What's for dinner? Steak.

Steak.  Ahhhhh.  It's basically the best.  When I was about eight, my mom and I met my grandmother for a weekend at the Embassy Suites of Indianapolis.  I think my grandma was there for a convention of some kind.   Anyway, this Embassy Suites had live parrots in the atrium AND a pool.  I cannot stress how cool 8-year-old Amanda thought that was. 

The other thing that changed my young life forever? There was a filet mignon on the kids room service menu that I ate for 3 days in a row.  Not only was I eating prime beef, but they were delivering it to me in my fancy hotel room, where I got to drink from cups that were made of real glass and had no protective sippy top.  

As I've grown, I've become more and more particular about my steaks.  They need to be cooked properly, but also humanely raised.  It took me a long time to feel confident making steak for myself, but now I know that I can make steak with the best of them (though I'd still rather let my dad cook steaks if I have the chance).  The steak I purchased for this evening is a New York Strip from Whole Foods, and it was admittedly a bit of a splurge, but don't worry, I know what I'm doing. 

Steak with Chimichurri:

For the chimichurri you'll need:

• 1 cup fresh parsley
• 1 cup fresh cilantro
• 2 t. dried oregano (or about 3 T fresh oregano if you've got it)
• 1 t. ground cumin
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 T. Red wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• A food processor or blender 

Throw all of the ingredients into the food processor and blend until it looks like this:

Bonus* it will also smell AMAZING!  Do the chimichurri first, up to a day in advance so that the flavors have a chance to mingle.  This batch was enough for 2 steaks, but I'll just use the extra for sandwiches and salads and stuff this week. 

For the steak you'll need:

• A preheated oven at 450 degrees
• A steak: this one was about 3/4 of a pound and 1 1/2" thick.  Thick is good for temperature control.
• A cast iron pan (or other oven-safe pan) heated to high on the stove top.
• 1 T of cooking oil with a high smoke point.  I like grape seed oil, but used vegetable oil because that's what I had.  It was smoky.

Dry your steak with a paper towel and then generously salt and pepper both sides (my dad likes garlic salt, and that would've been amazing, if I'd had some). 

What I wouldn't give for a gas stove, but renters can't be choosers!

Make sure your pan and oil are hot.  I like to flick a drop of water in, but mostly just because it's fun.  Gently place your steak in the pan and then LEAVE IT ALONE for 2 minutes.  When 2 minutes is up flip it and LEAVE IT ALONE for 2 minutes. During this time, your oil will start to smoke.  If you live in an apartment with hard-wired smoke detectors, like me, you may want to preemptively open windows and strategically place fans, so as not to disturb your neighbors with the blaring noise and muffled curses. Instead, you will just amuse them when they see smoke billowing out of your window and you inside trying to take a picture of a steak. 

When the second two minutes are up, take the whole pan and place inside the preheated oven for, you guessed it, 2 minutes (as many as 4 minutes if you're looking for a well-done steak, but who's looking for that?).

When it's done it will look like this.  And you should DEFINITELY put a pat of butter on the top to finish.  This is why steaks at steakhouses taste so much better than steaks at your house. It's true.

Next you need to remove the steak from the hot pan, put it on a cutting board, tented with some foil and let it rest for 6-10 minutes.  Seriously. No cutting into the middle to see if it's done.  Don't do it!  When the meat has rested properly, then...

The Mary Poppins of steaks, practically perfect in every way!

You thought it'd be burnt, huh?  Nope!  It's basically perfect.  No big deal. And you can see that because I let the steak rest, the juices are staying in the meat and not collecting on my cutting board.

Put your steak on a plate and your sauce on the steak.  Serve it with a salad (if you're trying so hard to limit carbs, but then why on earth are they so delicious and will people please stop bringing cookies to work?) or anything else your little heart desires. Then enjoy! 

Grilled shrimp and avocado salsa! Or salad? Salsa?

Sometimes I get a hankering.  This weekend, it was for shrimp. I could not get the idea of a shrimp dinner out of my mind.

Ever since I was little, I've loved shrimp (actually shellfish in general, but shrimp in particular).  When I was about 8, my grandma and I were shopping for ingredients to make a recipe from my very first cook book and I suggested we get a pound of shrimp to snack on while we cooked.  It was a genius plan and of course, we did!

I've been trying to figure out exactly what to do with the shrimp in my freezer.  I love a nice shrimp cocktail, or scampi, a shrimp fra diavolo, but the idea that really sparked was to do a play on a ceviche. Obviously, with frozen shrimp, I wouldn't attempt a raw ceviche, but I thought I could attain the same flavors and I ended up pretty happy with the results!

