Tag Archives: steak

Sirloin Tip Steak with Harissa Marinade

Posted on April 13, 2012 by | 2 Comments

Silly me, I made the mistake of assuming the grocery store would be open on Sunday, as usual.  Rediscovering that it was Easter meant that dinner plans had to be changed, subject to rescuing something from our freezer.  (Maybe there’s an analogy to be made, but I won’t go there.)  In the recesses of the freezer, there was a package labeled “sirloin tip steak” from the 1/8 grass-fed cattle share we got last year from Heritage Foods USA.  The sirloin tip steak is not top sirloin – it is a more “economical” lean cut of meat that can be tough and chewy if you don’t treat it right.  According to meatsource.com, the sirloin tip steak, aka “round tip”, can be used to make cutlets (fast fry), stir-fry, kabobs, stew, cube steak, or can be marinated and grilled.  I decided to do something in between kabobs and a marinated steak – - I’ll call this “faux sirloin tips”.

The recipe for the harissa marinade is slightly modified from Bon Appétit via epicurious.com (Harissa-Marinated Top Sirloin Tips) to make it more paleo-diet friendly – namely switching out the brown sugar for coconut palm sugar, and the soy sauce for coconut aminos.  I can’t take any credit for the harissa either, since I bought it pre-made from The Spice House.  Harissa is a common North African condiment made from chilies, oil, garlic, and spices. This organic version, made on a family estate in Tunisia, is not overly spicy and is a great complement to beef.  This turned out to be one of those happy meals that came together with minimal planning and effort.  We grilled some red and yellow sweet bell peppers to serve with the meat hunks, and washed it down with a nice Zinfandel.  Yum!

Ingredients:

  • 2 pounds sirloin tip steak (or top sirloin steak)
  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 tablespoons coconut palm sugar
  • 2 tablespoons coconut aminos
  •  3/4 teaspoon dried thyme (or 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves)
  • 2 tablespoons harissa sauce

Cut the steak into 2- to 3-inch-wide strips, then cut the strips into 2- to 3-inch triangles.

Combine the remaining ingredients in a large glass (or non-reactive) bowl and mix well.  Add the beef triangles and toss in the marinade to coat evenly.  Marinate for up to an hour at room temperature, or cover and refrigerate to marinate up to one day.  Toss occasionally to mix.  (The longer the meat can marinate, the better.)

Set up a grill for cooking at ~400F.  When the grill is ready, grill the meat for 3-4 minutes on each side, or until desired level of doneness.  (Medium rare would be best for this lean meat, in my opinion.)

Enjoy!

Got some great music recently! First up, Tragic Songs of Life/Satan Is Real by the Louvin Brothers. I’m currently reading Charlie Louvin’s book, and his description of the early days on the road with his brother Ira is hair-raising stuff! So is this set of some of their biggest albums. Their influence is vast on country music, and their harmonies are as good as you’ll hear anywhere. And “Satan is Real” is easily the best cover ever!

I’ve written about Guy Clark here before, so I was thrilled to hear of this- This One’s For Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark. It’s a treasure, with some of the greatest songs ever, sung by some pretty esteemed folks such as Joe Ely, Emmylou, Shawn Colvin and a wonderful version of “She Ain’t Going Nowhere” by The Trishas. Sometimes tribute albums are hit or miss, but this one is two discs of hit!

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London Broil with Lime-Garlic-Ginger Marinade

Posted on January 9, 2012 by | 4 Comments

Last year we bought a 1/4 grass-fed cattle share – most of which has been consumed.  There were a few odd cuts of steak remaining, like this large package labeled “London Broil”.  Now best I can tell, “London Broil” is not the name of a cut of meat, it is more of a preparation method.  My guess is this piece of meat is a top round steak because it is very lean and it is pretty large (around 2 pounds).  Top round steak has a nice beefy taste, but it can also be chewy and tough unless prepared correctly.  You could also use flank steak, sirloin, or skirt steak for this recipe.

