Great, Grass Fed Beef on a Budget!

The Top Rounds Steak.

I hope you are proud of me, I followed a recipe just for you and it turned out great!

Recipe books from many generation fill my shelves at home.  There are enough that a single child racing through the kitchen can cause a cascade of books and printed sheets to tumble to the ground.  I have a tendency to read them once for inspiration and then never consult them again.  (In case there is a risk of you being impressed with my skills, it should be noted that baking is an exception, good enough doesn’t generally yield good results for a cake. 🙂

This beautiful piece of organic grass fed beef from Seilern Farms looked too good to waste on my haphazard cooking methods, so I thought it was time for and exception to my lack of recipes at dinner rule.

The round steak is not a cut I request for my own freezer so it was new to me too.  A little research revealed that this under appreciated cut of meat is actually quite famous.  Round steak is the cut classically used to prepared as a London Broil, it is also often used to make a Philly Cheese Steak.  As you can see this is a very lean, long and slim cut of meat.  Although not as tender as more expensive steaks, it has great potential to impress.  Just a little bit of care makes it tender, full of flavour and much more affordable.

I followed this recipe for Tangy Lime Grilled top round steak.

Ok, Ok, so that is not quite true.  I substituted lemon juice for lime, because that is what I had in the fridge.  I also doubled the garlic, because why not?  The impressive part was that I did actually use a timer and a meat thermometer. Even with such great attention to detail this was a very easy and fast meal to put together. 

The marinade is just for flavour, not tenderizing, so no extra time was required.  After that the key points are:

• Cook from thawed and room temperature.
• Don’t fuss with it! (No poking and prodding, just flip it once.) 
• Don’t over cook it! (Hence my use of the timer and the meat thermometer.)  
• Let it rest after cooking.
• Most importantly, cut it against the grain.  This breaks up those long fibers and makes each mouthful tender and tasty.

There are many different ways to prepare this cut. I only prepared half of the steak like this and shared none with the kids.  Sorry guys, you were at school.  The other half I saved for the next day to make stir fry. 

When I make stir fry it is a thinly veiled way to use up left over meat and vegetables.  It is quick to prepare, healthy and generally gets eaten, but you never know what I might try to sneak in there.  I definitely had no complaints about the addition of a nice cut of beef.  Again the key to a tender beef stir fry is how you cut the round steak.  Thinly slice the meat against the grain before you begin.  After that I proceeded as I normally would, which means I have no recipe for you.  Here is an example that looks delicious.  Maybe I will try it the next day I feel like following the rules!

Check out our Grass Fed Organic Beef page for local dinner options, including top round steak for a limited time.

Happy meal preparations everyone!