Newbie cook stuck in a rut

[Afterburner]

Okay, so as I've gained insight and education into the cooking, I have gained some skill in Pan Searing Salted Dead Animal Flesh, and serving it with a side of veggies or a salad.

But I feel like I've plateaued in my progression. When my wife asks "What's for dinner?", the response is usually something to the effect of "Well, I'll thaw out some of that Dead Animal Flesh we have in the freezer, throw some salt and pepper on it, and then toss it into a skillet." And while this was groovy the first few times, I'm looking for some variety.

So last night my wife takes out a large sirloin steak to thaw, and says "Maybe you can look up some recipe to cook for this."

And, well, I know I can put salt and pepper on it and throw it in a skillet. But that's what we had on Saturday.

I guess I'm looking for something more...robust. Something with a sauce, perhaps. But I'm kinda stuck, because when I look up the "beef" recipes in my cookbook, they're mostly variants on "Seasoned Hunk of Beef, Cooked."

Any thoughts?

[fou de Bassan]

Afterburner,

To the salt and pepper or instead of, you could add a savory herb such as rosemary,chopped, or some Aleppo pepper or crushed red pepper. OR thinly slice shallots saute them in the pan juices add some sliced mushrooms and then pour in a bit of red wine or a tiny bit of good vinegar and scrape everything around to loosen the stuck on bits. Pour this over your steak. You can vary the herbs liquid and dead animal flesh for many meals.

[andiesenji]

I posted the following on the "I Want to be a Brasin Hussy" thread. We were discussion the lack of flavor in eye of round. However sirloin works well also.

You still need to do some pounding, which is quite cathartic, and the final dish is greater than the parts.

I don't think you will be disappointed. Braciola is something people don't think of doing but it can take a so-so cut of meat and turn it into something sublime.

"If you can find a half of an eye of round there is one thing you can do that works quite well.

You have to cut it on the diagonal to make long oval slices about an inch + thick, then pound it out to half that thickness, so it is also much wider and longer, with a tenderizer or the edge of a heavy saucer (the old fashioned restaurant ware is great for this).

You then roll it up and treat it almost like a pot roast.

You can see a recipe here.

braciola or beef rolls

Wonderful flavor and can be stretched greatly by serving with pasta.

I have Italian friends who make these as individual servings by cuttin the eye of round crossways, the way I did for my braise, then serving the braciola on a bed of pasta with the sauce over all.

I don't use jarred or canned spagetti sauce and neither do my friends, but other than that, this recipe is the easiest to do."easy recipe for braciola

Edited February 8, 2005 by andiesenji (log)

[Busboy]

Make a dusting consisting of salt, red pepper (hot), black pepper, garlic powder and a bit of ground cumin. Dredge the steak in it and cook it as you prefer -- in a very hot iron skillet if you want "blackened" and your smoke alarm is disabled. Make a cooling guacamole using avocado, lime, fresh cilantro and a pinch of sugar.

Serve together with beans on the side.

[RobStagis]

One word - roasts :)

[deltadoc]

Try de-boning it, trim it, pound it out flat and make Steak Diane. Recipes are everywhere, but basically some dijon mustard, worcestershire sauce, parsley, shallots, heavy cream, S&P, to make the sauce after browning quickly both sides of the flattened Dead Animal Flesh, etc.

Goes well with mashed potatoes!

doc

[Jensen]

You could try an Asian theme with it. Marinate your steak in some soy-based marinade, broil it until rare or medium-rare, and then thinly slice it. Something like this recipe from Epicurious:

Korean-style Steaks

[Smithy]

Beef stroganoff.

There are many, many different recipes (some with mustard, some not, for instance). My preferred method is to cut the beef into chunks, season heavily with paprika, salt and pepper (sometimes I dredge in flour seasoned with those, because I end up with a thicker sauce), brown the beef in fat of your choice, remove from the pan for the moment so you don't overcook it. Melt butter in the pan, add sliced shallots and mushrooms, cook them down, add broth or wine or other liquids to get the sauce you want. Thicken with sour cream. Return the beef to the pan. Serve over cooked buttered noodles. Yum. (If your sauce hasn't thickened, you can mix the buttered noodles into the pan before bringing it to the table. Some of us home cooks resort to such gauche measures to cover our mistakes. It still tastes great.)

For another take, consider beef stir-fry, served over rice.

Sauces over pan-fried steaks have already been discussed above. Once you start in on the sauces, you'll never go back to basic pan-fried steaks unless they are very, very good steaks.