A long time ago when I was a bachelor I developed a recipe for a quick and delicious steak dinner with a baked potato and a vegetable side dish that took me just thirty minutes from start to finish.
I still use it today even though I am now married for thirteen years. When I am shopping in a supermarket, I like to be in and out as quickly and as efficiently as possible. I like to do the same in my kitchen.
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This recipe works for pork chops and chicken as well. You can use some of the ideas here for other dinners.
This isn't just a recipe, but it is also an outline of the thinking and strategy of preparing a dinner efficiently using one step to time another.
Basics:
I use an electric oven but you can use a gas oven instead. A microwave is indispensable to this method.
You will also need:
A metal broiling pan Aluminum foil.
Setup:
Place an oven rack 3-4 inches below your broiler heating element (about 10 CM) as your broiling rack. On an electric oven, this is usually your top rack in your oven. On a gas oven, this may be in a separate area below your oven. Place a second oven rack at about the midway point in your oven.
Ingredients:
One steak for each person. Soy sauce. Garlic powder. Ground black pepper. Thyme. Russet potatoes. Vegetables, frozen, or fresh to steam.
Ingredient Tips:
I prefer NY Strip Steak with the bone in, about 3/4 inch thick (about 2 CM) thick, well marbled with fat and with some fat along the edge. Five minutes of broiling per side usually makes a medium-rare steak, but test your broiler before cooking for someone else. If you use thinner steaks, or boneless ones, you may have to shorten your broiling time by a minute on one or both sides. Experiment. You can use sirloin, tri-tip, or the cut of your choice. This recipe works on flank steak as a London Broil very nicely. You can even broil minute steaks but they are usually so thin you should only broil them for about two to three minutes on each side. Expriment. I like garlic powder with parsley, California style, but you can use plain. I use peppercorns that come in a container with a grinder (a great invention), but you can use pre-ground can pepper if you must. I also use dry thyme (you know, from an herb bottle) but you can use fresh if you have it. You can use Rosemary on pork or chicken, but go light if your Rosemary is fresh.
You can hear Emeril cursing about now, yelling something that rhymes with "Bam!" "Garlic powder, indeed! Herbs from a bottle, good heavens!" Trust me, dinner will be delicious. I'll put one of my steaks beside one from Delmonico's anytime.
I'll give you a recipe using frozen vegetables first and add a variation for steaming fresh vegetables later.
Procedure:
Potatoes (First Side): Wash potatoes and pierce two-three times on each side with large-tined serving fork, or a regular fork to allow steam to vent. Place potatoes in microwave, still wet, covered with an inverted plastic bowl or a wet paper towel. Set timer for 5 minutes for large baking potatoes. Set stove to broil while your potatoes cook on their first side and keep your oven door closed while your oven warms up. If you use a gas oven and your oven and broiler are separate, start your oven as well and set it for about 450 F (about 230 C).
Prepare your steaks while your potatoes cook on their first side:
Line a metal broiling pan with aluminum foil, being sure to have foil turn up at all four sides. Wash steaks and pat dry. Cut the fat at edge of each steak from the outside to just through the fat and into the meat, about every 3/4 inch (about 2 CM) along the fat line. Cut at right angles to the fat line. You are not cutting off the fat but you are isolating pieces of fat from each other. In this way, each section of fat can each shrivel on its own and not distort your steak (meat and fat shrink differently). Place your steaks on foil best side down.
Seasoning Your Steaks:
Sprinkle with soy sauce to lightly cover your steaks. Sprinkle garlic powder over steaks to taste. Sprinkle thyme over steaks to taste. Grind black pepper onto steaks to taste. Pat herbs in with fingers. Turn your steaks over and repeat with seasoning with its best side up. Broil the best side up first. Be sure to give your hands a wash after. Emeril is right: If you don't was your hands, the Food Police will get you.
Potatoes (Second Side):
About this point, your potatoes will be done for the first side. Turn them over and heat for another five minutes in microwave for the second side. Be careful when you turn them because they will be hot and there may be steam. Be sure your potatoes are still moist for the second five minutes of microwaving. Remoisten them if required but don't drench them.
Vegetable Prep:
If you are using frozen vegetables, follow directions for your product. I usually put a little water (about 1/4 inch or about 0.6 CM) in a microwave vessel and add my frozen veggies. I cover the veggies while they microwave. Set your prepared vegetables aside for now.
Steaks (First Side):
About this point, your potatoes will be completely done in your microwave. Place your potatoes on your middle oven rack to finish them off in your oven. Use metal tongs because your potatoes will be hot. Place your broiler pan with steaks on your broiler rack.
