Steak Pinwheels

Have you heard there is a football game right around the corner?  I hear it's kind of a big deal to football fans.  Okay, it's the game of all games if you are a football fan, especially if your team is on the game roster to play.

Our team is not this year.  The Ravens surprised us though by making it to the playoffs and then they really surprised us when they won the first game over the Wild Card weekend.

Win or lose we are still fans.  We knew that they would need a few years to rebuild after losing so many key players after winning the Super Bowl.  Our family channels all of our team spirit into the teams that are left.

Hey, we are Raven fans but at the end of the day we are football fans too.  We just love a good game.  We love cheering for a team.  Our hopes were dashed when Denver was chased out of town a few weekends ago but now we have moved onto Seattle.

We lived in Seattle for a few years and our families are deeply rooted in the Northwest area.  If it didn't rain so much we might still live there.

Here is a simple appetizer that can be made the day before any event.  It doesn't have to be a football game.  I recommend they sit in the fridge for at least 4-6 hours before being served.  They hold together much better this way.  The pinwheels can be filled with any type of meat, any type of cheese, and you can use any type of wrapper.  These are flour. Honestly they wrap the easiest with flour tortilla but if you have food restrictions then use what falls into your dietary needs.

Horseradish Cream is easy to make too.  I love this cream served on these pinwheels but I also like it on red meat, baked potatoes and sweet potato fries. Horseradish is one of my all time favorite condiments.

Steak Pinwheels

4 large tortilla wraps (flour, rice flour, Paleo, etc...will work)
8 slices of roast beef or turkey
8 slices of thin swiss cheese
4-6 spears of asparagus, steamed until tender
1 bunch of chives, cut into inch pieces (garnish)
horseradish cream
mayonnaise

1.  The night before, lay out tortillas and layer the cheese and meat.  Place an asparagus spear on one end and start to roll the tortilla until a tube is formed. Wrap the tortilla tube in plastic wrap and let sit for 4-6 hours. Overnight is best.

2.  When ready to serve, remove from fridge and cut into 1 inch thick slices. Spread out on a plate.

3.  In a small bowl combine the horseradish cream and mayonnaise.  This is a taste as you go condiment.  Add more or less of what you want.  In a plastic baggie or piping bag add the sauce.  Snip the corner of the baggie and zigzag the cream across the tops of the pinwheels.  Lay a chive piece across the top. See picture above.

NOTE:  If you wish to add the cream sauce to the inside of the tortilla wrapper you may but the cream sauce will need to be made before the pinwheels.

Slow Cooker Skirt Steak Salad

Easy dinners are in full swing at our home.  I am utilizing our slow cooker as often as I can.   I like having the steak ready and feeling like I put very little effort into an amazing meal.

The steak can be shredded or pulled apart and used in tacos, on top of salads (like the picture above), eaten with a side dish or shoved between two pieces of your favorite bread and grilled,

This steak recipe is versatile.  I like that and I think you will too.

Slow Cook Skirt Steak Salad
Recipe adapted from Louanne's Kitchen

2 lbs skirt steak
2 teaspoons of garlic powder or 3 cloves minced
1.5 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon Italian Seasonings
 1 teaspoon of black pepper
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
2 large onions, sliced thin
1/2 cup of water

1.  Combine skirt steak and seasonings in a large storage bag and marinate over night.

2.  Cut onions thin.  I used my spiralizer to thinly slice the onions.  Place onions in the bottom of a large slow cooker.  Lay steak on top of onions.  Add cup of water.  Cover.

3.   Cook on low for 8 hours.  Remove steak, shred or pull apart and serve.  I served the onions and the steak on a platter and let my family decide if they wanted a salad or to use it in some gluten free tortillas I had on hand.  If served with the tortillas then make sure and have some yummy toppings too.

Written by Sherron Watson

Filet Mignon

  
Cooking together in the kitchen has always been a favorite past time for Cory and I. We have 26 years of marriage under our belts and have spent many hours fine tuning our skills with a knife, opening bottles of wine and reading recipes; all the while, laughing and sharing stories about our work week, kids and upcoming adventures.

Early in our dating and courting days (which were few-2 months to be exact), we decided that weekly date nights needed to be a priority in our relationship. We wanted a way to keep the love alive. Often our dates involved going out to eat, seeing a good movie, visiting the bookstore or enjoying coffee at our favorite local Café. As the years went by, and kids came along, it became a bit more challenging to have our weekly date nights but we managed. We hired baby sitters and swapped childcare with friends in a similar boat. It worked for us. The time that we have spent together each week has made a huge impact on our relationship.

This year we have set some new goals and one of them is that we want to eat more home-cooked meals. We don’t want to eat out as often as we have in the past for a variety of reasons. One reason being, with my food allergies, it has just become easier to dine in. We will still do our weekly date night but the dinner part will be enjoyed at home, feasting and cooking together.

Hands down our favorite meal is what I am sharing with you today. Steak and sautéed mushrooms have always been an easy dinner that the two of us can work on together in the kitchen.

A romantic dinner can be as simple or as elaborate as you choose to make it. I think that there are times when a quiet romantic dinner is just as sweet as a more executed venture with more bells and whistles. I know, from personal experience, that my time with my sweetie is always appreciated, and vice versa, no matter what effort is put forth on either of our parts.

A dinner for two doesn’t just have to happen at home in the kitchen with a pretty table. Other ideas and suggestions would be a picnic, a BBQ at the beach, a wine tasting tour, going on a hike or spending time on the water. The list is endless of places that the two of you can spend time together eating, drinking and connecting through adventure and food.

Food in all of its many presentations, settings and preparations has always held a special place in my family.
  

         

I like my steak on the rare side--so that is what you see here.