I marinated this steak for about 6 hours for additional flavor, using a marinade recipe with lime, garlic, and ginger slightly modified from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything.  He suggests leaving the meat in the marinade for 1 to 2 days to really soak up those flavors, which I would recommend.  At six hours, the garlic and ginger flavors were there, but subtle.  However, I probably overcooked our steak a little, trying to photograph it in the dark by lantern light.  Even so, the steak turned out pretty well and was great with grilled multi-color bell peppers and eggplant slices!

Since this is not a tender cut of meat, it should be sliced thinly across the grain when serving – this keeps it from being chewy.

Ingredients:

  • 1-2 pounds top round steak, flank steak, sirloin, or skirt steak
  • 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
  • 1 tablespoon Thai fish sauce
  • 1 tablespoon coconut aminos (gluten-free, soy-free sauce)
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 heaping teaspoon minced or grated fresh ginger
  • 1 teaspoon honey
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper

Combine lime juice, fish sauce, coconut aminos, garlic, ginger, and honey.

Make shallow slashes across the surface of the steak with a knife.  Place the steak in a resealable bag or shallow glass dish.  Pour the marinade over the steak and rub it into the surface well.  Marinate, refrigerated, for at least 2 hours, or up to 2 days.  Turn occasionally so that all surfaces of the steak have good contact with the marinade.  When near the end of the marinating time, remove from the refrigerator and allow to return to room temperature.

Prepare a grill for direct cooking at 450-500 degrees.  Dry the steak well with paper towels.  Season with freshly ground pepper and salt.  (Go lightly on the salt since coconut aminos and fish sauce may be salty.)

Grill the steak for approximately 5 minutes per side, until internal temperature reaches 125F.  Let steak rest for 5-10 minutes before slicing, covered, to allow the meat to relax.

Went to Memphis a few weeks ago- talk about food!- but in between bouts of ribs, saw some local history at the Stax Museum. Fascinating place, with loads of exhibits and music of one of American’s foremost and influential labels. For a great look at its history and the legendary artists who recorded there- Otis, Booker T and the MGs, Isaac Hayes and more, I recommend Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story. Vital. America wouldn’t be the same without it.

Before Stax, future members of Booker T. and the MGs- Steve Cropper, Duck Dunn and Booker T, hooked up with high school classmate Charles “Packy” Axton and cut a bunch of sides to regional success. Packy was the son of Estelle Axton, who would go on to found Stax with Jim Stewart. These early southern soul sides have been collected on Late Late Party, and it’s great. Raw, gritty blues and soul, and you can tell future Hall of Famer Steve Cropper’s stinging tone early on.

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Churrasco Skirt Steak with Cilantro Pesto

Posted on June 26, 2011 by | 16 Comments

Inspired by Three Guys from Miami: Churrasco Estilo Cubano

Churrasco is a Portuguese/Spanish term referring generally to grilled beef, a popular ingredient in the cuisine of Argentina, Brazil, and other Latin American Countries (according to Wikipedia).  If you have ever been to a Brazilian Steakhouse, you certainly are familiar with this concept.  It is a meat-lover’s dream, with “gauchos” swarming about you with skewers of different cuts of meat fresh off the grill, offering as much as you can eat.  One of my favorite steakhouses, Fogo de Chão, also boasts the most beautiful salad bar, filled with salads, fresh vegetables, cheeses, and cured meats.  It is a wonderful dining experience!

Although we don’t have gauchos here at the house, we did want to create a dinner with Latin American flavors.  I selected grass-fed inside skirt steak for the grill, which has a little more fat than regular skirt steak, and has a loose texture that is perfect for marinating.  Churrasco is often served with or marinated in chimichurri, a green sauce traditionally made with parsley, garlic, olive oil, and vinegar.   Instead of using parsley, I took a few pointers from Three Guys from Miami and used cilantro to make more of a Cuban version of chimichurri – then I added pepitos (roasted pumpkin seeds) which made the sauce more the consistency of pesto.

As you can see from the photo, the churrasco was served with grilled vegetables and guacamole, and was topped with the intensely flavored, garlicky cilantro pesto.  It was delicious!  What you can’t see is in the middle of grilling the peppers and eggplant, yet another huge thunderstorm blew in unexpectedly leaving us both under the “grilling umbrella”, which provided little shelter from blowing rain.  We were soaked by the time the meat came off the grill, and didn’t get a single photo of our food that night.  These are the leftovers on the next day!  (The eggplant, all gone…)   Ah, the joys of summertime living in the southeast.

