Steak Day

Hey, we're not the only ones grilling up steaks here at Slashfood. It was BYOB all day (bring your own beef), and more than a few of our readers shared their steaks with us!

• Mama Cooks a Dirty Steak, thrown on top of the fire.
• Hot Sauce Blog's Nick makes The Ultimate Steak, as prescribed by Bon Appetit.
• Gabriella may be a Reluctant Housewife, but there's nothing reluctant about a Steak with Thyme Lavender Butter
• Jared from The Carnivore Project lists a few places to get your steak on.
• If you ask What's Cooking? Megan will tell you it's a Chuckwagon Steak, cooked rare. 
• Kevin makes a Seriously Good Greek-inspired Steak Sandwich.
• Once upon a feast, a cook named Ruth made a simple marinade for a delicious steak.
• And last but not least, Alex ponder what to do with a hunk of meat, and in the end the decision? "Fry it."

Thanks to everyone who participated! And if we missed anyone, let us know right here in the comments!

[photo: from Once Upon a Feast]

Steak is awesome. There is no arguing that. But I will say that often, I judge a steakhouse by the quality of their side dishes. The quality of the meat is attributable to Mother Nature and the cattle rancher, and of course, the butcher, but it is the side dishes that really determine whether a steakhouse's kitchen has skills. Yes, most of the side dishes revolve around potatoes, but there are some unique vegetbales out there, too.

1. The Wedge - If I get no other side, I must at least have the Iceberg wedge. If the steakhouse does not have an Iceberg wedge, I cannot eat there. In fact, I wouldn't even mind if it were a single Iceberg leaf, filled with Blue cheese.
2. French fries - naturally. I prefer the skinny ones, you know, just as a reminder of what I will no longer be once the meal is over. 
3. Onion rings - I am torn. Sometimes I want French fries. Sometimes I want onions rings. Wouldn't it be grand if we could have Frings?!? But of course, the greater question is, should they be breaded in a beer batter, or in breadcrumbs?
4. Garlic mashed potatoes - I love them smashed, with the pink potato peels mixed in and the potatoes left chunky, not smooth and creamy.
5. Sauteed mushrooms - It doesn't have to be fancy. They can be plain old button mushrooms. It doesn't have to be a fancy sauce either, like balsamic vinegar or a wine reduction. Just mushrooms sauteed in lots and lots of butter.
6. Creamed spinach - Some like the simplicity of spinach lightly sauteed in olive oil with chopped garlic. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I love that stuff, but who doesn't love creamed spinach?!?
7. Macaroni and cheese - This is a tough one, because though macaroni and cheese is never a bad thing, it's hard to find a macaroni and cheese that knocks your socks off. Big fat curvy noodles oozing with cheese and cream, and topped off with an oven-broiled crust.  
8. This one's for you. Did I miss one of your favorites? Do you think one of the 1-7 deserve to be mentionde twice? (Personally, I'd pick the Wedge seven times.) Do you disagree with any of the choices? Tell us! 

Hey! Steak doesn't have to be reserved for just the carnivores out there! Granted, if you're vegetarian it might be tough to make a meal out of the vegetable sides at your local steakhouse, and if you're vegan, well maybe the House Salad, but when at home, you can still have "steak." Nicole mentioned portabello mushrooms, but I love tofu steaks.

I don't feel "deprived" of meat when eating a tofu steak, or envious of others who may be tearing into a bloody side of beef (which I also do), because I don't eat tofu as a substitute for meat. I eat it because it is tofu. Well, okay, so I also eat it because I feel less guilty about gorging myself on all the buttery, fatty, creamy vegetable sides.

When making tofu steaks, the first thing to remember is that tofu is, yes, rather bland. For me, it has to be marinated or rubbed,or doused with a fairly generous helping of sauce (which I never do to a beef steak, however). Asian marinades are the most common, it seems, but any marinade will work. Tofu is an equal opportunity flavor canvas.

The Steakhouse of My Dreams is a special place -- but you can't go get a reservation.   It is my secret sanctuary. I repair there when the world is too much. Let the buxom belles of Avenue B ignore me; let editors repulse my pitches, and copy crones mangle my best phrases. I see what my life is like. I know that my Cadillac has a broken grill, and a big crack in the windshield. Indian boys pelt my windows with durian. I don't care. I just close my eyes, and I see that place of my most fevered meat-dreams.

Here is what it is like.

When I was little, my Mom used to make fabulous steaks, but they were always marinated before cooking, usually in some variation of soy sauce and garlic. If they weren't marinated steaks, then they were "sauced" after cooking with either a homemade Asian version of mushroom sauce, or with...A-1. After that, I couldn't eat a steak without saucing it with everything from bottled steak sauce to Tabasco to sriracha to even regular ol' gravy.

Today however, when I eat a steak, I like it rubbed with salt, maybe a little pepper, and I never ever put any kind of sauce on it. It's so wrong. It feels like cheating. It feels like I am taking away from the point of eating a medium rare steak. It feels like I am tainting the meat. So many steakhouses offer their steaks with a variety of sauce like Bearnaise, a Cabernet reduction, etc. Obviously, there are people out there who love sauce on their steaks, but I can't do it. I want to taste the beefy goodness of my medium rare steak. The strange thing is, for everything else, from salads to fish, I over sauce.

Do you "sauce?" If so, with what? If not, why not?

Back in the late 1920's and early 1930's a woman by the name of Florence White compiled a large set of recipes to celebrate the regional dishes of England. The book Good Things in England was republished in 2003 and is listed on Amazon.co.uk for £12 and Amazon.com for $22.71. This Staffordshire Beef Steaks recipe that dates from 1823.

