June 18, 2015 – Steaks – Bistro Style RECIPE: Grilled Rib-Eye Steak au Poivre with Onion StrawsTop Tips for Grilling SteaksRECIPE: Creole, Coffee-Rubbed Filet Mignon with Béarnaise Sauce Rubs & Marinades RECIPE: Bistro Steak and Frites with Shallot ButterCookbook Review“Grilling Steaks – Bistro Style” INTRO TEXT Emerging as a favored style of cooking and eating, the term, “bistro style” is a loose homage to French bistros, small restaurants. Casual in nature, and focused on everyday meals, the ingredients are fresh and imbued with herbs and flavors that make each bite memorable.IN THIS ISSUE, we’re preparing steaks, bistro style. Prepped with spices and herbs, steaks are grilled to individual preferences and enhanced with complementary sides and sauces. Below you’ll find Grilled Rib-Eye Steak Au Poivre with Onion Straws, Creole, Coffee-Rubbed Filet Mignon with Béarnaise Sauce, and Bistro Steak and Frites with Shallot Butter. Your deck just became the best bistro in town!Thumbnails“great grilling”MAIN BODY:Grilled Rib-Eye Steak au Poivre with Onion Straws¬Peppercorns pair with a rib-eye steak in two ways in this recipe. Toasted and crushed, the lowly peppercorn becomes an easy rub, then is reprised in the wine-butter sauce. Start with a quality steak cut, either rib-eye or tenderloin, generously apply the rub, and grill directly over a hot fire to individuals’ desired doneness. A frizzle of sizzled onions served on the side completes the plate. The whole presentation rates an A+ in every way! Reprinted with permission from BBQ Bistro, Simple, Sophisticated French Recipes for Your Grill by Karen Adler & Judith Fertig. Copyright 2015. Published by Running Press, Philadelphia, PA. All rights reserved.Tip #1: A mortar and pestle easily crushes the toasted peppercorns. Alternatively, place the roly-poly peppercorns on a paper towel, fold it over and crush with a meat mallet. Leave some larger pieces; they’ll lend a lovely crunchy texture.Tip #2: The classic Beurre Blanc Sauce spiked with peppercorns, is a super-easy sauce that’s worth adding to your cooking repertoire for use all year long in many different situations. The toasted and crushed peppercorns, along with minced shallots, poach in a small amount of wine and simmered until reduced to a few syrupy tablespoons. Chilled butter is whisked in gradually emulsifying in the process. Voila! The sauce is ready!Tip #3: We don’t deep-fry foods very often, but frizzling onions is a good reason to do so. The secret is paper-thin slices of onion (a mandoline works best for this), patted dry, and worked in batches so that the oil’s temperature is maintained at 350°F.Top Tips for Grilling Steaks#1 – Start with a clean grill! Yesterday’s fish has no business on today’s steak. Invest in a great grill brush to make cleaning easier to accomplish every time.#2 – Choose steaks with a thickness of 1-1/4 to 1-1/2-inch thick. Thinner and they will grill to quickly, thicker, and the outsides will char before the insides reach the desired degree of doneness.#3 – Allow steaks to reach room temperature prior to placing on the grill by sitting out for 30 minutes. This allows for more even cooking. As well, having a similar starting temperature each time you grill helps to perfect your timing and grilling skills.#4 – Pat steaks dry prior to placing on the grill. Season the steaks assertively with salt and pepper, or rubs that contain a fair amount of salt. Use a thin film of oil on the surface to help the rub to adhere if necessary.#5 – Use a pre-heated hot grill, and grill steaks directly over the heat. The outside of the steak cut becomes seared and develops a tasty crust while the inner portions remaining rare-to-medium; grill about 3-4 minutes per side.#6 – Place a thermometer in the thickest portion of the steak to ensure the meat is neither underdone nor overdone. #7 -- When grilled to the desired degree of doneness, remove the steaks from the grill and allow them to rest for 5 minutes. Keep in mind that the interior temperature of grilled foods continues to increase after being removed from the grill by as much as 10°F.Translating Preferences to Temperatures:Very Rare – 120°-125°FVery red, cold centerRare – 130°-135°FCool red centerMedium Rare – 140°-145°FWarm red centerMedium – 145° - 150°FPink centerMedium Well – 150° - 155°FWell Done – 160-170°F Creole, Coffee-Rubbed Filet Mignon with Béarnaise Sauce ¬We love the spicy rub in this recipe! It makes the ideal crust for this super-tender cut of meat once grilled. The rub imparts the requisite salty, bitter, and savory flavors and also include the herbal accents of tarragon and oregano. The featured sauce, Béarnaise sauce, is a simple reduction sauce that doubles down on the tarragon flavors, first in the tarragon vinegar, and again in minced form. The sauce and encrusted filet is a pairing made in food heaven.Reprinted with permission from BBQ Bistro, Simple, Sophisticated French Recipes for Your Grill by Karen Adler & Judith Fertig. Copyright 2015. Published by Running Press, Philadelphia, PA. All rights reserved.Tip #1: If “spicy” isn’t your thing, play with the quantity of cayenne in this rub. As presented, you’ll notice the heat effect, and for those that like it hot, it will be perfect! For more tender palates, you may wish to customize the rub by adding the cayenne to only a portion of the mix.Tip #2: Béarnaise sauce is another sauce that every cook should know how to make. It sounds fancy, therefore, it must be complex, but it’s not. A wine-shallot reduction concentrates flavors, and the butter imparts a richness.Tip #3: