Grilled New York Steak, The Best Red Potatoes Ever and Roasted Asparagus with Parmesan and Lemon

I think it's important that we all have "go to" recipes for weekend meals or special occasions that we can execute to perfection and really impress our dinner companion(s). Here's how I do a New York steak dinner, the best red potatoes ever and asparagus with parmesan and lemon.

Ingredients:
New York Steak
Olive oil
Salt & pepper

Preparation:

Heat your grill to hi heat. Coat each steak with olive oil and generous salt and pepper. If your steak is 1" thick, follow these instructions.

Place the steaks on the grill 45 degrees to the grate. Cook for 1 minute 30 seconds. Take your tongs and rotate to the steak 45 degrees the other direction to the grate and cook for 1 minute 30 seconds.

After the total of 3 minutes, flip the steaks and repeat the same process. After a total of 6 minutes the steak should be on the rare side of medium rare. Cook 1 extra minute if you like medium. Place the steaks on a plate and tent cover the steaks with aluminum foil for 3 - 4 minutes. Perfection!

Here's my recipe for asparagus:

Olive Oil Roasted Asparagus

Here's my recipe for the best red potatoes ever:

The Best Red Potatoes Ever

Orzo Pasta with Red Onion, Green Onion, Garlic and Crushed Walnuts

Orzo pasta is a great side dish because you can do so much with it. Here I simply added diced red onion, diced green onion, crushed garlic, crushed walnuts and topped with a little green onion and parmesan cheese. Wonderful!

 

Ingredients:
Barilla Orzo pasta, 4 cups cooked
1/4 large red onion
6 green onions
4 crushed garlic cloves
1/8 cup crushed walnuts
Parmesan cheese

Preparation:

Cook the orzo pasta in a large stock pot for 10 - 12 minutes. Make sure you generously salt the water to cook your pasta. When the pasta is cooked to you satisfaction, drain the pasta and set a side.

Dice the red onion, green onion and garlic and set a side. Heat a 12" sauté pan and add 1 tablespoon of  olive oil. Add the red onion, green onion and garlic and sauté for just 1 minute. Add the orzo pasta and crushed walnuts and heat through. To serve, toss on some diced green onion and sprinkle with a little parmesan cheese.

Glorious Carrots

Carrots can be a wonderful vegetable side dish, but are very often overlooked because most people buy baby carrots and are just tired of them. In order for this to be an interesting and appealing dish you've got to take care to do a couple of things. First, use large carrots which have a sweeter flavor and that you can also cut into random shaped pieces. Second, don't over cook the carrots, they should still have a slight crunch to the bite.

 

Ingredients:

Large carrots, about 4 - 5 depending on size

 

Preparation:

Wash and peel the carrots. Use this technique to create a visually appealing cut carrot. Cut the carrot with you knife at a 45 degree angle. Next, rotate the carrot 1/4 turn keeping the knife in the same position at a 45 degree angle. Do this each time you cut a piece of carrot and you will end up with your visually appealing dish.

 

To cook your carrots, place them in a steamer and cook for 5 to 6 minutes and test the doneness. The carrots will be done when you can stick a fork right to the middle of the carrot, but not all the way through. This will give you a perfect "al dente" carrot. When cooked, rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process. This will also keep your carrots the bright orange color because there are few things worse that and overcooked brown carrot.

 

To finish your carrot dish, reheat the carrots in a sauté pan with a little butter or olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and you're done.  

Baby Back Ribs with Hoisin Barbecue Sauce on Roasted Garlic Mashed Potato's

We used to have this dish during happy hour at a place downtown called Mars Bar. They used a hoisin barbeque sauce which give the dish a wonderful Asian twist. Here is my take on the dish.

Ingredients:
1 rack baby back ribs
Barbeque sauce
Hoisin sauce
Salt & pepper
Paprika
Russet potato's
Roasted garlic

Preparation:

Start by making sure to remove the silver skin on the back side of the ribs. Most of the time it has already been removed, but if not, here is how you do it. Silver skin is really slippery and hard to remove unless you know how. Take a small knife and pull up piece of the silver skin. Use a piece of paper towel and grab the silver skin and pull. As you pull off, use more of the paper towel to help you remove the rest of silver skin.

Cut the rack into 4 pieces. Because one end is really thick and the other thin, you will like likely have just 2 ribs on the thick end and 4 on the other end so the portions are about the same. Now you can go crazy with rubs and seasonings or you can just go with salt, pepper and paprika and finish with bbq sauce which is what I did.

 

Once you've portioned the rack, generously season with salt, pepper and paprika. Cook on a barbeque on low for 1 hour turning the ribs every 15 minutes. If the ribs start to burn, you've got the to turn down the fire to low.

 

After one hour, remove the ribs from the barbeque to a baking pan. What you want to do now is to build up layers of barbeque sauce. Combine your favorite bbq sauce with a jar of hoisin sauce which you can find in the Asian section of the grocery store.

Brush on a layer of sauce and put the ribs in a 300 degree oven. After ten minutes or so take the ribs out and brush on another layer of bbq sauce. Do this a couple more times and the ribs should be done.

