Last night's dinner was a new take on steak salad. We have them often - you know the one with grilled steak, bacon, blue cheese, sweet onion, tomatoes and a creamy dressing? Calories galore. So what's new? We've turned over a new leaf. There was one that caught my eye in epicurious.com with an Argentine herb sauce called chimichurri that's used as the salad dressing. It looked too darn good to me not to try....am I making any sense? Flank steak is grilled and served with a dressing made of fresh italian parsley, fresh oregano, garlic, red wine vinegar and olive oil on mixed greens. It looked summery, quick, inviting and calorically unchallenging. What can I say except, boy did I learn something.
Never tell the big guy he can cook a steak on the grill pan INSIDE the house. It was 110 in the shade when he got home from work last night and he was already sweating profusely after driving in the Miata with no AC and the top down. There was a darn good monsoon storm brewing, thus heat and humidity, so I caved on my rule that he can't cook steaks in the house and let him have at 'er. You see, he knows only one cooking method - HI. Imagine what my newly cleaned kitchen looked like when he was done. Mmm. I'm not sure this picture shows adequately the amount of smoke that was generated. The air was honestly blue.
What it does show though is that we didn't have flank steak - we used rib eye and the big guy cooked it to perfection. Hey I wasn't going to buy a tough old flank steak for $11.99 a pound when we could have rib eye for $5.99 and we certainly could have gotten away with just one steak. In fact there's one left over in the refrigerator as we speak.
I made only one adjustment to the recipe and that was to add a little minced sweet walla walla onion to the fresh greens. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Flank-Steak-Salad-with-Chimichurri-Dressing-353374 The marinated mozzarella balls were a great addition for their smooth, creamy texture, and the chimichurri dressing tasted fresh and surprisingly light, though I think next time I'll cut down a bit on the olive oil. I would recommend making it a little in advance to allow the flavors to develop more fully, but it's a fabulous way to use fresh herbs and "up" the flavor on meats or poultry. With the addition of some fresh lemon, I think it would be a great sauce for a bland fish like tilapia too.
Second night in a row the big guy said I could "make this again". Well I may, but then what would I have to blog about?
That big guy can cook steak! Perfect grill marks and indoors to boot!
I've been checking out your blog throughout the day. Nice place you have here. Thank you for stopping by mine and leaving me such a nice comment.
I'll be back.
Posted by: Mags | 08/06/2009 at 06:10 PM
Ya, the big guy can really cook but he draws the line at counters & toilets. I think I'll keep him though. Thanks for visiting Mags. I love your blog and will be "seeing" you often too.
Posted by: JBug | 08/07/2009 at 08:17 AM