Beef – Page 6 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Skirt Steak with Grilled Endives

I love endives in the spring. It may feel like summer in New York City, but the spring vegetables are still available in the market. When I’m in the mood for beef, I can’t help but serve a medium-rare steak with grilled vegetables. It’s too hot to be using the oven for longer than ten minutes so adding them to the same pan your steak is grilling is just perfect. If you are without an outdoor garden like me, use a dependable Le Creuset frying pan to get the handsome grill marks.

Ingredients:
1 pound skirt steak, excess fat trimmed
4 Belgian endives, quartered lengthwise
3 sprigs of rosemary
3 sprigs of thyme
half a bunch of parsley, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
olive oil, salt, pepper

1. In a large baking dish, combine all the ingredients except for the steak and the endives. Place the steak in the dish and turn to coat both sides with the herb mixture. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
2. When ready to cook, heat an oven-proof frying pan. When the pan is hot enough but not smoking, sear one side of the steak for about 8 minutes. Slowly lift with a pair of tongs and turn over to cook the other side for another 8 minutes. Save the marinade.
3. While the other side cooks, brush the endives with the remaining marinade and place on the same pan. Turn when one side is charred enough. 4. Remove the steak to a chopping board and let rest for about 5 minutes. Slice the steak on the bias about 1/2-inch thick and divide slices among serving plates. Serve with the endives.

Grass-fed Beef Steak

I tip-toed on freshly-fallen snow at the farmers’ market to buy some grass-fed beef. I stopped by the New York Beef Company tent and met John to ask about what he was offering. My hands were already cold, but I looked through his frozen bags to buy the best-looking steak I can get for dinner. I know everyone’s been on the grass-fed wagon already but unfortunately, I find food items with organic or sustainable or grass-fed or free-range labels expensive. If you’re like me, then you also buy food items at least once a week. They all add up to a very expensive grocery bill each month. Plus, the only farmers’ market easily accessible to me is the one at Union Square, and even though I work downtown, I find it a hassle to stop by.

The New York Beef sells 100% grass-fed steak, prime rib, roasts and other fine cuts of beef. I got a nice steak for about $22. The Dr. covered it with some salt, pepper and minced garlic and broiled both sides until it was tender–poke the meat of your palm below your thumb; that’s how it should feel for medium-rare–and we ate it with oyster mushrooms sautéed in goose fat served on a bed of arugula and mixed greens. A bottle of Cabernet was the perfect match. I realized later that it was John who left me a message last year when I spent $14 on a piece of sirloin steak from Dean & Deluca. If he’s reading this, I hope he’s proud. His beef not only looked beautiful, it was delicious, too.

Ingredients:
1 beef steak
6 garlic cloves, minced
salt, pepper, olive oil

1. Massage beef steak with all the other ingredients.
2. When ready to cook, broil beef steak in oven set to high until medium-rare. Theyâ€™re perfect when the meat feels like the palm right below your thumb. Remove from oven to a chopping block and let rest for five minutes.

Related post/s:
Where to get grass-fed beef steak

Stir-Fry Flank Steak with Shiso Oil

I also used some of the shiso oil I made for a beef stir-fry dish. It’s the oil that keeps on giving!

Ingredients:
1 pound beef flank steak, cut against the grain in strips
enoki mushrooms
baby bok choy
shiso oil
soy sauce
1 medium onion, roughly chopped

1. Marinate beef. In a bowl, combine beef, shiso oil, soy sauce and onions. Mix and let sit for at least 20 minutes.
2. When ready to cook, heat a large skillet and stir-fry marinated beef for 6 minutes. Add vegetables after the first 3 minutes. Serve immediately.

Flank Steak with Sugar Snap Peas on Vermicelli

There have been some wonderful sugar snap peas in Chinatown for less than $2 a pound. I imagined making some sort of crunchy salad with them so I stopped by my butcher on Mott to buy a nicely-red beef flank steak to match. After searing the steak, the sauce caramelized and I ended up throwing the snap peas in the same skillet to wipe it off. The beef came out perfectly medium-rare and pink inside when I was slicing it against the grain. You can definitely eat this with rice but I opted for vermicelli noodles to make it lighter. Because it took less than an hour to make this, two people were able to drink the rest of the night after eating.

Ingredients:
1 pound of beef flank
4 tbsps kecap manis
3 tbsps sambal oelek
a bunch of cilantro, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp peanut oil
rice vermicelli
1 red bell pepper, julienned
a handful of sweet snap peas, trimmed
salt

1. Marinate the meat. In a large bowl, combine kecap manis, sambal oelek, cilantro, garlic and sesame oil and rub all over the flank steak. Cover and put in the fridge for about 20 minutes.
2. In the meantime, trim the peas and julienne the vegetables. When ready to cook, heat peanut oil in a large skillet and sear the flank steak in high heat. Let it sit on one side first without moving it and then turn to sear the other side, about 8 minutes each depending on its thickness. Remove to a chopping board and let rest for about 5 minutes.
3. Keep the heat on and cook the peas using the remaining oil and crusty bits in the skillet and then add the peppers. Stir-fry until peas are tender.
4. Boil some water in a pot and then turn the heat off. Add the vermicelli in the hot water and let it cook in the remaining heat for a couple of minutes. Drain and using a fork, separate noodles and serve in a bowl. Slice the beef against the grain and serve on top of the noodles with the vegetables. Pour remaining sauce from the skillet on top.

Related post/s:
More recipes using flank steak

Pomegranate Meatballs with Tomato Mint Salad

Tyler asked me where he could buy pomegranate molasses. I’ve had Pom juice before but I’ve never heard of pomegranate in molasses form. I Googled and found out that it’s typically used in Mediterranean dishes. He found it for $8 at Dean and Deluca and used it to make some sort of appetizing tapenade. A few days later, I found a $4 bottle in Chinatown sans the pretty burlap packaging. I slathered the molasses in meatballs to give them that sweet and sour taste and served them with tomato mint salad.

Ingredients:
pork and beef ground meatballs
cumin seeds, grounded
coriander seeds, grounded
turmeric powder
red chilis, crushed
3 tbsps pomegranate molasses
tomatoes, chopped
mint leaves, finely chopped
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
salt, pepper, olive oil

1. Make meatballs. Dip in pomegranate molasses and then gently roll each ball on cumin, coriander, turmeric and red chilis.
2. In a deep skillet, heat some oil and fry meatballs until golden brown in medium to low fire. The molasses will burn faster than the meat so keep them bouncing in the hot oil using a strainer ladle.
3. Make tomato mint salad by combining tomatoes and mint in a bowl, dressed with red wine vinegar, olive oil and some salt and pepper. Top with meatballs.