Steakhouse Pasta

I love The Pioneer Woman.  Not only does she manage to be witty, warm and genuine, but her food is nearly always flawlessly wonderful.  It looks good, it tastes good, most of it is stuff I have or can easily find, and she provides great step-by-step instructions.  I'm fairly certain that her blog post on "How to Cook a Steak" is at least 50% of the reason why I am married today.  So when I stumbled upon her "Steakhouse Pizza" post the other day, I pined for it.  I am talking serious pining.  Steak AND Pizza?  How could it get any better?!  Drooling may also have been involved. Drooling… Pining.  Same thing.

After fantasizing about the steakhouse pizza nearly all day yesterday, I decided to pick up the necessary ingredients after work.  And then on the train ride home, I remembered that our oven had gone out the night before.  Crap on a stick!  

So instead of Steakhouse Pizza, we had Steakhouse Pasta.  It was still quite tasty and a great substitute for when you don't have an oven, and your grill is far too tiny for cooking a pizza. Stupid tiny grill!  Anyway… Thanks, PW, for some amazing inspiration.

Steakhouse Pasta

For the steak and onions:

• 1 flank or skirt steak
• Salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoon butter
• 1 small yellow onion, sliced into thin strips
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 1/2 tablespoon red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar

For the sauce:

• 1 jar Spaghetti sauce – I used Trader Joe's Roasted Garlic Marinara, but when I have more time, I usually make my own
• 2-3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

For the pasta:

• 1/2 pound linguine
• 1-2 teaspoons salt

Toppings:

• Steak sauce
• Freshly grated or shaved parmesan - or whatever cheese you prefer as a topping.  I used a three-cheese blend of asiago, fontina, and parmesan.
• 1 tomato sliced thinly (optional)
• Basil leaves (optional)

Begin by caramelizing the onions.  To do this properly it takes about 35-45 minutes.  I use a recipe from Ina Garten for this… It's full proof and the flavor is amazing.  Every time.  

In a large saute pan, heat 1 tablespoon of the butter and 1 tablespoon of the olive oil together until the better is melted.  

Add the onions and thyme, tossing to coat with the butter and oil.  Cover the pan with a lid and cook over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes, sweating the onions.  

In the meantime, season the steak with salt and pepper and set aside.

Remove the lid and continue to cook for another 25-30 minutes, until the onions are caramelized and golden brown.  Stir occassionally and make sure the onions aren't sticking.  Also, if the onions are browing too quickly, reduce the heat.  You definitely want to cook low and slow and avoid burning the onions. 

In the last two minutes, add the red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar, scraping any bits from the pan, and season with salt and pepper.  

While the onions are cooking, start boiling the water for the pasta, adding a teaspoon or two of salt for seasoning.

In a large sauce pan, over medium-low heat, combine the marinara sauce, balsamic vinegar and Worcestershire sauce.  Cover.  Stir occassionally.  Reduce heat if necessary.

You can cook the steak in the same pan you used for the onions (setting the onions aside), or use a grill, or a grill pan and cook while the onions are starting to slow cook.  

Add another tablespoon each of butter and olive oil to the pan, melting together, and cook the flank steak over medium-high heat for about 6 minutes (for medium rare), flipping half-way through.  Set aside and let rest for ten minutes.

When the water is boiling, add the linguine and cook for about 7 minutes.  Add a cup of cold water to stop the cooking process.  Drain when ready to serve.

Slice the steak thinly, and if desired toss it back in the pan for another minute with the caramelized onions. 

 

To serve, top the linguine with pasta sauce, steak, caramelized onions, a little bit of steak sauce, the cheese, and maybe some fresh basil.  I also added some fresh tomatoes on the side, which was tasty.

Enjoy!  Even if it's not pizza… 

Dinner From the Grill: Ribeye, Cajun Corn, Zucchini and Squash

I've long been intimidated by cooking on the grill, but after a long weekend trip to West Virginia earlier this year, I've come to love it.  I don't know if it was the lazy days lounging around and breathing in the fresh mountainy air…

… or if perhaps it was all of the wine I was drinking.  Or maybe it was views like this:

… that made me just not care.  Either way, after that trip, cooking on the grill didn't seem like such a daunting task.  As with much of my cooking over the past couple of years, I think I just decided what the hell.  Let's try it.  If I screw it up, there's always dessert.  

