She looks good, but she will disappoint if you don’t treat her right.
I saw some nice looking pork steaks at the butcher yesterday and I was tempted (like I have been so many times) to take some home with me. I bought four and decided to marinate them. I should admit that I almost always braise these types of steaks because their lack of fat and good connective tissue, can make them very, very tough when cooked on the BBQ or any type of flat top grilling. I have smoked these and they turn out well, but the lack of fat is noticeable. Again, like a scorned lover, I took them back one more time, thinking things would change.
I let them sit in the fridge with a homemade BBQ sauce on them, hoping the vinegar would work it’s magic…. it didn’t. Did it look good? Yes. Did it smell good? Yes. But that nasty thing was tough. It was really, really tough. She had mistreated me before and she did again. I guess I knew that was the way it was going to end.
As a backup, I got some delicious flank steak (equally fat free), but gave it a beautiful homemade marinade that did it’s job and tenderized a boot leather cut of meat. I’m a big fan of flank steak since my first visit to a Brazilian BBQ joint. This meat works well on a hot grill if it has been marinated and if you cut thin and across the grain after giving it ample time to rest.
For the marinate, you need to eyeball it and like most of the things I do, I don’t measure. Like a good friend you go for a beer with after your heart is broken, the beef flank steak is there when I need it. The marinade ingredients are as follows:
- Lot’s of garlic
- Lots of pepper and garlic salt
- Lots of Worcestershire sauce
- A couple of dashes of soya sauce
- Two full grill roasted red peppers minced
- A couple of ‘flashes’ of hot sauce
- A lick of ancho pepper
The steak and tough pork were served with a homemade coleslaw and the pig brought a tear to my eye (disappointment, not excitement as normal), but the beef came through. Although beef will never be the king of meat, he is a suitable second dog in the meat race. Remember when using pork steaks that you either need to beat the hell out of them and make them into a schnitzel, or braise them and let the liquid do the work.