Food, Wine & Just Good Living With SaucyJoe

It started with a love of food, wine & fun and blossomed into a maddening pursuit of the best recipes, techniques, grills, smokers, wines, crafted beers, rubs, marinades and sauces... We do more than play with our meat though -- we review and discuss all things cooking, drinking, reading, laughing and living at SaucyJoe's.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Steak and Blue Cheese Wraps

When we were in Texas for brother Ski's 50th birthday, Saucy Joe served steak and blue cheese wraps which were received with acclaim. My wife Linda and friend Lois Brass were co-opted for assembly. Here is his recipe and Dr. Dave's spin when tried a month later:


Hi Dave,
I wanted to type this up for you and get it to you for the weekend. I'll post soon.

Smoked Steak appetizer:
Six fist size pieces of steak (low in fat. I used a type of chuck and some sirloin) 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 inches thick.
Or one larger piece of meat cut down into smaller pieces.
Kosher Salt
Fresh ground Black pepper

1/4 of 8 inch wheel of Maytag Blue cheese. Each quarter was individually wrapped.

1 cup of pecan halves - 4 oz.
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon salt

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

ToastBake the pecans in a shallow baking pan until fragrant and a shade darker, about 10 minutes.
Toss hot pecans in the pan with butter and salt, then cool.
This can be done 1-2 days before

I cooked and smoked my steak on the Weber Kettle grill. I used a combination of wood chunks (hickory)
and briquets for the fire. I added soaked wood chips (cherry) for the smoking process.
I had the coals piled a few briquets high on half of the grill on no heat on the other half.

Pat dry excess moisture from each steak with a paper towel. Add salt and pepper to each side.

Sear the steaks with the grill lid off for 2-3 minutes on each side to give them each a nice char.
Place them on the non heated part of the grill, add the soaked wood chips and close the lid for 12-15 minutes.
Depends on the thickness of the meat. You want to give them some good smoke, but the meat needs to be
red to pink-red in the middle.

Let the meat rest for 10 minutes and then place in fridge to cool.

I did this all in the morning for afternoon assembly.

Assembly:

Slice the steak as thinly as you can. Taste testing is required as there will be small pieces that won't work for
rolling up.

Slice the cheese a little at a time into thin strips.

Place pieces of broken pecans and blue cheese onto the slice of steak and roll up, threading the toothpick through
the rolled up steak.

It may not be pretty, but it'll stay together and still tastes delicious.




Dr. Dave’s Version of the Saucy Joe’s Blue Cheese and Sautéed Pecan Stuffed Steak Wraps

Dr. Dave smoked two 2 pound sirloin steaks for 1 hour @ 225°F using Jack Daniels™ oak barrel smoking chips. I did not have the patience to carefully wrap blue cheese with the thinly sliced steaks. So his steak wraps were more ‘folds’, i.e. the steaks were folded over the blue cheese and pecans. Taste didn’t suffer.

One suggestion would be to place the meat in the freezer for about 30 minutes before slicing. It slices thinner that way.

Next time I’ll mix the blue cheese and pecans together into a paste. Then I’ll roll them into small cylinders and freeze for about 30 minutes to keep them in shape for rolling into the steaks.