Filet Mignon

2 Filet Mignon Steaks, 1 1/2 inches thick

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Salt and Pepper, to taste

Garlic Powder

Onion Powder

Parsley Flakes (optional)

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.  In a hot cast iron pan, heat oil on medium high heat.

3.  Brush olive oil on each side of steak and season with spices and parsley flakes.  Seasonings are not        measured so you can season to your liking.

4.  Sear each side of steak for 3 minutes.

5.  Turn oven off and put cast iron pan into the oven for 15-20 minutes.

6.  Steaks will be medium rare to medium depending on thickness.  To get exact temperature that is            desired, use a meat thermometer.

7.  Remove from oven and cover with a piece of foil and let rest for 8-10 minutes.

8.  Serve with sautéed mushrooms (recipe here).

Steak Spring Roll with Red Wine Reduction

Thinking outside of the box is something I seem to do pretty well in my everyday life and now it seems to be trickling over into my kitchen.

I have made the traditional spring rolls with shrimp and have found that my family is not a fan of the shrimp but they love the concept of using the round rice disk as a way of holding delicious veggies.

Recently I found some beef that had been cut into thin wide strips at Whole Foods.  I figured this could be used for any number of dishes so I included it in my shopping cart.  I will often buy unique things in the store without having any idea of what dish I may include it in.

The next day I noticed I had a few vegetables that needed to be used up that day.  This idea came to my mind.  A steak spring roll.  Would it taste okay?  Sure, steak is kind of like bacon in our family, added to most things, it will taste fantastic.

Reaching for a baggie, I started adding a bit of this and a little of that to season and marinate the beef.  I had a feeling this would be amazing and so I wrote everything down as I went.  I don't always do this when I first try a recipe because it usually requires some tweaking over the next few months.

When you use certain ingredients a lot you learn their qualities and attributes to a recipe and when marrying the ingredients together you are able to create an explosion of flavor.  This happened. 

I wanted the meat to be somewhat strong in flavor, I was okay if it tasted a bit saltier than normal.  With the pairing of the fresh veggies and rice wrapper, this combination would allow the meat to shine in every bite.

IT DID!

Rye, my oldest daughter, is usually my taste tester when she is not in college and I knew this was a hit for the mere fact that she was pacing the halls back and forth from her room to the stove, asking me on more than one occasion, "are they done yet?" and telling me, "that smells so good".

The longest part of this dish?  Julienne vegetables.  I love the look and I wanted those thin matchstick pieces to shine in the pictures of the spring roll.  My hand and mind needed to work together to create these narrow sticks of beauty.

As I started to line up the veggies next to each and could see the rainbow of flavor that would be featured in each spring roll,  I was motivated to continue on to the next ingredient.  I do have a OXO mandolin that has a julienne blade but I wanted the challenge of doing it by hand.  

I love my kitchen gadgets that help me to save time but on this day I wanted the experience of doing this simple, yet taxing task, the old fashion way…me and steel.

Working with the rice wrappers is a new experience for some.  You have this hard disk and you are expected to create a spring roll of deliciousness how?  LOL

I have given you step by step instructions below to help you work with and use this ingredient.  

I love these steak spring rolls and cannot wait to make them again for myself, my family or friends. 

Recipe:  Steak Spring Rolls with a Red Wine Reduction 

makes 8, 16 halves

6 slices of thin strips of beef, cut 1/4 in thick

1/4 teaspoon of onion powder

2 tablespoons of dark soy sauce

1 tablespoon Worceshershire Sauce

dash of pepper

oil, for searing meat

3/4 cup of red wine

salt to taste

toasted sesame seeds

assortment of veggies for filling: cucumbers, carrots, lettuce, onion,  bell pepper, etc…

8 rice spring roll wrapper disc

Marinate meat in a baggie along with onion powder, soy sauce, worceshershire sauce and pepper for one hour.

In a large skillet, heat oil and add meat.  Dispose of left over marinade.  

Cook meat for about 2 minutes on each side.  The thin strips will cook quickly and you don't need them well done and chewy.  Sprinkle each side with toasted sesame seeds. 

The meat marinade and juices, when combined with the oil in the pan, will create a small amount of liquid.  Remove your meat to a plate.  Set the pan aside with the juice for creating the sauce later.  Any juice that is left on the plate from the meat sitting should be added to the pan too. 

After the meat has cooled a bit, cut each piece into thin strips to match those of the veggies.  Try to cut across the grain so the meat will be easier to bite into.  

Prepare you veggies.  To help stack the veggies and meat, they will work better if everything is cut into thin strips.  The lettuce can be shredded.

The picture below will show you what a single rice disk will look like.  They are sold in packages at most grocery stores in the Asian sections.

I use a shallow pie dish filled half way with warm water to soften my rice disk in.  This process is quick.  You will place the disk in the warm water and wait about 30 seconds.  The disk will slowly go from hard to super soft in about 3 minutes.

Remove the disk to your work surface and start stacking your veggies and meat.

Try to work quickly.  Take the left side and the right side and fold into the middle.   Starting at the bottom, flip that over the filling, tighten a bit to secure all of the ingredients and proceed to roll into a spring roll form.

Your spring roll is complete.  I lay my rolls on a plate in a single roll.  The skin of the roll becomes tacky to the touch and if you lay them on top of each other they could tear apart.

Serving the spring rolls is easy.  I have an assortment of dipping sauces available and cut them in half.

Recipe: Red Wine Reduction

Drippings from pan and plate (around 1/4 cup)
3/4 cup of red wine

Heat pan and let the juices and wine simmer (gently rolling) until it reduces to 1/3 of a cup.  Stir occasionally. Taste the reduction to see if salt is needed.  The time for this step will depend on how thick you want the sauce.  It took me about 10 minutes.