Hanger steak with pickled radishes

My favorite meal of the week is our Sunday family dinner. It’s a day where we’re usually home and carry out that time-honored tradition of sitting down at the table together for an early supper, most of the time with close friends or family joining us, too. I love to make a one-pot meal or something that I can start early in the day and quickly finish-up before we sit down to eat. The beauty of this long day at home is there is time to braise, marinate, stew or simmer. I try to come-up with simple, nice meals (believe or not, I can get a little carried away in the kitchen) that let’s the family be the focus, but still tastes great.

Hanger Steak

Adapted from Momofuku

Serves 4

 

This is a great recipe because you make the marinade in the morning and let the meat soak all day. Then at dinnertime, it’s a quick fire-up of the grill. Hanger steak is a cheap cut of meat that if cooked incorrectly can be tough and tasteless. This tasty marinade keeps the steak moist and brings out the flavor of the meat.

 

1 pound hanger steak cut into two pieces

For the marinade:

2 cups fresh squeezed orange juice

1/2 cup light soy sauce

1/2  yellow or red onion, sliced

6 garlic cloves, sliced

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon Sambal Oelek (ground fresh chili paste)

 

Mix the marinade in a large plastic bag, add steaks and squeeze the air out of the bag and seal.  Place the bag in a pie plate as a precaution against any spills and refrigerate for 8-24 hours (the longer the better).  Before cooking, discard marinade and set your grill to a medium-high temperature.

 

First, salt and papper both sides of the steaks and sear them on one side for about 2 minutes and then flip and continue to cook for another 2 minutes.  Then flip them again and cook for about 2- 3 more minutes and then repeat on the other side. Total time on the grill for medium rare with be about 6-10 minutes.

 

Remove from grill to a cutting board and let it rest for 5-10 minutes. Slice thin and fan over some nice greens. Drizzle with great quality olive oil and a sprinkling of sea salt and fresh ground pepper. I also made a quick garnish of pickled radishes which was so tasty,  but some fresh seasonal herbs would be great too.

This photo by Evan Janke Photography

This cheese dip, (if you can call it that, it seems a little too refined to share a title with cheddar and beer dip) got rave reviews at a recent party, with multiple recipe requests. It’s been a recipe that I have been tinkering with for sometime. It’s cold, crumbly, zesty and perfect with pita chips and a chaser of Sauvignon Blanc.

.

I tried it with a number of cheeses, but the goat Gouda is clearly the best. Goat Gouda is a recent and beloved Trader Joe’s find. Goat Gouda — I know, who knew right?

For this recipe the food processor is your friend! I figure if you are going to get that baby out of the cupboard, really use it!  Here, I use two different blades to make grating the cheese a snap and get the perfect crumbly texture.

If you don’t have a food processor, use a box grater to grate the cheese and celery.  Then you can put all the ingredients on a cutting board and go over with a sharp knife to incorporate and get the right texture.

Whenever I use lemons in a recipe I always choose Meyer lemons; their juicy flavor is the best. I grow them in my yard, but I understand that they are not as readily available to most of the country.  However, I have been spying them at Trader Joe’s, too.

The jalapeno adds a nice bit of heat. You can check out tips for picking out spicy ones here.

Chilled Goat Gouda Dip

1/2 lb. of goat Gouda cheese

2 celery stalks

2 lemons: zest from 1 lemon and juice of 2 lemons (about 4 tablespoons of juice)

1/2 tsp. sea salt

1 jalapeno, seeds removed, small dice

 

Peel wax off Gouda and cut into 2-inch square chunks. Wash celery, remove stems and cut into large chucks (three per stalk). Next, in your food processor, with the grater attachment on, grate both cheese and celery into processor bowl. Empty out the cheese and celery mixture to a bowl and switch out grater attachment for the standard mixing blade.

 

 

Add the lemon zest and juice, the salt and the jalapeno to the cheese and celery back into the food processor. Pulse 10-15 times until the mixture comes together, it’ll be somewhat crumbly, smooth.

 

 

Chill for about an hour and serve with your choice of crackers or pita chips.

I don’t consider myself a natural gardener; my green thumbs are more of the school of trial and error variety. Starting out, I just followed the directions on the seed packets. Now, I supplement with good books that teach me what I need to know and inspire me to try new things. What I lack in natural botanical insight is made up for with these garden resources and a hefty dose of wonderful Santa Barbara weather.

How to Grow More Vegetables

By John Jeavons

This is my favorite resource for my vegetable garden; I’ve read it cover to cover three times. It emphasizes the soil structure and how that greatly impacts your success in the garden. It also discusses companion planting (and also list garden antagonists), which is super cool. Green beans and strawberries thrive better when they are grown together, who knew?

Sow and Grow, A Gardening Book for Children

By Tina Davis

This book was a gift from mom. It goes month by month with interesting planting projects through the seasons for children. The old-fashioned illustrations are charming and beautiful, inspiring you to spend time with your kids in the garden. (Hint: It would make a wonderful Mother’s Day gift).

The Rodale Book of Composting

From Rodale, the publishers of Organic Gardening magazine

My resource for composting— all the stuff you want and need to know and even a little more than that.  It’s a great introduction if you want to start composting and a great resource if you are having composting issues.

The Ruth Stout No-Work Garden Book

By Ruth Stout and Richard Clemence

Originally published in 1971, this gardening classic is the best at a no-nonsense approach to gardening, with practical and easy inspiration for starting a family garden. This book is now out of print, but you can find it through used-book resellers. It’s worth the search.

On Saturday morning, my eight-year old daughter came running into the kitchen and exclaimed, “Mom, you need to come outside right now! There is something magical I have to show you, it’s magical.” Without hesitation I set down the spatula and curiously followed her out to the backyard. She gleefully led to me our peach trees bursting in full blossom. Magic.