Steak 'n Potato Pockets!

My recipe today was inspired by a recipe I found on AllRecipes.com for "English Pasties." What are "pasties" you ask? Well, this is what the recipe description said:

"Pasties - which are meat-filled turnovers - came from England along with the Cornish who settled in America. Years ago, miners and woodsmen throughout the Midwest relished having these pasties in their lunch boxes."

Hmmm...

Well, I had originally been looking for recipes that included both steak and potatoes. I had opened a can of canned potatoes to use in another recipe, and I had a bunch leftover. I hate wasting food, so I needed to use them before they went bad. That is when I stumbled upon this recipe here.

It seemed interesting so I decided to make something loosely based off it. I used our last can of crescent rolls we had lying around the house instead of making my own dough, and added some cut up bell peppers to the mix. The result was sort of a homemade Hot Pocket, but it tasted really good and was definitely a nice and filling dinner.

My creation was very easy to make and didn't take all that long either. It also held together well overnight so we could eat it the next night. To reheat, I popped it back in the oven for a bit instead of nuking it in the microwave and it was just fine.

Ingredients I used:

2 sandwich steaks - sliced
Peter Luger's Steak Sauce
1 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
Sliced Bell Peppers
Chopped Onion
1 package of Crescent Rolls
1/2 cup Sharp White Cheddar Cheese - shredded
diced canned potatoes - about 1/2 cup
1 egg, lightly beaten and mixed with water

Directions:

Marinate the sliced steak in the steak sauce and Worcestershire sauce for at least a half hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Put a drop of olive oil in a pan and saute the peppers, potatoes and onions. Remove from pan - add steak to pan and saute for a few minutes until no longer raw.


Lay out the crescent rolls into 4 rectangles - seal any loose seams together by pinching it.

On top of 2 rectangles, lay down beef and vegetable mixture. Top with shredded cheese. Place remaining 2 rectangles over and seal the edges.


Using the egg-wash, brush over the "pockets" and sprinkle a garnish over the top if you wish. I used parsley.

Crimp edges with a form if you want that look, but this is not necessary.

Cook in pre-heated oven for about 15-20 minutes, until top is golden brown.

Serve warm and enjoy!

Steak & Mushroom Florentine

Steak & Mushroom Florentine...sounds fancy, right? Well, it could be, but it was a Campbell's recipe I found a little over a year ago, before I started the blog. I hadn't made it again, simply because the recipe got buried in the pile of printed recipes in the cabinet, but it was really good. The spinach part is so deliciously creamy and smooth - we saved some reserve to eat over pasta or rice!!

Anyway, I'm posting it now - and then it will be written up on a recipe card and placed into the nice recipe binder someone gave me as a housewarming gift a long, long time ago!

If I remember...the recipe said prep time is 15 minutes and cook time is 20...I think it took me a little longer than that because I had to chop some ingredients. I think this recipe is good for someone home a few hours before dinner time and can properly prepare, or for a weekend.

I also left out the tomato in the recipe because, well, I do not like tomatoes! I also used frozen chopped spinach (which is always on standby in the freezer) instead of fresh baby spinach leaves.

Now, the recipe...

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 LB beef sirloin steak or beef top round steak, 3/4-inch thick, cut into thin strips
1 small onion, sliced (about 1/4 cup)
4 cups fresh baby spinach leaves
1 can (10 3/4 ounces) Campbell's® Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 cup water
1 large tomato, thickly sliced
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat.

Add the beef and cook until well browned, stirring often. Remove the beef from the skillet. Pour off any fat.

Heat the remaining oil in the skillet over medium heat.

Add the onion and cook until tender-crisp. Add the spinach and cook until the spinach is wilted (or warmed through if using frozen).

Stir the soup and water in the skillet and heat to a boil. Return the beef to the skillet.

Reduce the heat to low. Cook until the beef is cooked through. Serve the beef mixture over the tomato. Season with the black pepper.

**Serving Suggestion: Serve with hot cooked whole-grain egg noodles. (That was from the actual recipe...I served mine with rice pilaf and a side of french cut green beans! Yum!)

Another Steak Dinner from the Eating With A Steakhouse

My husband and I took a trip to a butcher this past weekend. I can't remember the last time I stepped into a butcher! My parents used to take to one when I was little, but since I've been cooking for myself, it's been supermarket meat.

That changed when we did one of the many deals popping up on the Internet through things like Groupon, Living Social, etc. There was one though Valpak for the same butcher my parents used to take me to while growing up, so we decided to get it and treat ourselves to a nicer steak for once. The deal was spending $10 and getting $20 worth of food. Yay!

