Beef Tenderloin

Beef Tenderloin
From the Pioneer Woman 

First, let me just say, LOOK AT THAT PICTURE.  Sweet, sweet nearly raw meat, how we love you in the HMK.  On nights when we can't afford to go pick up a beef tenderloin (99.9% of nights) we just pull up this picture and drool a little.

The exciting event that spurred the purchase of this beautiful piece of meat was one of our signature dinner party test runs.  We are planning to do a surf and turf extravaganza for a few friends on New Year's Eve, but until recently we had very little experience with turf.  Far be it for us to make everyone chip in for expensive meat on NYE only to over cook it (just typing it makes me sad inside).  So we splurged on a random weeknight to test it out, and boy are we glad we did.

If you've ever cooked large hunks of meat before, you know that the most important tool, hands down, is a meat thermometer.  We know this.  That's why when we started the recipe we rummaged through our big bin of crap potentially useful kitchen gadgets and found one.  We popped it in the meat, set it on the grill, and...EXPLOSION.  As it turns out, our meat thermometer is NOT, I repeat NOT, the kind you can leave in the oven or grill.  Considering it was Pyrex brand and their supposed specialty is awesome glass capable of cooking on the surface of the sun, this was a very shocking discovery.  So now our [expensive] dinner is cooking away, our thermometer is ruined, and we have absolutely no idea what temp we are at.  Back to the bin of [lifesaving] gadgets.  The only other thermometer we have is a candy thermometer...also not heat stable, but it does have a really long metal part.  SO, John runs back to the grill and Macgyvers some sort of extensive temperature reading station (being honest, I avoid going outside in the fall/winter in Chicago, and thus never actually went out to see this invention.  I'm sure it was marvelous).  In the end: IT WORKED!!!  I'll refer you back to the majestic picture above for proof.

Bottom line: if you are looking for an impressive and delicious holiday protein, consider beef tenderloin...but buy a heat stable meat thermometer FIRST!!!


Ingredients

• 1 whole beef tenderloin (butt), about 4-5 lb
• seasoned salt, to taste (be liberal with it, since only the outside touches seasoning)
• lemon pepper seasoning, to taste (be liberal with it, since only the outside touches seasoning)
• olive oil
• 4 Tbsp butter, divided
• whole peppercorns (about 1/3 cup or more, to taste)

Preparation

1. Preheat grill or oven to 475 degrees.
2. Rinse meat and trim off any fat and cartilage (we're spoiled and our butcher did this for us, which saves a lot of time).
3. Generously sprinkle seasoned salt on the meat, rubbing it in with your hands.
4. Generously sprinkle lemon pepper seasoning on the meat, rubbing it in with your hands.
5. Heat a skillet and add enough olive oil to lightly coat the bottom.
6. When oil reaches it's smoking point, place the tenderloin in the pan and toss 2 tablespoons butter in next to the meat.
7. Sear each side of the meat for a minute or two.
8. Remove seared meat from pan and set aside.
9. Place the peppercorns in a plastic bag.  Smash them with a mallet or whatever aggression-releasing tool you have lying around.  They don't need to be dust, just broken up a bit.
10. Use your hands to rub the peppercorns into the surface of the meat, covering all sides and pressing to make them stick.
11. Place the tenderloin directly onto the grill or in an oven pan with a roasting rack.
12. Top the tenderloin with remaining 2 tablespoons of butter.
13. Insert meat thermometer and cook until meat reaches just under 140 degrees.
14. Place meat on a cutting board and allow it to rest for 10 minutes.
15. Slice and enjoy!

Serves 8.

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Seared Tuna Salad with Wasabi Vinaigrette

Seared Tuna Salad with Wasabi Vinaigrette
From Bobby Flay 

Four and a half years ago I threw my very first dinner party.  I had just graduated college and was living by myself at my parent's new condo in downtown Chicago.  I must have been pretty dead set on throwing that party, because if I recall correctly the condo was so brand-spanking-new that it wasn't even fully furnished yet.  Among the missing furniture was a kitchen table, which makes current-me wonder what past-me was thinking throwing a dinner party (but I could waste a lot of time dwelling on such questions, so let's move on).  I ultimately served this a beautiful seared tuna salad on a black bed sheet spread over the coffee table with everyone sitting on the floor around it to eat.  (Talk about easy-to-please guests - I should throw dinner parties for 22 year olds more often!)

Four and a half years later, I don't remember many more details about that night, and frankly I had nearly forgotten about it altogether.  But I was hanging out with one of my lucky guests the other day and she mentioned that my little dinner party had turned her on to seared tuna for life.  It made me realize how long it had been since I made seared tuna, so I dug through my recipe archives and John and I whipped up that very same dish the next night.  We ate it at the dining room table this time, but it still had all the charm of my dinner party back in 2007.


Ingredients

• 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons wasabi paste (usually comes in a shelf-stable toothpaste tube type thing - check the Asian aisle or if your grocery store sells fresh sushi near the fish counter, check there)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 tuna steaks (6-oz each) (make sure you get high quality tuna, since you're pretty much eating it raw - we usually go to a fish market for this dish, but Whole Foods would work too)
• peanut oil
• 4 cups salad greens (we used baby arugula, which was really nice - I would recommend something with character, maybe a little peppery spice - definitely NOT iceberg or even Romain - avoid watery greens)
• 2 avocados, peeled, pitted and thinly sliced
• 2 plum tomatoes, finely chopped

Preparation

1. Whisk together vinegar, wasabi paste, and oil.  Add salt and pepper to taste and set aside.
2. Heat grill or grill pan to medium high.
3. Brush steaks with oil and season generously with salt and pepper.
4. Grill for 30 seconds on each side, just to obtain grill marks (use your discretion, I like tuna really raw and freaked out and made John flip them at like 15 seconds).
5. Thinly slice tuna, against the grain.
6. Place one cup of salad greens on each plate.  Top with avocado, tomatoes, tuna and dressing.

