I am a Dad that stays at home with my two boys and who loves to cook and bake. This blog will chronicle my successes and failures in the kitchen to cook tasty and healthy food, and to try and get my picky-eater kids to eat it all!
Often times my wife will send me a recipe that she wants me to try out. Recently she sent me a recipe for steak fajitas that sounded simple and fantastic. Last night I made this dinner, and I will confirm that it is simple, yet fantastic.
One of the things that made this recipe so fantastic was probably the length of time I left the flank steak in the marinade. I had planned to make this recipe before our long weekend trip to see family over Memorial Day weekend, but we were not able to fit it in. So I put the gallon zip top bag containing the steak and the marinade in the freezer. Then this morning I took it out to thaw. Not only was the meat infused with flavor, but it stayed super juicy while being grilled - which is not always an easy task.
I grilled the steak outside on my gas grill, about 8 minutes per side. This gave the steak a fantastic medium doneness to the meat, and left it juicy inside. If you prefer your meat a little rarer, you can certainly reduce the cooking time some, but for us this was fantastic.
Cutting flank steak for the meal.
I am not sure if it was the marinade or the simple magic of grilled steak, but the meat was HEAVENLY. I could have sat there and just ate the meat all night - and so could my wife judging by her reaction to a taste test. Wrapping it up in a tortilla with some onions, peppers and avocado seemed like a little much for such a tasty morsel.
Steak fajita, anyone?
The recipe for the fajitas (which includes the marinade) is available on About.com in their food section, and a link directly to the recipe is HERE. If you want to go whole hog and make the fajitas dinner be my guest. but if you just want to start using this marinade for all your steaks like I do, then you can just go ahead and join me in doing that.
Those who are in the know, know. Pixar does a great job making movies. Not just movies for kids, but movies in general. They've taken us inside the secret lives of toys, under the sea, into the closet to where the monsters live, inside the head of a young girl, and into a world populated by automobiles.
But by far my favorite movie from Pixar studios is Ratatouille.
If you're not familiar, it's the story of a rat who figures out how to cook and ends up puppeting a human being. Of course, since rats are not allowed in kitchens, hilarity ensues along with a happy ending for everyone - because it's Disney and it's a kid movie. But the climax of the movie is centered around one final dish, prepared for the primary nemesis - a food critic. That dish is a take on the peasant stew ratatouille, arrayed in a shallow baking dish and cooked en papillote - or under parchment paper.
Recently, I found a recipe for this dish and began making it. It is like bringing a bit of the movie back into real life. The recipe can be found HERE on Allrecipes.com. I do mine in a oval pan, mostly because I like how it looks better.
Ratatouille before cooking
The easy way to keep all of the ingredients in the same order is to use separate tupperware bowls for each of the veggies. Once you have sliced your summer squash, zucchini, eggplant, and red peppers put them in the order you want to have them in the dish, and go from one end to the other. Here is mine in process.
Ratatouille in process
Once you have the dish cooked, I highly recommend serving with some fresh soft bread (this is my homemade oatmeal bread) and some mascarpone cheese. The cheese melts and gives the overall dish some lovely creaminess. It is also fantastic spread directly onto bread. Like butter, it will melt into the bread and add a level of fatty creaminess that pairs wonderfully with a fresh loaf of bread.
Mascarpone on bread
Of course - as difficult as it can be to cook a dish in a professional kitchen, It can be doubly difficult when your kitchen looks like this:
My kitchen "helper" tonight...
Regardless of my "helper", I did manage to end up with a very nice looking plate, once everything came together.
Ratatouille topped with mascarpone quenelle with a slice of fresh bread
If you're not familiar with the term quenelle, its a fancy term for a three sided shape of anything that it soft or moldable, like mascarpone cheese or ice cream. I had my 6-year old act as a cameraman so that you can see just how easy it is to make these fancy-looking toppers.
And just when it couldn't get any better - it does.
What do you think my two boys ate tonight - this fabulous meal with soft fresh bread and creamy mascarpone cheese, or something completely different?
If you went with option two, you'd be correct.
Liam's Plate
Ezra's Plate
Oh well - can't win them all. One day they will be old enough to appreciate the cooking they get. Until then, I just keep cooking like I do and their tastes will catch up sooner or later. Right?
