Monday, September 14, 2009

Out of the frying pan ...

    Skirt steak is on sale this week. I happened to find an recipe for skirt steak with balsamic sauce in one of my binders. Even better, the recipe came with side dishes: roast grape tomatoes and Parmesan polenta. It was a plan.

   When my 5-year-old asked what we were having for dinner, I sent my Italian ancestors spinning in their graves by telling him it would be steak and Italian grits. Last week, my son announced he does not eat "that yellow stuff" when it is baked, broiled or grilled. I've never made soft polenta. He likes grits. So I lied.

   This was a steak that did not want to be cooked. The steak did not want to come out of the package. It did not want to be cut into two pieces to fit in the skillet. It fought me all the way to the, by now, much too hot skillet and spat oil at me when I put it in. It continued spitting oil through the splatter guard, even when I reduced the heat to low. When I went to check for doneness, I discovered the thicker half of the steak was in fact a large, long piece neatly folded over like a jelly sandwich and there was a whole side that had never touched the pan.

  I ended up slightly overcooking said steak. And when it came time to deglaze the still freakishly hot pan with balsamic vinegar, I decided to use half of what the recipe was called for -- no sense in wasting balsamic vinegar, even cheap stuff.

   The tomatoes and polenta, er, Italian grits came out fine and the kids enjoyed them. The steak was tough and the sauce was way too sweet. The adult vote was to toss it. The kid vote was in favor of Italian grits for lunch.

1 comment:

Shirley said...

At least the recipes for the sides worked out!