So we took a drive to where I grew up (a whole 4 miles down the road) and stopped into the butcher. First we picked out a nice skirt steak, and then we had a little leftover so we also got my husband a rack of ribs to eat one night for dinner and me a container of mushroom barley soup - my favorite! We ending up spending around $6 extra, but definitely not a big deal. All of that food for $16 isn't too shabby, especially since the soup was buy one get one free!

We decided to do something different with the steak instead of just marinating and cooking it and we settled on some sort of roll up. I got the idea to use the frozen asparagus we purchased from Trader Joes, and my husband wanted to use some sort of cheese. And thus our dinner was born...

Here are the ingredients we used:

2 pieces of skirt steak (you can pound it a little flatter too)
Peter Luger's Steak Sauce
Splash of Worcestershire sauce
salt & pepper to taste
asparagus (we used Grilled frozen Asparagus from Trader Joes but you can also use fresh)
provolone cheese

Here is what we did:

First I marinated the skirt steak in a glass bowl for an hour with the Peter Luger's and Worcestershire sauce.

Then I laid out the pieces of steak and cut them in half so I would ultimately make 4 rolls.


In the middle of each piece of steak I put a little provolone cheese and a few pieces of asparagus.


Then I rolled them up and secured them with a toothpick. Once rolled, we sprinkled some salt and pepper on all sides of the roll for some extra taste.

I heated some oil in a grill pan on the stove and seared the rolls for a few minutes on each side.


Then I put the grill pan into the oven at 350 degrees F and let them cook off for another 10-12 minutes, or until the desired "doneness." We are fans of steak cooked to medium or medium well.

We ate our steak dinner with a side of mashed cauliflower and steamed mixed vegetables. Delicious!!

Steak n Cheese Sammies for Dinner!

My husband and I made an incredibly tasty steak n cheese sandwich for dinner the other night. Seriously, SO good. I would also make mini versions of this as appetizers for a party or an event!!

We bought organic sandwich steaks from the supermarket, as well as whole wheat kaiser rolls. All that was left was to build the perfect sandwich.

We had provolone cheese in the house...along with a bag of chopped up peppers and some onion.

First we sauteed the peppers and onions to soften them up, then moved them to a bowl.


In the same pan, we put the sandwich steaks in and sauteed those with a mix of the Peter Luger's steak sauce and Worcestershire sauce. (Use more BBQ sauce than Worcestershire).


Once the steaks were browned, we added the veggies back into the pan so they could mix with the steak and sauce.


Towards the end of the simmering, we threw the rolls in the oven with the provolone on it to toast the bread and melt the cheese.


The steak, peppers and onion combo topped the cheese and it was time for dinner!!

Yum!! Totally steak house worthy, in my opinion!!

Steak With Parmesan Spinach

This recipe is courtesy of my October 2010 Food Network Magazine!


Don't really have much of a back story for this recipe - it called out to me to make for dinner one night. I love Parmesan cheese so it just made sense to try it out. The steak was pretty good - it was just seasoned with some salt and pepper... and I added a pinch of paprika for something extra. We ended up using some steak sauce just because we aren't the biggest "dry rub" seasoning type people.

But my husband LOVED the Parmesan spinach and I thought it was pretty yummy too!

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds flank steak
Extra-virgin olive oil, for brushing
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole milk
2 10-ounce packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (I used ground nutmeg)

Directions

Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat. Pat the steak dry and brush lightly with olive oil. Season with 11/2 teaspoons salt and 2 to 3 teaspoons pepper. Cook, turning once, 10 to 13 minutes total for medium rare. Transfer the steak to a cutting board to rest, about 10 minutes.


Meanwhile, melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the flour and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Remove from the heat and gradually whisk in the milk. Return to medium heat and simmer, whisking, until slightly thickened, about 2 minutes.

Stir in the spinach, 1/4 cup water, 1/2 cup Parmesan, the lemon zest and nutmeg and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens and the spinach is tender, about 10 minutes. Thin with water, if needed. Stir in the remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan and salt to taste.


Thinly slice the steak and serve with the spinach.

Argentine Steakhouse Cooking!

Last night my husband and I along with another couple took an Argentine Steakhouse cooking class at one of the 16 Viking Cooking School locations around the country. We are lucky that there is one only 20 minutes from us since there are so few in the US and this was the 3rd class we've taken over the past few years.

The classes are really fun - usually between 3-5 hours and are just a one-time stand alone activity. Two years ago we did a French Pastry class and learned to make palmiers, cream puffs, eclairs, rum cakes and a few other treats. We then followed that class a few months later with an Ice Cream making class where we learned to make ice creams, sorbets, shaved ice and a few other things. That class was my husbands favorite, obviously.

This time around we chose this Argentine Steakhouse class with our friends as something fun to do on a Saturday night. The class was from 5-8 and you cook first and then get to enjoy everything afterward!

