135. I’ve also discovered that braising (cooking slowly with moisture) over low heat, is also honest treatment for those who prefer their meat well done and certainly for cuts including lamb shanks or stew pieces.

Flavors. As for flavoring, lamb is particularly compatible with the flavors of garlic, rosemary, mint, and lemon – all northern Mediterranean tastes. Lamb also tastes great with the counterpart flavors of southern Mediterranean dishes – this includes figs, apricots, cumin, and cinnamon. Lamb like pork, adapts beautifully to sweet flavors and spices. For the all the lamb dishes a bit of minced herb (whatever it’s cooked with) is a great garnish.

Rack of Lamb. For a beautiful presentation, rack of lamb is tough to beat. A “frenched” rack of lamb is already a perfect presentation with it’s medallion of meat and elegant rib bone (take a look at this photo ). If your butcher has not cleaned the bones well or you are “frenching” the rack yourself, use a sharp paring knife to scrape the bones and remove all traces of meat. Rack of lamb has a delicate flavor and should typically be roasted and served rare or medium rare. Chef Robyn Fennessey’s Rack of Lamb with Rosemary Brandy Sauce is a favorite.

Lamb Shoulder. A friend of mine, an expert on Greek cooking, swears by Arni Kleftiko – which means “Bandit” Lamb. Reportedly, the lamb was originally cooked in a pit to avoid having the smoke from the cooking fire give away the bandits’ hideout. Pit or not, it’s a delicious preparation and the way I plan to cook my lamb this Holiday.

Leg of Lamb. For years, my go-to spring lamb recipe was roast leg of lamb. I’d cut slits in the leg and stuff them with garlic and rosemary, brush the leg with olive oil, season it with salt and pepper, and cook it to a perfect medium rare. It’s always delicious. If you want to prepare a leg of lamb – a really impressive and delicious dish at a feast – Chef Cary’s Mustard-Marinated Leg of Lamb may be just the ticket. Chef Jim Gray’s Easy Leg of Lamb Recipe is just that – easy but delicious. For an in-depth presentation on how to easily select, trim, and roast a delicious leg of lamb, listen to Chef Erika’s Leg of Lamb Podcast.

Lamb Shanks and Lamb Chops. And let’s not forget about Lamb Shanks and Chops. Chef Julie’s Red Wine Braised Lamb Shanks has classic flavors and the colors are divine. For more classics, our Jim Grays’ Pork are flexible main courses for pairing many of the early Spring seasonal side dishes.

Lamb Stew. A few years ago, I finally tried a new kind of lamb dish for the Holiday, a traditional Italian Easter lamb dish called Abbacchio. With Abbacchio, the lamb is slowly cooked until it’s melt-in-your-mouth tender. Although I’ll be daring to serve another “new” dish this Easter, I hope some of you try and enjoy my lamb stew recipe. It’s a wonderful holiday dish and really highlights the lamb flavor I so enjoy.

Happy Spring!

There were at least three (and possibly more) Saint Valentines and the celebration of Saint Valentine’s day may apply to one or all. But apparently the Saint’s association with romantic love was the idea of Geoffrey Chaucer (yes, the one who wrote Canterbury Tales) and his buddies back in the 14th century. When you sit around the table with your loved one – your own romantic tale should have some dramatic food flourishes. What story will your food tell? Will it be spicy, hearty, earthy, sweet? What I’ve created is a menu speaks of a practical, thoughtful and spicy engagement – filled with wonderful scents and feel good texture.

This menu requires very little effort on the “night of love.” The mousse can be made a couple of days in advance, as can the cauliflower puree. Prep the asparagus and make the pie in a day in advance and you can serve this elegant menu in 40 fairly leisurely minutes.

“Love’s” Sensual Rich Dinner Menu

Smoked Salmon and Crème Fraîche Mousse
Make this up a couple of days in advance, and then serve on crackers, toast points, or stuffed in celery or endive leaves.

Shrimp Curry in Puff Pastry
Elegant, exotic, absolutely delicious, and dead easy, the combination of shellfish, curry, and coconut milk blend nicely with the buttery pastry. The flakiness of the pastry, in turn, adds a delightful textural contrast to the unctuous sauce and the snap of the shrimp.

Asparagus in Prosciutto
No need for a recipe here. Steam some asparagus until just barely done, wrap four spears in a thin slice of prosciutto, drizzle with balsamic (or sherry) vinegar, and serve topped with a dollop of mayonnaise.

Cauliflower Puree
Cauliflower is a great match for curry, and this is another recipe you can make a day or two in advance and then heat in the microwave just before serving. For a great flavor boost, substitute the Parmesan cheese with some crumbled goat cheese (Chevre). Add the cheese to the cauliflower when you make the puree and then stir in some chopped fresh chives just before serving it.

Chocolate Espresso Hazelnut Pie
Chocolate is a reputed aphrodisiac, and it’s an odd one. Most supposed aphrodisiacs gain their claim to fame from a resemblance to certain significant body parts – whether rhinoceros horn, asparagus, or oysters. But chocolate has no such distinction. I think it gained its reputation because it just tastes sensual. That and the endorphin kick.

