Spiced doesn’t mean hot, it means with spices.

In the midst of a pandemic, summer heat and sometimes limited groceries, why I wanted a beef stew, I don’t know. My garage freezer is filled with meat, but it’s pork chops, salmon or halibut fillets, chicken breasts and thighs, and a few ribeye steaks. Nothing there that would make do as a stand-in for chuck roast. But, fortunately, my neighbor was going to Costco and found a huge package of chuck roasts (3 of them) and so I cut up one for stews, and the others are now vacuum sealed as roasts, for when the weather turns a bit cooler. As I’m writing this, it’s supposed to hit 100 today, or close to it. Fortunately, I made this a few days ago before this heat wave hit. But then, I live in the comfort of an air conditioned home – thank goodness!

This recipe came from a class I took with Phillis Carey 15 years ago. Before I started writing this blog, and so far as I know, I’ve never posted this recipe. It’s a good one. Ideally, it’s supposed to have red onions in it. Alas, I only had white ones and a half of a red one. And in the midst of this time, here in California, some onions produced in our central valley were contaminated with salmonella, so onions were in short supply. I had to throw out 6 very large yellow onions because they were from one of the contaminated farms.

What makes it “spiced” is the addition of allspice and cinnamon to the flour mixture you use to dredge the beef stew cubes. The other thing that’s different about this stew is the addition of dried cranberries. They add a sweetness to the stew you wouldn’t ordinary expect. But I like them in there. I use Unsweetened Dried Cranberries. The stew also calls for sugar, though you might not need it if you use sweetened dried cranberries. Taste the soupy mixture to see before adding the sugar. The stew is full of mushrooms – both shiitake and button, but you can use whatever mushrooms you have. Shiitake add a different, more boosted mushroom flavor, though they’re expensive, so I don’t use much of them.

You could probably make this stew in the instant pot (pressure), which would take much less time, but when doing a braised type of meat, I think the long, slow cooking (in this case 2 hours) adds more flavor to a dish. I made it one day, cooled and chilled it, then had some the following day. I made half of the below recipe, so had about 4 small servings. What I didn’t eat in the 2 meals went into ziploc bags and are now in the freezer. What it did do was satisfy my craving for a beef stew. This stew doesn’t use potatoes, although you could add them if you wanted to. I think it’d be terrific with mashed cauliflower or mashed potatoes on the side. Some of that stew liquid spread into them would be delicious. You could even serve the stew in a bowl on TOP of mashed cauliflower or mashed potatoes.

What’s GOOD: loved the flavor. Very tender beef after 2 hours of slow cooking. The mushrooms added tons of flavor, and the onions, of course. The carrots kind of lost their flavor (I think they gave up their flavor to the stew so there wasn’t much left for the carrots themselves). The juice/liquid is what tastes so good, plus the dried cranberries added in.

What’s NOT: nothing, really. A keeper. If encountering something sweet in a stew is not your thing, you might not like this version.

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Such a colorful photo, isn’t it? There’s a toasted piece of bread on the bottom, some mozzarella cheese, a kind of Italian meatball, the some marinara sauce on top.

Some weeks ago I went to my daughter Sara’s backyard – Sara, who partly (occasionally) participates on my blog. She’s so busy – she and her husband own a small business, they’re short handed, work long hours – 5, sometimes 6 days a week, and both of their kids are home now. The older one, Sabrina, just graduated from Clemson University and is applying to med school. She’s having to take a gap year but hasn’t yet found a job to fill in between now and fall 2021, that would be an asset to her medical career. She’s hoping. Her brother John is in summer school at Virginia Tech (online, that is), and he helps out most days at the family business. Sara cooks dinner at least 5 nights a week. The two kids each do dinner one night a week.

Except to visit the powder room, I stayed outside the whole time. It was a lovely day. Not too hot, thank goodness. Sara made dinner (I’m posting this recipe for her, also the dessert in a few days). We had such a nice visit – it was so good to see the whole family although we couldn’t hug, of course. I wanted so much to hug my grandchildren! And everybody, really, but no, we can’t. We stayed socially distanced.

