Steak Nite

Well, I think I did it.  This last weekend there may have been a serious lapse in judgment on my part when it comes to Steak Nite.  I’ll get into exactly what happened in a minute, but this gist of it is… two Steak Nites in a row!  It begs the question, can you have to much of a good thing?

So, here’s the situation:

Saturday evening began as a celebration of my grandparent’s 80th birthday.  Little did they know it, the entire group was part of the largest Steak Nite that I had been a part of!  The party was held at Daniels Broiler in Bellevue, Wa.  Much thanks goes to my parents who were the sorry souls footing the bill.  I know they had a good time though, so maybe that’s some small measure of comfort.

We had a private room for the group of 35, and let me tell you, it was a rowdy crowd.  The drinks were flowing free, so there was fun to be had by all.  We started with a cocktail hour with an excellent (though definitely not slimming) Crab, Artichoke and Parmesan dip.  I stuck with wine for the night, so I can’t comment on the quality of the drinks, but maybe we’ll get some of the crowd in the comments and they can let us know.  However, sticking with wine wasn’t a bummer.  In his typical sommelier style, my father selected a 2005 Rombauer Cabernet Sauvignon.  Now, I admit I had been chomping at the bit to try this wine for quite some time, so I was excited.  I’ll be interested to here the opinions of the crowd on this one too, but I thought it was great.  Big flavor and strong cherry notes complemented my humongous filet Mignon (I’ll talk that in a second).  Needless to say I had a few glasses and, truth be told, probably did pretty good damage to a bottle.  But hey, it’s Steak Nite!

There were 4 entree options for the group, 2 steaks, a fish and chicken.  All were excellent as well, my Filet was thick, juicy and cooked to perfection with an excellent salty garlic crust.  I tried the Salmon as well, and it was no less an epicurean delight.  In fact, I had a hard time finding any bad reviews of the dishes from my tablemates, who represented the full menu…. So well done Daniel’s Broiler.  I also want to comment on the service, because the servers handled our rowdy crowd with much composure and many a smile, so thanks for that.  Lastly, a big Thank You again to my parents, who treated the group to an excellent time and gave me my first taste of Rombauer (hopefully more to come).

So, that would have been enough for me and I hope enough for any Steak Nite connoisseur….but that’s not it… this post wouldn’t be “Steak Night x2″ if it was, would it?  The very next day, Mother’s Day (did you forget?), my wife and I traveled down to my in-law’s place for a late lunch/ early dinner shindig.  Guess what, more steak!  If that’s not enough, it was more tenderloin, the same cut as my beloved Filet from the previous evening!  Oh how the powers that be do tempt thee.

In an exciting twist for a gadget loving engineer such as myself, my father-in-law had recently acquired a new grill.  This was no charcoal kettle grill, it’s a new Charbroil Red Infrared Grill.  It may not garner praise from the purists, but it was so very cool to see.  I’m going to do a post in the future in these IR grills, because it now has my curiosity sufficiently piqued to warrent some research.  So stay tuned for that.  The grill seemed to work flawlessly, having no flam to cause flare ups.  We even threw dry (i.e., unsoaked) woodchips into the “U” grill pan and they smoked away…. ok, actually, they smoked us right off the deck… we put few to many in.  As mentioned though, it cooked a mean steak.

I did get a bit of and evil eye from my wife as I loaded up my plate, so I admit to having split my attention between Steak and grilled chicken, but don’t hate me.  Considering myself a “simply salt, medium rare, filet” purist…. I was a little suspect of the steak in front of me, it was cooked through and glazed.  But I was more than pleasantly surprised, it was excellent.  Complements go to my brother-in-laws who were grillmasters for the day… way to go gents, everything was way above board!

So that’s it, two Steak Nite’s in one weekend!  It was a fantastic, if over-indulgent, experience.  So the question still stands, can you have too much of a good thing?  This Steak Nite blogger thinks not…. but don’t tell my cholesterol.

Before I sign off, Happy Belated Mother’s Day to all those mothers out there, I hope your children treated you to a steak nite!

Cheers!

After reading Nicks last entry of “go-to” Steak Nites it reminded me of one of my favorites- skirt steak marinated in salsa verde served with pasta carbonara.  I recently served this to some friends of ours for their first Steak Nite (the two newest members of the Steak Nite family) .  The meal has such huge flavors with the tanginess of the marinated steak and the richness of the pasta, that I usually offer two totally different varietals of wine…one to try and hold up against the steak and another to refresh the palette.  In this last meeting we chose a very nice Reisling from Washington state which was a great quencher next to the salsa,  while our friends brought a perfectly suitable Malbec from Argentina that held up great to the juiciness of the steak.  Tasty combination’s contributing to a memorable evening definitely makes this one of my go-to Steak Nites, and will hopefully help continue the Steak Nite tradition…

Salsa Verde Marinated Skirt Steak:

2 pound skirt steak

Salsa Verde:

