Oven Flank Steak without Marinating

Flank steak is really tasty. Of course, often it's because of the marinade. I've been wondering what a plain flank steak would be like and decided to make as plain and easy a flank steak as possible. Just salt and pepper and a hot oven. That's it.

I already had the oven at 450°F for a loaf of bread. During the last 20 minutes of the bread cooking I threw in the iron grill pan to heat it up. When the bread came out, I cooked the steak.

Ingredients:

• 1 flank steak
• Enough olive oil to lightly coat the pan
• Salt and pepper

Procedure:

1. Salt and pepper both sides of a flank steak and let it come to room temperature.
   
2. Preheat the oven to 450°, placing an iron grill pan in the oven to preheat as well. If you do not have a grill pan, use a broiling pan with a rack.
3. Lightly oil the hot pan with a brush.
4. Cook the steak for 5 minutes on each side (total 10 minutes).
5. Remove the steak from the pan, tent with foil, and rest an additional 10 minutes.
6. Slice thinly across the grain.

This results in a medium rare steak that tastes of beef. Beef. Plain beef. A nice treat. We had it in sandwiches on the freshly baked and still warm bread. It was white bread with some dill in it.

We now have half a flank steak left over that is not already flavored with a marinade. This means some of it can become fajitas while the rest becomes Chinese stir-fry. No pre-set flavors to worry about. We could be really bad and make sandwiches of slices fried in butter. No, no, that would be really bad. Steak and eggs for breakfast? Hmmm. So many possibilities.

Easy Hamburgers & Sweet Potato Oven Fries Redux

This time with pictures & just salt & pepper on the "fries." We served them with sweet gherkins and some tasty honey-dill mustard. Preheat an iron grill pan in a 400°F oven.
Peel the sweet potatoes & cut into french fry size.
Toss the potato pieces in 2 Tbl. olive oil and season as desired. Lay in a single layer on a roasting pan. Roast in the oven for 10-12 minutes. Flip the potatoes and return to oven.
Put the hamburgers on the grill pan, only oiling the pan if you are using very low fat burgers. Roast in the over for 8-10 minutes. Flip the burgers and roast another 6-8 minutes and check for doneness. Continue to cook until they reach the desired doneness. The USDA recommends 160°F for ground beef but remove the burgers from the oven at a slightly lower temperature because the temperature will continue to rise. When the burgers are done, the potatoes will be done, too.

The previous post on hamburgers and sweet potato fries is here.

Hamburgers & Sweet Potato "Fries" in the Oven

Here's a meal that takes very little prep time and only thirty minutes in the oven. Burgers and fries are not exactly "good for you" but letting the burgers grill up out of the grease and making sweet potato fries in the oven is a healthier version.

I used Za'atar to flavor the fries. Za'atar is a variable mixture of herbs, often with thyme as a base, used in Middle-Eastern cooking. I've spoken before about buying spices while on vacation. I got this bag of Za'atar at a Lebanese grocery store while visiting friends in Los Angeles.

Ingredients:

• Sweet potato
  
• Ground beef shaped into hamburgers about 1 inch thick
• Za'atar or other herb mix for the potatoes
• Salt
  
• Olive oil

Determine amounts by how many servings you want. For two servings I used one large sweet potato and two four-ounce burgers.

Procedure:

1. Place an iron grill pan in the oven if you have one (If you don't have an iron grill pan, forego preheating the pan and use a broiling pan with a rack.)
2. Turn on the oven and preheat to 400°
   
3. Peeled the sweet potato and cut into french-fry shaped pieces about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick
4. Toss the sweet potato in olive oil to coat.
5. Toss the coated potatoes with Za'atar and salt to taste
6. Place the potatoes in a single layer on a baking pan
   
7. When the oven is up to heat, cook the potatoes for 10 minutes
8. By this time your grill pan should be very hot. Use a barbecue brush to "paint" the grill pan (or rack) with olive oil to prevent sticking.
   
9. Place the hamburger on the oiled grill pan or rack and cook in the oven for 10 minutes.
   
10. Flip the burgers and the potatoes.
11. Cook another 10 minutes (30 minutes total for the potatoes, 20 minutes for the burgers)

It this point, the burgers will be medium well-done and the potatoes will be soft and slightly carmelized. We put some honey dill mustard on the burgers. Yum.

