Its been awhile since we’ve posted and wow have a lot of things changed! We now live in the age of Coronavirus, which has had especially wide-reaching effects on us as we are both healthcare workers. We’ve seen some weird activity in the economy and the housing market and we capitalized on this chaos to buy a house! It was a scary leap, but we couldn’t be happier with our choice! One of our priority projects for this year has been to construct a firepit for cooking. And we delivered!
Tia and I are both lovers of red meat and so our first meal had to be a proper skirt steak over open flame, with our family traditional sides of steamed broccoli and Spanish rice. We also went for a coule of poblano peppers because Tia is a total sucker for a good relleno.
To make this you’ll need:
- A good cut of meat! Skirt and flank steak both lend themselves well to this recipe, but you can use whatever you please.
- Paprika, Pepper, Salt, Granulated garlic (to season above chunk of delicious beef)
- Two poblano peppers
- Broccoli
- A lime, for a dash of juice at the end.
- 1 box of Spanish rice (because we were feeling too lazy to create our own Spanish rice)
To start, you’ll want to season your steak. We don’t really use formal measurements unless we are making sauces or trying to bake something, so use your gut when it comes to seasoning. As you can see above, we liberally applied each of the aforementioned spices. Want a smokey piece of meat? Use more paprika. Want some added heat? Consider some cayenne. You can do this anyway you please.
While you spice the meat, consider having your rice boiling on a burner inside. Its no biggie if you find that the rice is done first, you can always bring the pot outside and put it on the edge of the firepit to keep it warm (just don’t forget the lid or it will dry out and become gummy!)
See what I mean? The ambient heat is perfect to keep your rice warm. Notice also our pack of broccoli. All we did was cut it into bite sized pieces, coat lightly in olive oil and a splash of lemon juice. Little pepper, little salt. Then we wrapped it all up and let it get piping hot on the direct heat.
If you decided to roast peppers, like we did, now’s the time. Put them direct on the grate and let the outside get nicely burned. Once they’re burned up, put them into a plastic bag where the flesh will steam some more.
Now its time for your meat…
We opted to wait until we had a nice combination of white/red hot coals and a little bit of fresh dry wood for a nice fired crust on the meat. As with any meat, you’re looking for a nice density (there are tons of articles online about how to feel when your meat is done). And you want all that spice rub to crust up a little bit. Your final product should be nicely crusted and still juicy when you cut into it. Flip it when it looks like the ends are starting to tighten up and maybe even curl a bit. This advice doesn’t apply to all cuts of meat, but certainly skirt steak.
While your meat rests, skin your peppers. It should come right off if you properly charred them up. They are now ready to eat. Carefully open your broccoli packet, the steam in there is HOT! It is also ready to go. Scoop some rice while you’re at it!
Your meat should look something like this! We sliced thinly and served in bite-sized pieces so we wouldn’t have to dirty up two steak knives. Now you can serve it all up! Make sure to enjoy a cold glass of wine, beer or whatever your poison of choice is. You probably earned it!
As always, let us know if you try it! It doesn’t get any easier to cook than this! Hopefully we will have more firepit content to come!
Savory Sweet Bitters 