1/4 cup fresh italian parsley

1/4 cup fresh cilantro

4 cloves garlic

2 shallots

1 lemon juiced

1 lime juiced

2 tbls sherry vinegar

EVOO

salt and pepper

combine ingredients of salsa verde into food processor and drizzle olive oil until desired consistency.  reserving about half of salsa for garnish, marinade steak in ziplock bag with remaining salsa for up to 12 hours.  scrape all excess salsa from steak and cook on hot grill.  serve sliced with salsa verde as garnish

Chef Joseph Bastianich’s: Linguine alla Carbonara

6 ounces slab bacon

2 tbls EVOO

2 large yellow onions

3 egg yolks

1 c grated parmigiano-reggiano

ground black pepper

1 1/2 c hot chicken stock

cut bacon into large pieces and brown in tbls of EVOO, leaving outside crispy and center moist, remove bacon from pan.  cook diced onions in bacon drippings and extra oil, if needed, until onions are still crunchy and transparent.  add stock, bring to boil and adjust heat to simmer, cooking liquid til reduced by half.

meanwhile, stir fresh linguini into boiling salted water and cook til al dente.  drain pasta, reserving cup of water, and return to pot.  stir sauce into pasta reducing heat to medium.  remove from heat and add egg yolks one at a time mixing to prevent overcooking of yolks.  add cheese and fresh craked pepper, serve imediately.

Here’s the main dish from Nick’s “go-to” Steak Nite:

Marinated Flank Steak (4-6 servings)

• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 3 chopped garlic cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 1/2 pounds flank steak

1. In a 1 Gallon Zip-top Bag, add lime juice, Worcestershire, mustard, 1 tablespoon olive oil, sugar, garlic, salt, and pepper. (In truth, I don’t measure this anymore, I just start dumping stuff in)
   
2. Toss the Flank Steak in marinade and gently mush it around till it’s nice and coated; Get as much air out of the bag as possible, seal and Marinate 20-30 minutes in the fridge. I usually cut the flank steak into three pieces before it goes into the bag.  This serves 2 purposes, 1) it makes them a little more manageable and 2) it allows you to cook each piece to a different doneness if your diners have a preference. (My wife prefers hers nuked)
3. Heat a Cast Iron Skillet or Grill Pan over high till screaming hot. Remove steak from marinade; cook until browned, 4 to 5 minutes per side for medium-rare. Rest, covered, 5 minutes. Flank Steak, with all that marinade, will cause flare-ups on a grill.  So, even though I do indeed cook it on the grill to avoid smoking out the kitchen, I cook it on a grill pan or cast iron skillet.  You don’t get grill marks, but you’re going to slice it up anyway, so it doesn’t really matter.
   
4. After the meat has rested, cut it across the grain into 1/2 to 1 inch wide strips and serve. This will make for tender, fall-apart meat.  ENJOY!
   

Here are a couple options for Side Dishes that I enjoy:

Roasted Red Potatoes (3-4 Servings)

• 1 1/2 pounds small red or white-skinned potatoes (or a mixture)
• 1/8 cup good olive oil
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons dried Italian Seasoning (or a mixture of parsley, oregano, basil)

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Cut the potatoes in half or quarters and place on a sheet pan lined with aluminum foil
3. Drizzle with the olive oil and season with salt, pepper and Italian Seasoning; toss until the potatoes are well coated.
   
4. Roast in the oven for at least 1 hour, or until browned and crisp. Flip twice with a spatula during cooking to ensure even browning.
5. Remove the potatoes from the oven, season to taste, and serve.

Sauteed Spring Veggies (3-4 servings)

This is a fav because you can par-boil the veggies ahead of time (up thru step 2) and then just whip them up before dinner.  And they’re crazy healthy!

• 1/2 lb Asparagus
• 1/2 lb Sugar snap peas
• 1/2 lb Broccoli florets
• 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 clove minced garlic
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Bring 1 gallon of salted water to a boil.
2. In batches, boil the Asparagus and Broccoli for 2 minutes and the snap peas for 1 minute; Once boiled, cool the vegetables quickly a bowl of ice water; drain and set aside.
3. Heat Olive oil over medium heat, add garlic and vegetables; saute until warmed through (5-7 minutes)
4. Season with salt and pepper; Serve

In an ideal world, every week we’d be having a different Steak, we’d be trying a new and exciting wine, and $100 bills would fall from the sky.  But, in reality, we get busy and things have to come before Steak Nite….. I know, I know…. how dare we!

So, when that happens in my family we have our go-to Steak Nite, Marinated Flank Steak.  It’s in-expensive, delicious, and depending on the size of the crowd, there’s leftovers for Steak Sandwich’s.

How good does that look, eh? (photo: thebittenword)

Ok, I admit, that’s not a picture of my personal flank steak (thanks to thebittenword on Fickr)…. but Geoff’s had it… it looks just as good as that, right Geoff?

We typically add to this a couple of sides, usually roasted red potatoes (home grown if I can swing it) and sauteed veggies or a nice Salad.

We serve that up with a hearty wine to cut through that beautiful meat, and that’s it, that’s STEAK NITE!

