Beef with Bulgar Wheat, Asparagus and Enoki Mushrooms

Well, we intended to get more than one post up in January, but such is life. Rest assured, the recent paucity of entries has less to do with lack of material than with the ass-dragging winter doldrums that make it difficult to get things done in this part of the country during the dark days of December and January. Seriously, while I thoroughly enjoyed the two weeks of New Zealand summer weather we got to experience over Christmas, the getaway may have made it that much harder to get through the rest of New England winter. Here in Boston, we're scheduled to warm up again sometime in June. I know there are plenty of places that have it worse, but that won't stop us from complaining...

On the upside, Melissa recently made a nice, hearty bulgar wheat dish that was unquestionably blogworthy: the grain was boiled to a perfect consistency and then drained and mixed with a little pepper jack cheese that we had in the freezer (a nice save from a holiday party at Harvard where the cheese buyers got a little carried away) to make a thick cheesy mix. She then combined the wheat base with sauteed slices of flank steak, red onions, garlic and asparagus, and topped it with a small bunch of enoki mushrooms and cracked pepper.

This dish went really well with a bottle of Kathy Lynskey Casto Reserve pinot noir (2004, Marlborough, NZ). Amanda's parents left us with a bottle of this beautiful boutique pinot when they visited for Christmas, and we recently bought another from Huntingon Wine and Spirits ($25, and worth every penny). This is a floral, earthy wine with deep fruit and woody notes -- it really picks up the mushroom and asparagus in the food. It's definitely worth a try if you come across it in your bottle store...