Hanger steak and Ms. Squeze's cake (check it out chubby) w/ pics

mad max beyond eggdome

mom and dad came over for dinner last night and i decided to make our favorite french dinner these days. ..hanger steak with real french fries. .. .and for dessert, ms. squeeze's choco chip kahlua cake (albeit with a new twist - read on). ...[p]first the hanger steak .. ..here is what they look like whole and untrimmed. ...about 1 1/2 pounds each
[p]
i zapped em a bunch of times with my tenderizer, then into a zip lock bag for about 5 hours with a balsamic vinager reduction and diced shallots to marinade). ...[p]later in the afternoon, i did up the pomme frites (french fries). .. cut up four large potatoes into fries, then soaked them in ice cold water for about 2 hours. ...set up big pot of peanut oil at 275 degrees, and blanched the potatoes (fried them till they were soft and opaque).. . .when they were ready, i removed them to a large tray covered in paper towells. ..there they sat till the steaks were ready. .. [p]back to the hanger steaks. ...set up large egg direct grid at 600 degrees (no t-rex for these, not thick enough). . ..pulled the steaks out of the marinade, patted them dry, then into the egg direct for about 5 - 6 minutes per side till the thickest part was 125 degrees (this made for nice medium rare slices in the middle but left for some medium well on the end pieces for my dad). .. .
took them off the egg and put them into a warm oven while i finished the fries. . .[p][p]finished up the fries by heating the oil up to 375 degrees, then putting the fries in for about 2 - 3 minutes to brown and crisp up. ..remove them to a big bowl lined with paper towells and sprinkle of salt. ...fantastic french fries[p]cut up the steaks into 'medalions'....poured the remainder of the balsamic reduction on them and served. .. .w/ the fries and a salad, it was a great meal. ..[p][p]for dessert, it was ms. squeeze's choco chip kahlua cake, but, inspired by my buddy, chubby, instead of the kahlua, we used amarretto (along with a tablespoon of almond extract). ...sorry, i'm not independently wealthy like the chubmeister who used 40 buck a bottle grand marnier for his version)....and the spawn made up a fantastic chocolate ganache to serve on top of it. ...as good as the kahlua cake is, all agreed, this amarretto version ROCKED!!! . ..[p][p]

BabyBoomBBQ

mad max beyond eggdome,[p]Looks fantastic!

Bama Egger

mad max beyond eggdome,[p]That looks absolutely delicious!!! Do you find that tenderizer really helps with the hanger steak as it is a tough meat, but very tasty? I did one a couple of weeeks ago without tenderizing, liked it but chewy. Was thinking of getting a Jarcard (sp?) tenderizer but wasn't sure of it's effectiveness. Just curious, what are the ingredients to your reduction?[p]Thanks,
Paul

SSN686

Morning mad max beyond eggdome:[p]The steak and cake look delicious! Adding the glaze/ganache really tops (pun intended) off the cake. I'm sure the Amaretto works well also, as we love that in just about anything! I'll have to try that the next one I make.[p]Did you check out the Chocolate-Almond Dream Roll my much better half created for the Florida EggFest this past weekend (link below)?[p]See you in Waldorf![p]Have a GREAT day!
Jay
[ul][li]Chocolate-Almond Dream Roll[/ul]

mad max beyond eggdome

Paul,
when doing the whole hanger steak like this, the jacard definitely helps. ...and i then cut fairly then medalions as you can see, against the grain. .. the other way to do it is the way i've seen in french restaurants. ... split the steak down the middle along that line of tough tissue. ..remove that white tough tissue. ..then butterfly each piece, and pound it pretty thin with a tenderizer mallett. . ..then marinade and fast grill. ..i've had it done this way at 'les halles' restaurant and tis superb and very tender. ...[p]as far as the marinade. ..i took about a cup of balsamic vinager (just the inexpensive stuff from costco), and cooked it down till it was about 1/2 a cup. ..a nice smooth, sweet syrup. . ..added some finely chopped shallots and poured that into a ziploc baggie wiht the steaks....drizzled a little of the leftover marinade ontop of the finished meat...good stuff. ..

mad max beyond eggdome

SSN686,
i sure did jay. ...looks like you guys cooked up a storm!! . ..that sweet roll looks fantastic. ...and nothing like a good 'crisp'. ...lookin forward to seeing you both in may. ...[p]best[p]max[p]ps. . if you try the amarretto, make sure to add some almond abstract. . .the amaretto on its own isn't quite strong enough to give the cake the needed 'oomph'

Unknown

Please tell me the leftover marinade was reserved, not from the bag with the meat.
little sister

Rollocks

That cake looks great. Thanks for posting the link.