Sunday Salutations with Totally Tasty Treats: Steak Marinade
It is summer! And summer means grilling! Actually, almost anytime it is not raining or too cold for me in Houston (almost any time of year) I could be grilling. Yay, Texas!
Tod tends to cook indoors and make wonderful everyday meals. He is the master of the pressure cooker and all sorts of wonderful kitchen gadgets. However, I am oddly technologically impaired in the kitchen. I like grilling, fire, and baking. Complex recipes, if they aren’t baking, leave me feeling a little like a bumbling blender. I also will try to do strange one-off things, that take crazy amounts of prep and that I never try again. Such things are usually tasty, but very involved.
However, this week has been a little crazy, as I am editing our novel, and trying to edit for chapters posted in the new writing group we joined. Plus, I agreed to run an RPG one-shot (my first time being Game Master ever) in two weeks. So, today I am going to post a grilling recipe, because grilling is relaxing. Just look into the fire and sing.
Steak Marinade (2-4 steaks)
The two basic components of a marinade are acid and sugar.
acid — lemon juice or vinegar
sugar — maple sugar + maple syrup
1 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoon of maple sugar
1/4 tablespoon of maple syrup
3 teaspoon of fresh cracked black pepper
2 teaspoon of salt (tastes really good with bourbon salt)
2 teaspoon garlic powder (is better with fresh crushed garlic 2-4 cloves)
2 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon of bay leaves
1/8 cup of avocado oil
You want to make enough mix to fully cover the meat. This means, if you have 1 steak you can scale down, but if you have lots of people, do yourself a favor and scale up. I estimate this can cover a max of 4 normal sized steaks or 2 large T-bone steaks.
Marinade steak in the mixture for 6-24 hours. I prefer 24 hours. But it works just fine if you get up early, make the marinade when you are making your morning hot cocoa, tea, or if you must coffee. Just let it marinade until dinner.
Grill on charcoal flame until the inside temperature of steak is 52ºC / 125ºF then remove from the heat. Make sure it gets up to 54ºC / 130ºF once off and it will be nice medium rare. I always use a thermometer, maybe I’m weird or maybe it is the lab scientist in me. (It might be both. Or it might be the weird lab scientist in you. -Tod)
After that you have tasty, tasty grill goodness. I really like grilled, smoky taste, which is why we also grill our corn because if I am going to burn charcoal, I want to savor it everywhere.
Hope you are having a wonderful weekend and find the time to just sit and watch the flames crackle.
~Anna
PS – Yes, our grill is simple and old school. Charcoal and fire! -Tod
