Recipe
-4 parsnips (yellow, purple, and red)
-2 tbsp. Shredded cheese
-8 oz. New York steak
-corn flour
-2-3 tsp. pepper corn
-beef stock cube
-bacon
-1/2 tsp. salt
-1 medium-size yellow onion, diced
-5 green onions, finely chopped
-2 garlic cloves, minced
-6 large baking potatoes, baked
-1 (8-ounce) container sour cream
-1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
-1 teaspoon salt
-1/4 teaspoon pepper
-1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce
-10 frozen phyllo pastry sheets, thawed
-1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
Method
Creamy Peppercorn Sauce
Ingredients
-1/2 pint of low fat milk
-1 beef stock cube. Crumbled. (A heaped teaspoon of gravy granules would also work. Some granules also have thickener in them so only use half the corn flour mixture if you are using granules)
-2-3 teaspoons of black, green or red peppercorns. (You could use a mix of each). Half your peppercorns should be crushed with the back of a spoon and half left whole.
-1 teaspoon of corn flour
-A splash of cold water
-5g / 1 teaspoon of low fat butter spread
-A good twist of black pepper and a little salt if needed
Method
Add the milk to a small saucepan and heat over a medium to high heat. Crumble in the stock cube/gravy granules and peppercorns and stir with a whisk to combine. Mix the corn flour and water together in a small jug or bowl and stir to make sure the corn flour is dissolved. Briefly remove the pot from the heat and add the water/corn flour mixture. Continue to whisk constantly. Return to the heat and allow the sauce to come to the boil, stirring all the while. After it's boiled for 30 seconds or so, reduce the heat and allow the sauce to simmer for a minute or so. Stir in the butter and whisk to combine. Taste the sauce and add the black pepper and a little salt if it needs it. Transfer the sauce to a jug/boat and serve.
Phyllo rolls
Ingredients
-6 bacon slices, chopped
-1 medium-size yellow onion, diced
-5 green onions, finely chopped
-2 garlic cloves, minced
-6 large baking potatoes, baked
-1 (8-ounce) container sour cream
-1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
-1 teaspoon salt
-1/4 teaspoon pepper
-1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce
-10 frozen phyllo pastry sheets, thawed
-1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
Preparation
Cook bacon in a large skillet until crisp; remove bacon, and drain on paper towels, reserving 2 tablespoons drippings in skillet. Set bacon aside.
Sauté yellow and green onions in hot drippings in skillet over medium-high heat 5 minutes or until tender. Add garlic; sauté 1 minute.
Scoop out potato pulp, and place in a large bowl. Add sour cream, and mash with a potato masher. Stir in onion mixture, 1/2 cup butter, bacon, salt, pepper, and soy sauce.
Brush thawed phyllo sheet with 1/2 cup melted butter. Arrange 5 sheets on bottom of a lightly greased 11- x 15-inch jellyroll pan. Spread with potato mixture; top with remaining 5 phyllo sheets.
Bake at 350° for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden. Cut into squares before serving; garnish, if desired.
1 (22-ounce) package frozen mashed potatoes may be substituted for baked potato pulp. Cook according to package directions.
New York Steak
Ingredients
-8 oz. New York steak
-1 barbecue
-Saskatchewan Steak Spice
Clean Grill
It's critical you start with a clean grill. There's nothing worse than grilling a beautiful New York and having it taste like red snapper. The time to remove all the residue with a wire brush is right after you finish cooking while the grate is still hot. If you wait until it's time to start cooking, some of the scrapings can fall into the flames and cause a flare-up. Before you begin heating the grill, brush it or spray it with a little vegetable oil to prevent food from sticking. This is especially important if you are using a sugary basting sauce.
Hot Grill
It's also vital that your grill is hot well before you start. Many of us, especially with gas grills, wait until right before we start cooking before we crank up the heat. Mistake. Preheat that grill 15 to 30 minutes before you intend to start cooking. Have all your cooking tools ready and standing by. This not only includes apron and utensils, but seasonings and basting sauces as well. And be sure to have a spray water bottle on hand in case of flare-ups.
Know thy Grill
Every grill is different and will have different hot and cool spots. It's important you learn where they are and use them to your advantage.
