A Quiet Monday: Steak Pizzaiola with Salad

After the cooking smorgasbord that was Saturday, I didn't do too much in the way of the culinary arts for the remainder of the weekend.  I made some nice sandwiches with leftover prosciutto but that was about it. On Sunday night, I made a goal of trying 5 new recipes during the work week.  Tonight was Steak Pizzaiola.

This was a very easy recipe. The Silver Spoon told me to put some oil and butter in a pan. Hey! This is a cooking trick I have been doing forever, courtesy of my dad. The oil keeps the butter from burning and provides a delicious flavor. After the butter melted I added a few cloves of garlic and let them cook to a golden brown.  The SS tells the cook to discard the garlic after browning. This was challenging for me, discard of perfectly good garlic?   Alas, whatever The Silver Spoon asks of me, I shall do, so I did.

Next. the steaks seared for one minute, and were salted and peppered and put aside.  Meanwhile I was supposed to chop up five ripe tomatoes.  Because I live in Massachusetts and it is winter, fresh tomatoes present a problem.  I bought mini roma tomatoes and used ten of them instead.   I added them to the pan with the oil, butter and steak fat and simmered for ten minutes.  Then I put the steaks back in a cooked them until done.  I think I flipped them a few too many times because they were chewy, but very flavorful.

While the steak was working I threw together a quick salad and looked up a bonus recipe for vinaigrette.  I always make salad dressings from scratch.  They just taste better and because I have a lot of food allergies, it keeps life simple.  My standard dressing is simple, vinegar, oil and a spoonful of dijon mustard.   The Silver Spoon says that's one of their recipes too, but another way is vinegar, oil and a spoonful of plain yogurt.   Voila, there you have it a delicious dinner in less than 45 minutes with a new dressing for my repertoire!  Recipe Count: 1992 to go, Butter Count: 4 quarters used, Cream Count 2 pints.

Tomorrow: 10 Herb Sausages!