Sliced Steak, Mushrooms, and Onions

Honestly, when every visit to Home Depot rings up as $100, the top round steak looks a lot more delicious than it used to.  Here is my trick to make it something fancier: grill it rare and thinly sliced it then top it with onions and mushrooms in a balsamic reduction.  Tonight, I'm serving it with a yummy heap of garlic mashed potatoes!



The cut looks nicely marbled and so I am hoping it will be somewhat tender.  I seasoned it with lots of sea salt and pepper, Crazy Mixed Up Salt, garlic powder, rosemary, thyme, and any other favorite herbs you have on hand.


Meanwhile, start boiling the potatoes and don't forget to add salt and 2 or 3 cloves of garlic. Slice up a whole sweet onion and start to cook it i olive oil, then add sliced mushrooms - I bought crimini mushrooms - they are nice  in this dish if you cut then about a quarter inch thick.


After the onion cooks and is soft and golden, add the mushrooms and let them brown, then add a a few splashes of balsamic vinegar and red wine, a shake of smoked Spanish paprika, and a generous scraping of pepper..  It will cook down and start becoming syupy - you can add more red wine as it reduces - at the last minute, add butter to finish it!  And in the meantime, start the brussel sprouts - I don't think I have ever cooked brussel sprouts before but they looked very fresh at Whole Foods so I bought a few. Now I am in LOVE with brussel sprouts!  The trick is, apparently, to roast them so that they are soft on the inside and crispy on the outside - which takes about 45 minutes - and season them with a lot of salt and pepper.  I had to cheat a little because I didn't calculate the timeline.....so I microwaved them for 5 minutes and then roasted them....hmmm.


Back to the potoatoes which should be soft by now and ready to whip - drain them and add milk, or cream if you feel like splurging on calories, and a hunk of butter, salt and pepper - let the milk heat up until simmer.  Then haul out the old hand beater and whip them up until creamy.



Get the steak on the grill and do not over cook - take it off while it's still soft when you push on it.  Let it sit on the cutting board for 5 minutes while you finish up the salad.  Then slice it very thinly - as the juices run off, add them to the onion mixture.