New York Strip and Homemade Rolls

Steak is not something I am well versed in making.  In fact, I only fixed steak in college once (and it was a FAIL.  It turned out tough and not very flavorful because I had no idea how to cook it!)  and then I cooked it once during this year challenge, seen here.  This time, rather than using the oven, I wanted to grill them outside.  Our apartment complex has a gas grill that we can use by the pool.  First, I prepped by marinating the steak for 3 hours.  The marinade can be found on food.com.  Here's the recipe, which I cut in half because we had .8 pounds of steak, not 2.

INGREDIENTS (for 2 lbs. of steak)

1/2 c. olive oil

1/4 c. Worcestershire sauce

2 smashed garlic cloves (or 2-3 tsp. minced garlic)

2 Tbl steak seasoning

1 Tbl red wine vinegar

1/2 tsp. dried basil

1/2 tsp. italian seasoning

2 lbs. New York strip steaks

DIRECTIONS

1.  Mix all ingredients except steak in a shallow baking dish, or use a freezer bag.  

2.  Pierce steaks on both sides with a fork, multiple times and place in marinade. 

3.  Refrigerate at least 2 hours, flipping the steak half way through.  (If using a baking dish, cover the dish with plastic wrap)

4.  Grill over high heat to desired doneness.  

Steak is a splurge and special treat for us, given our newlywed budget.  So, I REALLY didn't want to mess this up.  I had to call my husband to have him walk me through how to light the grill (which is actually pretty straightforward as long as you can figure out which way the lever should be turned to let the gas flow).  I googled how long to cook the steak for, but it turned out to be WAY off.  So, I'll leave cooking time up to you to figure out based on your grill and your preference of steak doneness.  Even though the time turned out to be way off, I took the steak off early hoping I hadn't ruined my husband's medium rare steak.  Turns out I had grilled him a PERFECT medium steak.  Which is just how he likes it, apparently he says medium rare because nobody ever succeeds in getting him a medium steak unless he says that.  Anyway, the steak was SO FLAVORFUL because of the marinade and it was a huge success!  I'm slowly but surely getting this grill thing down! 

In all my years of cooking, I have never made homemade rolls before this meal.  This week actually turned into a week of bread making, watch the next few posts and see what I mean.  I got a sweet dinner rolls recipe off of allrecipes.com  and went to work.  The finished product was fabulous, check it out: 

Here are some lessons I learned to keep in mind before you start: The recipe said to use an ungreased cookie sheet.  I cooked mine in a circular cake pan and ended up losing the bottoms of some of the rolls because they stuck.  So just use the non-stick cooking spray.  Second, 8 rolls are too many to fit into a circular cake pan.  It baked just fine, it was just a matter of not having perfectly shaped rolls which would have been possible if they had room to bake individually without becoming connected in the baking process.  So, keep those things in mind and carry on! 

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 1/2 cup warm milk
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup butter, softened

DIRECTIONS

1. Place water, milk, egg, 1/3 cup butter, sugar, salt, flour and yeast in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Dough Cycle; press Start.
2. When cycle finishes (after about an hour and a half), turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough in half.  (I only used half the dough, to make 8 rolls and saved the other half for cinnamon rolls... YUM!) If the dough is sticky, don't be afraid to knead in a little flour until it is manageable.  Be careful not to add too much otherwise the dough will become tough.  Pull pieces of dough off and roll into a ball.  I think mine were about 2-3 inches in diameter, not positive though.  Just make sure you end up with 8 equal sized balls and your rolls will come out fine.  (Remeber, this is only for half of the dough, if you use the full recipe, you will need 16 balls of equal size).  Set the dough balls on a GREASED cookie sheet and cover with clean kitchen towel and put in a warm place, let rise 1 hour. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).  HINT:  I like to let the bread rise on the stovetop while the oven preheats, it gets plenty warm and rises fabulously.  
3. Brush the tops of your 8 rolls with 1/8 c. melted butter.  Use the 1/4 c. if making a full batch.  This helps the rolls come out a golden brown. 
4. Bake in preheated oven for 8 to 12 minutes, until golden. 

Enjoy your steak and rolls!  Don't forget the butter and honey!