Anyway, Sara made these open-faced Italian meatball sandwiches. She’d found the recipe on the web, but altered a bit by using chicken Italian sausage instead of pork. She’d purchased those kind of flat rolls – I don’t know what they’re called, she halved them, spread with a bit of olive oil, grilled them so they had lovely grill marks and were just barely crispy. Meanwhile she’d mixed up the meat – she used extra lean ground beef and some chicken Italian sausage and made the meatballs. The recipe indicated making round balls, but Sara tried to flatten them out some so they’d kind of fill the top of the piece of toasted bread. As you know, meat shrinks up when it’s cooked, and sure enough, these did, so they ended up more like round meatballs. The bread had some nice fresh mozzarella cheese draped over them (see photo), then the sizzling meat was put on top. They were garnished with a goodly amount of marinara sauce and decorated with some fresh basil.

There they are fresh off the grill, sizzling hot. Since I wasn’t doing the cooking, it was pretty easy for me to take ample photos. Some of us ate them with our hands – I ate it with a knife and fork. I knew some of that bright red, stain-worthy sauce would end up on my blouse.

What’s GOOD: loved everything about these. Partly because I hardly ever eat a sandwich of any kind these days. The meat was juicy; the mozzarella cheese gave it a nice oozy feel in the mouth. The sauce added lots of flavor, and then the fresh basil added a delicious fillip to each bite. This is a keeper.

What’s NOT: nothing, really. Not all that difficult  – make up the meatball mixture a few hours ahead.

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It’s not every day you have some left over smoked beef brisket. If you do, however, THIS is a recipe for you!

Several weeks ago I ventured “out” and drove to the Pasadena area where my son and his family live. I stayed outside in their back yard and enjoyed a lovely afternoon with them, and had a sumptuous dinner. Powell has a big honkin’ barbecue/smoker and he’d purchased THE largest brisket I’ve ever seen in my life. He goes to a meat market near where they live, called Harmony Farms. They know him by first name now. Anyway, what to do with left over beef brisket that’s been smoked? Karen had made this chili once before (a year ago maybe) and I’d exclaimed over the wonderful flavors of the chili. So when I went home that evening she gave me a nice container of smoked brisket to use however I wanted, but what I wanted was this chili.

The recipe called for 3 cups of leftover brisket. This brisket was not slathered with anything wet – it had a dry rub on it and had been smoked for 12 hours or so, and it had deep, smoky flavor. Powell uses something called Cue-Glue from Savory Spice. It’s something that helps dry rub stick to the meat. The label calls it “the pro’s secret weapon.”

When I made the chili, I adapted the recipe, just slightly. I had more brisket, and didn’t have the smaller half-cans of kidney beans or black beans, so I used one can total and some frozen corn. I just eye-balled it. Since the brisket had some fairly warm (spicy) rub on it, I tamed down the seasonings a little bit. Play with it if you make this. The recipe came from a website called vindulge. There are oodles of grilled and smoked meat recipes on that website.

What “makes” this recipe is, obviously, the brisket itself and it’s deep, smoky flavors. You start off with 1-inch chunks of the already smoked brisket, and as it cooks (simmers) the beef does break down into smaller pieces. And becomes super tender. There’s a little bit of coffee (I made a shot of espresso) in this, some chipotle in adobo sauce (be careful, that stuff is hot) and smoked paprika and beer.

When I made this a few weeks ago, it was still cool spring weather here, so I ate some of it and froze some of it – maybe for the fall once summer winds down.

Tuck this recipe into your hat for the fall, unless you’re wanting to make a smoked brisket in the summer. Just don’t use a wet-slathered red sauced type brisket. It would lean this chili over into a barbecue sauce soup, which isn’t what you want here. A tip of my hat to my daughter in law, Karen, for finding this recipe, and for sharing the smoked brisket with me so I could make it myself.

