I am more than thrilled to introduce our Featured Co-Host this week because she is originally from Somerville, MA which is not too far from where I grew up in MA, and not that far from where I currently live in NH. Colleen started www.culinarycolleen.com as a way to document all of her culinary experiences from eating out to documenting her own family recipes. Even though Colleen currently resides in Somerville, MA with her boyfriend, she did live in Philadelphia, Chicago and New York City at one point. She also travels a lot for her profession, because of that Colleen started to miss cooking and putting together her own creations so she recently started booking hotels with a kitchen! Smart girl!! Let’s not forget , Bailey 🙂 (I had to mention her kitty because I have 3 and I adore mine!) I happily encourage you to stop over at Culinary Colleen and check out some of her recipes, like, Quinoa & Cheese with Cauliflower, Penne a la Vodka (hello need I say more) and maybe swallow it down with some nice “Ice Wine” I seriously need to try that!
I chose to make Colleen’s Greek CousCous Salad w/Flank Steak. I chose this recipe because my husband isn’t a fan of CousCous so I figured I could make it for lunch! So here is this Momma’s experience cooking Colleen’s Recipe:
Dressing/Steak Marinade
- ½ c. extra virgin olive oil
- ¾ c. red wine vinegar
- Juice of 2 lemons
- 2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
- ¼ of a small onion, grated
- ½ tsp. dried oregano
- ½ tsp. dried basil
- 1 tsp. honey
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Salad
- 1 c. dry couscous (I used whole wheat, but regular would work too)
- Chicken broth (~1 ½ c. to cook the couscous)
- 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
- ½ of a large cucumber, chopped
- ½ c. fresh mint leaves, chopped
- ½ c. crumbled feta cheese
- ½ – ¾ c. dressing (above)
Steak
- 1.5 lbs. flank steak
- ½ – ¾ c. steak marinade (above)
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions:
Whisk together all of the dressing/marinade ingredients in a large bowl. Add salt and pepper, to taste.
Marinade the steak in ½ – ¾ c. of the dressing for several hours or overnight. I ended up marinating mine over night!
Cook the couscous according to the package directions, but use chicken broth as the cooking liquid rather than water (tastes MUCH better).
When the couscous has cooled completely, toss it with the tomatoes, cucumber, mint, and feta. Add about ½ – ¾ c. of the dressing (to taste) and toss gently. This is where I changed it up a bit, I knew my hubby wouldn’t like the CousCous cold so I added the tomatoes and the dressing to the CousCous while it cooked (I omitted the cucumbers because who likes cucumbers cooked!!)
Let the marinated steak sit out at room temperature for about 30 minutes. Then, take it out of the marinade and sprinkle it liberally with salt and pepper. Grill the steak about 7 minutes on each side (depending on thickness) until medium-rare/medium. I used a grill pan with my grill press!! AWESOMENESS!
Let the cooked steak rest for several minutes. Then, slice it thinly across the grain. Serve the sliced steak over the couscous.
Let me tell you, this marinade was awesome!! I will surly be making this again, I even want to try it on chicken!! My hubby didn’t like CousCous last time I made it and he liked this so that’s a good sign right!! I think the only thing I would do differently is use a different cut of meat only because I’m so picky with my steak! LOL….tomorrow I’m going to use the leftover CousCous Salad and serve it over greens!! YUMMO!! Thanks again Colleen!! Make sure you visit Culinary Colleen and tell her this Momma sent you!! One more for you!