On an electric oven:
Close your oven door partway and keep your door cracked open a bit. Most electric ovens have a preset stop for this. Set your timer for 5 minutes.
Steaks (Second Side):
When your timer goes off, take out your steaks and turn them over using oven mitts for your pan and tongs for your steaks. Be sure to use dry oven mitts. Don't ask me about how I know to use dry mitts. Put your broiler pan with steaks back on your broiling rack and continue broiling.
Cook Your Veggies:
Place your frozen vegetables in microwave while your steaks are broiling on their second side. Set your timer for five minutes.
Finale:
When your microwaves stops, take out your steaks from your broiler rack and your potatoes from your oven using oven mitts and tongs. Take out your cooked vegetables from your microwave. Let your steaks sit for a minute or two while and rest while you get your plates and flatware ready. Slice each baked potato lengthwise across the top. Squeeze each end towards the center to open your baked potato nicely. Don't forget to use the juices in your broiling pan. Fold a corner of your aluminum foil to make a spout and pour juices on your steak and baked potato. You can add a sprig of fresh parsley as a garnish but you don't need to. Plate up and serve.
Receive accolades for your dinner.
Orchestration Of Events:
As you can see, I orchestrate events so your cooking or preparation of one ingredient correlates with your timing of another.
For example, cooking your potatoes in your microwave takes about ten minutes. This is a good amount of time to allow your oven to warm up.
Even though you are broiling and not baking, elements take time to come up to temperature.We will use your oven's heat for continuing to cook your baked potatoes for better flavor than if they are just microwaved. Microwaving your potatoes cuts down oven time.
Cooking your vegetable for five minutes corresponds with the last five minutes of broiling your steaks.
Baked Potato Tid-Bits:
This method of microwaving baked potatoes and then finishing them in your oven works best for large Russet potatoes. Red and white potatoes don't seem to need as much microwaving as the large Russet one do. If you overdo microwaving potatoes, your potatoes will shrivel up and could come out looking like prunes, even tasting like leathery prunes. Experiment first on non-Russet potatoes before preparing a dinner for you and someone special. This method relies on the skin of your potato being mostly intact.
The intact skin traps steam and your potatoes cook efficiently on the inside.
If you slice your potatoes, they won't cook nearly as well in your microwave because the steam will escape. Actually, sliced potatoes may not cook well at all.
Serve with meat juices, butter, sour cream, chives, salt and pepper, bacon bits, grated cheese, or whatever your cholesterol levels allow.
Steamed Vegetable Variation:
I often steam vegetables these days; whereas, as a bachelor I almost always cooked frozen vegetables. Steamed vegetables have the best taste and the most nutrition, I believe, because you do not lose a lot of nutrients in your cooking water and the cells of the vegetable are not broken down by freezing.
As I promised, here is your alternative for cooking steamed vegetables instead of frozen:
When your potatoes are in your microwave for the first time, prepare your steaks. When your potatoes are in your microwave for the second time, prepare your vegetables to steam. You will use a large pot with a colander that fits your pot, and a lid that fits your colander. We like a medley of broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and onions, but you use whatever veggies you like.
Cut your vegetables up as you wish and add them your colander you will use for steaming.
When your steaks go in for the first time:
Place a large pot with one to two inches of water (about 2.5 to 5 CM) and let your water come to a boil while your steaks are cooking. Leave your vegetables you want to steam in your colander on the side for now.
When you put your steaks in your broiler for the second time, put your colander with vegetables on your pot of boiling water and cover it with a lid.
Sometimes three minutes of steaming, not five minutes, is enough. Vegetables taste best if you don't overdo your steaming.
Everyone who has had one of these steak dinners raves about how good it is.
Notes and Further Tips:
I'm sure you could do better and use fresh, crushed garlic and fresh thyme, but you do not have to and the powdered versions taste just fine. Just buy a fresh bottle now and then. Soy sauce adds salt so I omit salt in the recipe. You can add salt to taste but the health police tell us to go easy on salt. Soy sauce acts as a marinade. It adds a subtle, very positive flavor to the taste of your steaks.
You can prepare your steaks ahead of time and let them marinade in your refrigerator or on your counter, but then this recipe would take longer than thirty minutes.
Okay, Emeril. You can return to a normal color now. We're done.
Try this easy-to-do recipe for a thirty minute steak dinner. It's great for a date or for dinner with your wife. Either will be impressed, but I don't recommend having a girlfriend when you are married.
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