What’s GOOD: oh my, so delicious. I just love this recipe. But then, I do love chili. Not usually ones with tons of beans in it, however. I was prudent with how many beans I added. The combo of flavors is over the top wonderful. I don’t cook smoked meat, so if I make this again, it’ll need to be from another part of my son’s smoked meats. He loves to smoke meat, though, so that’s probably not a problem! Make the day ahead if you have time – all soups get better with an overnight chill.

What’s NOT: maybe acquiring the smoked brisket? Otherwise, nothing at all. Plan ahead a few hours.

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More and more, I see bloggers who show food-sloppy pictures. So here’s mine!

As I write this, looking at that picture, I’m laughing. What a messy casserole! I could have tried to clean it up before taking the picture, but oh well. It is what it is. I’m also laughing at myself – – – when I make something that is wildly delicious, the next day my fingers are just itching to get to my keyboard to start writing up a post. This is one of those kind of posts. After checking my email and doing my online jigsaw puzzle to wake up my brain, I was right into it, correcting the recipe with the changes I made, preparing the photos and beginning to write the story.

My neighbor, who is still doing a lot of my grocery shopping for me, bought sweet onions (instead of regular yellow ones). Afterwards, I gave her a little lesson in onions (she’s not much of a cook – she COOKS, but not because she likes to – because she has to feed her family of 4). She had never heard of sweet onions – so I gave her a quick lesson about them. I should give her a link to the blog post I did some years ago after my friends Tom and Joan gifted me with a passel of Texas Noonday sweet onions. And, last week she went to Costco (for herself, but also for me) and I had her buy a 3-pack of the ground beef. I froze two, and left one the frig. So, here I was with ground beef and sweet onions (you know, of course, that sweet onions don’t last as long in your pantry as regular onions – they have more moisture/water in them, so they tend to spoil much sooner). I searched my recipe database, and up popped this recipe that I hadn’t tried yet.

And what a winner of a recipe it is. I’ll be making this again. I think next time I’ll try it with ground turkey, just to make it a bit healthier. First you have to slice 2 big sweet onions (cut in half first, then sliced) and they sweat away with some EVOO until they’ve caramelized. That takes awhile – especially with the sweet onions. When they get to the end of caramelizing you add in a little solution of beef broth and red wine and sweat that off too.

Then you make the meatballs. First you mix some of the usual kinds of ingredients. A cube of mozzarella cheese is put into the center of each meatball. Not a very big piece as lots of the cheese oozes out during cooking. Then you brown the meatballs.

Meanwhile, the onions are put into bottom of a casserole dish (or you can make this in a frying pan that’s suitable for going into the oven, that’ll save one more dish from dishwashing). The meatballs go in on top. Then you make a cornstarch-thickened mixture with broth and more red wine and that cooks in the residual fat left in the frying pan. Once thickened, that’s poured over the top of the meatballs.

Into the oven they go for about 15-20 minutes, then you take them out and add the cheese on top and back into the oven they go for another 15-20 minutes, and they’re done.

There’s a picture of the casserole (the second one I made that I gave to my neighbor) ready for the second baking with the cheese on top.

Once the casserole is done, I suggest you take it out of the oven and let it sit for about 4-5 minutes. It’s really hot, and that cheese will, for sure, burn the roof of your mouth.

I probably should have had just three meatballs. I splurged and had four. And oh, were they ever good. There really isn’t “soup” as you might think – there are delicious red-winey-onions on the bottom, then the meatballs, crispy with the golden brown cheese. This could be served on a bed of rice, cauliflower rice (buttered), some mashed potatoes, mashed cauliflower too, or some noodles? Or a bed of buttered garlic spinach.

What’s GOOD: everything about this was delicious. The onions have great flavor, especially with the little bit of red wine added, then the sauce too, which has broth and red wine in it. The beef was tasty, especially if you had a bit of cheese and onion with every bite. I almost licked the bowl.

