Easily swayed by early Saturday afternoon cooking shows, the wife and I decided to try out the following recipe that we saw on Rachel Ray’s 30 minute meals. As with all 30 minute meal recipes I’ve tried, this recipe took the better part of 2 hours to complete. But it made the perfect Sunday dinner and Monday breakfast.
Ingredients:
3 whole jalapenos
3 bell peppers, choose 3 different colors
2 1/2 pounds small potatoes, such as baby Yukon gold or small red skin potatoes, coarsely chopped
Salt
4 slices bacon, chopped
2 tablespoons chipotle powder, divided
1 small onion, chopped
1 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon dark chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 tablespoons grill seasoning (recommended: Montreal Steak Seasoning by McCormick)
2 large T-Bone steaks 1 1/2 inches thick, 2 1/2 pounds total
3 tablespoons vegetable oil, 3 turns of the pan, divided
1/4 cup bourbon, eyeball itDirections:
Seed and slice the hot and sweet fresh peppers and reserve.Cover potatoes with water and bring to a boil. Add salt to boiling water. Cook potatoes until tender, 10-12 minutes. Chop and brown bacon in a small skillet and add a tablespoon of chipotle powder and onions. Cook 5 minutes over medium heat until onions are tender. When potatoes are tender, drain and return to hot pot. Add bacon mixture and sour cream to the potatoes. Smash potatoes and season with salt, to taste.
While potatoes are working, combine dry spice rub: chili powder, remaining chipotle powder, cumin and grill seasoning. Rub steaks liberally on both sides with the mixture. Heat a 12 to14-inch skillet screaming hot. Add 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, 2 turns of the pan. It will smoke. Add steaks and do not turn for 6 minutes. Flip and cook another 6 minutes for medium rare, up to 10 minutes for well done. Remove skillet from flame and add bourbon. Return steaks to stove and flame the pan. When the fire goes out, transfer the meat to a large serving platter and pour pan juices over the top. Let meat rest for juices to redistribute. Return pan to heat and add remaining tablespoon vegetable oil to the skillet. Add hot and sweet peppers to the pan and saute them for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pile peppers alongside steaks.
Remove meat from the T bones and cut into 4 portions. Top with some peppers and pile some chipotle smashers along side. Spoon drippings and juices over meat and serve.
Okay, so on the show Rachel flamed the steaks with bourbon. I would have loved to try this one out, but because of the lack of ventialation in our kitchen, I had to skip that step. My eyebrows and the local fire crew thanked me for that.
Now, as with most of my cooking ventures, I skipped a few steps and faked my way through most of it. I went to the store without a list, which never is a good idea, but I did manage to pick up most of everything. Bell Peppers, Steak, Onions, Potatoes, Bacon – I had everything else at home for once.
Now, normally there would be pictures with this post, but I accidentally deleted them when I was preparing the camera for the wifes family reunion. Sorry.
The hardest part of this meal were the potatoes, but even those where pretty easy – just make sure you crisp the bacon up really good before adding the onions and chipotle. Mix all that together, mash the potatoes and mix! All done.
Steaks: Rub a dub dub and grill – pretty easy when you skip the flaming step Rachel did on the show. Don’t skip the peppers step though, I normally don’t eat bell peppers (too much fluff) but grilling these so they pick up the flavor from the pan was an excellent idea.
The entire meal will be cooked again, so this recipe is one for the books. Few changes I’m going to make next time: Use Blair’s Death Rain Chipotle Seasoning, instead of regular chipotle powder – try to flame the steaks (with ventalation), make sure the bacon is crispier.