Noticed that your typical BBQ fare was way on sale at Ralphs yesterday (probably post holiday weekend leftovers) so I purchased a 3 pound London Broil (which is apparently fancy talk for skirt steak) for 6ish dollars, which was a great deal. Because it was the roomie’s birthday, I thought it might be nice to cook him something different, and we’ve only experimented with steak once before, so I decided to give it a go. I also thought it might be a good excuse to try out a steak in the new skillet since up to now its really only cooked ground chuck. So, the steak was cut in half and the broiler was turned to high. I greased up the skillet with olive oil and placed it in the oven above the broiler so it could get all nice and hot. In the meantime I started seasoning the other cut, first with lemon juice, then garlic salt and Montreal Steak Seasoning (Lowry’s brand, I believe, the one without any Hydrogenated soy bean oil in it). I rubbed some olive oil into the meat and then a few dashes of Worcester sauce. This cut I placed in a Pyrex dish on top of a half a sliced onion and 5 cloves of smashed garlic. On top I poured maybe 1/2 cup of red wine. Probably a mistake because I realized the wine started to wash off all the careful seasoning I’d prepared. So I added a little more garlic salt (I’ve found with steaks it pays to be generous with the seasonings) and some ground rosemary. Under the broiler it went, 3 minutes on one side, turn, 2 minutes on side two, turn, add pat of butter and cook for 1-2 minutes, and just to be safe I turned it once more and added a 2nd pat, 60 more seconds and Voila, it was ready to be cooled. Now, while that magic was happening, I had seasoned the second cut with just the steak seasoning and some of the garlic salt. This one was a quick and easy cook, dropped it onto the skillet and popped it back into the oven then listened to the satisfying his of crackling meat. About 3 minutes on each side, then the pat of butter trick made this a decent steak to be enjoyed, though sadly, it still needed a bit of seasoning. My skillet has a long way to go, I suppose.
I had hoped to make sandwiches with these, but the meat had not marinated so it was a bit on the tough side. Since we had no tomatoes, and because I was feeling saucy, I spread some mild salsa from a bottle (yes, I know, epicureans commence with wailing and teeth gnashing) on a piece of shepherds bread then topped with a few slices of Brie and popped this into the toaster oven. With the sliced steak on top of this and some of the onions from the cooking dish, the combination of flavors actually turned out really well.
Lessons for next time: Marinate your meat in the morning if you’re going to cook it at night (insert juvenile joke here) and poor the wine around the meat, not directly on top of it. Not a bad dinner overall.
June 3, 2010 at 8:05 pm |
Next day sandwiches aren’t too bad. Sourdough bread with celery stalks and cherry jam on the side. Nice.