This morning I was all set for making some out of this world Gruyere Soufflés. Sadly, around noon our power went out. For like four hours. This has happened before, the power flickering in and out, but not usually for so long. Funny enough, last time the power went out at our house we later found out it was because a seagull flew into the power lines. Priceless, eh? I guess that's what you get when you live like three blocks from the Pacific Ocean. Well, you get stupid ass seagulls and a lot of fog. I'll take the seagulls any day. Fog blooooows.
Today I was not in the mood for their little birdy antics so when the power blipped off and didn't immediately come back on I went to the window and peered through the blinds. I was hoping for some serious seagull carnage in the power lines to justify my power shutting off. Okay, I'm really a big softy when it comes to any living creature, (Except people. Most people suck. Screw people.) so I didn't really want to see some feathery fluff ball engulfed in flames. But man, I was really looking forward to those soufflés.
New plan of attack for cooking scrumptiousness: Yummy steaks on the grill.
Though it doesn't happen very often, I do on occasion really enjoy a nice big hunk of red meat. Sadly, because I'm not exactly a frequent beef shopper, I usually end up coming home with something that looks tasty but is tough as shoe leather. This is mainly because I'm not willing to fork out 8+ dollars for a single steak. I know, I'm a cheap ass, but what are you gonna do, right?
While I was surfing the interwebs this morning I ran across this amazing and wonderful website: Steamy Kitchen She describes how to turn lesser cuts of meat into yummy tasty meat-candy. And it totally works. Seriously. It involves liberally (and she means LIBERALLY) salting the meat for up to an hour before grilling. I managed to turn some tough as shoe leather eye-of-round into relatively tender delectable steaks. I even cooked them a little too long and they were still worth putting in my mouth. They were a touch salty, but I like salty so it's all good in the hood. I think next time I'll make a better effort in washing them off, or use kosher salt and see if there's a difference.
After topping it all off with some herbed butter and serving alongside some green beans stir fried with some shallots, it was deeeelicious.
You should totally try it.
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16 comments:
Yummy! I've read about this technique but have not had a chance to apply it yet: seeing that piece of juicy steak, I'm going to get moving on it.
js - I was seriously impressed. And while I am usually pretty easily impressed I'm also kind of a picky eater, and this was seriously tasty. I'd highly recommend.
"(Except people. Most people suck. Screw people.)"
LOL. Damn straight. ;D
ts- I'm so glad we agree. I'm a pretty nice person on the outside, but after prolonged exposure to people the inside is frothing with scathing remarks and snap judgements about people. Can't help it.
I also feel very special considering I've spent most of my evening reading your and your sister's blog. I love it!
Yeah, salt is magic stuff. I try to salt meat a whole day ahead if I can. Maybe not as much salt as you used, but...
Do you have the Zuni Cafe cookbook? Judy Rodgers has a whole thesis in there on the subject.
thanks for the shoutout!!
xo,jaden
cookiecrumb - No I don't, looks like another trip to Amazon...
steamykitchen - thank you for sharing such amazing secrets!
I definitely think you should use kosher salt instead of iodized table salt. Although I wouldn't salt it more than 1 hour.
nate-n-annie - I actually used sea salt, one of the recommended choices. I don't even have 'table salt' in the house, the stuff tastes awful! I think kosher may make a slight difference, though.
"(Except people. Most people suck. Screw people.)" . . . I could NOT agree more.
Your steak photos are magnificent. Hope you don't mind that I added them to my "food porn" collection of photos.
The salting technique sounds a lot like brining... I find that brining meat really tenderizes it as well.
Hi! I am the owner of the blog Cassandra Crossing, and my 500-plus members are always looking for recipes or techniques that we find to be interesting.
Your technique impressed me, and I will make it available to the members of my coven.
Thank you for sharing.
anonymous - there's actually a piece in there about how this differs from brining, though I'm sure brining is very tasty.
delsschnell - I'm glad you liked it, but if you're going to give credit to someone make sure it's to the maven over at Steamy Kitchen, not me. She's the genius, not I!
Sweet Bird
Sorry to report that you are being used.
"DelSchnell" is DocChuck, the Tastespotting Stalker.
Now he is harassing several other women in addition to Chiffonade. He uses their names and makes up fake profiles for them.
If you don't address this situation he'll really go to town on you. It's not nice, I'll guarantee you that.
Nellie - Hmmm...that's a new name. Usually I leave him alone if he's not behaving like a jackass. Any comments he makes that are inappropriate I delete immediately. Thanks for the heads up on the new name, though.
Sweet Bird
Look at this:
http://beefaficionado.blogspot.com/2008/08/smith-and-wollensky-porterhouse.html
He has really messed up some other blogs recently with his psychotic babble.
Feel free to delete this message after you read it.
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