Comfort meets Garden

  Being smack in the middle of potty training my almost 2 year old daughter, going to the store wasn't an option yesterday. I have to admit these are some of my favorite nights to cook, when I am forced to be creative with what I have.  I had some skirt steak in the freezer, butter, milk, a few baby potatoes and veggies from my garden.  

What I came up with was a beautiful steak house dinner, comfort food anyone?

Grilled Skirt Steak, with jalapeño mash, sautéed green beans and 

creamed chard

For the steak:

Pull out steak at least 30 min. (if not an hour) prior to cooking to bring up to room temp.   I seasoned mine with rosemary, garlic, soy sauce, olive oil, but use whatever you have on hand.  I grilled the meat on med high heat for 2-3 min on each side for a med to med rare. Let rest 10 min after cooking.

For the mash:

3/4 lbs of small yukon gold potatoes

3 turnips

salt/pepper 

4 jalapeños

1/2 c. milk

1T. butter

Peel and cut turnips into small chunks.  Put potatoes (whole) and turnips in a pot and fill with cold water, heat and boil until tender, about 15 minutes. Meanwhile dice jalapeño, keep seeds and ribs if you really like some heat, and sauté in small pan with a little olive oil until softened, set aside.  Drain potatoes and turnips and return to pot, add jalapeños a pat of butter and milk and mash with a potato masher (i keep the potato skins on, but remove if you like), season with salt and pepper to taste.  Put lid on and keep on stove to keep warm while everything else comes together.

For the creamed chard

1 bunch of chard (any dark green would do)

1/2 milk

salt 

pepper 

nutmeg 

Chop chard into small bites, removing stems (you can always reserve them for another recipe).  In a skillet with a small amount of olive oil wilt down chard, add milk (I would use whole milk or half and half).  Let mixture simmer until milk has thickened slightly, add a pinch of nutmeg and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve over steak.

Since the sautéed green beans are fairly obvious (steamed and tossed with salt and olive oil) I chose to omit them from the recipe

Enjoy!