Guest Chef

Tonight was my Friday night without The Bride. I was fortunate to have Matt come over to keep me company and partake in my quest. Yesterday, after school, I met up with Matt and let him pick out a meal from The Guide. I stated that I preferred beef, as this was my one day this week to partake in that particular protein. He had no issue with this.  After some deliberation, he selected Spiral Steaks with Pesto, Olives, and Tomatoes on page 115. I agreed, and personally picked out the Yukon Gold Potatoes and Button Mushrooms on page 343, and the Southwest Onion Dip on page 80 as an appetizer. The first thing I had to do when I got home from school on Friday was to prep the steak spirals, as I knew flank steak appreciated a long marinade.

The first thing to do was shaped the steaks, and create the pesto and filling (what I would call a tapenade). 

After a few attempts and corrections at rolling them up and slicing them into eight spirals, I set them in the fridge to marinate.  Later in the evening Matt came over, and in the course of setting up the prep for the onion dip, he revealed that he hadn't eaten all day.  It was good that we were having an appetizer, as the steaks still needed some time!

I started the grill, and stated that I would take care of the onions.  Matt, as Guest Chef, was in charge of the rest of the dip.  Once the onions were done, I handed them off to Matt and went about grilling the tortillas.  This, by the way, is the BEST way to crisp up a tortilla.  It took some patience and trial and error, but it beats the pants off of warming them up in a frying pan.

After taking our first bite, I'll quote Matt on this one..."This is what the restaurants want to do, and aren't." 

Now satiated, Matt and I began prepping the potatoes and mushrooms.  We forgot to set up the prep shot, but what you need to know is that there are buttom mushrooms, yukon gold potatoes, fresh thyme, butter, garlic powder, paprika, and black pepper.  Once the grill was brought up to the proper temperature, we set them on.  Upon completion, we removed and covered them with foil to keep them warm while the steaks were on the grill.  Here are the spirals fresh off the grill:

 

And finally we plated the meal!

It was comical how much we enjoyed this.  After our first bite, we kept making the "MMMMMMMMM!" quote from What About Bob? and were actually laughing at how good this was.  I'll wrap this up by saying that this is certainly one my new new favoritest ways to eat steak, and made the week-long wait worthwhile. 

It was really cool to have a guest chef.  If anyone else wants to partake, drop me a line!