Steak and Shrimp

After a week hiatus on the blog life...I'm back with some meals to post!

Last Saturday, Cate and I whipped up my first dinner in my apartment for the summer. And what a better way to bring in a new place like a nice steak dinner. 

This meal consisted of the following: Steak,Shrimp, Salad, Potato, and Pineapple:

First things first, you got to turn on the oven. For this meal, I used the broiler and cooked my steak in the oven. I set the broil setting to high. Then, I started adding spices. I coated all sides of the steak with garlic powder and then coated only the top and bottom with salt and pepper. SPECIAL TIP: I covered the broiler with foil and cooked on top of the foil, so that after the steak was cooked, the cleanup would be super easy!

I then placed the steaks on the covered broiler and placed in the oven for 15 minutes. After the first 5 minutes, I flipped the steak a quarter turn. And five minutes later, I did another quarter turn and rotated the steak around, because the further in the oven, the faster it cooks, so I wanted to make sure the steak cooked evenly throughout. Then around the 13-15 minute mark, you need to start checking the steak and cooking to desired level.

NOTE: If you’re reading this, I’ve probably never used your oven and have no idea how quick/slow your oven cooks. So take the times I give with a grain of salt and know that you’re going to need to monitor how well the steak cooks.

That’s all I did for the steak!

For the shrimp, I bought uncooked, pre-cut shrimp (I think about ½ lb. if I remember correctly). First, I rinsed the shrimp and then used a paper towel to pat the shrimp and get some of the water out. Next, I made a small aluminum foil dish, by folding in the ends of the piece I ripped off. The dish was big enough to hold all the shrimp and it’s important to keep the ends up to serve as a mini handle when you pull them out of the oven…so yes, that means I cooked them in the oven.

But before I put them in the oven, in a mixing bowl, I poured in BBQ sauce and honey and stirred around to make sure all shrimp was covered. Then I sprinkled on some red pepper flake to give the shrimp a little kick (This is optional if you don’t want the spice). After, I dumped the coated shrimp into the aluminum dish I made.

When the steak had about 3-4 minutes left, I put the aluminum dish right in the oven on the rack. Try to flip the shrimp if possible and after about 4 minutes, you should be good to go!

The tricky part now is pulling the aluminum out of the oven. It will be hot, but aluminum doesn’t retain heat for very long. If you’re not comfortable pulling out the aluminum, then I’d suggest cooking the shrimp in something else. I use the aluminum, because, of course, there’s no additional cleanup!

Potato this time was simple. I bought a pre-wrapped potato from the grocery and cooked in the microwave per the instructions on the wrapping.

Salad was simple too. I cut up some bell peppers, green onions, carrots, and gouda cheese and toss them all in.

Pineapple: Cutting a pineapple wasn’t as difficult as I had anticipated. Cut off the top and bottom and then make sure you skin the sides. Here’s the catch with pineapple., you can cut it as closely as you want, meaning the pineapple can be smooth and juicy, or, if you leave the inside core, tough and chewy. If you want to remove the core, cut the pineapple in half and then each half into strips. Once in strips, it's easy to find the tough core...cut it out, cut the remain pineapple into the desired size, and enjoy.

Bon Appetit!