By Rachel Hergett EBS COLUMNIST
I’m naturally curious. My favorite part of journalism has always been the opportunity to dig into people’s passions, to talk to them about the things they love the most. While many journalists start with long lists of questions, that’s not my style. In some ways it feels like trying to control the narrative, to write someone’s story before they get a chance to tell it.
When I wander around Big Sky, southwest Montana and beyond for this column, I’m really engaging in conversations about food. And conversations require a give and take. I am happy to share of myself when asking others to do the same. It’s what I do here, writing about family recipes and telling my stories alongside those of others who love food as much as I do.
Lately, I’ve noticed a pattern of questioning. People are curious what a food writer cooks for herself when there is no one to impress. What, essentially, is my meat and potatoes?
Meat and potatoes is simple fare. It’s the bare bones of sustenance—protein and carb. Meat and potatoes was the base menu of 19th century chop houses and 20th century supper clubs. Add a bun, and your meat and potatoes is a burger and fries. This idea is so central to our diet in the United States that it has become an idiom. The “meat and potatoes” of something is its most basic or fundamental form.
I’ve had countless literal meat and potatoes meals in my life, some of them necessary to fuel long days. But diets and tastes have changed. The truth is that my “meat and potatoes” is no longer meat and potatoes. It’s close, though.
While I often write of my Japanese culinary heritage, I’m also very much a Montana girl, the product of farmers, ranchers and rodeo cowboys. My death row meal—what I would choose if I were to know it is the last thing I would ever eat—is steak and sushi. Fresh fish is hard to source in a landlocked state, so I’m not over here making sushi on the daily. Beef, however, is certainly the meat of my meat and potatoes.
An old Lodge cast iron pan rarely leaves my stovetop, ever at the ready to sear the perfect steak. I like marbling in the meat, tending toward a New York over a sirloin, or newer cuts like Denver steaks. But what I grab depends on what looks best for the price when I’m at the grocery store or butcher shop. Same goes for my “potatoes,” which have become a variety of mainly green things I cook in the same pan. Vegetables that love cast iron include baby bok choy, zucchini, green beans, asparagus and broccoli. Also making frequent appearances are mushrooms, onions and poblano peppers. Occasionally, I’ll even add in an actual potato.
The steak-vegetable combo is my meat and potatoes meal because it is so dang simple to cook. Do I pull the steak out of the fridge early to come to room temperature before cooking? Rarely. I unwrap it, season it with salt and pepper and throw that baby onto the hot pan with a little olive oil. I cook the steak by feel. I don’t time or temp it. The steak gets turned a couple times until it firms to the point of mid rare while I wash and chop the vegetables. When the steak is done, I set it on a rack to rest while I return to the hot pan.
I use the pan to sear the vegetables, adding in extra flavor via residue of steak. When they are cooked through, the steak is rested and ready. Dinner is done in less than 15 minutes.
That, my friends in food, is my meat and potatoes. I hope to hear about yours.
Rachel Hergett is a foodie and cook from Montana. She is arts editor emeritus at the Bozeman Daily Chronicle and has written for publications such as Food Network Magazine and Montana Quarterly. Rachel is also the host of the Magic Monday Show on KGLT-FM and teaches at Montana State University.
