Yesterday afternoon, Tamas asked me if I’d like to participate in one of our favorite Sunday rituals – steaks for dinner! Usually, we invite Dad over for the occasion, but he already had plans. I am going to share a little secret with you:

Tamas and I have never grilled anything by ourselves before. Dad is always the supervisor because, well, we’re scared of grilling….it’s like, cooking outdoors? 

I mean, I can make a mean breakfast over a campfire, but tell me to grill on a standard piece of equipment that everyone and their brother has already mastered…and I get a little intimidated. Okay, we decided, no time like the present.

When we grill steaks, we usually make traditional sides – some sort of potato and one or two veggie sides. This time, we chose this:

Marinated, Grilled Sirloin Steak
Tamas’ Famous Corn Salad
Grilled Veggie Skewers
Mustard-Roasted Potatoes

I am going to detail each of these parts separately so you can get the full run-down. Today I will start with the Marinated, Grilled Sirloin Steak.

We get this steak rub/marinade recipe from our good friend Javier. First time we ever had it, we knew we had to buy the same thing. Steak has never been this good. Recipe is as follows:

Marinated, Grilled Steak
INGREDIENTS
1-2 tablespoons seasoning per steak (thin, even sprinkling of McCormick Grill Mates Montreal Steak)
1-2 tablespoons per steak of olive oil
Steak (any cut you like; we used Sirloin)

DIRECTIONS
Rub both sides of each steak generously with McCormick Grill Mates Montreal Steak seasoning.
Place steak(s) in a plastic bag or in a dish and coat each with olive oil. Use fingers to massage seasoning and oil in a bit.
Let steaks marinate for at least 15 minutes. You can marinate them for long periods of time in the fridge or on the counter-top if only for a short period of time. Preheat the grill at this time, depending on how you will cook your steaks.

Note: No matter how long you have marinated them, take steaks out of the cold 15 minutes prior to grilling, to bring them to room temperature. This will ensure a more even cooking process.

I will describe how to cook both a medium-rare steak (mine, proper) and a well-done steak (Tamas’, improper). He likes his well-well-done and while I think this is vile, he loves it, as do most other Hungarians. Here is how we struck that balance on our gas grill:

Well done: Grill should be turned to low so it won’t burn on the outside. Cook the steak for 10 to 12 minutes per side. This will ensure even cooking so that the steak doesn’t completely dry out in the center, due to the crazy, weird, illogical, extended cooking time.
Medium-rare: Turn grill up to high. Cook steak 2-3 minutes per side. You will get nice grill marks and can sleep well, knowing your steak will be cooked the way steaks are meant to be cooked.

I can’t give much advice on the charcoal grill part, other than to try to arrange your coals so as to have one side hotter than the other to achieve this effect.

And if you haven’t had this spice rub for steaks, I highly recommend you try it! It’s SO good.

McCormick Grill Mates Montreal Steak

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