What’s NOT: well, this does take a bit of time to make. If you have some extra hands in the kitchen to do the meatballs, that would be a great help. It probably took about an hour and 20 minutes or so to do it all, altogether, including the 30 minute baking time. The onions take a long time – you could easily do those ahead, as that would save a lot of time.

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Ever get a hankering for bratwurst?

As I write this, we’re still in the sheltering-in-place routine. Am I tired of it? Heck, yes. But I’m not willing to risk going out yet. My doctor has told me that older folks (like me) should stay home until there is a vaccine. Oh my. Is that ever a depressing thought. That’s more than 6 months away. I can’t wrap my head around that possibility. So I’m staying at home and trying not to think more than 1-2 days ahead.

It was a few weeks ago that I was watching Joanne Weir’s Plate and Places (PBS). In that episode she visited Germany, chugged some lager with the locals, and then came home to make veal brats and her version of a cabbage dish to go with it. Since they kind-a go together I’m giving you both recipes in the one post.

My problem was getting the brats. Since I’m not going out, I had to rely on my neighbor to go for me, and there are only a couple of stores locally that carry good veal brats (other than the bulk-made grocery store variety that I don’t think are very authentic). My neighbor, Josee, was kind enough to say she’d go to one particular independent market for me. I had her get the brats and a bunch of Italian sausage (the latter vacuum sealed in one-sausage-per-pkg that’s in the freezer). Fortunately I had cabbage and Brussels sprouts too, so I was happy to be able to prepare this dish.

What I didn’t have was the German amber beer, but I did have ordinary beer (I don’t drink beer, but my son-in-law brought some here last fall when they visited). There was one bottle left, and it was just enough.

The gist of this recipe is that once you brown the sausages in a spice toasted pan, they are braised in beer until cooked through. Then onions are added (see them perched on top of the sausage in the photo) and then served with the mustard sauce (which I forgot to photograph).

The cabbage dish was so intriguing to me because it combined regular cabbage and Brussels sprouts. But then, I love Brussels sprouts just about any old which way. But to combine them with cabbage, then flavor them with celery seeds, caraway, juniper berries and some Riesling wine? Oh yes! And butter. And the wine I didn’t use in the cabbage I had as an aperitif for several evenings in a row. I went into the wine cellar – which I knew would contain next to nothing in the Riesling department (because my DH didn’t like sweet wine), but I did find about 3 bottles. Yippee, I could make this dish!

There’s a photo at left of it cooking in the pan. As it cooked down, it became less vibrant looking, sorry to say, but it was delicious nevertheless.

What’s GOOD: everything was good. Loved having some veal brats, and I ate this for 3 days in a row. Loved the cabbage and Brussels sprouts. Actually, I liked them better on day two than the night I served them. I suppose the flavors married a bit. Which made the leftovers so much more delicious. Do make the mustard sauce too. A bit of work, but you can do it while the other stuff is cooking away.

What’s NOT: nothing really – pretty easy dishes to make if you have all the ingredients.

BEER BRAISED SAUSAGES: printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook 15/16 file (click link to open recipe)

CABBAGE and BRUSSELS SPROUTS: printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook 15/16 file (click link to open recipe)

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What is there not to like about a whole beef tenderloin?

For Christmas Day I offered to buy a whole beef tenderloin for the family celebration. Sara said “yes, please.” So off I went to Costco to buy an already-trimmed (of extra fat and silverskin) tenderloin. I cut it in half (easier handling in the oven), patted well with the spice combo (not herbs, but spices, which were a type of dry rub) then it was tightly tied with kitchen twine. They went into plastic bags (or wrap well in plastic wrap so it doesn’t leak) and I let them marinate in the refrigerator for almost 3 days. The recipe, from a class with Phillis Carey, calls for marinating the dry rubbed tenderloin for 4 days.

My cousin Gary and I drove to Sara’s and John’s (in Poway, CA) on Christmas Day and the meat went into the frig until about an hour before we wanted to begin cooking them.