When we first arrived, there was an appetizer waiting for us of Grilled Chorizo on Crusty Bread with Chimichurri Sauce. We all got to sit down and eat as they explained what we would be doing in the class. It was the first time I had chorizo and chimichurri sauce and they weren't bad! The chorizo kind of tasted like a hot dog a little bit so I was fine with it. (I pointed out to my husband, the hater of hot dogs, that it tasted like one and he still shrugged and indicated he would never eat a hot dogs. Whatever!)

Then we started to cook! Here is what our menu was going to consist of:
*Argentine Empanadas (and learning how to make the dough)
*Roasted Marinated Sweet Peppers
*Grilled Skirt Steak with Chimichurri Sauce
*Oven-Roasted Potatoes
*Flan

We started on the flan first because it would need to bake and then cool and we only had a few hours. To make the caramel we simply browned some sugar and water in a skillet for a few minutes. I'd never done that before and it was neat to watch the sugar brown and turn into a caramel. (When eating it, we felt it needed to be a bit sweeter though). The custard part was just condensed sweetened milk, evaporated milk and eggs. Simple!

Next we charred our peppers. This was also the first time I ever charred food. We put 3 large red peppers directly on the gas range and let the flames blacken them. Once they were mostly black, they went into a large metal bowl and plastic wrap was used to seal it. The instructor told us that the moisture would soften the peppers to allow the char to be brushed off more easily later on.

A quick lesson in knife skills came next so we could chop up some of our ingredients for our empanadas. Then we chopped scallions, red pepper, parsley, onions and green olives.

When that was set aside, we cut up our Yukon Gold potatoes for our roasted potatoes. They cut pieces were mixed with paprika and olive oil and then roasted in the oven. Those were my FAVORITE part of the meal!! I never thought to use paprika on potatoes before.

Back to the empanadas. The instructor demonstrated how to make a simple dough with flour, shortening and ice water. Then we were sent to the stove to prepare the empanada filling. First we were told to brown our chopped beef. Once that was browned we drained the beef and in our empty skillets, were told to sweat our onions. We were also told to keep our freshly chopped parsley to the side because you always want to add in any fresh herbs last! Who knew! Dry spices can be mixed into whatever you are cooking or sauteing whenever but fresh herbs will lose their flavor if mixed in too early. Anyway, so the onions were sweating and we added in the rest of the ingredients that we had chopped and diced, also a few dry spices and currants! They wanted the empanadas to have a sweet and salty element. Some of the cooking groups also added in hard boiled egg but we didn't because my husband hates eggs and while I like them, I do not like hard boiled egg.

Once the ingredients sauteed up nicely we added the beef and fresh parsley back into the skillet for a minute and let the mixture rest.

Back on the prep table we chopped up some more ingredients for the chimichurri sauce and once it was ready, marinated our skirt steak in it. By that time, the dough for the empanadas was cooled and ready to work with so we set to work rolling out dough and cutting circles out. We stuffed our circles of dough and sealed the edges with a fork to get those fun ridges at the end. While the instructor took them away to fry, we started prepping the charred peppers!

The big bowl of red peppers came out and we all took one and put it in a ziplock bag. Then we were taught how to massage the pepper to rub all of the char off easily. Once most of the black was off in the bag, rinse the pepper under cool water for just a few seconds to get any remaining char off - but not too long or it will lose its flavor. Then we chopped them into strips and set them aside to eat later on. (I like roasted red peppers but I felt we should have eaten these warm, not room temperature!)

It was then time to grill our steaks! We were taught to always load your grill from back to front in case of flare ups - so your arm doesn't get caught in flames. We were also taught how to test for doneness of steak with the touch method. (We failed a bit on that...we thought our steaks were at medium to the touch but they were still rare. Back to the grill!)

Once the steaks were done, we gathered around the table and got to eat our creations! Steak, roasted red peppers, potatoes and empanadas, accompanied by a Creole Salad that was already made for us and some red or white wine. Our flan was dessert!

Delicious!

The Viking Cooking Schools always have really fun classes and they are worth the money for sure. If you are lucky enough to live in an area that has them, treat yourself to a class or two. But book early - classes are only 12 students each and they fill up FAST, especially the weekend ones. If you don't have a Viking School near you then find a location that does something like this. It's a different activity to do once in a while and it is fun to do with friends. This class was the first one my husband and I did with people we knew and we probably had more fun this time socially.

And I always enjoy learning new skills! Bring out the grill, it's time to char some peppers!

*** If anyone would like any of the actual recipes from this post, leave a comment, e-mail me at EatingWithA at gmail dot com or check my Facebook Fan Page (Eating With A). While I did not post them here, I have the recipe cards from what we made in class. My friend said the chimichurri sauce was AWESOME. She often makes her own but said this surpassed what she does in her own kitchen. Since I've never had it before, there was nothing for me to base it on, but it was pretty tasty.