Farmers' Market and Fancy Butter

Happy June, everyone!  Today I took a drive over to Bisbee to check out their Farmers' Market.  I've only been to the one here in S.V.  It's on Thursdays, which makes it sometimes hard to get to when I'm busy at work.  The Bisbee market is pretty nice.  I got a good haul today.  I picked up some meat from Sky Island/47 Brand and San Ysidro Farms--the people are great!  They raise animals humanely and healthfully.  Happy cows (and pigs and lambs) make for healthier meat, in my opinion.

     From the Elfrida Community Garden stand, I got a variety of radishes and a giant rainbow beet.  I also picked up some French shallots and purple garlic.  I'll have to think of something yummy to make with these.


     When I got home, I was pretty hungry, so I made myself some lunch.  I had a lovely grass-fed beef steak that I thawed a couple of days ago and some fresh green beans I bought last weekend, both of which needed to be eaten.  I boiled the green beans until they were just cooked then drained them and sauteed them in a pan with a little garlic olive oil.  I put them in the oven to keep warm while I made the steak.  Just salt & pepper and a little garlic.  When the steak was medium-well, I put it on the plate with the green beans and topped it with a little gremolata butter.  I only managed to eat about half of it before I was full.

     What is gremolata butter, you ask?  Well, it's a compound butter made with  a mixture of minced garlic, chopped flat-leaf parsley, and lemon zest.  It is delicious sprinkled on meat, especially lamb.  I first heard of a gremolata when I made an amazing recipe for red-wine braised lamb shanks I found on Epicurious.

     This gremolata butter recipe came from Rachel Ray via my Pinterest Cooking board. I've pinned over 100 things to my cooking board and have made fewer than 5 of the recipes, so I'm trying to remedy that.  Tomorrow or perhaps later in the week I will be making a recipe for pesto chicken I pinned about a month ago.  The recipe calls for lemon juice in addition to the zest.  I was doubtful for 2 reasons: 1) mixing liquid into butter can be difficult and 2) I thought the juice would make the butter too tart.  Alas, I was right to be concerned.  This wasn't a total fail, but it wasn't a success either.  I didn't find it too hard to get the juice mixed in, but it did overwhelm the other flavors and make the butter too lemony.  I may try softening the butter again and adding more butter, garlic, and parsley to see if it tastes better.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend.  More dinner reports later this week.