Grilled Steak with Thyme Butter, Mushrooms and Onions

By Paul Briand

It’s grilling time, boys and girls. This is all done on the grill. It’s simple, easy clean-up, and - most of all - very tasty.

Ingredients
1 ½ pounds of Porterhouse or T-Bone steaks, enough steak for four
1 sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil
1 medium sweet onion, cut in half, thinly sliced
1 8-ounce package of mushrooms
1 yellow bell pepper, sliced
2 tablespoons butter, cubed
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

Directions
1. Heat the grill to medium high;
2. Place onion, mushrooms, pepper, butter, and thyme in center of aluminium foil;
3. Fold the foil over the mixture, creating a packet;
4. Grill, turning occasionally, for 20 minutes;
5. Season the steaks with pepper and salt to taste and grill, turning once, to desired doneness;
6. Serve each cut of steak topped with buttered thyme and onion mixture.

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Steak with Stout Sauce

By Paul Briand

A recipe with beer in it? I’m definitely in.

Rachel Forrest, the Wine Me, Dine Me food writer for Seacoastonline.com, recently wrote about stout beer and the variety of ways you can use it in cooking.

A sauce for steak caught my eye.

My wife Jane, who’s not big fan of putting any type of sauce or condiment on steak, liked it, comparing it to a much heartier -- and much better -- than a Worcestershire steak sauce.

I liked it so much I used it to smother the fresh-steamed asparagus I had cooked to accompany the steak.

A couple of notes: I used four rump steaks, instead of strip steaks. Also, once the butter/flour mixture goes into the pan, the sauce is likely to thicken up quickly.

Ingredients

5 teaspoons Dijon mustard, divided

2 12-oz. New York strip steaks

2 teaspoons olive oil, divided

1 tablespoon butter, room temperature

2 teaspoons all purpose flour

1 large garlic clove, pressed

½ cup low-salt beef broth

½ cup stout

1 tablespoon (packed) dark brown sugar

1 tablespoon soy sauce

Directions

1. Spread 1 teaspoon mustard over steaks; sprinkle with salt and ground black pepper;

2. Heat 1 teaspoon oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Cook meat about 4 minutes per side for medium-rare;

3. Transfer to plate; tent with foil. Wipe out skillet;

4. Mash butter and flour in small bowl; set aside;

5. Heat 1 teaspoon oil in same skillet over medium-high heat. Add garlic; sauté 15 to 20 seconds;

6. Add broth; bring to boil;

7. Whisk in stout, brown sugar, soy sauce, 3 teaspoons mustard, and butter mixture. Whisk until thick and remove from heat;

8. Thinly slice steaks, divide among plates. Drizzle sauce over and serve.

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Zesty Flank Steak

By Paul Briand

I didn’t have to look beyond my refrigerator to find this recipe, specifically the squeeze bottle of French’s Brown Mustard there on the door shelf.

It’s a combination marinade/topping for the steak that I also used to cook hamburger sliced Vidalia onions, red peppers and green peppers, all on the grill.

Ingredients

1 cup balsamic salad dressing

1/3 cup French’s Spicy Brown Mustard

2 teaspoons minced garlic

1 1/2 pounds flank steak

Directions

1. Mix the dressing, mustard and garlic together in a bowl, reserving a third of the mixture;

2. Place steak and remaining marinade in leak-proof zip-tight storage bag and let sit in the refrigerator for up to three hours, a minimum of a half hour;

3. Over medium-high heat, grill steak to preferred doneness;

4. Let steak rest for three minutes, then cut in slices against the bias, drizzle some of the reserved sauce over the slices and serve.

For the vegetables, use a brush to lightly coat the vegetables with the marinade on each side as they grill. Remove from heat as each side begins to blister.

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Grilled Steak and Spring Vegetable Salad

By Paul Briand

Spring is here, though you wouldn’t know it from the very unseasonal spring we’ve been having here in northern New England.

But the idea of outdoor grilling was too much of a draw with this recipe, despite the rain and cool temperatures.

This salad of steak and spring vegetables comes via the Associated Press.

Everything goes on the grill -- the sirloin steak (of course) plus the asparagus and artichoke hearts, even the grape tomatoes if you wish. Not so the lettuce.

