London Broil, hand-Mashed Potatoes, and Mushrooms

April 01, 2020

London Broil, hand-Mashed Potatoes, and Mushrooms

London Broil, hand-Mashed Potatoes, and Mushrooms

Many of us are a “meat and potatoes” kind of people. This menu fits right in with our need for the meat! Let’s deliberately buy the cheapest, toughest cut of meat possible – flank steak, round steak, or perhaps you will find a cut of meat labeled “London Broil.” London Broil is a WAY to cook meat, NOT a cut of meat. Turns out that meat we would regularly cook to death because it has almost no fat content and is generally tough is perfect for this type of preparation.

Buy a flank steak, thick round steak, or a cut labeled London Broil that looks big enough for your whole family. Set it on the kitchen counter about 1-2 hours before you are ready to cook it. Cannot do that with hamburger or chicken, but these cuts will be fine for that long. You want the meat to get fairly close to room temperature. If the middle of the meat is too cold you will not get a uniform cooking.

Now, you have some decisions to make. You can marinate the meat if you start early enough. You can find recipes online for ingredients and a recommended time (it will be hours or overnight). I am going to recommend a dry rub that can be applied right before you sear the meat in a black skillet.

Rub the following into the meat (both sides):

Ø Dry mustard

Ø Salt

Ø Pepper

Ø NOTE: You can also use your own preferences and add oregano, paprika, or garlic powders instead of or along with the items listed above.

Melt some butter and rub it on both sides of meat. Get a black skillet hot on top of stove. Place the meat in the skillet and allow it to sear on both sides. If you feel like it needs it, you can add a bit more butter to the skillet. Two – three minutes per side. If the cut of meat is an inch or less you are DONE. If it is over 3 inches thick you might want to put it in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or so. The GOAL is to have a nice done sear about ¼ inch into the meat and to have the middle a nice rare or medium rare.

You can add some Montreal Steak Seasoning to the pan around the steak as it sits covered in foil and rests for a while. You need to be finishing the mashed potatoes and mushrooms so give it some time to rest to perfection.

Once rested, place meat on a cutting board and cut across the grain of the meat. Try to get each slice about ¼ - 1/3 inch cut. If you like horseradish now is a good time to enjoy some on top of your slices of steak. You will have plenty of flavor without it. If you are going to fail, fail on the side of undercooked. If you over-cook it, make a new plan and cut it up in a soup like vegetable beef so that it can cook until it is tender.

Mashed Potatoes

I know – you already know how to make mashed potatoes. Big, whoop, right? Try this and see what you think.

10-12 yellow/gold potatoes about 2-3 inches round (not the 1” ones)

Butter – ¾ - 1 stick

Sour cream (3-4 tablespoons)

Water from where you boiled potatoes

These little gold potatoes have paper thin peelings. Put them in a bowl with hot water from faucet – add some vinegar and let them sit a few minutes. Then rinse well and scrub with a dry kitchen towel if they still look dirty – cut off any bad places.

Cut potatoes in half – do not peel. Place in a few inches of salted water on stove and boil until they are fork tender. If you have an Instant Pot, set them for about 12 minutes. I put a riser in and add fresh corn on the cob over the potatoes so I can cook both at same time.

Once potatoes are nice and tender pour water off RESERVING 2/3 cup water from where you boiled the potatoes. I like to hand mash potatoes so I return potatoes to pot, drop in ¾ to 1 stick butter, and 3 or 4 tablespoons of sour cream. NO MILK. Start mashing potatoes and as needed dribble in the reserved “potato water.” It is full of starch and will add potato taste back to the potatoes. You will not believe how potato-ey these potatoes taste. Add some salt and pepper to taste. I do not make mashed potatoes any other way once I made them like this.

Mushrooms

Fresh or canned/jarred mushrooms

Shallot or onion

Butter

Garlic (powder or minced)

Soy sauce

Wine

I like mushrooms. I happened upon a really pretty pack of mushrooms and added those to our supper tonight. I am paranoid about getting them clean so I wash, and wash, and wash until all the water runs completely clear from the bowl. These were whole so I sliced them directly into melted butter in a skillet on top of stove. To this I add a sliced shallot - you can use an onion or green onions - go easy on big onions. Mushrooms like to get really water-y before they decide to settle down and cook. Give them some time – stir occasionally. Mushrooms like garlic and they like soy sauce. They also like wine, but then again, so do I. Once the water-y stuff has absorbed back into the mushrooms and they have definitely turned brown, you are good to serve them. NOTE: You can use canned mushrooms, jars of mushrooms - whatever you have on hand. You can also add fresh asparagus broken into pieces. Oh, heavens. That is so good.

Believe it or not, all leftover meat and potatoes can go into a vegetable beef soup the next day - open some tomatoes (diced, whole, crushed), add chopped onion and ANY/ALL veggies that suit your fancy. Add mashed potatoes last thing - remember they have butter/sour cream in them and we do not want them to boil. They will thicken the soup so have more beef broth to add to get it back to the consistency you want. No waste. Eat in good health and thanksgiving.