Steak & Love

 

April 2022 Bon Appétit edition.
Photo Credit: Mari Rey Original

This month I am introducing a new monthly series about cooking and love. I periodically post about baking or cooking and thought it would great to combine my love for cooking and spending time with my boyfriend.

The past two years have been interesting to say the least. We have had an unusual opportunity to spend a lot of time together while both working from home, but we have spent very limited quality time with one another due to work obligations. With our work schedules overlapping, taking care of a dog, and getting sidetracked with other tasks we try to make time for one another.

 

More recently, we have been adjusting to our new hybrid work schedules. We try finding ways to bond and spend quality time together when we are not tasked with running errands and other home chores. Since I have a subscription to Bon Appétit, and I have had less time personally to try new recipes, I thought it would be fun if we found recipes we wanted to try and spend quality time together cooking.

 

In April’s edition of Bon Appétit, we found a great recipe for steak. The recipe is simple and took about forty-five minutes to make – that includes prep time, cutting, and mixing all the ingredients. You will need a food processor, chopping board, mortar and pestle, and cast iron when making this recipe.

 

Photo Credit: Mari Rey Original

Mari’s Perspective:

 

When cooking, I use recipe “how to” steps as a suggestive guide.  I skip around the steps to prep my ingredients. I might skip, subtract, or add my own flare to a recipe. For example, I cannot handle flaming hot salsa, so I substitute it for a milder option or not at all. It all depends on the dish and my mood.

 

While cooking with my lovely boyfriend, I was reminded how adamant he is about following instructions. He has to do things step by step, which can get a little annoying for someone who picks and chooses what she wants to follow or not. As annoying as I sometimes find his need to follow instructions, I do appreciate that he takes cooking seriously. He wanted to ensure that the integrity of the recipe was not compromised by my pick and choose style.

 

Despite our differences in approaching cooking, we had a lot of fun, and we made a delicious meal that we appreciated afterwards. I look forward to cooking more delicious meals with him.

 

Photo Credit: Mari Rey Original

Zak’s Perspective:

 

I'm always down to try new steak recipes, especially sauces or toppings that give an extra pop of flavor (and I'm a sucker for anything that's photogenic). The pic I saw in the article made it look so delicious I had to try it, especially after the last steak sauce recipe from Bon Appétit was a rousing success. I love that these recipes assume you have the most decked out kitchen, as if I have a food processor and spice mill on hand (I caved and bought a food processor, I'll likely need it again. And a mortar and pestle did just fine grinding any spices). It was my first time using a food processor...word of caution, be sure to use the correct blade––the kneading blade doesn't really chop effectively...learned that the hard way (at least my girlfriend got a kick out of watching me struggle). Other than that, the recipe was straight forward: throw everything in the food processor and chop it up until it's like salsa then spread it over the medium-rare grilled steak. Delicious! But too spicy though. The recipe called for three serrano peppers, I used two and it was still too spicy.

As for instructions, I need to follow them for better or worse! How can I determine if the recipe is good or not if I don't? If it's bad, is it bad because of me or bad because it sucked to begin with? I must know!

 

I give this recipe a 9/10. Would make again. 

 

The final product.
Photo Credit: Mari Rey Original

Cooking is always fun when you do it with those you love, even if your styles don't always sync. Finding ways to work together is a great way of building teamwork within the relationship. It is always fun to see Zak scrambling in the kitchen, but I love when his eyes light up when he learns something new, or the recipe turns out tasting delicious. 

Photo Credit: Mari Rey Original

While prepping for making this delicious dish, we made the following substitutions:

 

1)      We used green onions, instead of scallions, which can be used interchangeable.

2)      We used Serrano chiles rather than Thai chiles (we used two serrano chiles, not three).

3)      We had to use beef loin tri tip roast instead of the skirt steak. Unfortunately, the local meat marked did not have any, so we substituted, which did not compromise the recipe. We were able to cut the tri tip into evenly sliced pieces for grilling.

How do you think we did?
Photo Credit: Mari Rey Original

As Zak mentioned above, the recipe is a 9/10. The steak was tender, savory, and we will be making it again in the future. We paired this steak with rosemary potatoes made in our air fryer (which I love using). I am very impressed with how the steak turned out and am looking forward to sharing future cooking posts with you all.