Let's pretend I remembered to put corn and cotija cheese in this photo.

Here's what you'll need:

Shrimp, peeled and deveined, with or without tails.  I had about 1/2 pound here.
An avocado
1 ear of corn or 1/2 cup frozen corn, thawed
A tomato (or a handful of cherry tomatoes, if you prefer less juice)
A lime
1/2 of an onion, diced
1/2 jalapeno, diced
1 tsp olive oil
Cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper
Cilantro to taste (I used about 1/4 cup or so)
Cotija cheese (optional)

Start by dicing your veggies, the tomato, the jalapeno, the onion, the cilantro and the avocado.  I wanted big leaves of cilantro in mine, but you, you can do whatever floats your boat.

 

Then squeeze the juice of 1 lime over the whole shebang.  Now, the quantity of lime juice in each lime varies, so feel free to put in as much lime juice as you want.The season with salt, pepper and cayenne if you can stand the heat!

 When you chop your jalapeno, cut out the seeds and white pith from the inside to cut down on the spiciness.

Dice your jalapeno pretty finely, then make sure to wash your knife, cutting board and hands with soapy water.  Don't pull an Amanda and touch your face with your jalapeno hand. 

I like to cut my avocados in the skin and then scoop them out with a spoon.  I thought everyone knew this trick, until I saw a friend of mine trying to peel a ripe avocado. 

 Defrost your shrimp, then season with the olive oil, salt, pepper, and cayenne if you want a little kick. This would also be a great place to use some achiote paste, but alas, I did not have any. Next time!

You only need to grill the shrimp for about 60-90 seconds on each side.  Once they are firm and opaque, take them off the heat, they'll continue to cook a little once they're off. 

Look at them! Gorgeous!

This was the precise moment I decided to put corn in here too.  I just felt like it would add some bulk and a pop of color.  I threw my corn in the same grill pan the shrimp had just left and pan fried it for about 60 seconds, just enough to defrost the corn. 

I threw the corn in and stirred everything up while I waited for the the shrimp to cool. 

Then I mixed the shrimp in as well, I contemplated cutting them up into smaller pieces, and I definitely would have if I had intended to eat the salsa with chips, but this batch was just headed straight down the hatch!

I added a little crumble of cotija cheese right over the top and it was perfect!  A perfect lunch on a Sunday afternoon!

What a crock of beans!

I hate wasting food.  I can't help it, when something is going to be thrown out, I want to try and figure out a way to use it.  That's why I save my veggie trimmings in a bag in my freezer to make stock (which you should do too, because it's awesome).  

 

All this to say, when my office catered Chipotle a few weeks ago, I ended up taking home beans.  Lots and lots of beans, both black and pinto.  I divided them up into quart-sized freezer bags and waited for inspiration to strike.  

And strike it did, in the form of a bag butternut squash languishing in the back of my freezer.  I thought it would make a really nice addition to a black bean chili.  Turns out, I was right!

Side note:  I also brought home leftover rice and was able to freeze it as well.  It reheated beautifully (which I wasn't sure would work, so there you go). 

What you'll need:

2 cans of black beans, drained and rinsed ( or a quart-sized bag of free beans from work)

1 can of diced tomatoes

1 can of diced green chilies, or 1/2 cup frozen green chilies if you want more of a kick.

1 cup frozen corn

1 package of frozen butternut squash (10 oz.) or feel free to use fresh if you prefer!

1 red onion, diced

(If I were a fan of bell pepper, dicing one up with the onion would be nice, but I'm not, so I didn't)

1 T. olive oil 

4 cups chicken stock (I used vegetarian Better than Bouillon) 

1 bay leaf

Salt and pepper to taste

Cilantro and Greek yogurt as garnish. 

So, saute your onion in the bottom of a stock pot with the olive oil on medium high heat (this is where you throw in your bell pepper, if you want) until it's translucent.  Add your stock, tomatoes, beans, chilies, corn, squash, bay leaf and salt and pepper, cover, reduce heat and simmer until squash is tender and it has made your house smell awesome.  In my case, about 45 minutes. 

Ladle into your favorite bowl, top with Greek yogurt (I like Fage, because it's the most sour-creamy of the Greek yogurts) and cilantro.  Feel free to add some cotija cheese or hot sauce as well.

If you can, set the chili in the fridge overnight and eat it the next day.  Trust me, it's worth the wait. I know you know that I think leftovers are the best.

Bon Appetit!