Well y'all, this was interesting. I did this for dinner Thursday, which was my last night of bachelorhood while Tracy was out of town for her business trip. I wanted something that was good, gratifying, and had a cool element of some sort (temps were in the triple digits again). We all know cooking for one can be somewhat of a pain in the a$$ so also wanted to keep it simple. Here's what I came up with:
Got a NY Strip steak out of the freezer to defrost
Steak lightly seasoned, on the grill, and after the flip
Steak done and resting while I make the cool element
Here's where things get interesting. Wanted a salad for the cool element but didn't want the same ol' same ol' salad. Laid down some fresh baby spinach, sliced a few grape tomatoes, cut up some onions that were in the pickling jar with the cukes, and 2 of the cucumber spears. Dressing...such as it was, is just the brine that the cukes and onions are soaking in
Simple but good dinner all plated with a chunk of cauliflower that's been soaking in Steve's brine
I was pleasantly surprised at how well the salad came out. It was cool, refreshing, and had a nice little spice tingle from the cukes, onions, and brine as the dressing. All in all, it hit on everything I wanted for dinner.
Side note: I had one of the cuke spears yesterday all by itself to see how they were coming along. Nothing else was eaten along with it because I didn't want the "interference" of flavor. Although they don't have the full depth of flavor I'm hoping to get (only been in the jar for 5 days) they are taking on a fantastic flavor!! They also have a very nice and pleasant spice glow that builds slowly on the back end and hangs with you for a while. This is
EXACTLY what I was shooting for when I put together the recipe for the brine. Thus far, I couldn't be happier.
Prolly gonna do some more today,
Robert