OPINION: Savory Summer Simplicity: Steak and Vegetables
May 31—DICKINSON — I'm no Gordon Ramsey, or
Allison Engstrom,
but I do enjoy cooking and I've become quite good at it in many respects. After my first six months of living 50 miles from home at the University of Iowa, I grew tired of eating microwave dinners for the majority of my meals. My foray into cooking involved grilled salmon, then baked carrots. I'll teach you how to make to make the latter in this column, as well as ribeye steak and a staple of my homeland, corn on the cob.
This dinner is much easier to prepare if you have a gas double oven. Gas heats up quicker and double oven enables cooking at two different temperatures simultaneously. I get by as a common peasant with my electric stove.
Ingredients: extra virgin olive oil, olive oil spray, salted butter, garlic salt, honey, steak, unhusked corn, baby carrots, broccoli crowns, mini bella mushrooms,
Tools: Thin baking sheet, aluminum foil, knife, colander, polypropylene cutting board, cast iron pan, meat thermometer.
As you may have noticed I use
Cutco knives.
If you have extra money to burn, totally worth it. They're very expensive, but of the highest quality and guaranteed for life. I worked at Vector Marketing in my early 20s selling them for a year and a half. Fortunately I'm better at journalism than I was at sales.
For cutting boards you should always use polypropylene. Glass will dull your knives rapidly and wood boards are prime for the growing bacteria.
1. Preheat your oven to 425℉.
2. Slice the broccoli and mushrooms, but not too fine.
3. Use a colander to rinse the carrots, then do the same with the broccoli and mushrooms. Place all three in a mixing bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and shake it up.
4. Line a thin baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with olive oil. It needs to be thin or the carrots will come out crunchy.
5. Spread the vegetables on the baking sheet. Sprinkle garlic salt, and other seasonings if you like, over the vegetables. McCormick brown sugar bourbon is also delicious on this medley.
6. Place in oven for 20 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and shake the pan a bit. Drizzle several rows of honey over the vegetables.
8. Return to oven for 5-7 minutes.
1. Season generously with salt on both sides, which will thoroughly brine the steak. Leave it out at room temperature for 45 minutes. Preheat the oven to 275℉. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray lightly with olive oil.
2. Use a cast iron pan over medium heat and melt one tablespoon of butter or olive oil onto it.
3. Sear 3-5 minutes on each side.
4. Place steak on baking sheet and place in oven for approximately 20 minutes depending on thickness. This recipe assumes a thickness of 1 1/2 ".
5. Check temperature at 15 minutes. Remove from oven accordingly once it reaches these internal temperatures: rare 115℉, medium rare 125℉, medium 135℉, medium well 145℉ and well done 155℉. Place half a tablespoon of butter on top of the steak for tenderness. Let it sit outside the oven for five minutes, and it will continue to cook on its own up to your desired temp.
I screwed this part up because my thermometer was broken and I still haven't bought a new one. The ribeye was too thin for my usual protocol. A reliably accurate meat thermometer is essential for cooking poultry, steak, pork chops and other meats to a safe but palatable temperature. This is a delicate balance. Take the steak out five minutes too soon and it's mooing at you. If you keep cutting it open and putting it back in, you likely won't be able to reach temp ranges of rare to medium because too much of it will have been exposed to the scorch of the oven. Leave it in too long and you're chewing forever on an expensive plate of beef jerky. I did the latter and dipped it in ranch, edible but still disappointing. Fortunately our next item is much simpler. I actually made the corn for breakfast because it was getting pretty late.
1. Preheat oven to 375℉.
2. Place unhusked corn cob(s) directly on oven rack for 30 minutes.
3. Remove from oven, unhusk, slather in butter and enjoy.