Ingredients for Marinated Skirt Steak:

  • 2-3 pounds skirt steaks
  • 6  cloves garlic, peeled
  • 1/2 onion, coarsely chopped
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons Florida Seasoned Pepper, or ground black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 2 limes, juiced (about 1/4 cup lime juice)
  • 1/4 cup olive oil

Cut the skirt steaks in half, so they will fit better on your grill.  Place in a glass baking dish or resealable plastic bag.  Process the remaining ingredients in a food processor or blender until smooth.  Pour over steaks and allow in marinate in refrigerator for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight.  When ready to grill, remove from refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature before cooking.

Ingredients for Cilantro Pesto (Chimichurri):

  • 1 large bunch of cilantro leaves, large stems removed
  • 8 cloves garlic, peeled
  • 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • 1 lime, juiced
  • several dashes of red pepper flakes
  • Kosher salt and ground pepper, to taste
  • 1/3 cup roasted pumpkin seeds (pepitos)
  • 1/2 cup olive oil

Put all ingredients except olive oil in a food processor; pulse on and off until mixture has a consistent, but still chunky, texture.  Place mixture into a small glass bowl and stir in olive oil.  (If you process it with the oil, it will become paste-like, you don’t want that.)  You will need to adjust the seasonings by taste – so add salt, pepper, vinegar, lime juice, and/or more olive oil as needed.  It should have an intense garlic and cilantro flavor.  A little bit will go a long way!

Check the local weather report for sneaky thunderstorm activity.

Set up the grill for direct cooking at around 500F.  Grill the steaks for around 4 minutes on each side until nicely seared, but still pink inside (medium rare to medium).  Place steaks on cutting board and allow to rest for 5-10 minutes, then slice into thin strips across the grain.  Serve with chimichurri sauce!

Gettin’ mighty tired of this cooking in the rain business! But when the results are as tasty as this, it’s worth it! Two new arrivals to share, the first being some perfect music to accompany a rainstorm, Relax Your Ears from Joel Styzens. Styzens had been a drummer in Chicago until he came down with tinnitus, potentially ending his musical career. But lucky for Joel- and us- he found an outlet in acoustic guitar. This album, recorded with cellist Katinka Kleijn, is a gorgeous piece of work that truly does “relax your ears”, but not in that mushy, aimless way of “new age” stuff, but with engaging, dynamic pieces. And I’m sucker for the combination of cello and guitar anyway. Give this a try!

We saw the Flatlanders a few months back, and I was glad to hear Joe Ely tell of an upcoming solo album, and here it is- Satisfied at Last. And if you’re a long-time Ely fan as I am, you’ll be satisfied indeed. His trademark storytelling style, along with a few Butch Hancock tunes makes this a welcome release from the Lubbock troubadour. His version of Billy Joe Shaver’s “Live Forever” is just wonderful.

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Paprika-Cumin Marinated Sirloin Steak and Medley of Roasted Squash

Posted on June 19, 2011 by | 5 Comments

Adapted from How to Cook Meat

Paprika Cumin Marinated Sirloin

Last week we splurged and ordered 40 pounds of grass-fed, grass-finished Angus beef for the freezer.  If you recall, I had to do a major freezer clean-out to accommodate the giant beef back ribs I had previously ordered.  I don’t know how, but we managed to squeeze almost all of the “new” beef in the freezer.  Needless to say, we’ll be having a little extra red meat this week to eat up what didn’t fit!

Another fortuitous find was How to Cook Meat, which my sweet husband picked up at the local used book store (shout out to Book Nook).  This tome of meat features a comprehensive discussion of all the different cuts from beef, pork, lamb, and veal…and includes the best cooking methods for each cut and many recipes.  Looking for something different to do with sirloin steaks, I decided to try “Grilled Sirloin Steak High Plains Drifter-Style.”  This recipe appears to be a homage to cowboys of the Old West – although I doubt they traveled with fresh oregano, cumin, and paprika.