I’ll follow-up with recipes, so stay tuned.

While on a visit to Orcas Island our hosts recommended dining at the Ecotopian Dinner Theater in East Sound.  A uniquely varied tapas menu with a wine list of more than adequate assortment at amazingly reasonable price points.  After gazing through the menu we sort of stumbled into a tapas style Steak Nite – ordering the fryed brie and beet salad along side of the petite steak- cooked perfectly! …put together with garilc mashers, a dab of blue cheese butter and a redwine reduction sauce…awesome!  We enjoyed all of this with a bottle of Diseno 2007 Malbec from Argentina which seemed to be the right bottle for the job.  All and all a great find for a sort of accidental Steak Nite …needless to say the Ecotopian will see us next time we are in town.

We’re big fans of the IPhone.  So we’ve now added Mobile browser functionality to Steaknite.org.   If you visit us on your Iphone, IPod Touch or Android phone, the site will automatically switch to Mobile friendly mode, thanks to The folks at Brave New Code. Enjoy!

A little humor from the boys of “Scrubs”.  J.D. and Turk are into it, get on the train!

Couldn’t have said it better myself:

What is Steak Nite? Well, here at Steaknite.org it’s our favorite night of the week!  It’s the very next thing we look forward to after we finish the previous week’s Steak Nite.

First things first, check out the About page to get a great overview and then come on back for a few more details.

I’ll start by describing some rules of Steak Nite (for you Fight Club movie fans).  There aren’t that many, so stay with me:

1. Steak Nite is not just about eating steak.
2. You absolutely positively have to talk about Steak Nite.  Tell everyone that will care to listen.
3. Steak Nite is about great food, great drinks and even better friends
4. To be a true Steak Nite die-hard, you should strive to have it every week.
5. Talk about Steak Nite, it’s no fun unless you spread the word!

Question & Answer:

Q: What the heck to you mean, “Steak Nite isn’t just about steak”, are you nuts?

A: Probably.  We know we’re going to get a lot of flak for that, but Steak Nite is about starting a tradition, so we don’t really care.  We call it “Steak Nite” because that’s how it started, not because we always need to eat steak.  Besides, it has a nice ring to it… it wouldn’t be the same if we just called it “www.sitdowntoagoodmealnite.org”… who is going to type that in to a web browser?  Don’t worry, there will be plenty of steak talk.  If you’re looking to talk about large chunks of beef, we’ll get to that in short order.  But we don’t exclude anybody from Steak Nite, so come on in.

Q: I’m a vegetarian and I don’t drink, am I going to enjoy anything on this site?

A: Ok, I admit, we’re going to talk a lot about meat and drinks (wine in particular).  But that’s only because we really like those things.  We’re also going to talk a lot about the philosophy of Steak Nite, which we think is a good thing for everyone.  If you are interested in getting back to the art of sitting down and enjoying a meal, then this is the place for you.

Q: Who are you to write about food and wine?

A: Short answer; nobody and proud of it.  Neither one of us is trained as a chef or even a cook.  We’re just two guys that love the topic and mostly, love to talk about it.  We’re passionate about eating great dinners, drinking great wine with great people and talking about great big ideas.

Come on!  Join us in the quest to sit down to the perfect meal!

I am a Seattle artist and instructor who has a passion for a well composed meal and I want to spread that passion to everyone!

Over a decade ago my folks introduced a new tradition to the family called Steak Nite… a tradition my wife and I have spun into a well practiced ritual in our home as well as many of our friends homes …and hopefully more homes to come.  After introducing this tradition to Nick a few years back, Steak Nite became the overwhelming topic of most of our conversations….and now we are bringing that conversation to the world.

Welcome to Steak Nite!

Welcome to Steaknite.org, we sure are glad to have you join us.

I don’t know if you ever thought about starting a blog, but when Geoff and I did, we thought it would be a piece of cake. It turns out that making that first post is way more unnerving than we thought. Once you realize that the Internet never forgets anything, and that your mother might read this (because now she’s using “Google” in a sentence) you get stage fright! What if nobody reads it? Wait… what if everybody reads it! I’ve given a thousand presentations at work, in front of vice presidents even, and writing about Steak is what makes me shake in my boots?? Well, that’s just plain silly, so here goes….

Ok, Geoff’s a big boy, so I’m going to let him introduce himself. My name is Nick. I’m Canadian by birth and also American because my parents were born in the States (and were kind enough to get me a dual citizenship). So, I’m just as likely to throw out an “Eh” (yes, it has a capital E) as I am a “huh” (yes, Americans say it). I like to keep you guessing, so you won’t know which one I’m going to use. I’m also an engineer and…. well, I love Steak Nite! We’ll get more into that later (or see the about page).

I met Geoff a few years back and after we realized our mutual interest in food and wine, Geoff and his wife introduced my wife and I to Steak Nite. Since then, we’ve been driving our wives nuts by talking almost non-stop about all things related to Steak Nite, including starting this blog.

So, thanks for coming, hope you like it. Also, feel more than free to comment, or even to email.