FR Weekly Cooking Thread *Recipes* Sept 17, 2011

FreeRepublic Cooks | Sept 17, 2011 | libertarian27

[cc2k]

I thought I'd share this one. Had this last night and it was excellent.

This recipe was on a little sticker on a package of Sirloin Tip Steaks I bought, and it looked interesting. After making this for our dinner last night, the better half gave it her highest rating, "Honey, you can make this again, soon." That's a cut above, "You can make this again."

Rather than retyping from the tiny sticker, I found the recipe online:

From Hannaford website

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Spicy-Sweet Steaks and Onions

Get Ready

Servings: Makes 4 servings
Cook Time: 25 minutes
Prep Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 lb beef round steaks, cut 1-inch thick
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 cups sweet onion thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons hot chili powder

Directions

Melt butter in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add onions; cook 5 to 6 minutes or until crisp-tender, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper, as desired. Remove from skillet; set aside.

Combine brown sugar and chili powder; press evenly onto beef steaks. Place steaks in same skillet over medium heat; cook 14 to 15 minutes for medium rare doneness, turning occasionally. (Do not overcook.) Remove steaks; keep warm.

Return onions to skillet. Cook and stir 1 to 2 minutes or until heated through and browned bits attached to bottom of skillet are dissolved.

Carve steaks into thin slices; season with salt and pepper, as desired. Serve with onions.

Cook's Tip: Regular chili powder may be substituted for hot chili powder.

This recipe is an excellent source of protein, niacin, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, selenium and zinc; and a good source of iron.

Photo and Recipe Courtesy of The Beef Checkoff

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A few notes on my own personal version last night.

I used ground cayenne pepper for the chili powder, but scaled back to about 3/4 teaspoon. My better half doesn't like it as spicy, so I divided the brown sugar, placed 1/4 teaspoon in her side and rubbed that into her steak, and I put the remaining 1/2 teaspoon in my side and rubbed that into my steak. In the future, I might use slightly more cayenne, or try some other chili powder.

Also, I rubbed the steaks with the brown sugar/cayenne mix before cooking the onions, so it worked into the steaks as I was cooking the onions.

Our steaks were not 1 inch thick. Use your judgment on cooking time with thinner steak. Cook to taste. She likes hers medium and it was still good at medium. I wouldn't recommend cooking beyond that for sirloin tip steaks.

This recipe is probably excellent for any "lower cut" steaks that grill or broil well. I'll probably repeat it with round steaks in the future. It should also work well on a flank steak. I'm not sure if this would be a good treatment for top loin or rib-eye or other "upper cuts" of beef.

Finally, I used about 1/4 cup of red wine (some left over Flip Flop Pinot Noir) with a bit of cornstarch to thicken it, and I poured that in at the final step with the onions. It made a nice sauce from the pan drippings.

Serve with a decent "daily drinking" red wine. We had Tisdale Merlot with this.

We had a side of baked sweet potatoes and some steamed broccoli, but this would be excellent with garlic mashed potatoes.

[kalee]

I have the cast iron pan, but haven’t wanted to invest the 18 hours for proofing.

[cc2k]

kalee wrote:

I have the cast iron pan, but haven’t wanted to invest the 18 hours for proofing.

Cast iron isn't that hard to season or use. If it takes 18 hours, you're doing something really, really wrong.

First, if the iron is exposed or rusted in any way, use a wire brush to clean away any rust. If you want to completely clean away any previous seasoning, you can put the pan in a self cleaning oven and run it through the "clean" cycle, or put the cast iron piece directly in a fire in your fireplace or a camp fire. The old seasoning will burn off this way.

Before seasoning the first time, it doesn't hurt to wash the pan in mild soapy water. Just be sure to rinse thin thing thoroughly several times to rinse away any soap residue.

With a clean, rust free cast iron pan, apply some oil. I prefer peanut oil for seasoning, but any very fresh vegetable oil will work. The first coat should be to wet down the pan and wipe it mostly dry with paper towels or newsprint. Place it in the oven (upside down is best, with some foil under it to catch any 'drippings' of excess oil) and bake it at 350F for 30 minutes to maybe an hour. I generally do two additional thin coats of oil, and bake for 15 to 30 minutes per coating. I usually do the "baking" part during preheating the oven for other tasks. It's rare that I preheat my oven without at least one or two cast iron pieces freshly coated with oil still in the oven. That has become a part of the baking ritual with me. When I read "preheat the oven to ..." in a recipe, I instinctively grab the cast iron pan that looks like it most needs another coat of seasoning and wipe it down with peanut or coconut oil. The bonus to this is you know when the oven is hot because you can smell the seasoning cooking onto the pan. When the oven is hot, just pull them out and let them cool on the range top.