 

Check to make sure you ribs and completely cooked by poking with a fork. If the fork goes though very easily then you done. Serve the ribs on a bed of roasted garlic mashed potato's.

 

Here's my roasted garlic mashed potato's recipe:

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

 

Artichokes

I like artichokes, but not necessarily how long it takes to cook or having to work around the choke when eating. Some time ago I started preparing the artichoke by cutting in half removing the choke and them steaming. Not only does this reduce the cooking time, but makes for a more enjoyable eating experience.

Ingredients:

2 artichokes

Preparation:

Start by using your largest chef's knife and cut off the top of the artichoke. Next, use your kitchen shearers and cut off the ends of all leafs. Next, cut the artichoke in half and take a grapefruit spoon and dig out he choke and all the small red leafs attached to the choke. You should be left with about 5 - 6 layers of leafs and the edible part of the choke and stem. Steam the artichokes in a large stock pot for about 30 minutes. Serve with mayonnaise or butter.
 

Ground Beef Soft Taco's

A simple ground beef taco is a wonderful thing. When you eat out at a really authentic Mexican place, the taco's are served on warmed tortilla's and 2 - 3 tablespoons of meats and topped with a little fresh salsa.

I start with warmed fresh tortilla's, a little lettuce on the bottom, ground beef, shredded Monterey Jack cheese, salsa fresca, sour cream, couple of slices of avocado and a wedge of lime.

Ingredients:
Fresh corn tortillas
1 pound lean ground beef
1 tablespoon McCormick original taco seasoning
1 tablespoon Wondra flour
Shredded iceberg lettuce
Shredded Monterey Jack cheese
Salsa fresca
Avocado
Lite sour cream
1 lime

Preparation:

Place the ground beef into a 10" sauté pan and cook on medium high to brown the beef. The key to my taco meat is to leave the ground beef in medium size chucks, like the size of marbles. As the meat cooks add the taco seasoning and flour. The flour will soak up the juices and hold the meat together. The meat will be done cooking in about 8 minutes.

Heat a 12" sauté pan to medium high. Add 2 tortillas and cook for about 1 minute per side, no need for butter or oil. Place the tortilla's on a plate or taco rack if you have one. Start with a little shredded lettuce across the bottom of the tortilla. Next, add a couple tablespoons of the ground beef and top with shredded Monterrey Jack cheese, salsa fresca, sour cream, avocado and a wedge of lime. Squeeze the lime over the taco and you're ready eat enjoy and awesome taco.

Side dish serving suggestion:
Black Beans

BLT on Wheat Toast

For me, there is something magical about the flavor combination of bacon, lettuce, tomato and Best Foods mayonnaise. This is a fairly easy to prepare sandwich. Serve with baked fries and a side salad you've got a great road house meal.

Ingredients:
Whole wheat bread
Cooked bacon, 4 pieces per sandwich
1 ripe beef steak tomato
Green leaf lettuce
Best Foods light mayonnaise
Ground pepper

Preparation:

Toast the wheat bread and spread some mayonnaise on bottom piece. Next, add the bacon, 2 slices of tomato, a grind of salt and pepper on the tomato and then add a piece of lettuce or two. Take your top piece of toast and spread on some more mayonnaise and you're done.

Open Nature Grilled Tri Tip with Horseradish Sour Cream

Open Nature is a Safeway brand of grass fed beef from Australia. I've used this product several times and I'm a fan, in fact one of the best filet's I ever cooked was from Open Nature. Grass fed animals are smaller than corn fed animals and the flavor of the cuts of meat are extraordinary.

Ingredients:

1 Open Nature grass fed tri tip
Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Light sour cream

Beaver brand creamed horseradish
 

Preparation:

When I'm cooking beef I always start the cooking process with the meat at room temp. By doing this the meat cooks more evenly and you don't end up with well done on the outside and rare in the middle.

Coat the tri tip with olive oil and salt and pepper. Grill the tri tip on medium high heat for 3 minutes per side. Finish the cooking process in a 350 degree oven for 5 - 7 minutes. Use your instant read thermometer and when the internal temp is 125 degrees, your done. Let the meat rest on a cutting board for at least 5 minutes before slicing and serving.   

Sweet And Sour Shrimp

This is a fun dish that I really just stumbled upon because I had very ripe pineapple and wanted to do something with it, so I cut it up and roasted it. If you like pineapple on pizza then you'll love this easy to prepare dish.
 

Ingredients:
1 pound peeled and deveined shrimp
1 tablespoon canola or avocado oil
1 cup roasted pineapple
2 tablespoons Trader Joes General Tso's sauce
2 cloves crushed garlic

Preparation:

Take your shrimp and add the crushed garlic and let marinate for 30 minutes. Cut the pineapple up into bit size pieces. Place the pineapple on a baking pan and coat with a little spray olive oil. Cook at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.

Heat a 12" sauté pan to medium high and add the oil and shrimp. Cook the shrimp for 5 minutes and add the pineapple and general Taoss sauce and cook for another 5 minutes. Serve over basmati rice and top with diced green onions.