And the dressing is a light combination of lemon juice and olive oil infused with some Parmesan cheese to smooth it out.

Ingredients

For the dressing:

5 tablespoons lemon juice

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 teaspoon salt

Ground black pepper, to taste

For the salad:

1 pound sirloin steak, 1- to 1 1/4-inches thick, trimmed of fat

1/2 teaspoon salt

Ground black pepper, to taste

1 pound asparagus, bottoms trimmed

14-ounce can artichoke hearts, drained

1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

4 cups arugula

Shaved Parmesan cheese, to garnish (optional)

Directions

1. Heat a gas grill to high or light a charcoal fire;

2. For the dressing, in a blender combine the lemon juice, olive oil, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. Blend until emulsified. Set aside;

3. Season the steak on both sides with the salt and pepper;

4. Grill the steak, about 5 minutes per side for medium rare, 6 minutes per side for medium. Remove and let rest on a cutting board for 5 minutes;

5. Meanwhile, grill the asparagus and artichoke hearts, turning occasionally, until slightly charred and the asparagus spears are tender-crisp, about 5 minutes;

6. Remove from the grill and cut the asparagus into 2-inch pieces and the artichoke hearts in half;

7. Place the vegetables in a large bowl with the cherry tomatoes (as an option, grill the tomatoes until they soften);

8. Thinly slice the steak across the grain and add to the bowl with the asparagus and artichoke hearts. Toss with half of the dressing;

9. In a large salad bowl, toss the arugula with the remaining dressing;

10. To plate the salad, place some of the arugula on each serving plate and arrange the grilled steak and vegetables on top. Garnish with shaved Parmesan cheese, if desired.

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Teriyaki Marinated Beef Steak

By Paul Briand

Sometimes it's nice to let someone else figure out a dinner menu for you, especially when a hurry-up day doesn't give you much time to think about or even prepare a dinner for four.

Lots of grocers have seen the need to help harried consumers and have come up with prepared or semi-prepared meals. I recently tried one from Hannaford, a large grocery store chain in this part of the country. Hannaford describes these meals as "a cooking show to go: everything you need -- fresh, pre-cut and measured for a fantastic meal you make at home."

Meals are offered to cook four or two, the the store provides handouts listing a two-week menu, so that you can decide on Thursday, for example, you might want the chicken thighs with leeks, olives and orzo, or you might want to wait until Saturday for the Caribbean tilapia with toasted cabo coconut with jicama slaw.

I decided to try the teriyaki marinated beef steak with citrus sesame summer slaw. Indeed everything is self-contained. Ingredients are measured and cut, then bagged or put in a container. Then it's all packaged in a convenient, easy-to-carry cardboard box. Cooking instructions are contained within the label that's taped to the box. Here's a look at what was inside (which you could duplicate on your own):

Ingredients

1 1/2 pound beef loin grilling steak, marinating in a 1/2 cup of teriyaki sauce

12 ounces sliced Chinese cabbage

2 1/2 cups shredded carrots

1 small sliced red onion

4 teaspoons chopped cilantro

2 teaspoons dried ginger

2 teaspoons granted orange peel

2 teaspoons sesame oil

1 cup orange juice

1 teaspoon lime juice

3 ounces wonton crisps

Directions

1) On a preheated grill cook the steak 5 - 8 minutes or until medium rare, transfer to cutting board and let sit 10 minutes. (If cooking under an oven broiler, cook 7 minutes per side or until desired level of doneness.);

2) Place vegetables -- cabbage, carrots and onion -- into a large bowl;

3) Combine ginger, orange peel and sesame oil and mix thoroughly then combine with orange juice and lime juice in a small bowl and mix all together;

4) Pour dressing over vegetables and toss to thoroughly coat the slaw;

5) Thinly slice the steak against the grain;

6) Divide slaw among plates, top with sliced beef and wonton crisps.

The directions go so far as to suggest a complementary wine: a Pinot Noir.

This meal was ready in 20 minutes and was a real time saver given the extent of vegetable and dressing ingredients' preparation that would have been necessary had you done this on your own.

All in all it was very tasty, though I thought it was a little heavy on the red onion. I would have used maybe a half a red onion rather than a whole one.

For more information go to: http://www.hannaford.com/cookingshowtogo.