Steak dinner for two

My wife has been working very hard on getting her insurance license the past couple weeks, and is approaching her exams. She is taking her courses in the evenings after working a full time 40-50 hour per week factory job. We were grocery shopping last night and my wife kept checking out the steaks. While she wasn’t looking I picked up two of the biggest ones in the meat cooler and slid them into the shopping cart. As we continued shopping I slid a few more things in under the radar; asparagus, sweet potatoes and a box of red lobster biscuit mix (my wife’s favorite). The surprise unfortunately only lasted until the check out line, but oh well.

My wife and I are flavor junkies so I pretty generously seasoned the steaks in McCormick Grill Mates Montreal Steak Seasoning. I let them sit in the fridge for an hour or so then placed them in a zip lock bag and drenched them with Dales Steak Seasoning. I put them back in the fridge and left them over night to marinate.

Today I laid the steaks out for about an hour to get to room temperature. In the mean time I rinsed and dried my asparagus. Drizzled them with olive oil, and evenly coated with salt, black pepper, onion powder, fresh minced garlic (about 5 cloves), and shredded Parmesan cheese (about a half of a cup to a cup). After seasoning I placed them on a aluminum tray I made.

Then I brought my charcoal grill up to 400 degrees with a two zone heating method. I use Kings ford match light charcoal and I add a lump or two of hickory wood after the coals start to ash over good. I Oiled my cast iron grill grates and heated them for ten minutes.

While the grates where warming I mixed the box of biscuit mix popped them in the oven for the directed time. I knew that my grill was ready when the coals had completely ashed over and the hot embers from the bottom of the grill had the wood burning steadily.

Then I placed the tray of asparagus over the heat toward the back of the grill as not to get in the way of rotating and flipping my steaks. I placed the two steaks over the heat closed the lid and seared for two minutes. At this point I poked a few holes in the sweet potatoes and wrapped them in a damp paper towel and placed in the microwave on 10 minutes.

After the two minutes I rotated the steaks 90 degrees and closed the lid for another two minutes. I then flipped the steaks and asparagus and repeated the process. Depending on how you like your steak after cooking the 8 minutes a rare steak is done. For a medium I let it go an extra minute or two just long enough to get a little less pink. My wife and I prefer our steaks about medium-well to well done so I moved the asparagus and steaks to the cooler side of the two zone heating, and cooked over less heat for an additional 5 minutes.

After our supper was finished cooking my wife and I decided that the steaks and potatoes where a little larger than either of us could finish in one sitting. So we decided to split a steak and potato and save the rest for lunch tomorrow. The steak was perfectly cooked to our liking, and the overnight marinating made it that much more juicy and tender. The red lobster biscuits melted in your mouth and were perfect for sopping up the juice from the steak. The asparagus couldn’t have turned out better. Crisp and salty with hints of garlic and Parmesan and just a slightly smoky presence.

After topping with butter and brown sugar the baked sweet potatoes where what brought it all together offsetting the savory deliciousness of the steaks with a soft sweet buttery paring that was perfectly pleasing to the palette.

My wife was extremely satisfied with her rewarding dinner to the point that she actually decided to take the night off from her courses, and slip off into a “food coma” and get a good nights rest. So that she can get back at it first thing in the morning. And there is no better incentive for her to have a productive morning than getting to stop and enjoy this delicious meal again for lunch.