Quote:
Originally Posted by oilers_fan
Anyone have a good, simple steak marinade recipe? I don't have a ton of elaborate ingredients laying around my place, so the simpler the better.
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Here's a few restaurant tips when it comes to marinating. First, if you plan to marinade any type of meat for a period longer than 6-8 hours DO NOT use any type of sodium product. Using salt/sodium in your marinade will have the affect of curing or drying out your meats. You should seriously only salt your meat right before you cook it. When it comes to pepper, use it at the end because pepper can easily burn and give your meat a bit of a bitter taste.
Since any type of meat is something better enjoyed when it's moist use marinades that promote that, and really the simpler the better. For chicken, you can simply use olive oil and any type of herb you like...maybe even add a bit of garlic to that. (btw, try olive oil and fresh tarragon...amazing together) For a steak, use oil and italian parsley or fresh thyme. Plain yogurt is another one of those things that's basic but also acts as a tenderizer (though I would only recommend you use this with chicken or pork...ie, butter chicken is simply chicken marinated in yogurt with some spices, with a spiced based tomato sauce added in the end)
With beef, my suggestion would be to be mindful of what you are buying. Buy a better quality beef, such as AA, AAA or Prime cut such as top sirloin and you wont need to marinade because there is enough marbling in the meat to give it great taste and moisture. All you want to do is enhance that aspect of the beef which you can do by using salt right before you cook it. Also with beef, concentrate more on your sauce if you want to get a bit more creative. You want something simple, use butter, shallots, fresh thyme, port wine, beef stock and a bit of butter at the end to thicken your sauce.
If you want to get a bit more adventourous, try a game meat. Moose for example is great if marinated with olive oil and fresh thyme over night. Cook it from rare to no more than medium rare (because there is not enough fat in the meat to keep it moist after that point) and for a sauce, use butter, shallots and port wine (reduce), beef broth (no sodium added) and reduce, dark chocolate, and finish with a little bit of butter to thicken. I know that for most the sound of using chocolate is weird but trust me, dark and somewhat bitter chocolate mixed with port or a pinot noir tastes delicious and helps to cut some of the gamey taste.
I know that I just threw a bunch of information there but if you have any questions, feel free to pm me.