Garlicky, Smoky London Broil with Chipotle Chiles

Last weekend was one of those that makes me happy to count myself among the hallowed ranks of food bloggers.  Starting Friday afternoon and finishing with Saturday's lunch, not only had I tried out three brand new recipes, I really liked all three of them too.  There was the delicious, buttery shortbread cookies, the easy and soon to be even further adapted homemade granola, and finally there was what I consider the best meal I have had all month (and that includes a dinner at me and Ben's favorite Chi-town suburb restaurant): This spiced London broil recipe that we sliced and served up taco style for Saturday afternoon late lunch.  This was the perfect lazy Saturday late afternoon lunch, it wasn't too much stress to put together and it was soul satisfying.  This beef, served on a tortilla-vehicle or not, is delicious. 

When I was back on campus last week for the career fair, I snuck into one of the dining halls and grabbed a copy of that Wednesday's New York Times.  Notre Dame was great about always having, not only our school newspaper, the Observer, readily available, but also current New York Times, USA Todays and Chicago Tribunes.  It was an easy way to make sure we weren't completely enveloped in the ND bubble, and for me it meant two things:  NYT Crossword puzzles daily and the Wednesday dining section.  Wednesday's was my favorite newspaper all week, not only was there a whole section devoted to food, complete with recipes and everything, Wednesday meant the crossword puzzle wouldn't be too easy that it wasn't challenging, or too hard that I only got a few boxes filled in.  Yes, it was just right.

I remember once sitting on the bed in Ben's tiny dorm room looking at the dining section while he was busy on his computer.  Lacking scissors and seeing a recipe that I just had to add to my ever growing pile, I started to rip it out by hand, apparently with enough fervor that Ben told me he was concerned I was going all "Beautiful Mind" on him.  That might have been the first time I've admitted to my recipe hoarding problem...

Anyways, back in the present, this recipe came from the New York Times I swiped two weeks ago.  And, as I preached above, it is damn tasty.  The recipe is to simply grill the thing and serve, a method I would not for a second scoff at.  But if you have the time and desire to take it on step further, I'm telling you, think tacos.  I wouldn't have thought about had someone not randomly told me he was craving tacos and I had already decided that I was making this.  I simply whipped up a quick salsa (if you can call it that) with cilantro, onion (red and white, cause that's what I had) and a small jalapeno, thinly sliced the pan-seared beef, and piled it all onto warm corn tortillas.  Tada, tacos.  Add a lime wedge on the side and you are good to go.  And please don't think I am bluffing here, but they were, without a doubt, easily the most tantalizing tacos I have had in a very long time. 

Can anyone say 3 for 3?  Booyah. 

Garlicky, Smoky London Broil with Chipotle Chiles
from NYT 9/2/11 Dining Section

For Steak:
4 Tbsp. pureed chipotle chiles in adobo
2 Tbsp. honey
6 garlic cloves, minced
4 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
2-2.5 lbs. London broil
2 tsp. kosher salt

For Salsa:

1 medium onion, chopped
1/4 c. cilantro, chopped
1 small jalapeno, diced
Juice of half a lime

In large bowl, whisk together chipotle chiles, honey and garlic.  Stream in olive oil, whisking to combine.

Season steak liberally on both sides with salt.  Place in bowl with marinade and rub both sides with marinade.  Cover and let marinade for 30 minutes to 24 hours.  If leaving to marinade longer than 30 minutes, refrigerate.

Let meat come to room temperature (if refrigerated).  Heat large skillet on medium high heat.  Add small swirl of canola oil and let warm.  Add steak to pan and cook 4-5 minutes on each side, for medium rare.  Remove steak from heat and let rest 10 minutes.

For Tacos:
While meat is marinading, cooking or resting, make salsa.  Combine all ingredients in small bowl and mix well with lime juice.  Warm tortillas in skillet over medium heat.  Once meat is rested, cut in thin slices.  Pile high on corn tortilla meat and salsa and top with a squirt of lime.  Enjoy!

Note:  The original recipe called for the steak to be grilled.  The next go around for me, I will more than likely broil it.  Either way, I'm sure it'll be just as freaking delicious! 

Broiled Top Sirloin

Well, the weekend is drawing to a close and my guest chef and house guest has left.  Tara, my roommate from college came for a visit and on the list of things to do was cooking.  (There's not a terribly lot to do in Terre Haute...)  Besides, she's moving out into her own apartment soon and wanted to expand her cooking repertoire beyond spaghetti and chicken breasts. 

We started slow on Thursday night, you know, spaghetti but with the addition of some Italian sausage.  Staying within the comfort zone for our first joint kitchen experinece together.  And then we dived on in it on Friday: broiled, marinated steak and garlic fries. 