Prepping ingredients
If you're grilling up a steak you may want to cut off any excess fat and season with a little salt before you start. However with chicken, you may want to pre-cook it in the microwave or oven to cut down on cooking time and give you more control of browning. With fish filets, I like to place them in a zip lock bag with a little olive oil and herbs but you can also prepare a glaze to coat them just before grilling. Remember to bring items to room temperature before grilling.
How Long Do You Cook It?
I guess the most frequent questions are "how long do you cook it for?" and "how can you tell when it's done?" Although every cookbook you pick up has guidelines for each ingredient, it once again comes back to experience and touch. I would suggest you follow your favorite cookbook guides to grilling but start touching the foods at different intervals to get a feel for firmness and texture.
For example, as a general rule, I like to cook a 1 1/2-inch New York Strip steak for a total of ten minutes. I start by grilling for 2 1/2 minutes, then turning 90 degrees and cooking for another 2 1/2 minutes, flip the steak over to its other side and repeat the process thus giving the steak the classic grill marks. At the same time I test the steak with my finger to feel for various degrees of firmness. Medium cooked feels like touching your cheek. If you really want to get specific, you can use an instant thermometer.
For steak, 115 - 120 degrees is rare, 125-130 degrees is medium rare and 135 - 140 degrees is medium. Don't forget, the meat will continue to cook once you remove it from the grill to rest, so you may want to remove it before hitting your target temperature so you don't overcook it.
Grilling Tool
Everyone seems to have their own favorite grilling techniques, tools, marinades, family recipes ....often secret. And if you like gadgets, you'll love grilling since there are a plethora of great tools to enhance your grilling experience. Check out my Grilling Tools for a few examples.
This only touches the surface of what there is to learn about grilling as a cooking method. The best advice I can give any home cook is practice as much as you can. It's a great way to cook without a lot of mess, especially in the summer when it's too hot to cook inside.
Parsnips
Ingredients
-4 parsnips
-3 tablespoons good olive oil
-1 tablespoon kosher salt
-1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
-2 tablespoons minced dill
Directions
Peel the parsnips. Put them in a pot with sufficient water to cover them, and boil for 25 to 30 minutes, until tender but firm (not mushy.)Drain the parsnips. They should sit for a minute and get quite dry. Heat the butter in a large skillet, and sauté the parsnips over moderate heat until lightly browned on both sides. They should caramelize a little, as they are rich in sugars. Try to keep them in a single layer.
Review: What went well? For the Pepper corn sauce the mixing was an easy part of it because the corn flour and spices went well together, For the Phyllo rolls the preparing of the foods was fairly easy, for the New York steak the barbecuing was the easiest part because the steaks were kind of thin so it didn’t take very long to cook and the parsnips sautéing was the easiest part because it only took about ^ or so minuets to get the nice and browned.
What didn’t go so well? The milk in the Peppercorn sauce was always starting to burn so I had to keep mixing and mixing until it was done which was pretty time consuming, The Phyllo squares were difficult to get every single little chunk of potato mixed up so there were some of the whole potato still left in the finished product but not big enough to be a major concern, the New York steaks had to have my attention the whole time I was cooking them due to me worrying about if they were going to burn or not, and the parsnips boiling was a tricky thing to judge because they had to be half cooked but still raw enough that they were still crunchy.
What will I do next time? I will put the heat lower on the burner for the Peppercorn sauce so that the sauce will have a lower chance of burning and sticking to the pan, I will go through the potato mixture with and electric beater so the most or all of the little chunks are gone, I will put a little cut in the steaks so that it will be easier to see if they are done or if they need more time to cook, and for the parsnips I will use a knife to cut off a little bit of the tip if them to see if they are still crunchy and are ready to be taken out and sautéed.
Shopping list: sour cream, OXO beef cube
Time: Time needed to prepare my meal: 1 and a half hours
Time needed to cook: 3 and a half hours
Time needed to serve meal: 10 minutes
Time needed to clean up after meal: 30 minutes
Total Time: 5 hours and 40 minutes
My guest was my mom and her words after she had her first bite and after the meal were the same “That was amazing”. And the most enjoyable part of the meal preparation was cooking the steak.
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