April 1 – April 7, 2024

Monday:               Leftover Ham with Chopped Wedge Salad

Tuesday:                Chicken Noddle Soup

Wednesday:          Pasta Ricotta alla Vodka

 

Thursday:              Rustic Meatball Subs with Chopped Wedge Salad

Friday:                   Labriola’s Baked Fish

Saturday:               Dinner at Tim and Hilda’s with Julie – superb

Sunday:                 Grilled Flank Steak and Vegetables with Wedge Salad

FLAMING CARNIVORES

[Note:  SWMBO and I will be away for two weeks – sun and reading for her, reading and long walks for me. So, the blog will be suspended, but we’ll keep notes on our cooking and restaurant going and the general activities of the patricians in Naples, Florida, and share them when we return.]

Dry weather finally returned to the Mid Atlantic, disappointing ark-building manufacturers, umbrella salesmen and rubber boot vendors.  And I, not at all disappointed, realized that it was time for the first cook-out of the year.

Reverting to our Cro-Magnon roots, we bought a steak and started a fire.  We kept it simple – flank steak and grilled vegetables with a nice wedge-adjacent salad (just chop up the iceberg and then toss it with shallots and halved cherry tomatoes and then with blue cheese dressing and sprinkle with crisp bacon – a lot easier to eat this way).

Well, what, you are wondering, do you, Bill Stewart, backyard barbecue amateur that you are, have to tell me about grilling a flank steak and some vegetables.  All I can say is, read on and learn.

I had read about a new method of preparing flank steak to enhance the crust without which a flank steak is a rather dull piece of beef.  And, because of time constraints (the ladies final four was going on, Akshay Bhattia – the skinniest healthy person in the world – was edging out Denny McCarthy at the Valero Texas Open and qualifying for a spot at the Masters, the Pittsburgh Pirates were edging the Baltimore Orioles (3-2), Andrew was visiting, Billy was coming out for dinner, I had to lector at St. Joe’s) I had to jury-rig a way to get the potatoes, peppers and onions cooked and ready at the same time as the flank steak which takes 12 minutes to cook at most.

The result was delicious – I’ll cook the vegetables and the flank steak this way from now on – and I am gifting you with recipes and a workaround that took me until my 75^th year to learn.

A Better Way to Grill Flank Steak

(recipe adapted from Cook’s Illustrated, May-June, 2024)

Timing:                                      90 minutes to 2 hours

Ingredients:    Serves 6 (4 if you’ve got young men coming to dinner)

1 Flank Steak (they’re generally between 1 ½ to 1 ¾ lbs – but cook what you’ve got)

2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus ½ teaspoon

2 teaspoons sugar, plus ½ tesspoon

1 teaspoon pepper

Prep:

Mix the salt and sugar together.

Cut the flank steak into 4 pieces – first slicing lengthwise with the grain and then slicing each half against the grain.  You’re doing this to shorten the fibers and stop the steak from buckling and curling too much as it cooks.  Also, you’ll find it easier to cut serving pieces when finished.

Pat the steak dry and season on both sides with 4 teaspoons of the salt and sugar mixture.  Cover and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour.  Then, just before cooking, season the steaks with the remaining teaspoon of the sugar and salt mixture and the teaspoon of pepper.

Start your coals or fire up the gas grill when appropriate.  You want a hot fire.  You’re going to want to let the coals heat the grates on your charcoal grill for 5 minutes before cooking the steak.

Set a rack on a baking sheet – you’ll want to rest your steak on this or directly on a cutting board after it’s finished cooking.

Cook:

Arrange the steaks on the grill and cook (covered, if using gas), flipping every two minutes for about 12 minutes (more or less – learn the touch method for knowing when you’ve hit medium-rare).  Let the steaks rest for 10 minutes and then slice, against the grain, as thin as possible (use a sharp knife) and serve.

If SWMBO isn’t looking, I would add a dollop of seasoned butter and some Maldon salt to the platter – but it’s your meal and you must deal with your own SWMBO or HWMBO.*

*Just a reminder that I have stolen Rumpole of the Bailery’s nickname for his wife, the hideous Hilda (not the beautiful Hilda who is our Pittsburgh friend).  Bailey calls his Hilda, ‘SWMBO’ – ‘She Who Must Be Obeyed.’  Bailey, in turn stole the phrase from Rider Haggard’s odd novel She, or Ayesha.  If you’ve not had the pleasure of reading John Mortimer’s stories about Rumpole, come on down to Naples and I’ll give you a copy.

And with that perfectly cooked steak, hear is a simple recipe for grilled vegetables.

Grilled Potatoes, Peppers and Onions

I have often grilled vegetables directly on my grill – tossing them with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and being careful to not lose too many pieces through the grates.  Here is a better method which I hit upon because I simply didn’t have the time to turn the onions, potatoes and peppers as well as the steak:

Timing:                                             About 1 hour

Ingredients:                                        Serves 4

1 lb. fingerling potatoes

1 large red onion

1 large or two medium green peppers

Prep:

Preheat your oven to 400 F

Parboil the potatoes until a knife passes through them with just a bit of resistance – you’ll finish them on the grill.  When cool enough, slice the potatoes in half, lengthwise.

Cut the pepper into bite-sized pieces.

Pell the onion, halve through the root and slice into 1/2 -inch half moons.

Cover your largest sheet pan with heavy duty aluminum foil and place the halved potatoes, pepper and onions pieces on the aluminum foil.  Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle salt and pepper and ½ teaspoon of umami mix or MSG (you can skip the umami or MSG) over the vegetables and toss with your hands to coat.  Place the vegetables in the oven and cook for about 40 minutes.

After 40 minutes, move the vegetables to the grill and lift the foil from the sheet pan and place directly on the grates.  Let the vegetables cook some more – you’ll hear them sizzle – while you grill the steak.

Plate the vegetables around the slices of steak and serve.