It was an easy marinade, made even better by the fact that it required me to open a bottle of cabernet sauvignon and my cooking companion was not a wine drinker.  It was fun to have another set of hands in the kitchen, that way I could focus more on the glass of wine in my hands.  And, as always, as she had her beer and I polished off the majority of the remaining bottle of wine, it was great to see her and catch each other up on our lives since sharing a 8x12 foot dorm room.

Dinner was good, the steak broiled to medium rare, with the perfect strip of pink through the middle.  It was moist and tender too.  The marinade was good, nothing fancy but tasty enough.  It went great with the remaining wine and I'm sure great with Tara's beer.  And the fries balanced the plate well.  Speaking of, I'll get to the wonderfully garlic-y fries soon enough, but first I must get to the mess that once was my clean kitchen.

Broiled Top Sirloin
Inspired by Parade 2008's Marinade

1/3 c. dry, red wine
1/3 c. soy sauce
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
Salt and Pepper, to season
1 lb. top sirloin steak

Mix first 4 ingredients together in a shallow dish.  Add steak.  Marinade steak, covered and refridgerated, for at least 30 minutes, or over night.  Turn steak occasionally. 

Preheat broiler.  Remove steak from marinade and pat dry.  Place on broiler pan.

Broil steak, 3 inches from heat.  Broil on each side 4 minutes for medium rare.  Once cooked, move onto a cutting board and let rest 10 minutes, so juices can redistribute. 

Chimichurri Steak

 

It was Ben's first weekend in Terre Haute and I wanted to make the boy a special dinner to enjoy after the long drive.  One of the things I was excited about moving to the TH for was the idea that Ben and I wouldn't have to go out so much and we could eat in more.  Not only would I get to cook more often, but I would have another judge on the taste panel and it would cut down on the leftovers left over.  And there would be another set of hands to help with the dishes afterwards.  Win, win, win.  The first welcome to TH meal was chimichurri steak from a recipe I had torn out from the Wednesday's New York Times two Aprils ago.

One of things I like about reading food blogs is that many times they get to make all the mistakes for you first.  So you hopefully don't have to make the same ones yourself.  I thought a lot about this as I was making the steak.  Not that there were huge mistakes made, but there are just all those little things you might forget because they aren't written out in the recipe.

Things like, not spreading the chimichurri sauce all the way to the edge of the butterflied steak, because you have to close and secure it with toothpicks and it's much harder when it's slippery with oil and parsley.  And to dump out some toothpicks on your work surface while you still have clean, non-raw-meat-covered hands so you don't ruin the whole box.  And while you're at it, knowing the number of toothpicks you have stuck in is a useful bit of knowledge too.  Not that any of these are huge impending disasters, but aren't they nice to know before you tackle a recipe?  Would have kept toothpicks off of my next shopping list.

Another thing it would have been nice to remember is that I'm not the biggest parsley fan and neither is the boy.  Which is kinda key to remember before making a steak marinated and slathered in a parsley based sauce.  Ok, that's sort of a lie, I did remember, but I had convinced myself it wouldn't matter.  And to a degree, it didn't, because the steak was good.  Got two stamps of approval, but unfortunately it just might be another one shot recipe, a culinary one night stand.  

Don't fret though, because dessert was a keeper.  Dessert was fantastic.  Dessert is going in the Big Green Cookbook.  And dessert is going to have to wait for another post.  Cliffhanger?  Oh yeah...

Chimichurri Steak 

Adapted from the April 27, 2010 NY Times

As a note, I used curly parsley and 1 1/4 inch thick london broil.  Because, that's what my store had.  I'm guessing hanger (what the recipe called for) or skirt steak may have been even better, but the london broil worked well if you can't find them.  Also, mine was only about 1.3 lbs.

1 c.  packed flat leaf parsley
1/2 jalapeno, seeded
1 garlic clove
2 Tbsp. minced mint leaves
6 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
1/4 tsp. crushed red chili flakes
Salt and pepper, to taste
Cayenne, to taste
3 Tbsp. panko bread crumbs
1 hanger steak, about 2 lbs

Mince parsley, jalapeno and garlic.  Add to a small bowl and mix with mint, oil, vinegar and chili flakes.  Add salt, pepper and cayenne to taste.  Set aside 3 tablespoons.  To remaining mixture, add panko.

Using a sharp knife, butterfly steak so it lies open like a book.  Lightly pound steak to a uniform thickness.  Spread chimichurri mixture evenly on side of steak, leaving a small border around the edge.  Fold steak back over and secure close with toothpicks.  Keep track of how many toothpicks you use.

Place steak on broiler pan.  Coat outside (I took this to mean top and bottom) with reserved sauce.  Cover with plastic wrap and marinate in fridge for 3 hours.

Remove steak from fridge to bring up to room temperature.  Preheat broiler.  Broil on high heat about 6 to 8 minutes per side until medium rare.  Let rest 10 minutes, remove toothpicks and cut into thick slices.