Ingredients: beef steaks, flour, pepper; salt; dripping; onions; boiling water; mushroom or walnut ketchup a spoonful.

Time: about 1 1/2 hours or more according to the tenderness of the meat.

Method:

1. beat steaks a little
2. flour them and season with salt and pepper
3. fry them a nice brown in a little dripping
4. lift them out and place them in a fireproof glass oven dish
5. fry some sliced onions, add a little flour to them, sufficient to take up all the fat
6. fry a nice brown but don't burn
7. pour enough boiling water over them to make a nice thick gravy (it must not be too thick)
8. boil up and stir in a good spoonful of ketchup and
9. put all in the oven dish with the steaks
10. put on the lid, put in the oven and cook until tender

1. Mastro's - They hold Awards Show parties here because it's located in ooh la la Beverly Hills. It's dark and steakhouse-y, but bring a sweater; for some reason, it feels like a meat locker inside. 246 N Canon Drive Beverly Hills, CA 90210 (310) 888-8782 www.mastrossteakhouse.com  
2. The Palm - Fun, with caricatures all over the walls, so you don't feel like you have to be wearing a silk smoking jacket and holding a cigar. 9001 Santa Monica Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90069 (310) 550-8811 www.thepalm.com  
3. BOA Steakhouse - The one at The Grafton Hotel is swanky, and you might want to bring your sunglasses for all the bright bling inside. The Santa Monica location is much less stressful (on your wardrobe, that is), catering to laid back westsiders and tourists. 8462 West Sunset Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA, (323) 650-8383, www.boasteak.com  
4. Nick & Stef's - It's downtown, which is a sort of pain if you don't live downtown, and not very inviting, since downtown LA after dark isn't quite happenin' (yet). However, they put their beef out on display, which is very very sexy. 330 South Hope Street Los Angeles, CA (213) 680-0330 http://www.patinagroup.com/nickStef/  
5. Sizzler - Just kidding. Wanted to make sure you were paying attention.
6. Ruth's Chris Steakhouse - When there are more than say, five of a certain restaurant, you can't help but feel like you're eating at Outback Steakhouse. However, Ruth keeps it real. For goodness' sake, the steaks come out in pools of sizzling butter! 224 S Beverly Drive Beverly Hills, CA 90212 (310) 859-8744 www.ruthschris.com  
7. Morton's Steakhouse - Ooh la la. It's like an observatory with all the star sighting you can do there. Luckily, the steaks are good, too. 435 S. La Cienega Boulevard Los Angeles CA 90048 (310) 246-1501 www.mortons.com
8. Pacific Dining Car - There's one downtown, which is better than the Santa Monica location according to S. Irene Virbila (LA Times critic), but Santa Monica is closer to the westsiders. It may not be the best of the eight, but if you're craving steak at 4 am, Pacific Dining Car is open. 2700 Wilshire Boulevard, Santa Monica, CA 90403 www.pacificdiningcar.com

Of course, if you're not in LA, you can always check out the best steakhouses near you, here!

Vegetarians might be feeling left out of our steak day celebration here at Slashfood, but there is definitely a work-around for those who don't eat red meat: portobello mushrooms. Portobellos, also called portabellas, are actually just the mature versions of brown cremini mushrooms. They are known for their size, which makes the more versatile than many smaller mushrooms. They have a juicy, meaty texture with just the right amount of chew to them. The mushrooms can be seasoned and grilled (broiled, baked, etc) much in the same way as steaks can be, too. To make a vegetarian steak with a mushroom, just clean it carefully, coat it with some olive/vegetable oil and a spice rub (or let it sit in a marinade for 30 minutes), then cook as desired until tender. I cook mushrooms this way frequently, grilling them or letting them cook under the broiler. Here are a few vegetarian recipes to get you started:

• Butternut Squash Risotto with Portobello Steak
• Balsamic Portobello Steaks
• Portabella Steak Burgers

[Image Williams-Sonoma]

How could I let Steak Day go by without mentioning "High Steaks"? This is the episode of 1950s cat-and-mouse cartoon Tom and Jerry that was clearly the inspiration for "Itchy & Scratchy," the violent cartoons Bart and Lisa are perenially watching on The Simpsons.

In short, Tom's owner is grilling steaks, and through a series of hijinks, Jerry manages to inflict a series of painful steak-related punishments upon Tom including:

• Tom's head placed in a grilling basket
• Tom's tail jammed into the grill
• Tom tied, post-barbecue, to the bumper of a passing car and dragged off

The episode ends with Jerry enjoying a juicy ribeye. Tasty!

The two most popular cuts of beef for Korean barbecue are cross-cut shortribs (galbee) and thinly-sliced ribeye (bulgogi). However, marinating a whole side of beef, or in this case, a flank steak ,in the same seasonings, grilling, then slicing the grilled steak after cooking is a good way to enjoy Korean barbecue as well. Most Koreans wrap up a slice of beef with a little spoonful of rice and some red pepper sauce in a lettuce leaf, but I usually leave the rice out and double up on the hot sauce.

In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup soy sauce, 2 Tbsp sesame oil, 1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar, 1 Tbsp sugar, 1/2 tsp. minced ginger, 4-5 minced garlic cloves, and a dash of black pepper.

Place a 2 lb flank steak in a large zipper seal bag, along with the marinade. Let steak marinate for about 30 minutes, turning the bag occasionally to cover all sides. 

Grill the marinated flank steak for about 5 minutes per side for medium rare. Remove the steak from the heat and let sit, covered, for at least five minutes. Do not touch, poke or prod it.

Thinly slice the beef across the grain. Serve with whole leaves of red leaf lettuce and goh-choo-jahng (Korean red pepper sauce).