We're living in a golden age of vegetarian dining. That's due in part to awareness about the ethics of meat production, personal health concerns, and just plain old burnout on meat. At the new Alden & Harlow in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass., dishes like seared baby Romanesco with wood sorrel, spring onions, fiddleheads, and almonds, and a butternut squash salad with currants, pecorino, hazelnuts, and brown butter vie for primacy on the menu alongside the chicken-fried rabbit and pork belly dishes that you'd expect of a place like this.
Of course, while many of us may like the idea of expanding our horizons, it can be easier said than done when it's ordering time. To that end, we tasked Alden & Harlow's chef-owner, Michael Scelfo, with designing an entrée that might tempt even the staunchest of meat-and-potatoes types.
The result was a beet dish whose rosy rare color and spiced edges rolled in coffee, chocolate, and Urfa pepper match the color and charred exterior of meat. The accompanying carrots are slow-smoked then grilled, and served with crisped kale leaves, because, as Scelfo says, guys like fried stuff. Tying it all together is a miticrema –a spreadable sheep's milk cheese—made from buttermilk yogurt that adds a rich fattiness to the proceedings.
"If you're asking what are you going to give to a guy's-guy type, the stereotypical dude that doesn't want to eat vegetables, I think how you do it is you put bold flavors out there," he says. "I think with smoke, any backyard-barbecue kind of guy is going to love that profile on a dish no matter what it is."
Beet Steaks with Smoky Carrots and Labneh
Ingredients:
4 large beets
1/4 cup ground coffee
1/4 cup urfa pepper
1/2 cup Labneh or Greek Yogurt
2 bunches small carrots
6 large kale leaves, stemmed
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
Method:
Wrap beets in foil and roast at 325 for approximately three hours, until just tender when pierced with a fork. Let cool. Rub skins off beets between two paper towels. Square off the beets so that they look like a steak, keeping them as large as possible.
While beets are roasting, mix together ground coffee and urfa pepper in a small bowl. Set aside.
Remove carrot tops, season carrots with oil, salt and pepper. Cold smoke carrots for an hour and a half, between 85-100 degrees. If you don't have a smoker, skip this step. Cut carrots in half lengthwise, place in a bowl and season again with olive oil, sea salt and pepper.
Season beet steaks with salt and pepper. Dredge in the coffee and urfa mixture on all sides. Roast in the oven until warmed through.
In a large sauté pan, heat oil to a medium setting and fry kale leaves gently until they became clear and crisp, transfer to a paper towel and season lightly with salt and pepper. Set aside to cool.
To serve, slice beets into 1/4 inch thick slices. Place a dollop of yogurt or labneh on plate and drag a spoon through it. Fan out beet steak on top of yogurt and top with smoked/grilled carrots. Garnish plate with fried kale.