After the dry marinating time, the two pieces were seared on all sides with EVOO, then placed on a rimmed baking sheet and into a 400°F oven. The recipe said 20 minutes, but ours took about another 3-4, I think, to reach 130°F. Actually both reached about 133°F when we got them out of the oven. In case you’ve never done one of these, let me just warn: the last 3-8 minutes are crucial – monitor the internal temp frequently. The internal temp rises quickly once the meat reaches about 120°. Be forewarned. The last thing you want is an overcooked tenderloin. Some in our group wanted more medium and we got that perfectly with the smaller piece.

A few days ahead I’d made the chutney, a kind of cooked relish of fresh cranberries, orange juice, sugar, dried mango chopped up and a tablespoon of freshly grated ginger.

So, there’s a photo of the finished pieces. Note one is larger – it went in the oven for about 5 minutes before we added the 2nd, smaller piece. So they both came out of the oven at the same time.

The meat was lightly tented with foil for 15 minutes, then carved in thin slices (recommended) and served. The recipe says to roast to 135°. I’m hesitant to go that high, so I took them out early. They continue to cook during the resting time anyway.

JUST WATCH THE TEMP CAREFULLY. When you pay $114 (that’s what this one was) for a hunk of good beef, you certainly don’t want to ruin it by overcooking. Just so you know, if you overcook beef, it gets tough.

What’s GOOD: loved the seasonings –  the beef was “hot” because of the quantity of pepper. If you’re sensitive to it, reduce the pepper from the mixture below. Loved the spices on it. AND loved the chutney. It’s perfect with a big hunk of beef. I had two small pieces, and after feeding 12, there was nothing but a small handful of beef tidbits left over. I think everyone went back for seconds, just about.

What’s NOT: if you’re sensitive to pepper, take it out of the recipe altogether, and if you are turned off by spices patted onto meat, reduce the quantity of the spices. Obviously, if cost is a factor, pass on this one as it’s an expensive entrée.

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Remember? Brown food doesn’t look so great in a picture! But oh, this one’s worth the effort, and it doesn’t take much to make this pot roast dinner.

Even though I eat a somewhat restricted set of foods, there are lots of things I can make and enjoy. Last night I had a group of friends over for dinner and made this pot roast, a tabouli salad made with millet, Brussels sprouts with bacon, golden raisins and pomegranate seeds, a type of dip – called a hummus because of its texture – but made with zucchini, and then I made a strawberry black pepper refrigerator cake. The only thing I made that wasn’t on my diet was the dessert. But I had some anyway. Well, I suppose I’m not to have pot roast, either (too much fat) but I did.

I still subscribe to a bunch of blogs, and truly, as I scan through them I can often whiz right past because they have foods that I’m not supposed to eat on this anti-lectin, Gundry diet. I’m a sucker, though, for an interesting story, and this one was just so special. Written by John “Doc” Willoughby, I was hooked from the first words. If you’re interested, click HERE, to the full story. In a nutshell, Doc knew from when he was a child, that he loved his Grandmother’s pot roast, but he never knew much about what was in it. After his grandmother passed away, Doc inherited her collection of cookbooks and recipes. And then he found the old 3×5 card with the recipe on it. Since then, he’s made this pot roast countless times, and often for company, because he says it’s pretty foolproof, AND it’s easy.

The recipe, on the surface, looks kind of mundane. But oh, it’s not. He explains that he’s made it without the caraway seeds, and without the marjoram, and he says the finished product doesn’t measure up. So, those herbs/spices are essential to the result. First, buy a 4-pound chuck eye roast. Pat it dry with paper towels, salt and pepper it, then sear it in oil in a big, lidded Dutch oven type pan. Remove the meat, then sauté 2 onions, halved and sliced, then you add in the other ingredients – broth, brown sugar, the caraway seeds and marjoram (I used dried), some bay leaves, and some apple cider vinegar. The roast is nestled in there, and more broth is added if needed, to bring the liquid level up halfway on the roast (mine needed about another 3/4 cup of water). Into a 300°F oven it went (covered) and baked for 3 hours. I removed it and turned the roast twice. Then you add 3 Granny Smith (or similar type) apples, cored and peeled, then sliced and cut in 8ths, cover and bake for another 15-20 minutes, until the apples kind of puff up. A few of them fell apart in my pot, and some hardly seemed done, but they were.

