Bloody Mary Flat Iron Steak with Scallion Potato Cakes

I am in love with Flat Iron Steak. Really. I might marry it. Okay, instead I will marinate it in a bloody mary cocktail blend and grill it to perfection. I actually let this one marinate overnight which is hard for me because I am impatient when it comes to food. It worked in my favor though so maybe I'll take a lesson learned. The meat turned out tender and less tough than it has in the past. The flavor showed the perfect hint of tomato, horseradish and all-around-goodness. I also reserved some of the marinade to reduce with honey and pour over the cakes and steak at the end. Here's the blend I used:

Spicy Bloody Mary Marinade

1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup Spicy Hot V8
1 tbsp pickle juice
1/2 lemon, fresh squeezed
2 tsp creamy horseradish
1 tsp celery seed
1 garlic clove, diced
dash of Frank's hot sauce
salt & pepper  

Whisk together all ingredients and set about 1/4 cup aside.  Place the flat iron steak in a gallon sized ziploc and pour marinade over, moving around to coat all sides.  Place in a shallow dish to prevent spillage and refrigerate overnight, turning once to marinate both sides equally.  

When ready to cook, remove steak from the marinade and pat dry.  Grill over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes on each side depending on how well done you prefer your steak.  Let rest for 10 minutes and slice on a bias to serve.

Bloody Mary Steak Sauce

Using the reserved marinade, place in saucepan over medium-high heat and add about 2 tbsp of honey to thicken and sweeten.  Bring to boil and then reduce to simmer, whisking often while the steak rests.  Serve in a gravy boat for each person to pour over servings.

Scallion Potato Cakes

6-8 red potatoes
2 scallions, chopped in thin slices
2 tsp creamy horseradish
salt & pepper
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Boil potatoes with skin-on and in salted water until soft.  In a large mixing bowl, mash potatoes, add chopped scallions, horseradish and salt and pepper to taste.  Blend until smooth.  Using hands, form into patties as you would hamburgers (will make 4-5 cakes).

In a frying pan over medium heat, add olive oil to warm.  Transfer potato cakes to oil and cook until golden brown on both sides, approximately 4-5 minutes per side.

Market Pie - Tomato and Goat Cheese Pizza

We saved this week's Farmer's Market treats for our last possible holiday weekend hurrah, Labor Day dinner.  After a few days of grill favorites, we wanted to turn to another staple - pizza.  Fortunately, our market supplies us with wonderful products outside of the produce stand.  We picked up prebaked pizza dough from the Countryside Bakery's table. Each week they have a great deal on two pizza rounds for only $6. Buying it prebaked saves time and a mess to clean up. We also wanted to savor those heirloom tomatoes a little longer, so we stopped by Amy's Garden and got a basket of varietals. The last stop for this go-round was at a favorite, Sullivan's Pond Farm, to pick up fresh made, straight-from-the-farm, tangy goat cheese.  We've sampled most they have to offer but since I was planning to combine this with other flavors, I went with a plain Isabel-Moonshine chevrette wrapped in corn whiskey macerated corn husks.  Their cheese never disappoints and can be used in a number of different ways, aside from just being enjoyed own its own. Delicious! 

We took these ingredients and put them together for one half of the pizza and for the other half, we used a store bought alfredo and topped with grilled chicken.  Here's how we put together the Farmer's Market pizza (measurements below calculated for a full pizza):

1 Countryside Bakery pizza round

3 tbsp pesto (leftover from last weekend's recipe)

8-10 Roma or cherry tomatoes depending on size

3-4 tbsp Sullivan's Pond goat cheese

Since the dough is prebaked, the ingredients go right on the pizza dough and it bakes in half the time.  Start with a layer of pesto spread thinly over the entire round, add sliced tomatoes and top with crumbled goat cheese.  Bake at 375° for about 8 minutes and if baking in a standard oven, hit it with a LO broil at the end for about 3 minutes to really get the edges brown and the cheese smooth.  Serve it warm and watch out, those tomatoes hold some heat!  I burned the roof of my mouth with the first bite, but it didn't stop me from devouring the entire half! 

These are market vendors we will definitely be visiting again for quick, easy, tasty weeknight meals.

Heart of Palm – a delicacy

I was just reading up on Heart of Palm and how it's harvested.  Things appear to be different today that even just a few years ago but I would say it's still a delicacy.  There is nothing else I can think of that matches it's texture and flavor and it's nutrient rich goodness.  This is a quick summer salad for lunch any day of the week:

1 can heart of palm

1 avocado

8 grape tomatoes

olive oil

red wine vinegar

basil

S & P

Toss it up and serve it cold!