Marinated Strip Steak with Hasselback Potatoes

  My friend Rosalee has recently signed up to be a consultant for Tastefully Simple, which is a home-party business selling food mixes and spices. I attended her kick-off party a couple of weeks ago and just received the spices I ordered at her party. I wanted to try out the new spices so I decided to pull a couple of strip steaks out of the freezer for dinner. Since tonight is one of the (seemingly) few nights GoodMan and I will be eating at home ~ just the two of us, I also decided on Hasselback potatoes because they have long been one of GoodMan's favorites.
 

I gathered the two spices, "Onion-Onion", and "Garlic-Garlic" along with the steaks and my favorite Worcestershire Sauce, "Lea and Perrins".

In a large ziplock bag, I added 1 tablespoon of the "Onion-Onion" seasoning.

And 1 tablespoon of "Garlic-Garlic" seasoning.

And 1/3 cup of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce.

Finally, I added in the steaks. I smooshed it around a little to make sure the steaks were covered in seasoning and sauce, then I put them back in the refrigerator to marinate for about 6 hours.

About an hour and a half before I wanted dinner to be served, I scrubbed two medium sized baking potatoes.

I sliced through the potatoes almost all the way through about every 1/4 inch along the length of the potato. I used the wooden spoon as a stop for the knife to keep me from cutting all the way through the potato.

I gathered the remaining ingredients ~ "Onion-Onion" and "Garlic-Garlic" seasoning, and 1/2 stick of butter.

I melted the butter and added a scant teaspoon of each spice to the butter.

I brushed the butter and spice mixture all over the potatoes, making sure to get the mixture between the slices. When they were completely covered I put them in the oven at 350 degrees and let them cook for an hour...Mmmm...they smell delicious!

When GoodMan called to let me know he was on his way home from work I turned the stove up on high and heated up a cast iron pan with ridges (makes wonderful grill marks) and added a little olive oil.

Once the pan was nice and hot I added the marinated steaks. If you look real close you can see the steam rise as I added the cold steak to the hot pan. Sizzle...Sizzle...Sizzle!

I used tongs to turn them over after about four minutes. See the lovely grill marks? Almost as good as getting the BBQ grill out (but this is February...brrr...not going there). I gave them another four minutes before I plated them and let them rest for about 5 minutes before we were ready to eat.

I rounded out our just-the-two-of-us dinner with a side salad topped with fresh-made ranch dressing. It was a big meal, but we were up to the challenge.


What's the taste-tester's bottom line?

  GoodMan and I enjoy a good steak. This was just okay. I thought the spices would have more salt in them than they did. I felt both the potatoes and the steak needed salt. The steak was also tougher than we like. That may have been due more to the quality of the meat than to the marinade.
  The potatoes were tender and good. The only thing missing was the salt. I will use the Tastefully Simple spices in the future, but I will add seasoned salt to the recipes. 

Bottom line: Buy better quality steaks and add salt to the recipe.