We bought a Smokey Joe Silver, (ahem, a baby Weber) earlier this summer.  For just the two of us, it works perfectly.  Like most meals, I think the biggest challenge with grilling is timing.  Coordinating the cooking so that everything finishes as close to the same time as possible.  Some cookbooks are really good at laying out an entire meal telling you when to start what, helping you to time everything to perfection.  For the most part I think this is just something that takes a lot of practice and a little bit of fore-thought and planning.  And if nothing else, just pretend you're eating tapas! 

Dinner From the Grill: Grilled corn with cajun seasoning.  Ribeye.  Steamed zucchini and squash.

Prepare the Grill

Start the charcoal for the grill.  And if you're not using charcoal, you should ask yourself why you are grilling in the first place.

According to the BBQ Report, "The charcoal is ready for grilling when the briquets turn ash gray in daylight or glowing red at night. This usually takes anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes."

You can season and clean the grill by rubbing half an onion over the grate.

Grilled Corn with Cajun Seasoning

• 2 ears of corn
• 1-2 teaspoons cajun seasoning
• 1/2 tablespoon butter

Shuck and clean the corn, removing as much of the silky bits as possible.  Corn can be grilled inside the husk, but for whatever unknown reason, I just never seem to do that.  

Place each ear of corn on a square of foil and sprinkle about a 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of cajun seasoning over the corn, rotating as you go.  

Add 1/4 tablespoon of butter, cut into halves to each ear of corn.  

Fold the foil together, like folding a sheet of paper in half, around the corn.  Fold each end over, crimping the foil to seal.  

Fold over the top of the foil and seal, leaving a bit of room inside the pouch for air to circulate.

When the coals are ready, place the corn pouches on the grill, over indirect heat (not directly over the flames or hot coals) for about 15 minutes.  During the last few minutes feel free to remove the corn from the foil pouches and finish directly on the grill, rotating every minute or so.

Remove and serve immediately.

Grilled Ribeye

• 2 Ribeye steaks, nicely marbled with fat, about 1 inch thick.
• Lawry's Seasoned Salt, if desired. Otherwise, salt and pepper will do just fine.

Rinse the steaks and pat dry with paper towels.  Make sure the outside of the steaks are very dry! This will help it crisp up nicely.

Sprinkle with the seasoned salt and rub into the meat.  Allow to sit for 20-30 minutes (or however long you have) to help season the meat.  

When the coals are ready, add the steaks over direct heat and cook for approximately 8 minutes, 4 minutes per side. 

Remove from the grill, tent with foil and allow steaks to rest for about 10 minutes.

Grilled Zucchini and Squash

• 1 small zucchini
• 1 small squash
• salt, pepper
• 3-4 cloves garlic, unpeeled
• 1/2 tablespoon butter, chopped

Rinse the zucchini and squash and cut off the ends.  

Cut the zucchini and squash into 1/4 inch slices, and then cut those slices in half.  

Add the zucchini and squash to a large square of foil.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss to coat.  

Add 3-4 cloves of unpeeled garlic.

Wrap the vegetables into a foil pouch in the same manner as the corn, folding in half like a sheet of paper, then closing the ends.  

Add the butter into the packet, distributing evenly across the veggies and seal the top of the foil pouch.  

Place the foil pouch over direct heat for about 7-8 minutes.  You can rotate this and/or shake the pouch to mix everything up, after about 4 minutes.  

Remove from grill and serve immediately.

Note: I peeled the garlic and rubbed it on my steak.  It was delicious.

Putting It All Together

1. Start the grill.
2. Open a beer.
3. Prep and season the steaks.
4. Clean and prep the corn.
5. Chop and prep the veggies.
6. When the coals are ready, add the corn and steaks to the grill at the same time.
7. Don't forget your beer… Nothing is worse than warm beer.
8. After about 8 minutes, remove the steaks and tent with foil.
9. Add the zucchini and squash packet.
10. After about 5 minutes, remove the corn from the foil and finish on the grill.
11. After another 2-3 minutes, remove all of the veggies.
12. Open more beer.
13. Eat some food.

Enjoy!  And remember… there is always dessert!