Unfortunately, after the grill was started a big thunderstorm blew up with heavy rains and wind.  James bravely manned the grill station holding down the umbrella, with lightening all around and flames shooting out the top of the big green egg.  [No one was harmed during the production of this blog post.]

After calming the fire enough to keep the umbrella from igniting, we opened the airflow back up to cook at 600F.  The steaks were really flavorful, especially for such a lean cut of meat.  I’m sure cowboys would have enjoyed them!

Ingredients (modified from original recipe):

  • 2 10-oz sirloin steaks
  • 2 tablespoons minced garlic
  • 2 tablespoons fresh oregano, finely chopped
  • 1 sprig rosemary, leaves chopped fine
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons paprika (I used a mixture of sweet paprika and smoked sweet paprika)
  • 1/2 tablespoon ground cumin seeds
  • 2 tablespoons grainy mustard
  • 2-3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO)
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons honey
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl, except the steak, to form a thick paste.  Place steaks in a shallow glass dish.  Season with salt and pepper, then coat with the paste on both sides.  Allow to marinate in refrigerator for 2-6 hours, turning occasionally.  Remove from refrigerator around an hour before grilling, to allow to come to room temperature.

Set up a grill for direct cooking at high temperature.  When coals are ready, grill the steaks to medium/medium-rare (or desired level of doneness) – 3 to 4 minutes on each side.

Allow the steaks to rest for a few minutes (with a pat of butter if you wish), then serve them up!

Pitty-Pat (or Patty-Pan) squash were at the farmer’s market, so we sliced one into wedges and roasted it with chunks of zucchini and onions in the oven.  Just add salt, pepper and a light coating of olive oil – roast at 400F until tender and browned.  They would have been good on the grill too, but no one was anxious to get any wetter standing out there in the rain!

That was a meal worth standing in a rainstorm for! And when I came in, dried off, and had some wine, I cued up J.J. Cale’s Troubador, and it felt so good. You’re familiar with Cale, even if you don’t know the name. He wrote “After Midnight” and “Cocaine” (included here), both big hits for Eric Clapton, but it’s Cale’s versions I prefer. This guy ain’t no sprinter, he ambles to the finish line in a warm, relaxed fashion, very bluesy and soulful. If you can make it to the end of the opening song “Hey Baby” without a smile on your face somethings wrong!

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Steak Night

Posted on March 1, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Ribeyes rubbed with Montreal Steak seasoning.

Six hundred degrees...

Crispy romaine, nuggets of bacon-bourbon jam, fresh goat cheese, balsamic vinaigrette.

Mushrooms sauteed in butter with garlic.

Simply delicious!

 

Every family develops rituals and routines that help define them, and in our house, quite a few of them, as you might guess, revolve around food. Now, I was not raised in a house where food was celebrated, so when I met Nancy it was as if I had blinders removed. Food could have taste! It could be exciting and something to look forward to! And of all the gourmet experiences we’ve shared, Sunday night as steak night is one of my favorite, for a number of reasons.

First…meat. Yum. Cooked (by yours truly, my only “dish”) over a Dante’s Inferno of flame in the Big Green Egg, a plateful of meat and a nice glass of Cabernet Sauvignon really says “weekend” to me. Sunday’s are down time around the house, no more errands or laundry- not that we’re fanatics on cleaning on any day, certainly! Good time to sit down, get relaxed, and spend time on the porch, watching the birds and listening to music. This Sunday was a treat, due to my major score, an original Blue Note pressing of this:

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Horace Silver’s Blowin the Blues Away, with that sound that only vinyl can create. This album had started in the UK, and how it found its way to a Lilburn GA used book store is beyond me, but for $5, I’ll take it!

Then, in anticipation of NGD, we mellowed out with Meetings With Remarkable Friends featuring Artie Traum with friends such as David Grisman, Lawrence Juber and The Band.

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As I said, steak is my only menu item, and since its practically foolproof, I’ll be the fool. First, get the egg fired up, all vents open and get the heat as high as it will go- 500-600′. Then slap the steaks on, and cook a few minutes per side, turning 3 times. Then, hopefully without removing your eyebrows from the heat, serve with a salad, or roasted veggies. Pour another glass of wine (recipe direction #1!) and enjoy!

So, what rituals do you share?

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