Had some friends over for dinner, cooked some beef I butchered, turned it up to 11.

Foghorn

I had a couple of my BBQ mentors over for dinner last night under the guise of @The Cen-Tex Smoker needed to stop by to pick up some beef belly so he can make some beef bacon.  We took the opportunity to get 3 families together.  

I butchered a beef hindquarter last weekend with another friend so I had plenty of beef on hand.  Details can be found here.

https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1229425/butchered-and-cooked-some-beef-at-a-friend-s-ranch

The meal started with the best bruschetta I've ever tasted made by the guy who taught me that one can own more than one grill.  I don't have pics, but the combination of tomatoes, red onions, basil, garlic, olive oil on perfectly cooked buttered crostinis is amazing.  This was accompanied by 2 different pinot noirs from Pangloss Vineyard.  

The main meal involved beef.  Here are the tritip (top left), wagyu/angus ribeye (top right - not from the recent butchering event, but from a herd owned by a ranching friend), and 3 slices from the ends of the strip loin.  Except for the ribeye, the beef is black angus.  As you can tell from this picture, I got too heavyhanded with the rub.  I'll work on that.



For sides, I cooked up some brussels sprouts with balsamic vinegar, honey, olive oil, and red pepper flakes - and smashed potatoes with olive oil, black salt, and a low salt citrus herb rub.



 



I did all of this on the XXL BGE.  I roasted the beef over the veggies for a while to get the meat temp up to about 110.



Then I put the veggies in the oven at 175 to keep them warm while I seared the steaks.  That was somewhat hectic and I have no pics of the searing on the cast iron.

I did get a quick pic of the sliced beef to document that it was properly cooked.  There are some slices of tritip in the foreground.  In the back of the pic, among the sliced cuts, the top left is a NY Strip, the top right is the tritip, and the bottom is the ribeye. 



We drizzled some homemade (by CenTex) chimichurri (no pics) over much of the beef - particularly the tritip - which was excellent.  We enjoyed dinner with two wines CenTex brought - a GSM from Pedernales Vineyard and a Mourvedre from William Chris Vineyard.  The Mourvedre in particular stood up very well to the beef and accompanied it perfectly.

And just when we were congratulating ourselves on a dinner that was a 10/10, my loving bride brought out the dessert she had prepared and turned it up to 11.  Puerto Rican cheese flan topped with fresh sliced strawberries and homemade whipped cream (again, sorry - no pics - my iphone camera isn't working so all pics were taken with an actual camera, but I didn't use it as freely as I would use my phone).

At any rate, it was as good a meal as I have had in a long time - both in terms of food quality and company.

Neither fava beans nor chianti were served.

Thanks for looking.

texaswig

Now that's a killer looking meal!

lousubcap

Thanks for the documentation and pics especially given the need for the real camera.  What an evening.  You couldn't do that well in any restaurant anywhere.  What a spread.  Nailed that across the board!

Foghorn

Thanks @texaswig and @lousubcap.  It was definitely better than any restaurant meal I've had in a long time - maybe ever.

Botch

Epic!  

Ozzie_Isaac

Wowza!  Amazing looking cook.

Foghorn

Thanks @Ozzie_Isaac and @Botch.

caliking

Stupendous. That beef looks fantastic.  It's like meat porn.

lkapigian

Awesome! Love the Smashed Potato's

dmchicago

Great cook.

Foghorn

Thanks @caliking.  The black angus I got from Pruski's Market is as good as any beef we've ever had.

@lkapigian, I love the smashed potatoes as well.  So much so that I think most of our friends have grown tired of them.  I used to microwave them to make them smashable, but boiling makes a big difference.

Thanks @dmchicago.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

That was about as good a meal as I have had in quite some time. And all I did was sit around, drink wine and tell stories. I'm way better at those things than cooking anyway. Thanks again for hosting. It was fantastic.

CTMike

Fan-farking-tastic meal, nice job. 

caliking

Had to swing back, and drool a bit. 

kl8ton

I'm saving this read for a time that I can devote my full attention.  Looks unbelievable. 

northGAcock

gonepostal

Excellent looking cook and sounds like an even better time.  I'm putting those smashed potatoes on my to do list!

Sea2Ski

Got that one out of the park.  Just beautiful!!

loco_engr

WOW all  that food looks great!  I'm curious as to how the dealer delivered the monster XXL . . . crane . . . 4 men . . .  

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Lol

Foghorn

loco_engr said:

WOW all  that food looks great!  I'm curious as to how the dealer delivered the monster XXL . . . crane . . . 4 men . . .  

@loco_engr, my friend who has his own wagyu/angus herd gave it to me for free because he was downsizing (from 2000 acres to 29).  He got a large BGE in the outdoor kitchen at his new house and he wanted the XXL to go to someone who would use it well.  He had "his guys" deliver it.  5 of them carried it from the street in front of my house, down the driveway, through a gate, up some steps, and over to its resting place.  I just pointed to the spot where I wanted them to set it down.  They didn't even take it apart.  

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Foghorn said:

loco_engr said:

WOW all  that food looks great!  I'm curious as to how the dealer delivered the monster XXL . . . crane . . . 4 men . . .  

@loco_engr, my friend who has his own wagyu/angus herd gave it to me for free because he was downsizing (from 2000 acres to 29).  He got a large BGE in the outdoor kitchen at his new house and he wanted the XXL to go to someone who would use it well.  He had "his guys" deliver it.  5 of them carried it from the street in front of my house, down the driveway, through a gate, up some steps, and over to its resting place.  I just pointed to the spot where I wanted them to set it down.  They didn't even take it apart.  

The egg was impressive but the egger was even more so. Seriously one of the best meals I have had. The “Puerto Rican” flan was insanely good.