BBQ Buffalo T-bone Steak

I reached into our freezer to find something for the next few night’s dinners and found two frozen buffalo t-bone steaks.  I thought that steak and potato sounded good for dinner and I pulled the steaks out of the freezer.

After all the problems with ground beef, we always use ground buffalo (Bison) meat in any recipe that calls for ground beef.  Buffalo is very lean meat and it is easy to overcook and it becomes tough.  Low and slow are the key words when cooking buffalo.  We typically eat beef steak, but we had purchased a side of buffalo, and these are some of the remaining pieces.

I put the steaks into the refrigerator to thaw for a day and then gave them a light sprinkling of salt and pepper.  I placed the steaks into a gallon zip-loc bag and added about a tablespoon of grape seed oil, a tablespoon of Italian herb vinegar and about a teaspoon of lemon juice.  I place the bag with the steaks back into the refrigerator to marinate for several hours.

When it was time to prepare the meal, I lit the briquettes in our BBQ and then went to our pantry where I found some white potatoes.  I scrubbed the potatoes and cut out the bad spots, then used my knife and poked about fifteen holes in each potato to let out the steam.  I put the potatoes on a plate and then put them in our microwave for eleven minutes on high.  I always pre-cook any potatoes that I will place in the BBQ to make sure they are fully cooked before I place them on the BBQ.  This prevents uncooked potato centers.  I also washed and trimmed some mini Portobello mushroom to place on the BBQ, and started preparing a salad.

Once the briquettes were ready, I spread them across the bottom of the BBQ and then put the grill in place to heat.  There are two things that keep meat from sticking to the BBQ grill, first thing is to pre-heat the grill, and the second is using a clean grill.  Once the grill was hot, I cleaned it well with my grill brush and then applied a thin coating of grape seed oil.

I placed the bison steaks on the center of the grill and then put the potatoes on the grill followed by the mushrooms around the outside of the grill (to keep them from burning from direct heat).  I cooked the steak for seven minutes a side, when I turned the steak; I also turned over the potatoes to keep the bottom from burning.

I removed all the food from the BBQ grill and took it all inside.  I let the steaks rest for five minute before cutting in to see how they were cooked.  They were still a little rare for our taste, so I put them in the microwave for one minute to finish, and then we dished up.

The meat was cooked to a nice medium-well, it was still a little tough and we used steak knifes while eating.  The buffalo had a nice flavor, which is a little different from beef, and the spices added to the taste without covering up the flavor of the meat.  The potatoes and mushrooms were perfectly cooked and had a nice smoky flavor from being on the BBQ.

In the future I will continue to BBQ beef steak, but it was nice to sample the buffalo steaks.  My conclusion is that while they taste good and are better for you, buffalo steaks are not worth the price and the extra care needed to make sure they correctly cooked.

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell

Broiled Salmon

We had the opportunity to visit with some friends at the Oregon coast over the weekend where we had a wonderful time sharing good food, conversation, and adventures.  The weather cooperated by only raining at night.  Sunday the temperature was about 65 degrees on the beach with sunshine and no wind – Amazing!

One night I made dinner consisting of: Love Your Wife Chicken, brown rice, and salad (my wife made the salad).  We finished our meal with wonderful slices of Flourless Chocolate Cake topped with whipped cream.



The second night our friends made dinner consisting of broiled wild salmon (no color added) marinated in soy sauce.  The salmon was placed in a baking dish with about a quarter cup of soy sauce and left to marinate for about five minutes on each side.  The marinade gave the salmon meat a nice dark color and added seasoning without making it too salty.

Once the salmon was marinated, it was placed on a piece of foil then on a pan and into the oven on broil.  The salmon fillets were broiled for about four minutes on each side until the fish became opaque.

They also prepared a whole grain rice medley consisting of: CalMati Brown Rice, Wild Rice, Sweet Born Rice, and Heirloom Red Rice.  Freshly steamed broccoli completed the dinner.

While the fish was cooking, our friends peeled and sliced five granny smith apples and mixed the topping for an apple crisp.  The apple crisp was made gluten-free and I wanted to see how that was different from the recipe in my How To Cook Everything cookbook.  I found the recipes were almost identical, the HTCE cookbook called for 1/2-cup of flour to be added to the topping mix and to cook at 25 degrees higher temperature.

Once the salmon was finished cooking the apple crisp went into the oven to bake for an forty-five minutes and we sat down to a wonderful dinner of broiled wild salmon, rice, and broccoli.  The salmon fillets were perfectly cooked and the soy sauce provided a wonderful seasoning to the meat.  We enjoyed our dinner with a bottle of pinot grigio and then we sat and talked until the apple crisp was cooked.

Before dinner we made a trip to the store to get some vanilla ice cream and we each had a quarter of the apple crisp topped with ice cream.  It was excellent, the apples were very tender, and the topping was crisp and crunchy.  The little bit of flour was not missed at all.

Gluten-free Apple Crisp

• 4-cups thinly sliced apples (~5-6 Granny Smith's) as many as can comfortably fit in the baking dish
• 1-Tablespoon lemon juice
• 1-cup gluten-free oatmeal
• 1/2-cup brown sugar
• 1/2-teaspoon salt
• 1-teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/3-cup melted butter

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Mix the apple pieces with lemon juice and place the apple mixture into a greased 9x9 baking dish or glass pie pan.
3. Combine dry ingredients and then add melted butter.  Mix until crumbly and sprinkle on top of apples. 
4. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes (or 15-30 minutes longer to get a very gooey apple texture).
5. Top with ice cream or whipped topping

Adventures In Food: Author: Kerry Howell