Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Dinner Tonight: Beef Steak with Onions

Posted by Nick Kindelsperger, July 25, 2007 at 4:00 PM

There aren’t many times I look back at a two-week period and notice that I hadn’t cooked any read meat. It wasn’t my fault if nearly every recipe that looked good was light, easy, and beef-less. But after noticing came rectifying, and so I was off to procure a nice heavy dinner. Normally, that would mean throwing a steak on the grill. But I had been flipping through one of my favorite cookbooks, Daisy Cooks, and noticed a nice big steak recipe with just enough to keep things interesting.

The only hinge came with the cut. It seemed like a crime to mess with a relatively nice piece like strip steak by dumping it in vinegar. So I swapped cuts, using the little rougher bottom sirloin, which was unbelievably cheap and really took to the method. The rub and vinegar together are definitely strong, and at first I wasn’t all into the change. It tasted extreme and off balance. But then I scooped a bite with some of the crunchy, sweet onions. It was a great balance. Not exactly a major revelation, but a nice reprieve from heavily charcoaled specimens thrown on the grills across the country.

Beef Steak with Onions

Ingredients
1 large sirloin

Adobo seasoning (see note below)

3 tablespoons cider vinegar

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 large onion

Procedure
1. Pat the steak dry. Rub with the Adobo seasoning. Pour the vinegar into a dish, and put the steak on top. Let sit 15 minutes, flip steak, and let site 15 minutes more. While the steak is hanging out, slice the onion thinly into long strips.

2. When steak is done, remove and set aside. Heat a large pan over medium-high heat, and pour in the oil. When oil starts to shimmer, place steak in pan. I like mine medium-rare, so I cooked it about 4 to 5 minutes per side, but it depends on the thickness of the steak.

3. Remove steak, add a touch more oil, and throw in the onions. Sauté quickly, until they’ve slightly blackened but haven’t lost their crunch.

* If you don’t have adobo seasoning, then mix equal parts onion powder, garlic powder, and groud black pepper, with twice as much salt. Sprinkle a little dried oregano on top and mix together.

3 Comments | Tags: beef, Dinner Tonight, onions, recipes, Serious Recipes

View other entries from Dinner Tonight.