Entries Tagged 'Beef' ↓

We’re going to be busy getting ready for a trip next week, so we took advantage of a deal on crab legs and had an early Valentine’s Day dinner.

About an hour out, my dear wife set the oven at 350°F and put the foil-wrapped potatoes in to bake. I took the steaks out of the fridge and set the Big Green Egg up for a direct cook at nuclear temperature – 700°F plus.

I seasoned the steaks on both sides with a generous amount of kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper. When the grill was ready, I put the crab in the oven and the steaks on the grate over the hottest part of the fire.  I closed the lid and gave them a good 90 seconds of undisturbed searing. Then I flipped them, closed the lid and gave them another 90 seconds.

These New York strips were so thick that I flipped the steaks up onto one edge, closed the lid, and let them go for another 90 seconds. Then flipped them onto their other edge and did the same thing.

I like steak medium-rare, which is just about exactly what these were when I pulled them off and put them on a warm plate and covered them with another plate, and let them rest for 15 minutes while the crab finished cooking and I grilled the romaine.

Just about a minute on each side with the lid open to give them a little char, then rough chopped with some tomatoes and into the salad.

Steak, crab, baked potato, and salad with home-made Caesar dressing.

Life is good!

Christmas Day this year meant shoveling a path out the side door and putting this fine rib roast on the Big Green Egg. This is an adaptation of Dr. BBQ’s simple and tasty Christmas Prime Rib recipe. This is also my first attempt at Yorkshire pudding. I told my dear wife that I just didn’t understand a savory pudding, she said, “You will after the first bite.”

Prime Rib

One 6 pound Hereford Beef boneless ribeye roast
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon steak seasoning (I used Penzeys English Prime Rib Rub)
Kosher salt and fresh-ground black pepper

Set your grill up for a 3 hour indirect cook over medium heat (350°F). On the Big Green Egg this means using about half a fire box full of lump charcoal, an inverted plate setter to diffuse the heat, and a trivet to set the pan on.

Wet the roast with the Worcestershire sauce, rubbing it all over. This adds nice flavor and color and gives your spices something to stick to. Season liberally with the steak seasoning, then coat it lightly with salt and pepper.

Put the roast fat side up side up on a rack set in a shallow roasting pan. Add about a cup of water to the pan to keep the juices from burning. Set the pan on the trivet, close the lid, and cook until the internal temp reaches 125°F deep in the center of the roast, about 2 hours.

Remove the roast to a carving board and tent loosely with foil. Let rest 20-30 minutes while you make the pudding.

Yorkshire Pudding

2 cups flour (I used Pamela’s Ultimate Baking & Pancake Mix)
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
4 large eggs
2 cups whole milk
1/4 cup beef drippings

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Leave 1/4 cup of drippings in the roasting pan and place in the oven.

Put the flour, salt, eggs, and milk in a bowl and whisk together. Pour the batter into the hot roasting pan and bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until puffed and golden brown. While the pudding is cooking, carve the roast.

Serve the pudding with the roast and a bit of grated horseradish.

This was so good – salty and rich with just a little smoke – and so easy that I’m going to be hard pressed to ever order prime rib in a restaurant again.

There are a lot of regional chili styles out there, and sometimes it seems that the debate about what should or shouldn’t go into chili overlooks what chili is really about – chiles.

This recipe blends whole dried chiles into an adobo sauce that gives this dish a  nice, deep chile flavor.

2 pounds ground chuck (coarse grind if you can get it)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 can (28 ounce) diced tomatoes with liquid
1 can (15 ounce) diced tomatoes with liquid
2 cans (20 ounce) dark red kidney beans, drained
2 cups beef broth
2 ancho peppers, dried
4 guajillo peppers, dried
2 chipotle peppers, dried
2 teaspoons Kosher salt
Chili powder to taste

The Chilies

The night before – wearing rubber gloves, stem and seed the chiles. I find this easiest to do with a pair of kitchen shears. Gently pull the stem  until it pops off (this often takes most of the seeds with it), cut open the side of the pepper, then spread it open and scrape out the remaining seeds and veins.

