is difficult to conceive, but one of the reasons is I do the cooking, cleaning, laundry, landscaping, grocery shopping, and still take her to a fine dining restaurant once a week or more.

Tonight, I prepared Hassleback Potatoes and grilled NY strip steak on the gas grill.

I continuously try to learn new and exciting recipes, and there is no better place to find them than You Tube. It's here where I discovered a way to take a tough cut of steak, and make it so tender you can cut it with a fork. NY strip is by no means fillet mignon, but tenderizing it is really easy. Just coat the steak with about 1/8-inch of sea salt, and allow it to sit at room temperature for one hour for every inch of thickness. Worked like a charm.

After rinsing the salt off the steak, pat it dry with paper towels, then add some Montreal Steak Seasoning, and coat with Yoshida Gourmet Sauce, which is a ginger teriyaki glaze that is also good for chicken and pork. Of course, like most upscale restaurants, a pat of button on the steak goes a long way in adding flavor.

As for the Hassleback Potatoes, check out the vid:



Gary

Great tip, Gary. I've got a pack of 4 (Costco) NY Strip Steaks in the freezer (I seal them, then freeze them) and I'm going to try your 'salting' tip of ONE of them ("trust but verify" ). If it works, I'm ready to proclaim you 'genius chef'. Love the taste of NY strip but you're right, it's not the most tender.

chas

Don't know where you guys are buying your NY strips, but I get mine at what WAS a mom and pop store that now has a chain of 11 stores throughout RI, and they are always tender, and far more flavorful than filet mignon ...
Always salt and pepper the steak - no matter what cut you are using - and let it rest out of the fridge for about an hour before GRILLING ! ... I don't care what the outdoor temp is, a steak has to be GRILLED ! Gas, charcoal, or hardwood u don't care... A little coating of olive oil or butter before placing on the grill and you are good to go ...
One last thing, PLEASE don't freeze a good steak ... Just buy it the same day or the day before you are going to cook it ...

It's porterhouse for me...

Aged of course...

Tony, my Daughter In Law purchased 4 NY strip steaks for us from Sam's Club, which actually sells top quality meats. I buy fillet mignon from BJ's Wholesale Club, and never had a bad steak from them - EVER! If you recall, I cooked them for you and your lovely wife several years ago - thought they came out pretty damned good.

NY Strip ranks 2nd when it comes to tenderness, under fillet mignon, according to Essential Cuts Catering and USDA

The technique I described was found on You Tube, and I tried it for the first time tonight - worked very well for me. Here's a link to the site I learned this from:

Enjoy,

Gary

Gary, I have been salting and peppering steaks prior to grilling for decades ...
In my teens I worked in a deli-butcher shop, and my wife's uncle had his own butcher shop where I would help him on weekends when I could ... I know that strip steak is not quite as tender as filet mignon (that doesn't mean they are tough at all) but personally, I don't mind giving up a little tenderness for the better flavor of a strip over filet ...
JMHO

Tony, I'm no steak expert and I don't know if vacuum sealing helps protect them or not, but I can't detect any difference between those frozen and those right out the store. Of course I let them thaw overnight and sometimes marinate certain cuts. I have also had good results cooking them in a infrared cooker I bought at Sharper Image ages ago. Also tried the Air fryer which does a lot of things well but not steaks. Yeah, grilling is best (for taste) but what a PITA to clean up (plus it's cold as heck out there on the deck). I used to be careful about the amount of steak (red meat) I ate but now I don't care; I WANT to die from something I enjoy .

chas

Gary and Chas, I'm little Russell; only 74 1/2 years old. Would one of you adopt me?

I'm HUNGRY and I don't cook!

Russ (burp) Lay

Tony, this is not salting for seasoning, this is completely different. Watch the video and you'll understand what I mean. This technique really does a great job of tenderizing even the worst cuts of beef.

Now, I am a big fan of red meat, always have been, mainly because I knew, from my medical background, that eating lean, red meat was not any more harmful than consuming pork, chicken or turkey - SATURATED FAT IS FAT - nothing more, nothing less. The effect is the same as far as the human body is concerned. And, medically, no one on the planet consumes more fat than the French and Aleutian Eskimos - yet, they have a very low incidence of cardiovascular disease - amazing!

Chas, vacuum sealing meats keeps them fresh for up to 6 months, at least that has been my experience, and from what I have read, up to a year or more in some instances. Vacuum sealing and freezing fish fillets in water is good for up to 2 years. It's a wonderful process and now the average person can afford a quality vacuum sealer and bags. The heavier bags seem to provide the best protection from freezer burn.

Vacuum sealing meats, poultry and fish in marinates forces the marinate to penetrate the meat deeply, thereby adding far more flavor than just coating the meat and placing it in the refrigerator on a plate. I learned that from watching Beat Bobby Flay on the Food Channel (great show). I tried it on salmon fillets and WOW! What a difference it made over just basting the fish while cooking. Just 30 minutes of vacuum seal marinating is all it takes to completely infuse a thick steak. Can be a bit messy if you put too much marinate in the bag, though.

I began cooking at age 12 - mom said that one day she wouldn't be around and I needed to be able to fend for myself in the kitchen. We rarely had a good cut of steak or pork back then, but we managed and she knew more tricks about tenderizing and flavoring meats than anyone I knew of. All moms were great cooks in those days, though, at least I thought that was the case - especially my Italian aunts. When those ladies went into the kitchen, no one else was allowed to be anywhere nearby. That was when it took all day to make spaghetti sauce from scratch using home-grown tomatoes and herbs.

Tonight, the old codger is cooking bacon wrapped sea scallops and crab cakes. I'll probably steam some broccoli and cover it with cheese sauce.

Bona Petite,

Gary