Only for Asparagus Lovers: Spargel Ragoût

Spring is sprung and the asparagus at the grocery store is looking better and better. Although not much beats asparagus washed, quickly microwaved, and topped with lemon butter, Spring is the time of year for asparagus stew -- Spargel Ragoût. This recipe came down through my father's German relatives and has been modernized (and probably "Americanized") over the years. Don't be shy with the nutmeg.

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds asparagus
• 2 Tbl. butter or margarine
• 2 Tbl. flour
• 2 pounds lean ground beef
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
  
• 1 Tbl. ground nutmeg (Use less if freshly grating the nutmeg.)
  
• Salt & pepper
• Brown or white rice, cooked, to serve as a base for serving the stew.
  

Preparation:

1. Wash & break asparagus into 1 inch pieces, throwing away the tough ends.
2. Boil the asparagus in two quarts of water flavored with 1 tsp. salt and 1 tsp. nutmeg until just tender. Drain, reserving both the water and the asparagus.
3. In the same pot, melt the butter and add the flour, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper, and 1 tsp. nutmeg. Cook while stirring to make a roux.
4. Slowly pour the reserved asparagus water into the roux, stirring to avoid lumps. Bring to a simmer.
5. Separate the eggs, beat the whites until stiff.
6. Mix egg yolks, ground meat, bread crumbs, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. ground black pepper, and 1 tsp. nutmeg.
   
7. Fold beaten egg white into meat mixture.
8. Drop meat by spoonfuls into the simmering asparagus stock.
9. When the meat is done, return the asparagus to the pot.
10. When the asparagus is hot, serve the resulting stew over cooked rice.

As the title says, only for asparagus lovers but if that's you, you'll love this.

Ground Chuck Bounty

Ground chuck was on sale for less than $2/pound, the problem being that the minimum amount was 4 pounds. With only two of us to feed, a way to use this bounty of cheap meat was needed. So, time to feed the freezer again!

We need meals that can be nuked when I have to teach at supper time and I think it's safer to pre-cook any mixture including ground meat. So, when all was said and done, 4 pounds of ground chuck, 4 eggs, some bread crumbs, and a variety of flavorings yielded 8 meals of meat servings for two, ready to be eaten with a short stint in the microwave.

Ground chuck has a higher proportion of fat than other ground meats but much of that can be cooked off. Thus, no olive oil was added to these, unlike meatloaves and meatballs made with ground turkey or chicken, where the olive oil is needed to add the flavor strengthening of fat.

Meatloaf is a wonderful place to hide a green leafy vegetable like spinach. We all need to eat more dark green leaves and this is a good way to slip them in where they aren't even noticed.

INGREDIENTS

• Ground chuck separated into 1 pound lumps (each pound results in four servings)
• 1 egg for every pound of meat
• A different set of flavorings for each pound of meat
• 1/4 pound of baby spinach or a bunch of parsley for each pound of meat
• 1/3 cup bread crumbs for each pound of meat.

PROCEDURE

1. Preheat oven to 375 for meatloaves.
   
2. Decide what ingredients you will use to flavor each meatloaf or set of meatballs.
3. Whir the egg, flavoring ingredients, and spinach or parsley in a food processor until well chopped.
4. In a large bowl, knead together a pound of meat with each one-egg mixture.
5. Shape into meat loaves, meat balls or patties.
6. Bake meatloaves until internal temperature reaches about 165°. Sauté meatballs or patties until no longer pink inside.
7. Allow to cool and freeze in meal-sized portions.

Among the flavoring ingredients that work well added meatloaf are

• herbs like basil, dill, or cilantro,
  
• exotics like sundried tomatoes, pitted olives, jarred pesto or tapenade
  
• vegetables like carrot, onion, celery, or shallots
• sauces like ketchup, mustard, horseradish sauce, or barbecue sauce
• Spices and garlic

Use your imagination to combine two or three of these together, for example

• garlic, chopped basil and sun-dried tomatoes
• Mustard, carrot and dill
• Cilantro, olives and bell pepper

Then, all you need do for supper is pull out a meat loaf and heat it in the microwave. Add a bag of frozen veggies or a salad and voilà.