Fill a bowl about half full of hot water and have this ready beside the stove.  Get some ventilation going with an open a window or an exhaust fan. In a dry skillet (no oil) over medium heat, fry the chiles in small batches for just for about 15-20 seconds a side until they start to change color and become fragrant. As they finish cooking, remove them to the bowl of water.

When all of the chiles are cooked and in the bowl, use a small plate to weight them down so they are completely covered in water. Let this sit overnight.

The Adobo

Drain the chiles, discarding the soaking water. In a sauce pan, combine the chiles and the beef stock.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Blend the chile sauce until smooth. You can do this by running batches through a blend or food processor, but I find it easiest to just leave everything in the pot and use an immersion blender. Remove the pot from the heat and put it in the sink to help contain any splatters. Put the sauce aside to cool.

The Cook

This is one of the few recipes that I find easier to start on the stove and then move to the Big Green Egg. You could do it all on the stove top, but then you’re missing out on all the wonderful flavor that smoke brings to the dish.

Set your grill or smoker up for at least a 3 hour cook over indirect heat at 300°F. On the Big Green Egg that means filling the firebox with lump charcoal and using the plate setter inverted with a trivet on it to diffuse the heat. I used a little guava wood for smoke.

On the stove, brown the ground beef in a large dutch oven or other grill-safe pan. Drain if needed. Season with the salt and add the onions, garlic, and green pepper. Cook until the veggies go limp and the meat is fully cooked (about 5 minutes).

Add the adobo, mix and let simmer for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes and beans. Mix well and move the the grill. With the cover of the pan, close the grill lid and cook for an hour. Stir and check your seasoning, adding chili powder, salt or pepper as needed. Close the lid and cook for another hour.  Adjust seasonings again, and serve.

I served this with some cornbread and honey butter. It was remarkable – great, well-developed, chile flavor with just enough heat for this yankee.  In the end, I only added about a tablespoon of actual chili powder (Penzeys Chili 9000) to the whole batch, and that was mostly just because I wanted to give their new blend a try. It has a lot of great non-traditional ingredients like turmeric and cloves, that added even more interest to the dish.

Sous vide (a.k.a. hot tubing)  is a technique where the meat is vacuum sealed in a plastic bag, put into a water bath, and brought to an almost-done temperature before being finished on the grill.

No matter how you like your steak done, this reverse sear is a great way to get more of your steak done the way you like it. By bringing the steak’s internal temperature close to the desired final level of done-ness first and then searing the outside, you get a nice, wide band of meat done the way you like it without much of a ring of gray meat around it.

I like my steak medium rare, so I sealed a couple of nice rib eyes in a FoodSaver bag and submerged it in a 100°F water bath. I checked every 15 minutes or so and added more hot water when the temperature dropped. After an hour the steaks were at the same temperature as the water.

Since medium rare is only 135°F, and the steaks are already almost there, all I had to do next was give them a good char.

I cranked my Big Green Egg up to nuclear temperature with all the vents open and did a final prep of the steaks – dusting them with some kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper and shaping them with my hands so that they are as compact as possible.

I put the steaks over the hottest part of the grill and closed the lid for 60 seconds of undisturbed searing. After a minute, I rotated them 90 degrees and gave them 30 seconds with the lid closed. I flipped the meat and repeated the process on the other side.

I pulled them from the grill, put the steaks on a warm plate and covered them gently with another one, and let them rest for about 10 minutes before serving.

The verdict – probably one of the tastiest steaks I’ve ever had. There was plenty of  bright pink meat with a good, rich, beefy taste and a nice char on the outside. The texture was a little grainy, which might mean I had the water bath too hot. Next time I’ll use a bigger container so the temperature doesn’t drop when I add the steaks.

We got a quarter of a cow from my brother-in-law recently, and there was a pack of t-bones in the bundle that looked so nice that they headed straight for the grill.

This was a straight-on, no-frills, hot-and-fast grilling. I set the Big Green Egg up for a roaring 700°+F cook. While the grill was heating up, I seasoned the steaks with just a little kosher salt and fresh-ground black pepper.

