The Cook & The Coach Blog

Steak Roulade with Squash Quinoa Risotto

3/3/2014

So, I hear a lot of time about how people don’t have the time to eat healthy and make the meals that I post. I know things change with kids involved and days get busy but honestly it just comes down to planning and your priorities. I would rather spend an hour in the kitchen making a nice meal that is good for me than an hour in front of the television. I’m probably a little strange because my days begin and end with food, that is all I can think about. I know that isn’t the case for everyone but it can be, you can change your habits, you can do things to make healthy cooking easier. I would love to help you if you are interested.

So in full disclosure, I need to come clean on this recipe. I am guilty of concocting this in my head while in the middle of church last night instead of focusing wholeheartedly on the message. I would like to think I have a healthy obsession with food, but I’ll try to get my priorities straightened out. The good news is that I didn’t spend that time brainstorming this recipe and to have it be a dud. The steak was delicious but the quinoa risotto was the best I’ve ever made, no lie. It had a sweet and creamy factor to it that made it seem like there was a ton of butter and cream in it.

Steak Roulade with Balsamic Mushroom Sauce

Ingredients

2 lb flank steak
1 medium onion, cut into strips
2 cups spinach or any dark leafy green
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
3 tbsp butter, divided
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cups sliced mushrooms, stems removed
1/2 cup balsamic
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup water
1 tsp thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
Blue cheese crumbles for topping
Fresh parsley to garnish

Directions

On a cutting board, pound out the flank steak using a meat tenderizer. Try to get it so it is even thickness, roughly 1/2″.
In a larger skillet, add sliced onions, 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp olive oil. Cook over medium heat until onions are caramelized and slightly brown. Add greens and cook for an additional minute or two until greens are slightly wilted. This will be your stuffing for the roulade.
Lay your steak out flat on your cutting board and spread the stuffing evenly across the steak. Leave about 2 inches on one end without any of the stuffing on it. Roll up the steak, working towards the end without the stuffing, don’t roll so tight that all the stuff gets squished out. Once it is rolled up, using cooking string, wrap around the outside and secure it so it doesn’t come unrolled while baking. Season the outside with salt and pepper.
In a 400 degree oven, cook for 30 minutes or until the inside of the roulade reaches 135 degrees. Remove from oven and let it sit for 10 minutes before slicing.
While the steak is cooking you can make your mushroom sauce. To do this add the 2 tbsp of butter to a skillet along with the sliced mushrooms. Cook for 8 minutes over medium high heat. Add balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire, thyme, and water, let is simmer over medium low heat until sauce has reduced to half it’s original volume. Basically until the steak is done.
Slice the Roulade into 1/2″ pieces and top with your mushroom sauce, blue cheese crumbles and a little chopped parsley. ENJOY!!!

Acorn Squash Quinoa Risotto

Ingredients

1 medium acorn squash
1 cup dry quinoa
2 cups water
1 tbsp real maple syrup
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup fresh parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Divide your squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Place cut side down in a baking dish with an inch or so of water. Bake for 30 minutes at 400 degrees or until tender the whole way through.
Add quinoa and water to saucepan and bring to a boil. Season water with a pinch of salt. You could also use your favorite broth but probably isn’t needed. Once it is boiling reduce heat to low and cook for 20-25 minutes until water is absorbed. Quinoa isn’t quite as finicky as rice so don’t worry about checking it at the 20 minute mark.
If this finishes before your squash just keep the lid on and turn off the heat. Once you squash is done cooking, scoop out the guts of the squash directly into your cooked quinoa. Also add your parmesan cheese, parsley, maple syrup and season with salt and pepper. Stir together thoroughly and serve!!!

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Pork Tenderloin with Bacon, Fig, & Balsamic Sauce and Mushroom Risotto

11/11/2013

Laura and I love entertaining, so we recently had another couple come over and tried out a new recipe. One of the hardest things that we encounter when we entertain is being able to hang out with our guests and not spend the whole time in the kitchen over the stove. So with these dishes I tried to pick something that I could prep ahead of time or throw in the oven and forget about it.

