Bring Your Appetite and Get Your Grill On – Recipe: Strawberry Creek Inn’s Steak Marinade and Pomegranate Sauce (for Steak & Eggs)

Grilling season. Just thinking about it gets me hot and bothered (pun intended).

Although my husband considers himself king of the grill, I often battle him for grilling rights. And who does that, really? Fight over the grill?

Truth be told, we don’t really fight (I penned that in for dramatic purposes). It’s more a case of, “Did you hear the doorbell ring? Go check,” as I dash to the deck and strategically place the chicken/hamburger/shrimp on preheated grates. Other times he beats me to the punch, casually asking how long the steaks have been marinating then milling around until just the right moment, perhaps when I’m preoccupied chopping veggies or answering the phone, only to finish up and discover he’s already outside, taking control of the grilling helm.

I assure you, it’s all in good sport—the equivalent of flirtatious, culinary banter: that man has grilled the best filet mignon I’ve ever sunk my fork into and I’ve delighted him with moist chicken and flavorful, zingy shrimp year after year.

But I digress. I’m not here to talk about my own grilling experiences. I’m here to share a steak marinade that will help you create tender, tasty steak and a pomegranate sauce that will let you capture a taste of Idyllwild’s Strawberry Creek Inn and their famous Steak & Eggs.

Are you up for it? Bring your appetite because it’s time to get your grill on…

Steak Marinade and Pomegranate Sauce (for Steak & Eggs)

(featured on Inn Cuisine, recipes and notes courtesy Rodney Williams, Strawberry Creek Inn B&B)

Click here to access the recipe for French Scrambled Eggs, previously featured on Inn Cuisine.

For Steak with Pomegranate Sauce, directions as follow below:

Yield: Serves 2

Marinade Ingredients:

• 2 small, good-quality steaks (filet mignon, new york strip, porterhouse, ribeye, etc). Grass-fed beef is preferable, and dry-aged beef—while super expensive—is guaranteed to be the best thing you have ever tasted (I’m not exaggerating here).
• ¼ cup of a good, full-bodied red wine (Cabernet or Merlot, for example)—omit if using dry-aged beef
• ¼ cup of brewed strong coffee—again, omit if using dry-aged beef
• 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, finely chopped—omit if using dry-aged beef
• ¼ cup quality olive oil
• salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

Pomegranate Sauce Ingredients:

• juice* of 3 pomegranates (or about 2 cups if substituting pomegranate juice)
• about ¼ cup of heavy cream

To create the steak marinade:

Whisk together wine, coffee, rosemary, salt, pepper, and olive oil in a casserole dish big enough to hold both steaks. Marinate steak in this mixture, turning periodically, for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours. The flavor of dry-aged beef is so superior that you can actually mess it up by adding other flavors (in my opinion); so for dry-aged beef, simply sprinkle with salt, pepper, and olive oil.

To grill the steak:

Preheat your grill to a high heat (smoking hot is good). Preheat an oven to 325 degrees F (only if you like your steak more done than medium-rare). Lift each steak out of the marinade, letting the excess drip back into dish until nothing else is dripping from the steak. Place steaks on hot grill and cook approximately 4 minutes on each side, until browned and there are prominent grill marks. Remove from grill and test for doneness with an instant-read thermometer or by pushing the meat with your finger and comparing to the firmness of the muscle flesh beneath your thumb (on your palm side): rare=120-125 degrees or how your thumb muscle feels when you gently touch your thumb and index finger together; medium-rare=130-135 degrees or thumb to middle finger; medium=140-145 degrees or thumb to ring finger. I wouldn’t go beyond this level of doneness, especially with expensive cuts of meat. For my tastes, medium-rare is about as far as I like to go. If desired doneness has not been reached, place the steaks in the preheated oven until desired temperature/doneness is achieved. Let steaks rest at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes, covered with foil, before serving/cutting.

For the Pomegranate Sauce:

Pour pomegranate juice into a saucepan and turn heat to medium-high. Reduce to almost a syrup, whisking often, until bubbles start to become large and are slow to burst. Whisk in enough heavy cream to turn the sauce a dark pink color, continue cooking for a minute or so, and remove from heat. Serve sauce over the steaks or on the side, with French Scrambled Eggs and a few ripe, fresh strawberries or other fruit.

*Pomegranate Juicing Tips:

If juicing pomegranates in season, consider wearing a raincoat or clothing you don’t mind ruining (or white clothing that can be bleached). Pomegranate juice will stain badly, although not usually permanently, your clothing and any surface with which it comes in contact.

Cut the pomegranate in half across the middle, not through the stem side. Press each 1/2-pomegranate on a citrus juicer as you would a lemon or lime. Strain juice through a sieve. This is a whole lot more trouble than using bottled pomegranate juice, but pomegranate juice begins breaking down very quickly after being juiced; the flavor of freshly juiced pomegranate is far superior to bottled pomegranate juice, and it will make a noticeable difference in this recipe. On the other hand, fresh pomegranates can only be found during a relatively short window of the year, so bottled juice is an acceptable substitute.

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