When the charcoal looked like a pool of lava, I tossed these bad boys on for 90 seconds of undisturbed searing. Then I flipped them and let them go another 90 seconds on other other side. I flipped them again and checked the internal temperature. I was looking for a nice medium-rare – 135°F with a hint of red and the center. It only took me another 30 seconds a side to get there.

I put the steaks on a warm plate and covered them gently with another one, and let them rest for about 10 minutes before serving.

Nice crispy char on the outside and tender medium-rare goodness on the inside. Perfect.

Sometimes simple is best.

1 1/2 pound sirloin steak
1 tablespoon olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Set your grill up for a directed cook over medium-high heat (450-500°F).

Brush steak with oil and salt and pepper to taste.

For medium rare, grill for 4 to 6 minutes on each side, or until the meat reaches 130°F internal. Remove from grill and let it rest about 5 minutes, then cut crosswise into thin slices.

We served it with sauteed green beans and this excellent roasted beet salad.

The flat iron steak is another one of those cheap, tasty and (relatively) unknown cuts of meat that is gaining in popularity.  Cut from the top shoulder of the chuck, it is as tender as tenderloin and as flavorful as a strip steak.

Ingredients

1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 canned Chipotle pepper in Adobo, minced
1 tablespoon Adobo sauce from peppers
2 teaspoons kosher sea salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 flat iron steak (2 halves)

Instructions

Combine all ingredients, except steaks, in a small bowl. Mix to combine. Pour over steaks, cover and refrigerate for at least two hours, or overnight if possible.

There’s lots of marbling in flat iron steaks, so I don’t mind cooking them a little lower and longer than I would normally do steak. Set your grill up for direct cooking over medium-high heat (450 to 500°F).  For medium rare, grill the halves for 4 to 6 minutes on each side, or until they reach 130°F internal. Let them rest for at least 5 minutes before serving.

Is there anything better than meat on a stick? Meat on a stick with a rich and savory peanut sauce, of course.

The red curry paste in this recipe is a real  time saver. It adds a lot of flavor without the need to crush your own lemon grass or locate kaffir lime leaves.

Ingredients

3 pounds boneless sirloin or flank steaks
1 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste
2 tablespoons lime juice (1 medium lime)
2 tablespoons peanut oil
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon dried minced garlic
1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 cup peanut butter
1 can (13.5 ounces) unsweetened coconut milk

Directions

Combine the soy sauce, honey, red curry paste, lime juice, peanut oil, rice vinegar, brown sugar, garlic, and coriander in a large bowl and whisk well to combine.

Trim excess fat and gristle from the beef. Cover the roast with a layer of plastic wrap or wax paper. Use the the flat side of a meat tenderizer or a heavy sauce pan to pound the meat until it it’s about 1/2 inch thick. Slice the meat against the grain into 1/4 x 3 inch strips.

Put the beef in a big Ziploc bag and add the marinade. Seal the bag and turn to coat. Marinate for at least 2 hours in the fridge, overnight is much better.

Soak skewers for at least an hour. Set your grill up for a direct cook over very high heat (about 500°F).

Pour the marinade off the beef and into a medium saucepan. Add the peanut butter and coconut milk. Stiring regularly, bring the peanut mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until the sauce has reduced by about a third. Remove peanut sauce from heat and keep warm.

Place steak on the skewers. Double skewer the meat so that it will be easier to flip. Grill for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, or until just cooked through. You want to crispy on the outside and medium on the inside. Serve hot with the peanut sauce.

We love to eat out, but with the way the economy has been, we just can’t afford to do it nearly as often as we’d like. Our solution has been to eat at home, but we still like our fine dinning experience.  By doing some bargain shopping and taking full advantage of our FoodSaver and freezer, we were able to put together this gourmet meal for a fraction of what it would have cost in a restaurant.

The Cook

Make sure your steak and crab are well-thawed. Pull the steak out of the refrigerator about an hour before cooking.

Set your grill up for direct cooking at high heat (about 500-700°F).

Season the steak on both sides with kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper. Put the steak over the hottest part of the grill and close the lid. Give it 60 seconds of undisturbed searing. After a minute, flip it over. If the steak won’t come away from the grill easily, give it another 30 seconds. Once flipped, close the lid and give it another 60 seconds of undisturbed searing.