Serves 4.

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Grilled Chicken Wings 3 Ways

 

Grilled Chicken Wings 3 Ways
From Ribs, Chops, Steaks & Wings by Ray "Dr. BBQ" Lampe

 

A couple weeks ago we enjoyed a lazy Sunday barbecue at our friends' house in the suburbs.  We were there to watch the Bears game, but since they let us down (as usual), the focus turned towards food.  Our chorizo bean dip was a hit, but the real star of the show was the grilled chicken wings made by our lovely hosts.

 

The next weekend we stayed home for the game, but we just had to have more of those wings!  We found a recipe for wing rub in a grilling cookbook we got as a wedding gift.  Then we saw that the book had a whole chapter dedicated to wing sauces, so we decided to take it up a notch.

 

All three of these versions turn out amazing and prove that deep frying ala your favorite sports bar is totally unnecessary for a crispy skin.  They all start with the same rub and grilling process.  Then one third is served as is, just rubbed and grilled.  Another third is tossed in a buffalo sauce, and the remaining third gets honey-BBQ sauce.  Of course, you can make all the wings to have one or two of these sauces, but we thought having all three was more fun.

 

Ingredients

 

Ribs

• about 20 whole, fresh chicken wings (they're weird looking if you're expecting what you see at the bar - see step 1 for cutting them down)

Rub

• 1 Tbsp salt
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp garlic powder
• 1 Tbsp onion powder
• 1 Tbsp paprika
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp lemon pepper
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Hot Wing Sauce

• 1/4 cup butter
• 3/4 cup Frank's Red Hot Sauce (other brands would do, I guess, but Frank's really has that classic hot wing flavor)

Barbeque Wing Sauce

• 1 cup barbecue sauce (we're partial to Sweet Baby Ray's, but use what you like)
• 1/4 cup honey 

Preparation

1. Use scissors or a sharp knife to cut each wing into three parts.  One end turns into the little drumstick, the middle turns into the rectangle shaped one, and the pointy tip end is garbage (we accidentally left it on, so you may notice it in the pic - we just ate around it).  I recommend You Tube if that made no sense, but if you order wings at bars a lot just take a second to look at the wing and I think you'll see the familiar parts.
2. Mix salt, sugar, and next 8 ingredients (through cayenne pepper) together in a small bowl.
3. Rub the spice mixture over each wing.  Allow wings to rest for at least 15 minutes, and up to 4 hours.
4. Heat grill to medium.
5. Grill wings for about 25 minutes, turning often.  They are done when they are nicely browned and the juices run clear.
6. For dry-rubbed wings, serve as is.
7. For hot wings, melt butter in a small sauce pan.  Stir in hot sauce.  Toss grilled wings in sauce.
8. For barbecue wings, warm barbecue sauce and honey in a small sauce pan over low heat.  Toss grilled wings in sauce.

Serves 40 wing pieces.

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Flank Steak with Cilantro-Almond Pesto

 

Flank Steak with Cilantro-Almond Pesto
From Cooking Light, May 2002

 

Oh Cooking Light, I'm sorry we have strayed from you.  When we first started dating CL was our cooking bible.  The recipes are well explained, use easy to find ingredients, and almost always turn out awesome.  Once we even tried to cook every recipe in an issue, ala Julie and Julia (we only got though about 1/4...our attention spans aren't that long!).  Heck, we gave housewarming subscriptions to any friend who moved for about a year back in 2010!  But alas, over time we have purchased a myriad of cookbooks and become devoted followers of a number of cooking websites, and now sometimes months go by and we don't make a single recipe from an issue.

 

Well, tonight we put an end to that and it felt so good!  Despite owning a cataloged collection of every issue since 2007, I found this recipe on the internet.  It's an oldie but a goodie, and a great way to get a little more grilling in before summer's end.  And bonus, the pesto is good on other meats, sandwiches, or pastas, just beware garlic breath after!

 

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup fresh cilantro
• 2 Tbsp slivered or chopped almonds, toasted
• 1 serrano pepper, roughly chopped (we left the seeds in for extra heat...your call)
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp black pepper
• 1 garlic clove, smashed
• 3 Tbsp plain fat-free yogurt (we used Greek, I think anything would work as long as it's PLAIN, not vanilla)
• 1 1/2 tsp fresh lime juice
• 1 1-lb flank steak, trimmed
• additional salt and pepper, for meat

Preparation

1. Heat grill to medium heat.
2. Combine cilantro, almonds, serrano, 1/8 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp pepper, and garlic in a blender or food processor.  Process until finely chopped.  Side note on device choice: I am enthralled by my new, huge food processor, but I think it was the wrong choice here.  The amount of stuff is too small, and it just kept getting stuck to the sides.  Go with a mini food processor or magic bullet if you have something like that.
3. Add yogurt and lime juice to pesto.  Process until smooth.
4. Salt and pepper flank steak.
5. Grill 6 minutes on each side, or until desired degree of doneness.
6. Place meat on a cutting board and allow it to sit for at least 3 or 4 minutes.  This will trap all the yummy juices.
7. Slice meat AGAINST THE GRAIN, so you have long strips.
8. Serve with pesto sauce.

Serves 4.

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