Itsy Bitsy Foodies

I submitted this steak recipe to the Beringer Great Steak Competition.  One of the criteria is that the steak has to be prepared and plated in 30 minutes.  Following the guidelines of the competition, I paired the steak with the Beringer Founder’s Estate Merlot.

Blue cheese and teriyaki seems like an odd combination, but it has a suprisingly catchy flavor because all of the ingredients seem to be in some way related.  As far as the teriyaki goes, I haven’t met anyone who doesn’t like this sauce.  Due to the time constratints of the competition, I couldn’t marinate the steak for several hours as I normally do, so I improvised by using part of the marinade to baste the steak as it cooked and the other part to thicken into a teriyaki sauce to drizzle over the steak once it was cooked.

Flat iron steak is one of my favorite cuts of steak, but if you can’t find it you can substitute flank or skirt steak.  Any blue cheese will do but I like to support my local creamery (which happens to be world-renowned!) and use Oregon Blue Cheese or Smokey Blue Cheese from The Rogue Creamery.

Let me know what you think!

Ingredients

2 pounds of flat iron steak

1/2 cup soy sauce

6 Tbsp honey

4 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 Tbsp garlic powder

4 tsp minced fresh ginger 

1/2 tsp flour

18 crimini mushrooms

18 red grapes

9 Tbsp chunks of blue cheese

3 Tbsp chopped walnuts

2 green onion stalks, sliced

1/2 cup canola oil, divided in half

Utensils and Cookware

Medium-sized sauce pan

Separate bowl for half of the marinade

2 small dishes for oil

2 small brushes for brushing the steak and mushrooms with oil

Kitchen scissors for slicing the green onion

6 BBQ skewers, metal or wood

Metal tongs for turning the steaks

Kenmore BBQ

Directions

Pre-heat the BBQ to 500 degrees. 

Mix the soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, honey, garlic powder and minced ginger together in a medium-sized sauce pan.  Pour roughly half of the marinade into a separate bowl. 

Working with the steaks at room temperature, brush each side of the steak with oil.  Drizzle a couple of spoonfuls of the marinade from the separate bowl over one side of each steak so that it is completely covered.  Once the BBQ reaches 500 degrees, place the steaks, marinade side down, on the grill.  Immediately drizzle a couple of spoonfuls of marinade over the top sides of the steaks.  Close the lid of the BBQ and let the steaks cook for 5 minutes. 

While the steak is cooking, trim the ends off of the mushrooms and place three mushrooms on each skewer.  (If you are using wooden skewers, rinse them in water prior to putting the mushrooms on them to help prevent them from burning.)  Using the second dish of oil and a separate brush than that used for the steak, brush all sides of the mushrooms with oil.

After the steaks have cooked for 5 minutes, place the mushroom skewers on the grill.  Flip the steaks and drizzle each one with another spoonful of marinade.  Close the lid and let the mushrooms and the steak cook.

While the steak and mushrooms are cooking, add 1/2 tsp flour to the marinade in the sauce pan and stir it until it dissolves.  Heat the sauce on low-medium heat until it boils.  Then reduce the heat to low and let it simmer for 10 minutes or until it thickens, stirring it occasionally so that the sauce doesn’t burn or stick to the bottom of the pan.  Remove the pan from the heat and reserve the sauce for garnishing the steak.

Flip the mushroom skewers after they have cooked for roughly three minutes, depending on the size of the mushrooms.  Then remove them from the grill after they cook 2-3 minutes on the other side or until they are releasing liquid, lightly grilled and tender.  Flip the steak again and drizzle it with any remaining marinade.  Close the lid and let the steak continue to cook.

Working with one skewer at a time, remove the cooked mushrooms from the skewer.  Place three cooked mushrooms, three red grapes and two chunks of blue cheese on the skewer, alternating mushroom, grape, blue cheese, etc.

Remove the steak from the grill after roughly another 5 minutes, or until it is grilled to your liking.

Cut the steak against the grain into six pieces.  Place each piece of steak on a plate.  Lay a mushroom skewer next to each piece of steak.  Using the thickened teriyaki sauce, drizzle a spoonful of sauce over each piece of steak.  Sprinkle each plate with roughly 1/2 Tbsp chopped walnuts and 1/2 Tbsp blue cheese chunks.  Using kitchen scissors, cut the green onion stalks directly over each plate, dropping roughly 1/2 tsp of green onion slices on each plate as a garnish.

Serve the steak with the Beringer Founder’s Esate Merlot.