The only kind-of-sort-of hard part was getting that 4-lb. roast out of the pot – it was hot and heavy and it fell apart. But oh well. It’s supposed to rest for 10-15 minutes before you serve it, so I put it out on the platter and covered it with foil while I wrestled with the good stuff left in the pot – the apples, onions and flavorful broth. It took a bit of doing – and my friend Judy helped me some – to remove some of the fat. I have a fat separator which helped, but the onions kept clogging up the sieve part. But we managed. The apples and onions went out onto the platter (see photo) and some of the broth swam all over the platter as well. The strained, somewhat de-fatted broth went into a pitcher to pass at the table.

What’s interesting is that none of us – me included – could taste the caraway or the marjoram. That was kind of astounding to me – I pride myself on being able to detect flavors. Couldn’t find it at all in this dish. With the list of ingredients, I’d guess this recipe has German origins (the caraway, apples and apple cider vinegar are the clues), but the marjoram makes me think France. But no matter, this dish comes together well. There’s a lot of liquid left over, so I’ll probably make some kind of soup with it – maybe with some of the left over pot roast cut into little cubes (if I can, as the meat is meltingly tender).

What’s GOOD: the flavor – oh my yes – so tasty. You can detect the sweet (brown sugar) and the apples impact a delectable flavor to the overall dish. It was perfectly tender, and I liked having a dish that offered the apples to serve alongside, with the very tender onions too. It was easy. The article actually suggested making it the day before up to the apple-adding step, then reheating it and baking for 15-20 minutes. I wasn’t so sure that was a good idea – so I made it the day of. Will I make this again? Absolutely, although probably not for myself. Only for company, I’d say. I’m sure you could make a smaller one – say a 2 1/2 pound roast, however.

What’s NOT: nothing really, except that you need to plan ahead several hours. But that’s not news to anyone who’s made a pot roast before. There were no complaints from anyone.

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These probably should be called meatloaf balls – they’re so perfect for individual servings – make them as small or large as you’d like. Then brush with a tomato glaze.

As I mentioned in my last post, I offered to take dinner to 3 people (one couple and a single) a few weeks ago, and after seeing what other people were taking to the couple, I suggested meatloaf. They said “YES.” Normally I’d make mashed potatoes, but I’d noticed that 2 other meal-helpers had taken them mashed potatoes, so I suggested rice or pasta. RICE was the answer. My single friend Melida doesn’t care what I bring her – she’ll eat anything I make, God bless her!

This recipe for meatloaf contains some different ingredients (which was why it interested me). Dijon mustard for one, and smoked paprika, for another.  Some meatloaf recipes use Worcestershire, but in this one there’s a bit more than usual. The original recipe came from Smitten Kitchen, and Deb talked about her aversion to meatloaf, so she invented these meatballs that stand in for meatloaf. Loved the idea. I’ve made that type before. One of the best parts about making these large rounds is that they cook faster than a single, big loaf type meatloaf – these in 25 minutes or no more than 30.

Now Deb made hers to nestle on the top of a mound of browned butter mashed potatoes. I didn’t go that route, but there was no difference in the meatloaf part of the recipe in any case. You mix up ground beef and ground pork (Deb used all beef) along with a bunch of finely diced and cooked onion, carrot, celery and garlic. She used bread in hers, but since I’m trying to not eat carbs, I upped the number of eggs, and it worked just fine. Also in the meatloaf is a jot of tomato paste, salt, pepper and chopped parsley.

