Clean laundry versus dirty...one of the many things that differentiates my progeny from myself. She's remarkable in so many ways that I won't discuss here. What I will say is that I gave her the choice of dinners tonight and Ann opted for steak.
Adventures in grilling.
I'll start off by saying I've got three grills. Yes, a little excessive. Okay, a lot excessive. But keep in mind, before we were in a recession nobody would think twice about such petty extravagances. Now, as the world seems to be collapsing around us, the idea of three grills seems so... so... unnecessary.
One grill is a classic 22-inch weber though it is enclosed in a stand that includes a small propane tank which you use to ignite your coals. (This is a concession to convenience).
The second grill is a Sears natural gas beast. Six burners, tied into the house gas line. It is extraordinarily convenient and great most of the time. The challenge with this grill is that it never gets quite hot enough to do the high-heat crust-creating grilling I go for with steaks.
The third grill is a "Kamado", another beast. It is a huge ceramic grill, based on Japanese grill design. (Think the "Big Green Egg" and then think much more authentic. I'm still getting to know the grill so I don't use it enough.
So let's talk about the prodigal daughter dinner. Because I was driving to BWI to pick up Ann, as well as Ellie and Claire, I didn't do too much advance work. What you'll see over time is that I have a few staples when I cook steak. So let's get into it.
Entree: New York Strip steaks
Whenever I have red meat I tend to put a fair amount of kosher salt on it as soon as the red meat gets into the house. If you can let the meat sit for a couple days the salt will dramatically improve the steak.
When I buy the steak on same day as cooking, i typically salt and pepper it and loosely cover it for a couple hours if I have the time.
Meanwhile, I roast a garlic bulb for each person having steak. I picked this up in Mexico of all places. We were in Cancun on the second half of a summer vacation. The first week was spent on this tiny island, Isla Holbox, where we swam with whale sharks and chilled. I highly recommend checking out Isla Holbox. It is a gem on the verge of being discovered. If you're interested here's a great article on it from the New York Times. Click Here.
Cancun was the antithesis. Touristy, bereft of culture, other than beautiful beaches there is no real reason to go there whatsoever. That being said, I did have a good steak there and hooked on the fact that everyone who gets a steak receives a roasted garlic bulb along with it. Thusly I now do the same.
Cancun was the antithesis. Touristy, bereft of culture, other than beautiful beaches there is no real reason to go there whatsoever. That being said, I did have a good steak there and hooked on the fact that everyone who gets a steak receives a roasted garlic bulb along with it. Thusly I now do the same.
Roasting garlic is easy. Start by taking off the outer paper. Get as much as you can without loosening any of the cloves. Next cut straight across the clove bottoms so you've exposed the garlic. (Visualize the garlic sitting on the counter, root-side down. You slice cleanly horizontally across the whole bulb so it is now also flat and you can see garlic exposed. Take a piece of aluminum foil and put individual bulbs into a small square of tin foil. Drizzle olive oil over the exposed top of the garlic and then close tightly.
Throw the bulb into an oven heated to 425°. The bulbs take a good 45 minutes. Take it out and let it cool. (You can do a bunch of different things with roasted garlic. After it cools, you squeeze it out from the bulb right on your steak. Or you can create roasted garlic butter by throwing some butter and the garlic into a mini chop and combine it.
Note: a ton of recipes for flavored butter talk about softening butter and then mixing in a spice or whatever you're adding. Then you're supposed to form a "log" in wax paper and throw the butter into the freezer for a few minutes.
I used to do that. I won't tell you what my butter "logs" looked like or reminded me of.
I was out of wax paper one day and out of desperation threw butter (not softened!) and garlic and in that case, roasted red pepper, into a mini chop. The outcome was amazingly better. Smooth and truly blended. Instead of trying to create logs, I put the finished butter into a large ramekin and then through that in the fridge for a few minutes.
For the steak, all I do is salt and pepper. I'm a big believer that the better the cut of meat the less I want to distract from its natural taste. For grilling I look for thick thick steaks. I don't serve individual steaks "per person" so I don't worry that an inch and a half (or inch and a quarter, most of the times) would be too much meat.
After they're salted and pepppered, right before cooking, I dip the steak in a mix of corn oil and clarified butter. Let the excess drip off. Why the fat? Because I read somewhere that this combination helps you with the crustiness, which is always my ultimate goal.
I used to build a two tier fire. Burning hot on one side and almost no coals on the other side. I'd sear both sides for a couple minutes over the intense heat and then move to the far side of the grill. Cover and in a couple minutes flip the steaks around so the "cold" side of the steak was in the direction of the heat.
I don't do that anymore. First, I use hardwood in lieu of Kingsford because hardwood burns hotter. I am extremely generous with the amount of hardwood I initially light. I want the thermometer pegged on the Weber (it only goes up to 550° or something like that. So, once all the coals are hot, I form a raging fire on one side of the grill. Coals almost up to the cooking grate. Enough coals to cook all the steaks in one fell swoop. (Yes, I said "swoop". Issues? Send them to who-cares-if-jason-is-occasionally-pretentious@have-you-nothing-better-to-do.com)
So you have to be careful with the steaks when cooking over a raging fire in case you unaware. Even the thickest steak will need to move away from the direct heat after four or five minutes. Hopefully you'll only have to move each steak just three times..
Once to put on the grill
Once to flip sides.
Once to flip back right before you take them out.
With hope, you won't have to move them out of the heat before they are done (medium rare...I don't want to discuss anything else. Sorry. Just keep moving. Nothing to see here.)
Critical! When they're ready to come off the fire, put them on a platter and cover loosely with aluminum foil. The steaks need to close up a little. This step makes a huge difference.
Side: steamed-in-the bag broccoli with mock hollandaise
Salad: Wedge. Again. I'm so sick of wedges it isn't funny.
Music: I spent most of the cooking time introducing Ann to the B3 Hammond organ. I don't think she loved the music but she humored me. Buddah is the only one who actually thinks it is hip.
Be well and stay in touch.
Critical! When they're ready to come off the fire, put them on a platter and cover loosely with aluminum foil. The steaks need to close up a little. This step makes a huge difference.
Side: steamed-in-the bag broccoli with mock hollandaise
Salad: Wedge. Again. I'm so sick of wedges it isn't funny.
Music: I spent most of the cooking time introducing Ann to the B3 Hammond organ. I don't think she loved the music but she humored me. Buddah is the only one who actually thinks it is hip.
Be well and stay in touch.
I'll