You can probably imagine my embarrassment when I showed up for my first super bowl party with a bowling ball and shoes. But I learned my lesson and now Superbowl Sunday is appreciated as a great day for hearty food and good drinks.

This year the game is between Pittsburgh and Arizona. Frankly pitting a Northeastern city against a Southwestern state seems unfair, but I don’t make the rules – I don’t even understand them – so I cook.

Melissa, ChefsLine’s food history buff, did some research to learn that Navaho Fry bread is the state dish of Arizona. These days it’s often served as a sort of taco and can easily be presented in a buffet/make-your-own format. Melissa is also a fan of Pittsburgh foods and assures me that a Devonshire sandwich is the way to go. This is a bacon and turkey sandwich covered with a cheesy cream sauce. It’s not a good buffet bet, but can easily be prepped in advance then topped with sauce and quickly broiled during half-time. Both of hearty foods that will taste great after some chips and guacamole and will keep you satisfied well beyond the fourth quarter.

Devonshire Sandwich Recipe
I would make this in a large casserole (or two) instead of making individual dishes. Not as fancy, perhaps, but a lot easier if you’re feeding several people. Serve this with Iron City beer for a perfectly traditional taste. The recipe below feeds six and is adapted from Frank Blandi’s Original Devonshire Sandwich (source: Arlene Burnett, Post-Gazette).

Cream Sauce:
3/4 stick butter, melted
1 cup flour
1/4 pound Cheddar cheese, grated
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups hot milk
1 teaspoon salt

Melt butter in deep sauce pan and whisk in flour. Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Add chicken broth and then hot milk, stirring all the while. Add cheese and salt. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low and cook slowly for 20 minutes, still stirring. Cool to lukewarm. Beat with wire whip until smooth before using.

“Sandwich”:
6 slices toast, crusts trimmed off
18 slices crisp bacon
1/2 lb. thinly sliced cooked turkey breast
Cream Sauce, recipe above
Melted butter
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
Paprika

Arrange toast in the bottom of an 16 x 12 baking dish. Layer with bacon and then turkey. When ready to serve, preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spoon sauce over the toast and meat, then sprinkle with parmesan cheese and dust with paprika. Bake for 10 – 15 minutes until browned.

Navaho Fry Bread “Taco” Recipe
When fry bread was first invented the Navaho Indians were prisoners of the federal government and flour, dried milk, and lard were pretty much all they had to eat – so they invented fry bread. These days, you can find fry bread not only at PowWows but at almost any fair in the region. You can make all of this in advance and then heat before serving. I definetely recommend serving with the unofficial state cocktail, margaritas. Serves 6.

Fry bread:
3 cups flour (high gluten if available)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 fl oz warm water
4 fl oz warm milk
Lard (traditional) or oil for frying

Sift together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add warm water and milk in small amounts and knead dough until soft but not sticky. Adjust flour or water as needed to achieve desired consistency.

Cover bowl with a damp towel and let stand for 30-40 minutes.

Divide dough into medium sized balls, similar to an egg, and flatten into 5-inch rounds, thinner in the center and thicker around the edges, with your hands.

Fry rounds in a cast iron skillet filled half-way with hot oil until bubbles appear on the dough, turn over and fry on the other side until golden. This should take but a few moments total.

Drain on paper towels.

Meat Filling:
1 lb chicken breasts
1 lb flank steak
Salt and pepper
1 tbsp chile powder
2 tsp cumin
2 limes, zested and juiced
3 tbsp oil

Season chicken breasts and steak with salt, pepper, chile powder, and cumin. You can prepare both the chicken and beef together, or separate into two skillets to give your guest options.

Heat oil in a large skillet (an electric skillet is perfect for this) over medium high heat. Brown meats in skillet(s) on both sides. Add enough water to not quite cover the meat. Add lime juice and zest.

Bring just to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover (leaving a small crack open), and simmer for 20 minutes

Remove meat (reserving cooking liquid), cut into very thin strips across the grain and set aside in bowls.

Sauce:
Cooking liquid from meat
8 oz can tomato sauce
6 oz can chopped mild or medium chilis
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp dried oregano

Increase heat to high and reduce cooking liquid to 1/2 cup, scraping up any brown bits that may still be on the bottom. Add remaining ingredients, reduce heat to low, and simmer 15 minutes. Taste, and adjust salt, pepper, chile powder, and cumin.

Divide sauce evenly between bowls of meat and mix.

Toppings:
Grated cheese
Chopped lettuce
Chopped tomatoes (at this time of year I’d buy a can of dice tomatoes and drain them)
Salsa
Guacamole
Hot sauce
Sliced olives
Chopped green peppers
Sliced fresh jalapeños
Whatever else suits your fancy

Serving:
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Arrange fry bread on baking sheet and warm in oven for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, heat meat fillings in the microwave at medium power for 2 minutes, stir, and heat at medium for another 2 minutes. Or, heat on stovetop. Serve ingredients buffet style.