I got this recipe from a rack of nice convenient recipe cards at an upscale supermarket. What the hey!
It was a perfect excuse to try out my third grill pan. This time, I went the inexpensive plain-and-simple no-frills generic cast iron Target route. Perfect grounds for experimentation.
First, the marinade. It calls for hot sauce, which I don't have and don't even know what it tastes like, or want to know. On a whim, I substituted ginger paste instead. I'm not sure that mattered, as the soy sauce became the dominant flavor.
Since my husband is something of a beer aficionado, we have plenty of beer around, but I had to be careful not to use something special. A lone Sierra Nevada Brown Ale was sacrificed, and he wasn't around to protest.
My ability to judge beef quality is unfortunately limited to price differentiation. For this, my steaks were "USDA Prime" sirloin, $10.99/lb at PW. They marinated a good long time and got lots of flavor, but were hard to chew. $10.99/lb is a good price point at TJs, but it seems I need to up the ante at other stores.
I didn't intend to marinate the steaks for over a day, but Life happened, so Plans didn't. It was a good lesson in how flavor can completely infuse itself into a steak. I forgot to set aside some of it for basting, but I don't think it needed it.
So I tested my new grill pan on the steaks, zucchini and eggplant. Once again, I was reminded of a few things about indoor grilling that apply no matter what the pan.
One: it splatters!
Two: it smokes!
Three: it sticks!
Splattering...I'll keep a splatter guard handy next time.
Smoking...in 8 years of using my miserable island-mounted Modern Maid cooktop, I've never used its exhaust fan. Until now. I learned something about downdraft-type exhaust fans: they pull the flame toward them. My next kitchen will have a genuine range hood, with a quiet remote motor.
Sticking....Man O Man was this hard to clean! With a real grill, stuff drips down onto the coals and burns up there. With a grill pan, it pools in the bottom of the pan and then cooks on solid. No amount of soaking or scrubbing or prying or heating and doing it all over again did the trick. I had to put the grill pan away with stuff still very stuck to it, though I took a friend's advice and dried it thoroughly, then rubbed it with vegetable oil.
As I mentioned, the steaks came out very tasty because of the marinade, but tough because of the meat I used. I wonder if a different preparation would have overcome that?
The vegetables, however....mm-mmm. I really like grilling vegetables, it's fast and tasty, doesn't splatter, smoke or stick, and the cleanup is a snap.
Despite the beer, my husband wasn't crazy about the marinade. (Kids had too hard a time chewing it to offer useful opinions, but they usually like steak.) Next time, I'll try the hot sauce.
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