Our featured authors share a great trick for emulsified sauces such as Béarnaise Sauce. If the sauce separates, usually from too much heat, add an ice cube or cold pat of butter to cool things down while whisking vigoursly. Rubs & MarinadesGrilling indoors or outdoors, rubs and marinades assist greatly in bringing great flavor to the plate. There’s plenty of cooking science going on when rubs and marinades are deployed in the kitchen.Marinades – Liquid in nature, marinades have an acidic component, oil, and added spices. The acids in the marinade begin the process of tenderizing by breaking down proteins in the meat. Liquid is absorbed at the cellular level, plumping the food before grilling.Acidic Liquid + Oil + Spices = MarinadeThe marinade’s oil assists in keeping foods from drying out. Most marinades have about 20-25% oil; too much and the absorption of other flavors is inhibited; too little, and drying out may occur.Marinate a larger, thick cut of meat overnight, medium cuts for 8 hours, and smaller, flat cuts for 2-4 hours. Fish and other seafood are delicate and require no more than 15-20 minutes of marinating. Always refrigerate foods while marinating.Rubs – Typically dry in character, rubs influence the surface of the food providing a flavorful, crusty complement to the food’s interior. By definition, rubs are comprised of salt, sugar, and spices. The mixture is patted liberally on the surfaces of the foods to be grilled. Salt + Sugar + Spices = RubsA rub imparts a huge amount of intense flavor to grilled foods. The salt inspires taste intensity, and the sugar caramelizes as part of forming a complex, flavorful crust.A wet rub incorporates small amounts of liquid such as vinegar, mustard, or lemon juice. Paste-like in consistency, it is smeared over the surfaces of the foods to be grilled. Or, if the food’s surface is dry, apply a very light coating of oil on the meat just prior to applying a dry rub mixture.WÜSTHOF GOURMET STEAK KNIVESHigh-carbon, stainless steel blade with micro-serrations for easy cutting. Full, riveted tang. CHARCOAL COMPANION GRILLING BASKET Never lose food through the grill grate again! Nonstick, open design for maximum heat and smoke penetration. CHAR CRUST RUBS Rub in flavor with a variety of spices and mixtures designed to amplify all the tastes.VACU VIN INSTANT MARINATORMarinate in minutes instead of hours. Vacuum pump and special container make it happen fast! CDN INSTANT READ THERMOMETER Pocket-friendly design measures grilling progress quickly for perfectly done steaks every time! CHARCOAL COMPANION GRILL BRUSH Always start with a clean grill! Stainless steel bristles, a nylon scrubber, and a stainless scraper blade. GRILLING CHARMS Keep track of individual desires with these steak buttons. Place at the start of grilling; customize the results. Bistro Steak and Frites with Shallot Butter ¬A more modest group of steaks, flank, hanger, or skirt steaks, rival the more expensive cuts in taste when prepare properly. Applying a marinade prior to grilling begins the tenderization process. A quick stint on a hot grill and the steak is ready to rest, soak up some shallot butter, and then be sliced. Cut across the grain of the muscle in thin, thin slices and serve with additional shallot butter. Flavorful and meltingly good!Reprinted with permission from BBQ Bistro, Simple, Sophisticated French Recipes for Your Grill by Karen Adler & Judith Fertig. Copyright 2015. Published by Running Press, Philadelphia, PA. All rights reserved.Tip #1: Use a serrated knife to accomplish the all-important slicing step with this type of steak. This type of blade “grabs” food and cuts smoothly as opposed to a straight blade that may “crush” instead of cut.Tip #2: French fries, are so amazing when freshly made from “real” potatoes that they deserve the elevated moniker of “frites.” If you’ve been outsourcing your fries to fast food joints, time to change things up! Use a deep pot for the frying process. Peanut oil, flavorless and heat-tolerant, is good for frying. Use a deep-fry thermometer to monitor and maintain the oil’s temperature at 350°F, and your fries will always turn out perfectly!Tip #3: Sometimes simple, everyday items work best! A zippered plastic bag proves invaluable for marinating flank steak; it’s easy to flip and turn during the marinating process. Once the marinating phase is completed, clean-up is easy!COOKBOOK REVIEW:BBQ BistroSimple, Sophisticated French Recipes for Your Grill by Karen Adler & Judith Fertig. Copyright 2015. Published by Running Press, Philadelphia, PA.Hot off the presses, this cookbook is this year’s addition to our grilling library. The authors, with a long-standing reputation as the “BBQ Queens,” have done it again! They’ve assembled a fresh collection of recipes designed to have you loving your grill even more! Like their other books, (Patio Pizzeria, Gardener & The Grill and many others) the recipes are doable, reliable, and delicious! For this, the authors have our utmost respect and devotion. Inspired by French bistro traditions, the food in this latest book is designed as casual, everyday fare, yet elegant in its simplicity and presentation. The book spans a wide range of offerings beginning with setting up The Pantry for success, followed by Appetizers, Grilled Breads, Salads, Sandwiches, Sides, Vegetable Main Courses, Poultry, Lamb, Game, Beef, Pork, Fish & Shellfish, and, of course, few Desserts. You’ll find more than a summer’s worth of delicious inspiration!Closing:Embrace the season, create good times with food, family, and friends while summer lasts.