Once seasoned, do not use soap on the pan ever again. If you must scour the pan, use a scotch brite or plastic scouring pad with clear water only.

Always apply a thin coating of oil before storing the pan and heat it up on the stove for 3 to 5 minutes after cleaning. This will cook off any moisture and re-season the surface.

Overall, it takes about 30 minutes of actual work (and a couple hours of waiting for the thing to bake) to restore a cast iron pan that has been neglected. It's never a 6 our project in my experience.

Oh, and this should be obvious, but it's best not to apply cool liquids (water or oil) to a very hot cast iron pan. You can crack cast iron with cold water if the pan is too hot when you hit it with the cold water. The time this is important is after the initial "clean by fire or self cleaning oven" step. Let the thing cool down completely after that step.

[Netizen]

I think she was talking about the bread proofing.

[kalee]

My pot is well seasoned, it was my grandmother’s. The proofing was for the yeast dough in the recipe I posted. :)

[cc2k]

kalee wrote:

My pot is well seasoned, it was my grandmother’s. The proofing was for the yeast dough in the recipe I posted. :)

OK. Apparently I need more coffee. I do know what proofing means. Somehow my mind saw "seasoning" with the cast iron in your post there, not "proofing."

I hope a bit more coffee will wake me up the rest of the way. It's late in the day to be this asleep at the switch.

[kalee]

That’s OK. You should see the stuff I post by Nook at night when I’m in bed and don’t have my contacts in. lol

[pops88]

I found it very informative so it wasn’t a wasted post.

[Jean S]

Thanks for this post! My mom had a cast iron frying pan that she used for everything so I finally bought one but never could figure out how to season it. Unfortunately my mom died before I could ask her. It’s now stored in the back of a cabinet.

I’m going to dig it out and try your method. And now that you’ve mentioned it, I don’t ever remember her using soap on it.

[Jean S]

I’m glad you liked the lemon-buttermilk sorbet, it’s a favorite of ours. And speaking of buttermilk, thanks for the recipe for fried chicken, I bought the chicken and buttermilk today and will try you recipe this week. I have experimented with fried chicken recipes for years with really horrible results.

I always have buttermilk on hand. Tonight we’re having spicy chicken tenders. No real recipe but you marinade chicken tenders overnight in 1 cup of buttermilk and 1 T Tabasco. Drain and dredge in flour mixed with any fresh herbs you have on hand. I use rosemary, thyme and parsley. Deep fry until browned.

Very spicy, we love it but, it’s not an authentic fried chicken on the bone recipe like yours.

[leapfrog0202]

Thanks for the potato soup recipe. Hubby made it tonight and he loved it! I don’t love sour cream and kept getting a sour creamy taste so we both agreed that next time we’ll try 1/2 sour cream and 1/2 heavy cream. Other than that change it was excellent, thanks again!

[illiac]

Glad it was good...I was thinking of using all heavy cream for the recipe, but have yet to try it that way....cheers

[libertarian27]

Recap of recipes for this week (Sept 17th thread)

Bread* 70 Easy No Knead Dutch Oven Crusty Bread
Breakfast* 9 German pancakes
Breakfast* 25 Everyday Waffles
Breakfast* 25 Sour Cream Waffles
Breakfast* 73 Microwave Egg Souffle
Dessert* 3 Cranberry Pecan Sandies
Drink* 10 Electric Parrots
Meal* 38 Slow Cooker Swiss Steak
Meal* 41 Pioneer Woman’s Man Pleaser sandwich.
Meal* 53 So-Tender Swiss Steak 
Meal* 81 Spicy-Sweet Steaks and Onions
Soup* 8 LOGAN’S POTATO SOUP

(please don’t add any new recipes on this thread - they won’t be categorized)

[Netizen]

New thread

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2783081/posts