Let them eat steak!

Today I am not going to mention the P word or the A word.  Today I am going to talk about one of my favorite activities, cooking!  Experimental cooking to be exact.  When I left home fresh out of high school, newly married and being promptly relocated to the UK I was an expert at cooking ramen.  My other specialty was hamburger helper.  Yes I was the creme de la creme of convenience food chefs.  As  I got older and started worrying about the nutritional level of the food I was serving my growing family I started immersing myself in cookbooks and learning how to cook.  I started out doing everything to the letter of whatever a recipe called for.  Frankly it was pretty boring, but it gave me a chance to learn the basics. 

After a while I started getting experimental.  I tended to be pretty lucky that most my experiments were not only edible, but really damn good.  I realized I really enjoyed figuring out flavors and combinations of food.  I enjoyed subjecting my guinea pigs to whatever science project I had concocted.

Tonight I decided I was in an experimental mood so I got to searching in the fridge.  When I was at the store getting stuff for pineapple salsa for my friends birthday party the other day I found a couple beautiful grass fed boneless rib eyes.  Little chucks of flesh from heaven.  So these beautiful juicy steaks were staring at me screaming that they needed to be cooked up.  I had saved back a bit of pineapple salsa, and had a small chunk of feta cheese desperate for friends.  That decided it then and there!  Jerk spice rubbed steaks with pineapple salsa and feta it will be. 

I either make my spice mixtures or get the pre-made ones salt free as often as possible.  This is about the best jerk seasoning I've tried.  Cover both sides of the steak and rub it into the meat, then add just a touch of sea salt.  Under the broiler it goes!  I broiled it for about 7 minutes a side.  This was a bit more done than I usually like.  I haven't broiled grass fed steaks before, and because they have a lot less fat they don't need to cook quite as long.  That being said it was a perfect medium and still just as juicy and melt in your mouth greatness as ever.



This is what I ended up with.  It was AMAZING!

For those that are interested in the pineapple salsa recipe, here ya go!

1/2 a fresh pineapple
1/2 a red onion
1 red pepper
1 jalapeno
2 cloves of garlic
a handful of cilantro
juice of 1 lime
salt to taste

Dice everything up and throw it in a bowl.  Squeeze the lime juice over it, sprinkle with salt, stir it up and eat!
I usually like to let mine sit and meld all the flavors for at least a few hours, but it is good right after making.  Just an FYI this salsa is REALLY good eaten with ginger cookies rather than tortilla chips.

And there we are.  A celebration of one of my passions.  Happy cooking, and remember that some days it's good to detach and focus on something you enjoy no matter what the rest of your day was like.