Tag Archives: steak

Marinated Shark Steaks

October 28, 2010 John 1 Comment

I don’t cook a whole lot of sea food, but I am always looking to try new things. So after a fairly successful attempt at salmon, I headed back to the sea food counter at the local grocery. The man behind the case mentioned some shark steaks, and they looked so lean and meaty that I couldn’t resist.

Just look at that! The shark steak is pure muscle, so I started thinking that they would probably need some kind of marinade to prevent drying out. There isn’t any kind of significant fat coming from the shark itself, so oil is going to be the major ingredient in that.

Basically: a dozen black peppercorns, a small red cayenne pepper (carefully de-seeded!), three cloves of garlic, and about a big spoon of ginger.

Will it blend? Absolutely! It took a bit of coaxing but I finally got a fairly consistent oil that smelled great. From there, I bagged up the shark steaks and poured this mix all over. After letting it sit in the fridge for another three of four hours, they were ready for the broiler. Cooked at about 12 minutes per side, they were a nice combination of tenderness, solid protein, and a subtle but distinct flavor that is only vaguely reminiscent of fish and other sea steaks.

It actually turned out very well with the olive oil, but I’m sure you could use just about any veggie oil, from a more neutral peanut to a more dominant sesame. I’d personally prefer to stay away from the canola, as the most accurate description of the taste profile that I’ve heard is “a metal trying to be a fish.”

Unfortunately, I seem to have forgotten to get any pictures of the shark steaks after cooking. We were in a big hurry to eat them actually, because the entire house was quickly filled up with a delicious aroma that was as inviting as it was new.

This particular meal was served with some rice and sesame oil, as well as some steamed snow peas. For drinks, a blush wine seemed to hit the spot just right.

Featured, Food

What is a typical gluten free meal?

September 17, 2010 John 1 Comment

There’s a lot of confusion about gluten free diets and meals, and some might be asking: What is a “typical” gluten free meal?

Well first of all, just because one can’t eat wheat doesn’t mean there aren’t still thousands of other ingredients and combinations available! In that sense, it could be almost impossible to declare a typical or normal meal, but I can at least show you what kind of dinner is fairly typical for myself when I don’t particularly feel like cooking anything that takes effort.

Nothing too fancy here, just the basics: A small piece of flat iron steak, a few steak fries (Ore Ida), and a carrot steamed with a head of broccoli. There’s a pretty nice slice of butter sitting on the vegetables, a bit of Cattleman’s Classic BBQ sauce (also gluten free), as well as a little salt and a whole lot of freshly cracked pepper on top of everything.

As you can see, this isn’t terrible different from a typical meal for anyone, whether or not they’re intolerant of wheat protein.

Cooking a gluten free meal can be easy

For this meal, there really aren’t that many steps. First of all, peel and slice the carrots then break up a head of broccoli in to the steamer pot with them. Wash it up, cover the lid, and then just let it sit on a low to medium heat while the other stuff cooks.

For the steak and fries, just lightly cover the surface of a frying pan with some peanut oil, then cook for about 10 to 15 minutes on each side at a medium temperature.

Once it is cooked, season and enjoy! The vegetables are great with just a bit of butter and salt, and as you can see from the first picture I just love to put black pepper on everything!

Total prep time is about 5 minutes or less, and total cooking time is about 30 minutes or just a little bit less.

So next time you find yourself trying to cook a gluten free meal, don’t despair! Just make sure the cooking surfaces are clean from any potential cross contamination, and try a recipe that doesn’t stray too far from fresh ingredients.

Food

Steak and Eggs as Cheap and Easy Breakfast

October 24, 2009 John Leave a comment

There’s nothing quite like a hearty breakfast to start the day off right, and there’s something special about the way steak and eggs wake you up in the morning. Well, steak isn’t particularly cheap, but the eggs are! So between the two, you can enjoy a great meal with plenty of fat and protein for about a buck and fifty cents. That will hardly buy you a cup of coffee at a retail eatery!

Here’s two tricks to making pan-fried steak and eggs into an easy meal:

Butter, butter, butter the pan

Without a bit of real butter on the pan, those eggs get sticky. If they’re even slightly overcooked, cleanup can become a huge pain! So make sure to thoroughly grease the pan with some butter or olive oil before cracking the egg and cooking it up.

Get some thin cut steaks

There’s two advantages to the thin cut steak. First, you have cheaper and smaller portions: you can eat the “whole piece” and still only consume 2 to 3 ounces. With a $4/lb steak, that’s just about $1 worth of meat for a very decent breakfast.

The other distinct advantage of using thin cut steaks when frying steak and eggs is that they cook as quickly as the eggs do. There’s nothing worse than having the perfectly cooked egg and seeing a bloody piece of meat that needs more time or a higher heat!

For the last few weeks, I’ve been enjoying this meal for breakfast almost exclusively. Once in a while I’ve switched in some fried pork and vegetables, but the egg and meat combo is still one of the best ways to start a day!

Food

Steak & Bacon (And Cheese)

January 27, 2008 John Leave a comment

Gluten is completely off-limits. A crumb or cross-contaminated spoon is way too much for me to handle. Soy is OK, I can tolerate it so long as it isn’t a lot of protein isolate like the type you find in vegan meat & cheese imitations. I’m not a big fan of beans, either.

This brings me to tonight’s dinner. Just like the title says: chuck-eye steak wrapped in maple bacon, covered in melted mozzarella cheese and dunked in BBQ sauce. Yeah.

Other than a side of steamed broccoli and cauliflower, it was a carnivore’s feast. I’m not trying to say its good for me or not I don’t know. I do know that I don’t get the pains that accompany various vegetables and grains like wheat. I know I can eat about two pounds of beef and just a few green, leafy vegetables and feel pretty darn good.

Unfortunately, cholesterol can be a problem even when you’re at a low weight. I’m sure someday I’ll wish I had thought of that earlier… For now, my high meat, high fat diet has brought me down to the lowest weight I’ve been in 10 years – I have more energy and I need less sleep – and I can thank being gluten-free!

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