Steak Makes Everything Better!

So here's a little background information. I've been pretty passionate about cooking for years, and I love experimenting in the kitchen. What I love even more is taking something I've perfected over the years, and twisting the s#!t out of it, which brings me right about here.

Mac and cheese is such a versatile dish. You can do just about anything with it, and let's face it, who doesn't love cheese and pasta, right?

So here's my very first blog post, about a freakin' bomb Philly cheesesteak mac & cheese I made for dinner tonight.

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So here's the deal...

I got the idea for this a little while ago, and I decided to try it for dinner tonight. I stopped at my local grocery store, and I picked up some flank steak, provolone cheese, mozzarella, an onion, a green pepper, and some cavatappi pasta, JUST to go slightly more outside the box.

*Note - yes, the pasta is in a box.

To make the Philly cheesesteak part of this dish, I decided to go with flank steak for this particular version of mac n cheese. I used about half of this steak, thinking all of it would be too much with the peppers and onions too. Plus, I thought flank steak would be great because it's not chewy and fatty.

Now here's where the fun begins... I cut my flank steak into thin strips... as thinly as possible. Slice the steak against the grain. It's about 9 oz of steak when I'm done. Cut the slices into smaller pieces so that when you dig your fork into that bowl of cheesy goodness, you get everything. Steak, peppers, onions, pasta and cheese.

After I chopped my lil flank steak into bite sized pieces, I put it in a mixing bowl, and threw some salt, and pepper in. I added some garlic and onion powder, chili powder, paprika and a small amount of thyme. Honestly, I eyeballed the spices. No measuring here, but I'm gonna say it was about a teaspoon each? Maybe about a half to a quarter teaspoon for the thyme. I'm sure you can put as much or as little of each of the spices you want! If you don't like these, mix it up! Get creative! It's half the fun! Mix your meat by hand, it's more fun! Make sure you get the spices on as much of the meat as you can. Once I got my spices mixed into my meat, I put it in a hot pan with some olive oil and browned it up. When the meat is finished, take it out of the pan, and let it take a lil nap on a paper towel lined plate.

Next!!! Okay... it's probably better to do all of your chopping first, but I'm stubborn and sometimes I like to race. While all of my meat is going a crazy in the hot olive oil pan, I'm chopping my peppers and onions. I did a rough chop on these, because I wanted to keep the peppers and onions relatively intact so that they wouldn't disappear in my cheese sauce. Then, just throw them in the pan, cook them a little bit, and once they're a little tender, put the steak back in the pan to cook together.

(Terrible photo!! Sorry!! I forgot to take a photo of my steak, peppers & onions while they were cooking, but instead I Snapchatted it.....)

They all cooked together, and became one. Beautiful.

I couldn't help myself, but I guess like any good chef (I'm no chef tho!), you taste everything. At this point, it was pretty damn good, and I was pretty damn proud of myself here. Like holy s#!t I made Philly steak!

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The Cheese Sauce

Kay so anyways, now that the hard work is finished, it's time for my favorite part. I use this recipe every time I make macaroni and cheese. Literally. Every time.

You can make as much (or as little) as you want here. I got the basic recipe off of the back of a box of macaroni when I was first learning how to cook. A few years later, I've mastered it. (Hail the Queen of Mac n Cheese!)

All you do, is melt 1 tablespoon of butter (or margarine) in a pan, then you throw 1 tablespoon of a.p. flour on top of your butter. Whisk it together, it'll become a nice sandy-looking paste-like thing in your frying pan. Normally I cook this mixture until it's just golden brown. Put salt & pepper in, and any other seasonings or spices you might want. For this version I put a few sprinkles of garlic powder, onion powder and paprika to match my steak, but not too much.

Then you add 1 cup of milk! Or... cream, whatever you want. Mix it gradually, but don't freak out if it starts to look like mashed potatoes at first. I think that's normal. Whisk all the lumps out, and add the milk little by little. If you want more sauce (for this mac I did 3 tablespoons of margarine, 3 tablespoons of flour and 3 cups of 2% milk) you can double, triple, or even quadruple the ratios. It'll thicken. Once you get this thick enough, take it off the heat, and put your cheese in!! I used a mixture of provolone cheese and mozzarella cheese (mmmmmmm cheese). Add the cheese gradually, and taste it as you're adding it until you get something you're happy with. I didn't measure mine.

With my cheese sauce nailed, I put my steak, peppers and onions in. Then my cooked pasta (cavatappi!!). Of course I have to taste it. Again, I'm damn impressed, and proud of myself. This might be my best mac n cheese experiment yet!!!!!!

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So we're finished... But this is optional! (And it's next level...)

I like a breadcrumb topper on ALL of my macs and cheeses. I put my Philly mac and cheese steak mixture in a glass baking dish, and topped it with my leftover provolone and mozza mix, then some panko breadcrumbs. I put it under the broiler for probably 5-7 minutes to toast and melt the cheese.

Here's a before and after:

GORGEOUS!!!! *Wipes drool from face*

That's all folks! I hope you try this out for yourselves, and tell me how you liked it! Enjoy!

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Recipe:

Ingredients:

(for Philly cheesesteak)

About 9 oz of flank steak, thinly sliced

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1/2-1 tsp paprika

1 tsp chili powder

1/4-1/2 tsp of thyme

1 onion

1 green bell pepper

(for pasta and cheese sauce)

3 tbsp margarine (or butter)

3 tbsp flour

3 cups 2% milk

About 1 and 1/2 cup provolone cheese

About 1 and 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

Dash of garlic powder (optional)

Dash of onion powder (optional)

Dash of paprika (optional)

2 cups cavatappi pasta uncooked

Method:

Philly Steak (Peppers & Onions):

1. Mix steak & spices together in a bowl, then brown in frying pan over medium heat. Remove and rest on paper towel lined plate.

2. Roughly chop and saute together in same frying pan. Add cooked steak once vegetables are slightly tender. Remove from frying pan.

Pasta & Cheese Sauce:

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add salt, and cook cavatappi pasta until al dente.

2. While pasta is cooking, melt 3 tbsp butter in the same sauce pan (or deep frying pan), add flour. Let the flour cook until light golden brown. Sprinkle salt, pepper on this. (Optional: Sprinkle paprika, onion & chili powder on top of mixture). Gradually add milk while whisking, and let the mixture simmer while you stir it periodically. The sauce will thicken. Remove from heat, and add cheese mixture to your taste. Melt the cheese into the sauce. (Save some cheese for later!)

3. Add steak and pepper mixture, cooked pasta to the cheese sauce.

4. (Optional: Transfer all ingredients to a baking dish. Top with remaining cheese & panko breadcrumbs (optional) and broil for 5-7 minutes until cheese has melted and breadcrumbs have toasted).

Yum!