It’s me, “He”. I called dibs on cooking the other night – I mean, c’mon, she can’t have ALL the fun. I went with a mashup of recipes from Guy Fieri and my wife’s doppleganger – Giada.
Since the Mrs. doesn’t really “do” red meat (she’ll eat it, but won’t touch it), I felt the need for some good ‘ole manly meat and potatoes. GRILLED TEQUILA-GARLIC-LIME FLANK STEAK WITH ROSEMARY-BACON POTATOES AND A RED WINE TOMATO REDUCTION – if you’ll forgive the snobbish title.
First of all, I didn’t exactly have all the ingredients I needed, so I sort of jimmy-rigged a couple things. I’ll let you know what I used, and also what I should have used.
Notice the sweet Shun knife. Valentines day present. Such a good wife.
Marinade – You’ll want to do this in advance to let the meat marinate for 1-3 hours.
1 tsp minced garlic (or 2 tsp if you’re anything like the Belks)
1 tsp freshly chopped cilantro leaves (I didn’t have this. Which is a shock. And a tragedy. Would have been nice)
2 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp tequila (Otherwise known as a “shot”. For the college kids)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp lime juice
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
1-2 lbs skirt or flank steak
Throw everything into a bowl, and if you don’t have fresh lime/lemon juice like I didn’t have, throw in a tablespoon or so of Triple Sec. If you don’t have Triple Sec………..well…….. then you’re probably not much fun to be around anyway so why don’t you just order Chinese.
Drop the steak and the marinade in a freezer bag and mush it all around like you figured out how to do the first time you had to cook for yourself and throw it in the fridge.
The rest, and more photos, after the jump…
Potatoes:
3-4 large red-skinned potatoes, whole
Garlic. Lots of garlic.
Rosemary
3-4 strips of bacon, diced
Get the potatoes precooking in the microwave while you start the sauce (see below). Once the sauce is simmering and the potatoes are precooked, dice them and throw them in a big skillet with the bacon, garlic, and rosemary to taste. Mix around until the bacon is cooked and the potatoes are nice and crispy. Mmmmm. Easy.
It's the bacon............
Now for the sauce, er, reduction. I honestly didn’t even know what a reduction was until I made this. I actually didn’t even know I was making a reduction until “simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce reduces by half”. Oooooooohhh……………
6 tbsp cold unsalted butter
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 tbsp minced garlic (ok, 2)
1 tsp dried oregano
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 1/2 cups red wine (plenty of this lying around)
2 tbsp olive oil
salt/pepper to taste
Melt TWO of the tablespoons of butter in a large, heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and saute until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and oregano and saute until you start to drool, about 30 seconds. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Whisk in the wine. Simmer, stirring, occasionally, until the sauce reduces by half, about 10 minutes (yay! reduction!!). Remove the skillet from the heat. Whisk in the remaining 4 tbsp of butter. Strain the sauce into a small bowl, pressing on the solids to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard the solids in the strainer. Or, if you’re like us and don’t have a strainer, you can pull this dangerous and messy maneuver:
Ghetto strainer
Season the sauce to taste with salt and pepper. Keep the sauce warm.
Reducing.
So hopefully like 10-15 minutes ago you remembered to put the steak on the grill. I won’t explain how to cook a steak – if you don’t know how, have your guy do it. If you don’t have a guy, ask the guy next door to come over and do it for you. Who know’s, maybe after dinner you won’t be “guy-less” anymore.
Triple-tasking.
When the steak is done, slice it thinly, drizzle with sauce, and serve with a heaping portion of potatoes. Yeah, it’s freaking good.
Finished product.