Meanwhile, you make your own topping. I really, really liked the tomato glaze – it’s a type of sweet/sour sauce that’s not all that sweet (used only 2 teaspoons of honey for about 2/3 cup of sauce). You combine tomato paste, cider vinegar, the honey, more Worcestershire, Dijon and salt and bring it to a simmer. Bingo. Done. As you can see from the photos, first I formed the meatballs (I had 2 pans of them since I increased the quantity some), then spread them with the glaze. Into a 350°F oven they went and I began testing the internal temp at about 20 minutes. You want an internal temp of 160°F.

Next time I make these I’m going to double the sauce and will glaze the meatballs a 2nd time during the baking. As you can see from the finished photo, some of the sauce kind of slides off. It might be better also, to flatten the tops of the meatballs – that way the sauce would stay put. So I have changed the recipe below to achieve those things. Deb actually makes a kind of groove in the middle of her meatballs (which maybe accomplished the same thing as flattening the top) so the glaze stayed put.

Since I made extra, I have 4 meatballs in my freezer now and I put a dollop of extra sauce in some plastic wrap and put that on top of the frozen meatball so it’ll be available to glaze mid-way when I bake them next. To freeze them, I did brush the glaze on them, put them on a plastic-wrap lined baking sheet, put them in the freezer that way, then once they were frozen I put the little package of extra sauce on top, then wrapped each meatball individually in plastic wrap and then into a Ziploc freezer bag. When I defrost I will remove the sauce package before allowing them to defrost – so the plastic wrap doesn’t pick up the sauce that’s ON the meatball already.

What’s GOOD: Altogether delicious meatloaf/meatball – loved the hint of smoked paprika in this, and although you couldn’t taste the Worcestershire or Dijon, you know there is something else interesting in them to give them extra-good flavor. Even without adding bread or some other carb (oatmeal) this meatloaf is very light in texture. This recipe is a winner and I’ll be making these again and again.

What’s NOT: nothing other than the prep work, but there isn’t that much to do.

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Have you joined the fans clamoring for skirt steak? It’s relatively inexpensive, as steak goes, but it does require careful grilling and it needs to be sliced thin as it’s a more-chewy cut of meat.

My favorite steak is ribeye. That’s no secret if you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time. I haven’t had a steak for awhile – once in a blue moon I do make one for myself – and it’s very satisfying, I must admit. When my DH was alive, we’d have a steak every 2-4 weeks, for sure. Dave love-loved them. And he had perfected the cooking of them on the outdoor grill. My poor barbecue doesn’t get much of a workout with just me these days. We’ve had a really hot and muggy summer here in SoCal. Hotter earlier than usual, and more muggy than usual. So I don’t tend to go outdoors in the early evening as it’s just too uncomfortable. So this recipe would fit perfectly into that routine since it can be done on an indoor grill.

This skirt steak (also called flap meat in some grocery stores – it’s a boneless portion of the diaphragm muscle attached to the 6th through 12th ribs on the underside of the short plate) does need to be marinated for at least 8 hours, or overnight if you can make the time to do it. That helps tenderize the rather chewy cut of meat. And in case you’ve never done a skirt steak, when you buy it, it’s a big, long piece of meat, relatively thin and very grainy when you look at it. Do cut it up into manageable pieces before marinating and then grilling them.

This marinade is heavy in the oil component. It needs it here, although when you’re done, that marinade gets thrown out anyway. Combine the ingredients in a plastic Ziploc bag, and turn the meat a few times to coat everything well. Then seal it up and stick it in the frig until later.

Make the garlic yogurt sauce – it’s easy to do – Phillis Carey (this came from a class with her) prefers regular yogurt, not Greek, but I think I’d use Greek. She said you could, it’s just that the sauce will be much thicker. Do make it several hours ahead too, so the garlic and lemon juice will mix and flavor all the yogurt. Chill it until you’re ready to serve it – can be made the day before if you want.

