Steak Wraps (p. 187), Roasted Garlic (p. 277), Horseradish Cream (p. 565), Grilled or Broiled Steak (p. 473)

I decided to make Steak Wraps (p. 187). The recipe seemed easy enough--not a very long ingredient list and we had a T-bone steak that had been purchased on sale at the grocery store (Josh and I are loyal customers of the sale section of the meat department). Easy enough, that is, until I actually read the recipe.

Before making the steak wraps, you have grill or broil a steak (easy enough), roast a head of garlic (damn it! I'll have to turn the oven on), and make horseradish cream...wait...what's that? Horseradish flavored whipped cream?? Hmmm.....

I laid out the tortillas and got ready...

My first step was roasting the garlic (Roasted Garlic, p. 277). I'm ashamed to say that I've never roasted garlic. I LOVE garlic and have probably used it in every other imaginable way--but roasting seemed difficult and scary (plus mom never did it, so I didn't have a roasted garlic background). It's a skill that I definitely wanted though--I love roasted garlic as an ingredient.



Easy enough start--cut the top of a large bulb of garlic. Isn't the garlic beautiful?






The garlic is drizzled with olive oil and wrapped in foil:




Almost an hour later, you have a bulb of roasted garlic! I waited until it was cool enough not to burn my fingers and squeezed the garlic onto the tortillas.







When the garlic is extracted, you are left with a garlic husk. Garlic corpse? Empty garlic...



There was quite a bit of garlic per wrap...a great start!





Look at this picture--now that is a HUGE amount of garlic. That being said, roasted garlic is milder than non-roasted garlic. Looks delicious!





Onto the steak....I figured we would just grill the steak. When I asked Josh to go take care of it, he reminded me that we were out of propane (side note--I have a hard time not thinking of Hank Hill when I say the word "propane"). I decided to broil the steak (I know, great idea on a hot summer day) and used the T-bone in Grilled or Broiled Steak (p. 473).

The steak was attractive:





It only took about four minutes on each side (while turning the kitchen into an inferno--broiling in the summer=not smart). The steak was then sliced and placed on the wraps.




The final part of this recipe: Horseradish Cream (p. 565). Horseradish cream seems like a bizarre recipe to me--it's pretty much whipped cream with horseradish mixed in. Honestly.


I decided that I should be using my Kitchenaid to whip the cream. Not my smartest decision--the beater has a hard time with such small amounts of cream (only a half cup). If you make this recipe, only make a half recipe of HC, unless you really, really adore spicy whipped cream (it makes quite a bit).






You then beat in some acid (I used lime juice because I was out of lemon juice), horseradish, salt, and some red pepper. The concoction is chilled for a while.









Compiling the wraps was easy enough. Add some chopped tomato (out of dad's garden!) and some lettuce to the wrap, drizzle it with horseradish cream, roll up, and eat!







So how was it? Really good. The horseradish cream and the roasted garlic were really strong, but I adore both flavors. The lettuce and the tomato were tasty. And the steak was delicious--although I would have liked to have more meat in the wraps.

This recipe made the perfect amount--two wraps each, for the two of us. After that we were full but not overfull. I really recommend this recipe--although it's more of a fall-winter recipe since it requires a lot of oven use (I really need to stop using my oven because it really heats up the house!).





In other, non-TJOC news, I found a couple of interesting articles online this weekend:

1. Japanese Treats. The caramel corn--I never ate the caramel corn from Tohato, but the soda flavored "treats" were horrid. They tasted like cheetos that had been soaked in 7-up. The mayo they speak of is not as tasty as the mayo in the US and the bottles collapse on themselves. Onigiri is delicious as long as you are sure of what's in the middle--there is nothing worse than thinking you are just eating rice and biting into "sweet" red beans. Ramune drink--AWESOME! So much fun. You have to smash the bottle down, a little ball falls into it, and then you drink it. Fun and tasty. Mochi--don't even get me started.

2. The Top 100 American Foods. I have bolded the foods that are included in TJOC. All parenthetical statements are mine! I may have missed a few but I didn't really feel like looking each one of them up...How many of these have you eaten?

1. New York pizza
2. Hoppin' John
3. New Mexico green chile
4. Homemade buttermilk biscuits
5. Tasso
6. Whole Maine lobster (well, whole lobster, at least)
7. Calabash-style shrimp and hushpuppies
8. Kansas City barbecue ribs
9. Hot glazed Krispy Kreme
10. San Diego fish tacos
11. Cheese curds
12. Key lime pie
13. Philly cheese steak
14. Memphis pork barbecue sandwich
15. Lowcountry boil
16. Huckleberry pie
17. New England clam chowder
18. Boiled peanuts
19. Buffalo burger
20. Eggs Benedict
21. Pastrami on rye
22. Corned beef and cabbage
23. Pancakes with maple syrup
24. Everything bagel with cream cheese and tomato
25. Thin Mints (preferably frozen)
26. Frito pie
27. Potato knish with mustard
28. Silver Queen corn on the cob
29. Soft pretzel from a street cart
30. Fresh-picked blueberries
31. Sourwood honey
32. State fair funnel cake
33. Chesapeake crab cakes
34. Candied yams
35. Oyster dressing
36. Snow cone or snowball
37. Wild Alaskan salmon
38. Sautéed morels
39. Persimmon pudding
40. General Tso's Chicken
41. Frozen custard
42. Italian sausage with peppers and onions on a hoagie bun
43. Chili dog
44. Buffalo wings with blue cheese
45. Spam musubi
46. Saltwater taffy
47. Fluffernutter sandwich on Wonder Bread
48. Black and white cookie
49. Frybread
50. BLT with thick-cut applewood bacon
51. Baked beans
52. Pumpkin pie
53. Collards with vinegar and Tabasco
54. Tex-Mex fajitas with skirt steak and sautéed peppers
55. Fried green tomatoes
56. Succotash
57. Shrimp and grits
58. Hot water cornbread
59. Barbecue chicken pizza with red onions
60. Chicken fried steak
61. Carnitas burrito
62. Apple butter
63. Geoduck
64. Soft-serve ice cream cone dipped in chocolate shell (especially Dairy Queen)
65. Pecan pie
66. Catfish supper at a church or fire station
67. Oysters Rockefeller
68. Homemade cranberry sauce
69. Pimiento cheese
70. MoonPie washed down with R.C. Cola
71. Pickled watermelon rind
72. Cracker Jacks at the ball game
73. Smithfield ham
74. Meatloaf and mashed potato blue plate special at diner
75. Chicken and waffles
76. Po'Boy
77. Green bean casserole with French's fried onions
78. Stuffed sopaipillas
79. Turducken
80. Shad roe on toast
81. Sweet potato casserole with or without marshmallows
82. Cioppino
83. New York cheesecake
84. Pan-fried river trout
85. Jambalaya
86. North Carolina pig pickin'
87. California rolls
88. Burgoo
89. Penuche fudge
90. Fried peanut butter and banana sandwich (the Elvis)
91. Scrapple or livermush
92. Elk medallions in red wine reduction
93. Muscadine grapes
94. Cheeseburger at backyard barbecue
95. Open-face turkey sandwich
96. Chicago deep dish pizza
97. Cobb salad
98. Peach pie a la mode
99. Macaroni and cheese with Tillamook sharp cheddar
100. Root beer float