Pork Tenderloin

I prepped the two tenderloins by trimming off the fat and the silver skin. It is very important to remove the silver skin, otherwise it will be super chewy and ruin the piece of meat. Here is a link to show how to remove the silver skin, http://www.weber.com/weber-nation/prep-school/food-prep/pork__1/preparing-pork-tenderloins. Knowing that we were going to just roasting the tenderloin and not searing it I wanted make sure to brine it. To create the brine I dissolved 1 cup of salt, 1 cup sugar, 2 tbsp. cracked peppercorns, 1 tsp garlic powder in roughly 4 cups of water. To dissolve you will need to bring the mixture to a boil briefly. Remove from heat, I had to cool it down fast so I added some ice to the mixture, otherwise you could let it stand for an hour or so. You don’t want to add a hot brine on top of your meat. I brined the tenderloin for 4 hours but you could do this the night ahead. To cook, place in a 425 degree oven for 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit for 5 minutes before slicing.

Bacon, Fig, & Balsamic Sauce

Ingredients

3 strips of bacon chopped into small pieces
1/2 cup diced onions
1 cup figs, cut in half or quartered depending on size
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
3/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 cups water or stock
3 tbsp. butter
2 tsp cornstarch

Directions

Chop the bacon and add to a pan, cook until crispy. Remove bacon once cooked and most of the fat leaving a little behind.
Add 1 tbsp. of butter to pan and once it is melted added onion, cook for 2-3 minutes. Then add figs and red pepper flakes. Sautee for 6-8 minutes until onion is cooked though and soft.
Add 1/2 cup balsamic and reduce for 5 minutes, then add 2 cups of water and simmer for another 15 minutes on medium and reduce sauce.
Melt the remaining 2 tbsp. of butter in microwave and mix in the cornstarch to the melted butter, then add to pan. This will thicken up the sauce and make it more of a gravy consistency, may need to adjust thickness by adding more water to thin it out or simmering to thicken it up.
Set aside until you pull the pork out of the oven.
Once you pull the pork out rewarm and add the remaining 1/4 cup of balsamic.
Sauce will be poured over the slice pork, and no I didn’t forget about the bacon crumbles. If you haven’t eaten them all yet, after you pour the sauce over the pork top with bacon and chopped parsley.

Mushroom Risotto

Ingredients

2 cups Arborio rice
6 cups stock – I used a chicken stock with mushrooms added to it.
2 cups chopped bella mushrooms
1 large onion chopped
4-5 garlic cloves (We love garlic, feel free to tweak based on your taste)
2 tsp dried oregano
1 cup white wine – I used a chardonnay
1 cup shredded parmigiana reggiano cheese
1 cup chopped parsley

Directions

Make your stock to warm up your stock, I chopped up mushrooms removing the stems and added the stems to the stock. May not have added much flavor but it didn’t hurt.
In a large pot, sauté onions and mushrooms for 10 minutes in olive oil. After the first 5 minutes add the garlic and oregano. Season with salt and pepper.
Add rice and cook for 2 minutes, add 1 cup of wine and let simmer for another 2 minutes.
Here is the key to making risotto and not just rice pilaf, DO NOT WALK AWAY FROM THE POT. Risotto needs to be stirred constantly, your arm will get tired, if it doesn’t you aren’t doing it right. So every 2 minutes or so you should add another 3/4 cup of the warm stock to the rice mixture and stir constantly until all the liquid is absorbed. Once the liquid is completely absorbed add another 3/4 cup and repeat for a total of 22 minutes, not 21, not 23, 22! This should be cooked over a medium heat.
So since I was trying to avoid sitting in front of the risotto for 22 minutes with my backs to my guests, I cooked it for 17 minutes and left it undercooked and set aside with a cover on. This way the only time I needed to be in the kitchen is for the last 5 minutes once I pull the pork out of the oven. I will say cooking it this way did leave the risotto a little thicker than I would have normally liked but I guess I could have just added a little more stock. So as soon as you take the meat out, move your pot back to the burner and add some of your stock that you could have kept on low heat this whole time and finish the risotto. After another 5 minutes of adding stock and stirring mix in most of the cheese and parsley. Leave a little bit of each for a garnish on top.

Steak Roulade with Squash Quinoa Risotto

Steak Roulade with Balsamic Mushroom Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Acorn Squash Quinoa Risotto

Ingredients

Directions

Pork Tenderloin with Bacon, Fig, & Balsamic Sauce and Mushroom Risotto

Bacon, Fig, & Balsamic Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Mushroom Risotto

Ingredients

Directions