Now, the grilling. I was so impressed – Phillis discovered that you can save all the cleanup of an indoor grill by covering the top with foil – you just lay the foil on top – don’t press it in/on it. Spray or brush the foil with some of the oil from the marinade – try to get just the oil, not the lemon juice part. Or, barring that, just spray with olive oil spray. Pick up the meat pieces with tongs and just let them drain for 5-10 seconds (over the open bag) then place on the pre-heated grill. You’ll be so surprised – the meat gets grill marks just as if it’s right on the pan itself. This meat, however, only wants to be grilled for 3-5 minutes per side. The meat shrinks up something fierce – you might think that 2-3 pounds of skirt steak would feed 10 people, but NO, it shrinks a lot. In case you don’t know, skirt steak is quite fatty – you can’t SEE the fat very much – but enter the meat into any nutrition info and you’ll find that it’s very fatty. Sad to say . . . but it’s full of flavor. More flavor than regular steaks, it’s true.

Let the meat sit, tented with foil, for about 5 minutes once you’ve taken it off the grill then use tongs and a sharp knife and cut it across the grain into thin slices. Pile it onto a heated platter and serve with some of the garlic yogurt sauce drizzled over it, and serve the remaining in a bowl to pass at the table. Or, as I suggested a few days ago, serve this steak with the BLT Salad with Grilled Corn and Buttermilk Parm Dressing.

What’s GOOD: the flavor, first of all. Easy to do, easy marinade, easy grilling – just watch it carefully and don’t overcook it – served medium-rare at most (cooking it further may make the meat more tough).

What’s NOT: really nothing except watching the grilling carefully.

printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook 15/16 file (click link to open recipe)

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Is it hard to see what’s in that photo? Grilled sweet onions on the left, a nice pile of thinly sliced, grilled flank steak, then a creamy horseradish sauce with onion.

I can’t say that flank steak is one of my favorites. Although you can make it tender with a marinade (this one wasn’t marinated for tenderness, just spice rubbed for flavor), it’s tricky to do just the right amount of tenderizing without the meat becoming mushy. If you’ve ever had mushy meat, you’ll know what I’m talking about. This steak was served at a great cooking class with Phillis Carey, and although I love-loved the flavor of this combination, I think I’d do the same rendition but with ribeyes instead of flank. Or maybe with a nice piece of sirloin, sliced thin. By far, the onions were my favorite part (sweet onions grilled with a spice rub on them too) and I lapped up the horseradish spiked mayo sauce with every bite of meat.

This sauce, what Phillis called an Onion Blossom Horseradish Sauce (she was mimicking the jarred Orange Blossom Horseradish Sauce, is it made by Rothschild?) and it’s really good, and very easy. It needs a few hours to combine the flavors – do NOT just make the sauce as you’re preparing the meat – it needs at least an hour to meld. It wouldn’t hurt the meat to be spice rubbed at the same time then kept chilled until ready to grill.

You used to not be able to find ancho chili powder in stores, but you can these days, so do seek it out. The rub comes together very easily with standard ingredients in most spice cabinets. The rub is used on both the steak and the onions, with you having tossed the onions with some olive oil first so the rub will stick to it. You’ll use most of the rub on the steak and the remainder on the onions.

The flank steak is rubbed all over with oil just before grilling for 7-9 minutes per side (no more than that or it will be overcooked). Once grilled, transfer the steak to a cutting board and tent it with foil for 8-10 minutes, then slice thinly on the diagonal and pile it onto a heated platter along side the onions and then drape the sauce over the top. Delicious!

What’s GOOD:  the flavors are marvelous. I particularly loved the onions, but then I love grilled onions. Just remember to buy the sweet ones and slice them thickly. Do slice the flank steak thinly across the grain and pile them onto a serving plate (looks pretty that way).

What’s NOT: the meat will be a bit chewy – some folks like steak that way (me not so much). Otherwise, this is a stellar recipe – you’ll need only a green salad to complete the meal.

printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook 15/16 file (click link to open recipe)

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