I Couldn't Help Myself ... And Neither Could Joey

There are days when you just crave something and you can't get it out of you head until you get it in your stomach. For a week, I craved something sweet and I just continued to postpone the inevitable until I finally broke down the other night and rushed to the store for a container of Haagen Dazs Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream. Nothing tasted so good that night. I didn't eat the whole thing but it was like being on auto pilot. Spoon in container, spoon in mouth. A third into it I realized I needed to stop this and I threw it in the freezer. I've got to admit I felt a bit guilty.

Then this evening, I had another craving for French fries this time. When you live alone, you've got lots of time to crave. I had taken a nice thick little filet mignon steak out of the freezer earlier in the day and was thinking about having steak and salad; however, I saw the bag of Russet potatoes and the craving hit me.

The little steaks come in these sealed plastic pouches and you have to cut one end and then slide the meat out. I don't know how it happened because it happened so fast, but the next 5 minutes was spent chasing my damn dog, Joey with my meat in his mouth. Somehow, when I was taking the steak out of the pouch, it slipped through my fingers and my Min Pin was right there waiting. That dog must have been waiting months for a jackpot like this. I finally cornered him and grabbed it out of his mouth. He had only bitten into it, so that was good. I rinsed it well. One of these days, I'll have to tell you my salmon story, but that's for one of those days.

Anyway, I want to share with you my recipe for Steak Frites today. I came up with a new recipe for the frites and I don't care what anybody says, I'm going to make them again like this. They were good. I used my ginger paste as a seasoning. Let me tell you what I did. Here are the ingredients you'll need:

1- 6 ounce filet of beef steak
1 small Russet potato, skin on
1 small red bell pepper
1/2 teaspoon of black pepper
Salt (for the steak)
2 tablespoons of ginger paste (basically comes in a jar like crushed garlic does)
2 tablespoons of water
3 tablespoons of flour
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Enough vegetable oil to cover a 10 inch frying pan 1/2 inch deep with oil

First of all, slice your pepper and potato into 1/4 inch thick shoe string slices. Set aside. In a  bowl, add the ginger and water and mix well. If you need to you can add another tablespoon of water to the mixture. Now add the pepper and potato shoe strings into the bowl along with the black pepper. Mix well so as to completely coat the pepper and potato. Now heat your vegetable oil on high heat so that oil reaches 350 degrees. You can usually tell when the oil is ready by dropping a little flour into the oil and it foams and bubbles. Put your pepper and potato shoe strings into the bag, add the flour, and shake well so that all pieces are covered. You should have a starchy, pasty coating. Carefully add the shoe strings to the hot oil, spreading them evenly across the pan. If the oil gets too hot, turn your burner down a tad.

While the potatoes are frying, heat the olive oil in a small frying pan on high heat. Fry your steak for about 3 minutes on each side for rare. The steak I had was 1 1/4 inch thick, so keep that in mind. Once you turn it over to the other side, salt and pepper it. In the meantime, keep an eye on the potatoes and with a spatula, turn them over. Continue to fry until they get golden brown, which should not take  long. When ready, remove them from the oil and let drain on paper towels. You may sprinkle salt while they are still very hot, but taste one first to see if you really need to.

Steak should be done about the same time. Remove from pan and set on your plate and add your shoe string frites on the side. I can tell you, these were the best fries I made. They were crispy as were the red pepper strips and the two together had a great combination of flavors. There was a nice subtle flavor of the ginger that was not at all overpowering. Just look at the photo. Does that look like Burger King to you?? NO ! Enjoy this meal.