The Mrs. insists on doing most of the food shopping because she doesn't trust me to buy healthy food. I like desserts and snacks - sue me. Last weekend she came home with a London Broil (on sale). Probably the most difficult (for me) cut of meat to work with because it always comes out tough. I do have a soy-based marinade that works pretty good, but I have to know a day in advance that I'm going to make it and I'm getting a little bored with it.
Those of you who know how I cook know that I usually don't know what I'm making until I get home from work - and then I have like 45 minutes to throw it together. So knowing I had the London Broil in the fridge, I did some recipe searching in advance of "steak night". One other thing that is new to the nightmare that is my life - I need to get everything approved by The Mrs. ahead of time because of her fickle and bland taste in food. The last time I strayed off this path, I made a dish with a cream based sauce that she refused to eat ("don't you know cream and cheese upsets my stomach?" ... "no? I didn't?") and she didn't talk to me for several days. Lesson learned.
I did some research and found Maria's Pepper Steak recipe on AllRecipe.com. It sounded good, had good reviews and there were no ingredients on The Mrs.' no-fly list. All I needed was her approval, which I received. *ding ding ding ding ding - winner!*
This recipe is pretty straight forward. I noted several reviewers said that it could be salty or thin, so I kept that in mind as I prepped and cooked. Also, I added a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce. After I had it all in the pan, the smell was very vinegary. I tasted it and it did taste salty, so I added a couple of tablespoons of sugar. And the sauce wasn't reducing and thickening as much as I wanted, so I added a tablespoon of cornstarch (mixed in a little water) and that thickened it up nicely. What do you think?
After Action Report: When The Mrs. came home from work, she immediately commented on the vinegar smell. I started to get nervous. But it was too late to do anything else but serve it (over rice). This tasted great! The steak could have been a little more tender (I may cook it a little longer next time) but the flavor was outstanding. It had a slight sweetness, tangy from the Worcestershire sauce and not too vinegary or salty at all. The Pudge had seconds. And The Mrs. really seemed to like it. Unbelievable! This is a keeper.
