Beef + Blue Cheese + Spinach = Yum

Like most people these days I am a little price conscious, and that is especially true when it comes to food. I refuse to pay full price for anything but at the same time I don’t compromise on quality. One area in which it is sometimes difficult to keep costs down, especially when you shop for quality, is meat.

In the winter months, I sometimes find it easier to watch my costs when it comes to meat because there are so many stews and slow-cooked meals for which a tougher and inexpensive cut of meat can be used. However, I recently came across and article on using inexpensive cuts of meat and I was reminded of how versatile those same cuts of meat can be in lighter meals.

So I tried an experiment. I purchased some sirloin tip steaks on sale the other day and set out to either find or create a recipe in which to use them. Don’t let the name fool you sirloin is the name but not the cut as explained here: http://www.themeatsource.com/sirlointipsteak.html

The key with any tougher cut of meat is marinating. I decided I would whip up my own marinade based on experience with several different ones I have tried over the years. I still had fresh rosemary in the fridge and I love rosemary and beef together. So that finely chopped combined with ½ cup Worcestershire, 1 ½ tablespoons of spicy brown mustard, ½ cup of Pierce’s BBQ Sauce and about 2 tablespoons of olive oil made a pretty flavorful mixture. Poured over the meat in a Ziploc bag and refrigerated for over a day and a half.

When ready to cook, I removed the bag from the fridge and allowed it to rest about 30 minutes. I heated up my grill pan and brushed it with olive oil. I cooked each steak about 4 minutes on each side and allowed them to rest covered with foil while I prepared the rest of the meal.

I had the idea to serve the meat over wilted spinach and sprinkle everything with Amish blue cheese. So, using the same pan, I added a little more olive oil and sautéed a finely chopped clove of garlic for about 1 minute. I added my packaged spinach blend to the pan and sautéed it until it was just covered with olive oil and garlic and starting to shrink. I then sliced the steak at an angle and arranged the slices over a healthy serving of spinach. Topped with the blue cheese and voila:

A few notes: I like my meat rare to medium rare so my time reflects that temperature. The true test of doneness is using the “hand method” taught to me by a chef and shared over and over again among friends.

I personally eat blue cheese on practically anything so it’s often my go to. I actually think in this dish feta may have been a better choice since its milder flavor wouldn’t overwhelm the flavor of the meat. In the end, hubby asked for seconds,I still had leftover steak…which will be showing up in my Philly cheese steak wraps!