Fabulicious!: On the Grill (12 page)
Read Fabulicious!: On the Grill Online
Authors: Teresa Giudice
2.
Brush the steaks generously on both sides with the oil and season with the salt and pepper. Spread the bread crumbs on a plate. Coat the steaks with the bread crumbs, patting them into the steaks to help them adhere. Let stand at room temperature while preheating the grill.
3.
Preheat the grill for direct cooking over medium heat (400°F).
4.
Holding with long tongs, use a wad of paper towels dipped in olive oil to grease the cooking grate. Place the steaks on the cooking grate and close the grill lid. Cook the steaks until the breading on the underside is crisp and browned, about 2½ minutes. Flip the steaks and continue cooking, with the lid closed, until the other sides are browned, about 2½ minutes more for medium-rare steaks. Remove from the grill. Sprinkle with the Parmesan. Let stand 5 minutes. Serve hot, with the lemon wedges.
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Homemade Bread Crumbs
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I
f you've read my other
Fabulicious
cookbooks, you know that Italians do not like to waste food. We cook with and eat as much of the plant and animal as we can (herb-seasoned sausage is the perfect example). We like to keep the bones in our cooking for extra flavor. And we have tons of uses for stale bread: bruschetta, crostini, soups, panzanella salads, and of course, bread crumbs.
Canned bread crumbs are great (and will keep in the freezer for up to a year!), but if you want to make your own using stale (or not-so-stale) bread slices, here's how: Cut the crusts off, pull the slices into 1-inch pieces, and place in a food processor. Pulse for a couple minutes until you have coarse crumbs. Don't overprocess them though; the goal is crumbs, not flour. Three slices of sandwich-sized bread will make about 1 cup of bread crumbs.
To make your bread crumbs “Italian-style,” simply add your favorite Italian herbs to the mix. For every cup of bread crumbs, add 1 fresh basil leaf (or ¼ teaspoon dried basil), 1 sprig fresh parsley (or ½ teaspoon dried parsley), ½ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon ground black pepper, and ½ teaspoon garlic powder.
Store the breadcrumbs in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 months.
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Makes 4 servings
This is kind of like the Steak Pizzaiola that I make indoors, but the sizzle of the grill adds even more flavor to one of my favorite dishes. In this version, I use fresh summer tomatoes to make a sauce instead of canned, and fresh herbs instead of driedânot that I would ever use dried parsley anyway since it tastes like dead leaves from your doorstep. This sauce is just enough for the steak, but you can easily double it to go over a pound of pasta. Roasted red peppers set it off.
Summer Tomato Sauce:
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound plum (Roma) tomatoes, cored, seeded, and diced
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
Salt
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano or basil or 1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1.
To make the sauce:
Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally until softened, about 3 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, ¼ cup water, and red pepper flakes. Season with salt. Cook until the tomatoes give off their juices, about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes, until the sauce thickens. During the last 5 minutes, stir in the oregano and parsley. Remove from the heat and cover to keep warm.
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Greasing the Grate
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B
esides grilling pizza, this is the one time where I will let you oil the grill to help keep the breaded food from sticking. To do this, dip a wad of paper towels in olive oil, pinch it in long-handled tongs, and lightly brush it over the grate. Don't overdo it, though; you just want enough to grease the grate, not so much that it is dripping into the flames, which could cause dangerous flare-ups.
Steak:
2 shell (strip) steaks (12 ounces each and cut ¾ inch thick)
Extra-virgin olive oil
¾ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 large red bell peppers, roasted and skinned (see Grilling Peppers,
page 178
), cut into ½-inch-thick strips
Chopped fresh parsley, for garnish
2.
To make the steaks:
Meanwhile, brush the steaks on both sides with oil and season with the salt and pepper. Let stand at room temperature while preheating the grill.
3.
Preheat the grill for direct cooking over high heat (500°F).
4.
Place the steaks on the cooking grate and close the grill lid. Cook until the underside is browned and seared with grill marks, about 3 minutes. Flip the steaks and cook, with the lid closed, until the other side is browned and the steak feels somewhat soft with little resistance when pressed on top with a fingertip, 3 to 4 minutes more for medium-rare. Remove from the grill. Transfer the steaks to a carving board and let stand 5 minutes.
5.
Cut the steak across the grain into diagonal ½-inch-thick slices. Spread the tomato sauce on a deep platter. Add the sliced steak and the carving juices. Top with the roasted red pepper strips. Sprinkle with the parsley and serve hot.
To avoid a prep crunch, grill, cool, and peel the peppers an hour or so before grilling the steak.
