Chef Brendan Cox of Circle Bistro – Washington, DC
Yield: 4 Servings
2 purple top turnips with greens
2 pieces rutabaga
2 pieces kohlrabi
6 pieces radish
2 carrots
1 head garlic, cut in 1/2 across
4 sprigs rosemary
2 red onions, peeled, quartered
4 ounces canola oil
4 ounces sherry vinegar
Salt and pepper
4 10-ounce sirloin steaks
12 shallots, sliced
3 cups red wine
Sel gris
Preheat oven to 325:F. Peel the turnips, rutabaga and kohlrabi and into 8 wedges. Quarter the radishes and cut the carrots into obliques.* Toss the vegetables, garlic, rosemary, and onions into a bowl and coat with 2 ounces of oil and 2 ounces of sherry vinegar. Season with salt and pepper and roast on a sheet pan until tender and nicely colored (imagine a pile of leaves in the fall: oranges, reds and yellows, all intermingled). After the veggies are cooked, sear the steaks in a cast iron skillet and roast in the oven (still at 325:F)until medium-rare to medium, about 10-12 minutes.** Slowly cook the shallots in a separate pan, deglaze with the remaining vinegar, then cook until golden. Add the wine and reduce by two-thirds. On four plates, mound the vegetables and slice the steak, top with the red wine-shallot sauce, and garnish with fat crystals of sel gris.
*Oblique refers to cutting the carrot on a 45: angle then rotating the carrot 45: over, like a log (not the hands of a clock), cutting again and so forth. It’s very pretty, and it will impress the neighbors.
**Check by inserting a thin metal skewer into the meat, if it comes away warm to just getting hot the steaks are ready.
Wine Pairing: 2004 Kermit Lynch Cotes du Rhone, a big juicy Syrah-based wine with ample tannins to stand up to the root vegetables and the beef.