Meat and Potatoes simplicity

Nature Boy

Howdy!
I had to come up with a quick solo dinner, and it ended up to be a dooozy. Thawed a filet mignon in warm water, while humpty got up to temp. Slathered it with mustard, and sprinkled with the Southwestern Spicy Char Crust...you could smell the sage!), and topped it off with a sprinkling of JJs rub. [p]I cut up a potatoe in 1/8 inch slices, coated with olive oil, and generously sprinkled with JJs rub.[p]Cooked the steak and potatoes at the same time. Potatoes were over the least hot coals (around the edge). Seared the steak 3-3-7 at 650, and flipped potatoes each time I opened egg. Threw on last nights leftover pineapple slices, and dwelled along with the steaks.[p]The most surpurising treat was the potatoes. They were excellent...almost to the point of crispy, and JJ's rub was a perfect seasoning for them. Try it out...very, very simple and quick.[p]Went perfectly with the filet and the pineapple. [p]Cheers
NB

Frozen Chosen

Nature Boy, Woof! I also tried Char Crust on filets tonight. This was the first I've used it; I put quite a lot on both sides (after tasting...it is not all that salty) then added yellow mustard topping and let rest in refridg for 2 hrs. I have been trying to get more of a char crust, experimenting with freezing the meat and such. Tonight I rolled the BGE temp probe to 150F, then sent the steaks to their doom for 4 minutes, flip and 2 minutes more, then pulled them off- no shut down cooking phase. Steaks (1 1/2 in )were med rare with a heavily charred, crusty exterior (hence the name??). This one goes in the book. I will have to try the Southwestern next. Funny, I thought this stuff would be real artificial tasting; instead, its an improvement on the regular steak/mustard/ high temp treatment- a feat I would have thought impossible.

Nature Boy

Frozen Chosen,
Yep. Sho be some good stuff. You have to experiment with them. For example the hickory mollasses is very tasty, but IMO needs some moderation on steaks if you want to taste the meat. [p]Try those thin-sliced potatoes with olive oil and JJs rub. That is a winner.[p]NB

sprinter

Nature Boy,[p]I didn't do the potatoes like that this weekend, they were whole and were done partially in the oven, then baked to get a crispy shell on them. However, I had some vadalia onions that I put some olive oil on, a little bit of some vegetable seasoning that I have, and put them over a relatively hot fire and they were GREAT. I love veggies on the grill and with vadalias in season they're hard to beat.[p]Troy

RLA

Nature Boy,
Ive always wanted a quick way to defrost a solidly frozen piece of meat. There have been so many times when I come home from work and all I can think of is wanting to have a seared steak. But...all that I have is solidly frozen!! YOu mention that you put it in warm water....is that safe?..and how long does it take? If the warm water method is the way to go, I can hardly wait to try it. Thanks for this gem of an idea!
Bob

Char-Woody

RLA, I haven't read the post your referring too, but I never use hot/warm water..Cold water thaw is my preferred method to keep the exterior meat surface cool while thawing to avoid premature bacterial action.
I also have the same predicament this morning thawing 3 racks of ribs for tonights neighborhood invite. 8 rack's to cook starting in 2 hours.
Cheerio...C~W[p]

Nature Boy

RLA,
The whole thaw took a bit over a half hour. I kept adding warm water as it cooled. Not real hot, but not lukewarm either. My time was really limited. I can't imagine that any harmful bacteria could really get going in that short time. Any little critters that were starting to party on the surface of the meat quickly met their fate during the hot sear!![p]Try those simple crispy JJ rub potatoe slices!! So easy, and so good. I think it will be a regular when I cook steak or chops. Maybe even with chicken!! Yeeeee Ha![p]NB