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Makes 4 to 6 servings
The secret to this recipeâtomato pasteâmakes the marinade nice and thick, and helps create a beautiful crust on the steak during grilling. Flank steak is a very lean cut that will get tough if you cook it more than medium-rare, though, so if you like well-done meat, make something else! Try this marinade with other steaks, such as skirt or sirloin.
Red Wine Marinade:
1 cup hearty red wine, such as Shiraz
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cup extra-virgin olive oil
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
¼ cup tomato paste
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil
2 teaspoons dried oregano
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Steak:
1 flank steak (about 1¾ pounds and 1 inch thick)
1.
To make the marinade
:
Whisk all of the ingredients together in a medium bowl until tomate paste is dissolved.
2.
Put the steak in a 1-gallon resealable plastic bag. Pour in the marinade and close the bag. Refrigerate, occasionally turning the bag, for at least 4 and up to 12 hours. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before grilling.
3.
Preheat the grill for direct cooking over very high heat (500°F).
4.
To make the steak:
Remove the steak from the marinade, shaking off the excess, and discard the marinade. Place the steak on the cooking grate and close the grill lid. Cook the steak until the underside is browned and seared with grill marks, about 4 minutes. Flip the steak and continue cooking, with the lid closed, until the other side is browned and the steak feel somewhat soft with little resistance when pressed on top with a fingertip, about 4 minutes more for medium-rare. Transfer the steak to a carving board and let stand for 5 minutes.
5.
Cut the steak across the grain at a slight diagonal into thin slices. Transfer to a platter, pour the juices on top, and serve hot.
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Cutting Against the Grain
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ou can cook flank steak perfectly, but if you slice it incorrectly after it comes off the grill, you'll ruin all that tenderness. How can you avoid this? Cut against the grain, not with it. Cutting along the same lines as the muscle fibers (or “the grain” of the meat) will just separate the individual fibers, but leave a lot of them intact, and tough. If you cut against the grain (at a forty-five-degree angle to the lines or at least diagonal to them), you're slicing up the tough muscle, not the soft connectors between them, and you'll have a melt-in-your-mouth result.
Try to cut it as thinly as possible, about ¼ inch thick or thinner. Be sure your knife is thin and good and sharp; a serrated or dull knife will just tear up your meat. And make sure you're looking at the actual grain of the meat and not the marks from your grill! (It sounds silly, but I've seen it done!)
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Makes 4 servings
Use any steak you like for this. I use club steak (which is a 1 pound shell steak cut in half to make two smaller steaks about 8 ounces each), but for a special occasion, you could use filet mignon. The idea here is to grill the steaks and shrimp, pile some shrimp on each steak, and top the stack with a big spoon of garlic butter. Be sure that the garlic butter is at room temperature and really soft so it will melt over the food without cooling it down.
Garlic Butter:
6 tablespoons (¾ stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 garlic cloves, crushed through a garlic press
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh chives or scallion greens
Steak and Shrimp:
4 club steaks (each 8 ounces and cut 1 inch thick)
1¼ teaspoons salt, divided
1¼ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper, divided
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh rosemary
24 large (21 to 25 count) shrimp, about 1¼ pounds, peeled and deveined with tail segment left attached
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1.
To make the garlic butter:
Using a rubber spatula, mash and mix all of the ingredients together in a small bowl until combined. Set aside at room temperature for at least 1 and up to 4 hours.
2.
To make the steak:
Season the steaks on both sides with 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper, then rub with the rosemary. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.
3.
To make the shrimp:
Toss the shrimp and olive oil with the remaining ¼ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon in pepper in a large bowl.
4.
Preheat the grill for direct cooking over high heat (500°F).
5.
Place the steaks on one side of the grill. Put a perforated grill pan next to the steaks. Close the lid and cook until the undersides of the steaks are browned and seared with grill marks, about 4 minutes. Flip the steaks and continue cooking, with the lid closed, until an instant-read thermometer inserted horizontally through the side into the center of a steak reads 125°F, 3 to 4 minutes more for medium-rare. Transfer the steaks to a platter and tent with aluminum foil.
Shrimp are much easier to grill on a perforated grill pan than directly on the grate.
6.
Add the shrimp to the perforated grill pan and spread in a single layer. Close the grill lid. Cook until the shrimp are turning opaque around the edges, 2 to 3 minutes. Flip the shrimp and continue cooking, with the lid closed, until they are completely opaque, about 2 minutes more. Transfer the shrimp to a plate.
7.
For each serving, place a steak on a dinner plate and top with 6 shrimp. Add a dollop of the garlic butter over each mound of shrimp. Serve hot.