Mud Covered Surf & Turf

Ah, how I love Central Market.  Each week the flyer comes in the mail and I can't wait to see what deals they have in store.  Go ahead, make fun of my boring life.  The week of Valentine's Day they were of course featuring the creme de la creme - filet mignon and lobster tails.  This was not our Valentine's dinner, however we couldn't pass it up.  Being the fabulously lucky gal I am, Alex headed off to the market to pick up nightmare ingredients.  Somehow he came back with all things muddy.  Sunchokes, baby red carrots, golden beets, candystripe beets, rooted butter lettuce and lobster - all things that thrive in the mud.  Hence, mud covered surf and turf.

Central Market, I do love you so.

Sunchokes, candystripe and golden beets, baby red carrots, lobster tails, enough filet mignon to feed a family of at least four.

These sunchokes were a bit intimidating.  At first they looked to me like ginger covered in mud and to be honest I had no idea what to do with them.  I had never tasted them, let alone cooked them.  We do grow artichokes and cardoons but this certainly looks nothing like the part from those we eat.   After a look online I discovered a sunchoke is a Jerusalem artichoke, which is basically a species of sunflower.  What I had in front of me were the roots of this plant, often cultivated as a root vegetable. 

Gorgeous produce.  I can only hope to grow things this pretty in my gardens.

I think Alex thought he was shopping for an entire dinner party with the size of these filets he brought home. 

I wanted to maintain the rustic beauty of the vegetables so i left them in their entirety, drizzled with a little EVOO, sea salt and pepper.

Chopped rosemary from the garden to toss on my sunchoke chips.

Working on my bearnaise sauce. 

Ready to go on a double broiler.

There are many preparations you can use for lobster tails.  I usually cut them down the middle, pull the meat away and wash between the shell and meat.  Then, dry with a paper towel and brush with garlic lemon butter.

Ready to be grilled.

With the sunchokes I decided to make chips.  After washing, skinning and thinly slicing the tubers they were fried until golden and crispy.  Yes...I fried on the stove top this time.  The high water content of the sunchokes made it not so bad.

Muddy lettuce :-)

Butter lettuce, tomatoes, goat cheese, pecans, bacon pieces.

Pink peppercorn vinaigrette.

After the sunchokes were fried, I tossed them with fresh chopped rosemary and Parmesan cheese.