Now open the lip and leave it open for the rest of the cook.  Flip the steak again – flipping the steak often minimizes flareup and maximizes the amount of steak that’s done the way you like it. Keep flipping the steak once a  minute until they are done to your taste. Press on the center of the steak or use an instant-read thermometer to determine doneness. I like mine medium-rare, which  is 135°F internal with a mostly pink center with a hint of red and yields easily to a little pressure.

Remove the steak the a warm plate and let it rest while you cook the crab and asparagus.

Decrease the heat of the grill to medium-high (about 400°F).

Place the legs on the grill with the spiny side up. Close the lid and let cook for 5 minutes. Flip the legs and add the asparagus to the grill. Leave the lid open and grill for about 5 minutes, turning frequently, until the spears begin to brown and caramelize and the crab is heated through.

Remove the asparagus to a plate and drizzle with olive oil and a little lemon juice. Keep warm.

Wearing food prep gloves, or using a thick disk towel, break the legs at the joints. Use a seafood cracker or pair of kitchen shears to further crack the leg segments. Serve with melted butter.

The Math

We bought 2 full clusters of crab legs at a significant discount from a local yuppiemart that had ordered way too many of them. We bought the value-pack of steaks from Cosco. Everything got separated into meal-sized portions, sealed in FoodSaver bags, and frozen.

5 pounds of King Crab clusters @ $9.99/pound = $49.95
5 pounds of beef tenderloins @ $6.99/pound = $34.95

So, for $80.90 we got enough steak and crab for 4 meals for 2. That’s $20.26 a meal. Add $10 for a  bottle tasty, mid-priced red wine, a couple bucks for the veggies and dessert, light a candle and we’re still talking fine dining at under $40 a couple.

This Irish-American dish appears on many a St. Patrick’s Day table. You can buy pre-seasoned corned beef brisket at most grocery stores,  but I’ve been curing my own for a couple of years now and it’s well worth the effort. While the dish is traditionally braised, I like the firmer texture and greater depth of flavor I get from smoking it a little first.

The Cure

Start with an uncured, trimmed 3-4 pound brisket flat (the bottom portion of the brisket).

Combine all of the following ingredients to make your dry cure:

3 tablespoon  Morton’s Sugar Cure (plain)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
3 tablespoons corned beef spices (I like Penzey’s with brown & yellow mustard seeds, coriander, allspice, cracked cassia, dill seed, bay leaves, cloves, China ginger, peppercorns, star anise, juniper, mace, cardamom, red pepper, whew…)

Place brisket in a large freezer bag and coat with the cure. Rub the cure into the meat, covering all sides. Squeeze the air out of the bag and seal. Store in the refrigerator for 5 days, flipping the meat over once a day. Liquid will begin to collect n the bag – this is a good thing as it indicates that the cure is working. Do not drain it off.

On the 6th day, remove the brisket from the cure and rinse under cold water to remove most of the pieces of spice. Then soak the brisket in cold water for 1-2 hours to remove some of the salt. Dry off the meat and season lightly with a little fresh-ground black pepper.

The Smoke

Set up your grill for an indirect cook that will burn for at least 5 hours at between 225 to 250°F. Use a drip pan under the brisket to catch the fat. Add wood for smoke (I like grape vine). Cook at 225°F for about 3 hours, or until the internal temperature of the meat hits 160°F. Remove the brisket from the smoker.

The Braise

1/2 large head green cabbage (about 2 pounds), cut into thick wedges
6 Yukon gold potatoes (about 1 1/4 pounds), quartered
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
6 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1/2 pound carrots, peeled and sliced
1 stalk celery, thinly sliced
2 bay leaves

Preheat the oven to 300°F.

Place the brisket in a large roasting pan, surround with the remaining ingredients and add enough water to barely cover. Braise in the oven until the vegetables are done and the meat is very tender, about 30 minutes to an hour.

Remove the corned beef and slice thinly across the grain. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the vegetables to a large platter. Lay the sliced meat over vegetables and ladle over with a little of the remaining liquid.